Soldier: (11 abilities total, counting the Standard Soldier Kit and Molotov Cocktail, which both start off unlocked)
- Standard Soldier Kit (Rank 0 - Unlocked from start):
Soldiers complete Destruction objectives using an HE Charge, and can resupply their teammates' ammo, as well as their own. Soldiers also carry Molotov Cocktails by default, giving them more grenade power than any other class. - Molotov Cocktail (Rank 0 - Unlocked from start):
Molotov Cocktails explode on impact, burning everything in their blast area. There is a Cooldown period between successive uses. This is part of the Standard Soldier Kit, and can be re-mapped on this screen. - Armor Piercing Ammo (Rank 2):
Armor Piercing Ammo upgrades the ammunition you supply yourself with, making it 100% effective against enemies who have the Kevlar Armor buff. However, you cannot supply your teammates with the upgraded ammo, only yourself. - Flashbang Grenades (Rank 2):
Flashbang Grenades temporarily blind enemy players who see them detonate. Teammates who see them will only see a brief flash, unless you are playing in a Friendly Fire enabled match, in which case they can be blinded too. There is a Cooldown period between successive uses. - Grenade Mastery (Rank 2):
Grenade Mastery speeds up your grenade recharge timer, allowing you to throw standard Frag Grenades more often, as long as you remain a Soldier. Note, this does not affect the cooldown period of specialty grenades. - Scavenge (Rank 2):
Scavenge the equipment of Dead enemies by interacting with them to refill your Supply meter. - Extra Magazine (Rank 3):
Extra Magazine allows you to increase the total ammo capacity of your teammates (or yourself) by an extra magazine's worth. Subsequent resupply by Soldiers will fill up the ammo to the increased limit. - Kevlar Vest (Rank 3):
Kevlar Vest increase your damage resistance while you are a Soldier. Enemies equipped with Armor Piercing rounds can still do full damage to you. - Frag Blast (Rank 4):
Frag Blast increases the blast radius of your Frag Grenades but not their damage. This bonus does not apply to Grenade Launcher ammunition, only standard Frags. - Grenade Damage (Rank 4):
Increases the damage of frag grenades thrown by 20%. - Satchel Charges (Rank 5):
Satchel Charges are remote control bombs plantable on any flat surface. You can place up to 3 and detonate them simultaneously, or individually by interacting with them from a distance. Enemy fire can destroy them, so try not to plant them in obvious places.
Operative: (10 abilities total, counting the Standard Operative Kit, which starts off unlocked)
- Homing Beacon (Rank 2):
Homing Beacon allows you to place a red outline on an enemy by Iron Sighting on them for several seconds. This will allow the enemy to be seen by all your teammates, even through walls. The outline only lasts for a few seconds. Homing Beacon also lets you reveal enemy operatives in disguise.
Engineer: (11 abilities total, counting the Standard Engineer Kit, which starts off unlocked)
- Nerves of Steel (Rank 2):
Nerves of Steel increases the speed at which you disarm enemy explosives.
Medic: (10 abilities total, counting the Standard Medic Kit, which starts off unlocked)
- Increase Supplies (Rank 2):
Increase Supplies increases the length of your Supply meter by one pip, but only as long as you remain a Medic.
Universal (10 abilities total)
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My thoughts (I'm tired, so I'll keep it brief):
One thing I notice is most of the abilities are passive. Only Molotov and Satchel Charges look active for the Soldier, from what I can tell. Everything else that has an active component likely makes use of an existing action or context button. For example, Extra Magazine just catches a ride with ammo refills, and Scavenge likely uses the Use context button, but doesn't need to be mapped to a specific Ability slot. I can't say I particularly like this, as it takes much of the choice out of it, since you can just max Soldier abilities if you want, and have access to all of them. Having to make a bit of a choice would be nice.
I can't help but notice the Soldier is very focused on himself; he seems like a bit like an Engineer, if Engineers were selfish dikes. (I kid, I kid.) But it is interesting that Kevlar Vest and Armor Piercing Ammo are similar to Engineer abilities (at least from what we know of them), but only apply to the soldier. And then he also has multiple abilities that make his own grenades work better.
Extra Magazine helps redeem the Soldier from dikeishness, though. It's like the Medic's health buff, but for ammo! I approve wholeheartedly.
Moving on to the Engineer for a sec: Nerves of Steel looks badass, considering Engineers will often need to defuse things. I hope this works for hack devices and such, as well, although it doesn't sound like it.
There are indeed only 52 abilities. I'm not complaining, although I do still find it odd, considering they gave us a very specific number, which was 58, and that was fairly recently. How did six abilities just disappear?
The Medic can have five Supply pips, with the Medic ability and the Universal one. Supply Command Posts can add more on, likely. Interesting.
Homing Beacon is nice, gives the Operative a bit more synergy with the team.
I feel like I had a bit more to say but, like I said, I'm tired. That will have to do for now. Enjoy! And discuss!