Heavy INF or Heavy xbow?

[clickeverywhere]

I agree with Unknown_Soldier and the rest that ranged classes take skill. Kiting isn't easy and being able to land headshots consistently doesn't come without practice. But if you were to compare infantry kiting to ranged kiting, infantry kiting is next to impossible on higher levels of difficulty. But kiting isn't really the point in a team game (though kiting with either infantry and ranged take considerable skill of different types). Also there aren't 95 percent ranged, but that was blatant exaggeration.

I will disagree with Maroon's post. Behind a shield wall, every class's task is made easier. If you want ridiculous oversimplification of roles, a ranged player's role can be described as "sit and shoot at the spot in front of the shielders where the nords will appear while making minor aiming adjustments" -- a task I would say is only slightly more difficult than repeatedly pressing the LMB. But of course, that's an oversimplification and it makes the ranged classes sound stupid.

There is some truth in what Khalidov says though. Commandos sacrifice their attack potential so as to shield for the team, and this results in slower experience and gold gain for them (as opposed to slashers and ranged classes who kill for the most part). There are other roles that sacrifice their own gain for the benefit of the team (such as the people who act as medics and juggle items). In this way, infantry can be perceived as a "difficult" class.

I'm going to go on even more of rant now. Honestly, at this stage of nordinvasion, it isn't difficult to level up any class as there are high level players who can carry low levels through the waves. Attaining tier 4 and becoming a good player are two very different things though. I believe players should develop a team-oriented mindset if they wish to be successful (and avoid resentment*) in higher difficulties. There are many things players can educate themselves in in order to become better players overall that don't relate to playing a specific class. The difference between a good player and a mediocre player is that the good player actively finds things to do that will benefit the team both during and between waves while the mediocre player sits idle between waves. If you're only useful for pressing the LMB to slash, or are sitting shielding while alt-tabbed, then you may as well be replaced by a robot.

Good players should think on their feet, and should be willing to sacrifice short term benefit for long term gain. Sure you'll miss out on a many many kills and lots of potential experience and gold if you go back and shuffle the tomes and barricades, but the team might murder Odin because of it. Playing medic will net you zero kills, but you allow the team to focus on killing nords without worrying too much about dying. Helping to set up barricades, and smartly placing barricades also benefits the team by making runs progress much more smoothly, allowing for more runs overall and greater net benefit. It gets annoying when players just sit around between waves when barricades need to be set and the person saving last is the only one who does saving and cading. There are many things that players can do to increase efficiency and success rate of runs, and these are things newer players (as well as some older ones) need to learn to do. /rant

*Resentment builds when players who do only the bare minimum to be helpful to the team and are able to get the same chance at a drop as those who worked hard as a team to achieve a successful run.

P.S. That was really long and I'm not sure if there was any point. If there was any hint of coherence in this post, I do apologize. I wrote it late at night. I hope you enjoyed reading this wall of text as much as I enjoyed writing it. What the hell am I doing with my life?