I'm going to have a "short version/TL:DR" and a "long version" for anyone who wants the details.
SHORT VERSION: Assault Vanguard Medal, the milestone challenge where you "get 3 kills in 1 Vanguard usage 5 times", as well as the Assault class Vanguard ability. They're not fun. At all. Does NOT fit with the other milestones and abilities, which ARE fun. Needs to go, or be changed for the better.
LONG VERSION:
So I picked up a PS4 and Star Wars Battlefront II late last month (January), had the game two weeks or so, and for the most part it's been a blast. Sure, the game has it's quirks, its ups and downs, but to me, the bulk of those got fixed in that patch from last week/weekend, and all those completed milestones finally gave me the rewards I had been waiting on!
I'll try to keep this bit of context short. I have been out of console gaming for a while. Years. Only touched a console for Halo games on occasion, and Halo 5 killed that for me. The point is, I got out of console gaming for a long, long time, only playing games from a single franchise until that franchise lost my interest, and it finally died out for me. Then I see Battlefront 2. BF1 looked nice, but I always heard more about its flaws more than its merits. Then BF2 turns out to have a campaign. I hear about the story, sounds interesting. The footage I see looks really good. And I am a Star Wars fan, sooo...
...I get the PS4 bundle, plug it all up, and start playing.
All in all, this has been a fun experience (almost). And almost everything has paid off. Even the milestone challenges that didn't grant rewards, finally did after a patch, AND EA/DICE gave us some loot ta boot! Granted, I have only played for a couple weeks or so, I didn't have to wait as long for that fix as those who started back in November last year. Those players who have waited that long, I have to give you props where it is due.
My point is, the game has been fun....mostly. Even when grinding for those milestones, when you do this, you get a reward, and it feels....well, it feels like it's worth it. Most milestones don't feel too difficult, and they really do lead a player to learning about the different aspects of the game, the abilities, and especially the tactics one can use in BF2 to get those milestones finished, as well as learning how to battle others in multiplayer. For the milestones in general, there's a lot that can be said, but it sums up to something like "you grind, you learn, you get something for it, and most important, YOU HAVE FUN doing it". Something like that, yeah?
Assault Vanguard Medal, the milestone where you "get 3 kills with 1 Vanguard usage 5 times". This milestone is not fun. And I mean that exactly that way, it is just not fun, not at all (more on the Vanguard ability itself below).
When I started the game and realized it had these milestones, like the game's own "achievements", I got into the groove of completing them in multiplayer. And even the harder ones, or the ones that at first I didn't understand, they were all fun to figure out, or grind away at. You see, even if you're grinding, you're still playing the multiplayer, and each match can throw something new at you, each match flows differently than the others. It stays interesting, and therefor it stays fun, even while you grind away. Few games can actually claim such a thing, as they often tend to get boring due to repetition and, well, nothing new to show but changing the color pallet of a baddie to fight.
But then I noticed that one milestone, Assault Vanguard Metal. I took a crack at it early on. Once I realized each class had their own set of milestones, I figured I'd just go through each class and knock them all out in order. I started this with the Assault class. As far as milestones go, all of them are done except Assault Vanguard Medal. I tried it early on, it gave me some trouble, so I told myself I'd come back to it later and worked on the others.
And I did come back to it. Over and over and over again. For these past several weeks, I have tried and tried to get this milestone. Only tonight, TONIGHT, on FEB 13 2018, did I FINALLY get 1/5 for that dang milestone! It's past midnight now, the 14th, but this happened earlier in the night. So much time went by due to trying to repeat this to finish the milestone, which is why I am now here posting this.
What I am trying to convey in that statement isn't anger, or accomplishment. It's frustration, that has led to me losing a great deal of the fun I was having with this game. For milestones, the Assault class is done, save that one, Assault Vanguard Medal. I'm working on the Heavy class now, mostly just finishing up the class' weapons' attachments before moving on to Officer and Specialist. I still go back sometimes to try and finish Assault Vanguard Medal, but as I said, only tonight was I able to get 1/5. And THAT was only because everything happened in just the right way, at the right time.
Let me explain what I mean by that. Please. Because I am sure some of you want to make a reply about flanking, or something else involving skill, perhaps also say that you've already got this milestone and therefor showing off how good you are. Please, don't do that for the time being. Let me finish first.
People say that this milestone can be achieved if you "flank", or take advantage of the map you are fighting on, and how the opponent team is fighting, to "get behind their lines", then sneak up on them when they don't see you coming, and blow them away to get those three kills. And yeah, that sounds about right....
...except, I already did that a few times. One of those moments got me the 1/5. So, of course, I tried repeating the formula, and it just didn't work. (And if anyone wants to gripe about skills, I may not make it to 1st place at the end of the match, but often I can make it anywhere between 3rd to 5th, and even 2nd on rare occasion. If you find me at the bottom, more than likely I answered the door, the phone, or just got up to grab a snack or drink, or use the bathroom (don't judge, most of you do it too). The only other occasions I might be near the bottom are when I get hung up trying to get a milestone, that I lose focus on the match.)
Some will say you have to make head shots. And I've tried that too. Sometimes, when the opponent's "head" is in the reticle and I fire, yeah, works just fine. But most times, their head is in the reticle, I fire, and the extra damage this should incur simply does not happen. Leaves me frustrated every time, and wondering why this is even an issue at all.
And then there's the blatantly obvious fact that.....THIS is supposed to be a SHOTGUN! And shotguns blow people away by doing massive amounts of damage, especially UP CLOSE! And in ANY OTHER SHOOTER VIDEO GAME, the SHOTGUN is what you WANT/NEED to use when getting up close and personal with the enemy! That's the role a shotgun plays, PERIOD! Any shooter game that ever had a shotgun THIS WEAK, at least gave you options to upgrade the dang thing ot get better weapons later on. You can't even do THAT here!
Instead of that, we have what feels like a useless weapon ability, that does not deal the amount of damage it should, and doesn't always work when dealing head shots. AND THIS THING IS ON A TIMER! Why have such a weak weapon on a time limit?
On top of this, the Vanguard ability, which is supposed to be a "SIGNATURE" ability for the Assault class, leaves me feeling like I would rather use any other weapon instead. And I do, constantly. The only reason I use the Vanguard shotgun weapon is......as you probably can guess.....trying to get that milestone completed.
As far as the Vanguard ability as it stands right now, the only thing it is useful for is making the Assault class a little more mobile with that speed boost. And sometimes that works, if you have some cover nearby to jog behind to get away from someone (or if you're running towards something like an objective). If not, someone who knows how to aim will still get you, and depending on the map you're on, that still makes Vanguard practically useless.
Hey, you know those star cards you can equip that replace the previous ability with something else entirely different? Like the Assault's scan dart becoming a quick regen/heal when equipping Toughen Up? I want something like THAT for Vanguard. Example: Scan Dart has its uses, sure, but if given the choice, Toughen Up just fits my play style better, and to me it seems more "useful". Vanguard, on the other hand, is "useless" to me, but I can't simply replace it with a star card. Sure, there are cards that give Vanguard something extra, but because these still have to do with a near-useless shotgun type weapon/ability, I don't care to use any of them. Getting those star cards unlocked and improved is because of the completionist in me, not because I actually want to use it. Which means improving those cards, using credits to do so, that will be saved for last, after everything else is done. absolutely EVERYTHING else. And if the game stops getting support before I get that far, or it gets boring and I sell it off........it means that ability, those star cards, and the milestone attached to them, were simply not fun enough, or interesting enough, to even bother with by that point in time, and never were to begin with.
All of this, all these details, it all sums up into one thing, one single idea.....if it's not fun, why bother doing it? All the other milestones are fun, or have something interesting about them, that makes them worth doing. This one does not. It is not fun. Therefor, it isn't worth it, and either needs to be removed, or changed to become more interesting and fun, more WORTH WHILE to do in the game. Because right now, it's not, and it sucks pretty bad.
That's the bulk of what I wanted to get off my chest. BUT! There something else I wanted to mention, the Vanguard ability itself....
Most of what is said here involves my personal experience with this milestone, and the vanguard ability itself. It also involves my research looking at what other people had to say online, here on this site, and elsewhere, trying to look for answers. All I found were people with the same problem, some people bragging they solved it, but those same people didn't seem to want to offer to help others figure out how to solve this problem. I chalked all this up to those people who got the milestone completed just getting lucky and wanting bragging rights. Until one of them decides to show others how to do it and make it more understandable, that's where I sit on that bit. But there's more...
My main beef here isn't what people say as far as achieving the milestone, it's more about how vanguard itself works, or rather doesn't work, and how, maybe, it was SUPPOSED to work originally. While looking around online, some people stated back in November that Vanguard was too OP, others mentioned it might get a nerf, then later in posts around Dec/Jan people said that it did get said nerf. Even if people claim Vanguard is not too weak as a weapon, the fact is that it is NOT a weapon. It's an ability on a timer. Big difference! And it deserves to be stronger. It's meant to be more powerful. It is meant to give the Assault class an edge in combat for a limited time. Like the Heavy class' Sentry ability! Breaking out a heavier gun that deals more damage, for a limited time, and using star cards to give the player options in how to do so (standard rapid fire goodness, explosive sentry to lay on the pain, mobile sentry to move around a bit more at the cost of some of that heavy damage). Because the Assault's Vanguard is an ability, not a weapon that can be changed out, and because it is a SIGNATURE ability like the Heavy's Sentry, Vanguard deserves to be much better than it currently is.
Everything previously said here above about the Assault Vanguard Medal milsetone, this is less of the main problem, and more a major symptom of a bigger problem. That Vanguard, in its current state, just isn't worth bothering with, and makes the player prefer to use their main weapon and never bother with Vanguard unless they want a quick jog on the map. A speed increase has its uses, don't get me wrong. But with how the shotgun portion of Vanguard works currently, I wouldn't mind sacrificing the speed portion if that meant the shotgun then had adequate damage to fill the role it is supposed to have in a shooter game, that of a high damage output weapon that deals even more damage up close, and can one-shot-kill anyone within range.
Except that, since this shotgun is an ability and not a weapon, it is on a limited timer, AND it does NOT last as long as the Heavy's Sentry, that shotgun should put out MASSIVE damage and be able to do one-shot-kills at surprising ranges. Some people online have stated the reverse of this, but due to Vanguard's time limit, OH NO, this shotgun ability should definitely be strong and powerful, especially because of that very time limit.
What's the point of having a "signature" ability for a class in this game if people prefer to use anything and everything else besides that very ability?
