This is my personal grade on Class Usefulness in Completing Levels in Brink, I base this on how much a class can do to perform well in a team and how often they are called to win/protect objectives and side objectives.

Whilst I don't like saying this next part, I feel writing this on the internet, it helps to remind some people:
This is my own opinion, I don't judge people for feeling differently, nor will I fight the to death if people dissagree with my opinions. I strongly believe in constructive critisism and healthy debate.

Let'sa Go, from the least useful, to the most useful:

#4 Operative

Readers of my other post on Operatives might be inclined to think I'd rather eat my own face than play as one, this is incorrect, I love playing as the Operative because it's a challenging class to correctly play and lots of fun to master *but* as far as winning the level goes, he kind of falls short. He can't buff anyone which shouldn't be taken as a bad thing although when you need something you've run out of which isn't part of your class, you tend to find the nearest team mate to get ammo, health. or weapon damage from, all the while the Operative stands there shaking his head and shrugging his sholders. His hacking for secondary objectives can normally be done within the first 20 seconds of starting a match and once its done, you're back to espionage and sneaking around. Really, unless you're out mine spotting or going suicidal to hack a turret that your teammates have already Hirosima'd with grenades, He just isn't winning the match. Sorry Operative, I love you but you need to have more to do in Campaign Missons.

#3 Soldier
The most basic class in Brink, All offensive all the time with infinte ammo to boot. I was considering having the soldier at #4 since apart from killing he doesn't really do much either. But what sets him aside from Operatives is that the Secondary Objectives work in his favour, it's not simply open a door then job done, for the most part the solider has to blow a barricade wide open only to walk away and find it rebuilt. This makes the Solider have a more territory control feel; Container City and The Missle Silo are good indications of this as almost constantly, he's having to blow charges to give the team an easier way in and a shorter route to travel. This tagged with handing out Ammo, puts him above Operative. Even so, Soldiers are there to kill people which everyone else can and is doing anyway.

#2 Medic
My Personal favourite class, I was debating a lot with myself about putting him first or not as simply put, in an FPS *eventually* someone is going to peg it and who's going to complain about more health, better regen and 5 seconds of double-edged-sword invincibility? A good medic knows when to revive, when to rush in or not and how to ration his supplies. When you have a Good Medic on your team, you know it. Why isn't the Medic #1 though? Well whilst the act of keeping everyone healthy certainly helps, outside of enormously helpful support he doesn't actively WIN a match without his teammates assistance. I've seen matches of 8-a-side where 6 players were Medics, sure we weren't losing but we sure as hell weren't winning. He is #2 because he is the Kingmaker, he makes sure that the Objective class gets to where he goes and finishes his job in one peice. I Salute you Medic!

#1 Engineer
Hey, I'm writing this and even I'm surprised that Ivor the Engie is in top place for Usefulness, a purely defensive class with an unnoticable buff? Surely Medic beats him on this list? Yet after much thought, the Engineer is called to do the most in this game; just think about it, he has to Repair Maintence Bots, remove Hackboxes, remove Charges, defuse Mines, repair Cranes a hellova lot AND construct Barricades when he isn't busy doing all that. Pretty much, if your Objective is being threatened, you call out the Mechanic to fix it! Add to this his range of countermeasures to make sure any job he has done is protected coupled with upgrading Command posts giving everyone more health and more supplies and you have a truely valued Ally. Once you have a good Enginneer who knows where and when to place Mines and Turrets, who picks his time well to upgrade Command Posts, you will find it hard to lose against an unprepared team. It takes utter seconds for an Engineer to undo any work you might have fought tooth and nail to get and to remove victory in those last few seconds makes him as dangerous an enemy as he is a great Friend. This is why the Engineer in my mind, is THE most useful class in Brink.


Feel free to give me your comments and your own lists, I'm interested in how other people view the Classes in their minds.

I think your comments on Operatives are a little mislead. You've obviously not taken the time to master the class as others have, such as myself. Op is my primary class, and I've been in more matches where with me being an Op, I was the catalyst to victory then the objective class for that map. Comms Hacks are vital...no PIVOTAL to the teams success. Knowing the enemy position allows for coordinated attacks and spot on defense. When you see what direction the enemy is coming from, you can better defend your position. Period. What in battle is more important then knowing where the enemy is? Yea...that's what I thought.

Furthermore, as an Op, disguising as the enemy and breaking through opposing defenses blows a match wide open. I can't even keep count of how many times I off an enemy, comms hack them and then disguise as them. Now I know where the enemy is, and I can use the disguise to get in behind them, then report the enemy position (over mic of course) to my team mates, giving them an exact beat on what the enemy is up to. Then, when enough of my team has reached the point of attack, I break disguise and unload on their rear flank while the rest of the squad crack them from up front. They end up so busy trying to figure out what's hitting them from behind that they become predictable sitting ducks. Position taken, objective secured.

Then of course there's just the psychological warfare that can be done as an Op, namely against other users. I've played in matches where I had other players second guessing the notion of shooting at team mates because I got into their heads. There's not a single match I play as Op where I don't at least get 3 separate instances where I disguise as a bot, fool the other users on the opposing team into thinking I'm that Bot, and destroy them. Now the other users are more concerned with trying to seek me out on the map and eliminate me then they are protecting or taking the objective. Now multiply that by however many "skill" Ops are on the team. Totally messes the opposing users game up.

So in summary, in the hands of a person who has mastered not just the Op class, but the philosophy and SCIENCE behind being a skilled Op, we can have a bigger impact on a match then all the other classes combined.

THIS
IS
EPIC
I've been trying my hand as the OP and find myself learning a lot every time.

I feel all the classes are quite useful. No one is over the other in my books. They are all crucial to victory.

I agree with oz ... ops are definately useful for mission success...

A good instance would be moving the bot... a disguised operative stands by it pretending to fight the other team... the bot keeps moving and generally the other team doesn't know why... it frusrates them...

The aquisition of enemy turrets... I don't know how many times I can stress this and people don't seem to take it into account... when an enemy turret is behind the enemy team you hack it... suddenly there are two guns firing at your opponents from behind...

There is a buch more to it but I'm posting from my droid... I just hate to see the op getting less love because of stupid reasons

Just because one person can win a game as operative does not mean its a powerful class. The topic was a comment on a classes usefulness and I agree with th OP 80% of the time players of equal skill usually preform(are more useful to the team) better as engineers.

I hate it when people attack me w
hen I comment on the operatives relative uselessness. Im not commenting on how good you are if your an operative, just that if a new player were to pick up the game and play operatives are not vital to winning on most maps.

Oz70NYC, Thank you for your input, you have shone a different light on Operatives that have made me want to play them even more. As stated, I'm no master as an Operative but I'm quite able in acting like a Bot or even another player. In the Reactor level for example, too many times have I disguised as someone to then sit by the Vent system aiming at the door with 1-2 other enemies. I watch as both sides start diminishing then turn the tide by finishing the last man standing. Then start hacking. Of course this is the best case senario but it happens more often than I care to count when I'm playing either attack or defense.

But let me pose another scenario, an enemies hackbox is at 50% I sneak in with a disguise and eliminate 2 opponents and take out a third by sheer luck and have less than 10% health. Now what? Okay, I take a disguise and hang back posing as an enemy waiting for their Operative or my Engineer to turn up and act accordingly. The hackbox is still at 50% until they come, I'm not able to put ample defences in place to make it any harder for the enemy team to bum rush me nor are my team in any easier state to get to it and remove it. I'd still have to wait for an Engineer to turn up, take away the hackbox, then watch as he sets Mines, places turrets and actually PROTECTS what he has completed in defending. All the Operative can do at this point is cover him and any class can do that. Catrops will damage an enemy team yes, but it's not going to out right stop OR distract them like a Turret or Mine would.
Another choice would be to continue what I wes doing, disguise/Comm hack the recently deceased and flank any respawning enemies who are trying to remove said hackbox. Okay, THAT is helping, but again, it's not like the Hackbox has gone away, it's still shining at 50% waiting for an enemy Operative to finish the task and all the luck and skill in the world isn't going to stop ALL of them getting through even if you are 007 Solid Snake.

You could say that this makes him useful in making the Engineers job easier but that is EXACTLY my point, you're not removing the Hackbox, Engie is!

I'm not saying the Operative is UseLESS, as you've quite rightly pointed out, the fear of your teammates gun pointing to you at a critical moment is psychological warfare at its greatest and Comms hack is vital for picking off those that aren't huddling round the primary objective. I love playing as the Operative, he is my second most used class in the game. But compare him to the Engineer and the pure gaping distance of what each member is doing is vast. The Engineer simply does more in making sure a team Wins.