Sharpshooter, Gunslinger - these are the worst classes and make it impossible to survive if the team is low level.
Commando, Support - these are mostly useless but can carry the team in terms of total damage.
Firstly the actual damage dealt by weapons is poorly communicated to players, because of the damage bars versus the actual damage values on the wiki. Compare the Berserker rifle to any SMG or assault rifle. In game the damage per projectile is deceptively large. It is wrong; it's not even a matter of it not being to scale.
Sharpshooter is the worst class in the game. Not only do you get no innate weapon damage scaling with lvl, your perks are only useful when killing a Scrake/Fleshpound or a boss. And it's either that your team generally can get rid of them, or you are left on your own in which case it's no time to be standing still or crouching. In fact, these perks require so much conscious thinking, to get any advantage (the meat of which is clearing trash which SWAT can do) that it's just not worth it. Add to that, the Sharpshooter's weapons are semi-auto which again requires precision and weaving of conscious thought into what is for other classes (SWAT, Commando, Berserker, Support) an unconscious flow.
To understand what is meant by unconscious flow, read this article on flow and watch some Gears videos. Unconsciously we are making calculations in our aiming and in where to turn to (even where it's safe to maximize the number of exits/retreats, and which are dangerous zones). The best players learn how to lift conscious understandings about spatial units, spatial awareness, optimal steps and directions to achieve desired results - and put that into their continuous, fast, automatic unconscious mental routines, allowing them to access them at any time. You can then pull off things like headshots on 10 different enemies in a row - then swing 180 and deal with more enemies that some poor sap hasn't cleared any of. Or - we've all seen the players that survive as long as possible during the boss fight that everyone died on.
The point of talking about this, is that conscious versus unconscious thinking is very important. Particularly because, these are two prime different ways that the mind works. Gunslinger is the next worst class in the game, because like Sharpshooter, you have to consciously fret and worry about where the enemies' arms and legs are, every time you shoot. And that's semi-auto firing. Let's say you were a god at aiming and shooting as a Gunslinger.. even then, you would actually have to dedicate time to thinking and not just automatic unconscious thinking where you can zone out while you're doing it, but you would have to actually watch each zed's arms and legs, and watch to tell which direction they were facing, all before you take that shot. Every. Single. Time. And what DPS advantage do you get from that? What fun factor do you get?
Unconscious thinking is a lot cheaper than conscious thinking. Your unconscious focus can quickly switch in between aiming; turning around and dealing with that pesky Husk or crawler that you know about in the back of your mind; considering healing; keeping away from the direction of danger, or precise locations of danger; running versus shooting; swiftly shooting explosives at the feet of an enemy (jumping if it's near you); electing to go for headshots; weighing up how much health that Skrake or Fleshpound has left; maxmizing the number of enemies hit by an explosive splash damage. You cannot do this while chained to a semi-auto weapon and all that's implied by it - imagine an associated hierarchy of needs and considerations, like a pyramid, that apply to every weapon.
People play games to use unconscious thinking, and maybe if you are less of a Judging person, you'll try to maximize your contribution to the team (or your survival) by using semi-auto or melee weapons. Maybe you thought the game was designed with unconscious versus conscious thinking in mind - so that semi auto weapons really pack a punch that no automatics do; or maybe they do more DPS if your aiming and "tactical reloading" is good. Surely there should be a benefit for that extra risk, right? Well, no. SWAT if you're king of aiming can headshot to death 3 fleshpounds/QPs in a row, I did it once. SWAT has a bigger mag. That's fundamental to DPS calculations.
So it's hard to consistently hit anything at all when zeds are moving and when you have a couple of hand cannons. SMG/AR users don't have this problem. Again, it's fundamentally an unconscious versus conscious thinking problem: you have a one-track mind as regards shooting when you can spray until no zeds are left or until someone else is handling those zeds. It's easier. There is no stress. It's practically carefree.
This is me on wave 57 endless, using ARs. It's easy when you have ARs because you can just prioritize shooting, running, avoiding danger, and reloading. Under stress, you start missing. A Gunslinger has it even worse because of the lengthy reloads, trying to aim (thinking consciously about the thing you are looking at, rather than simply an outline to shoot) and even having to think when to shoot, at the potential cost of missing because of "poor trigger discipline". Well, it's kind of an impossible task. And who would go to those lengths just to shave a fraction more DPS?
Demolitionist is different because it deals splash damage. Splash damage can be useful clearing multiple zeds.. versus.. trying to headshot every trash zed as Sharpshooter. Or trying to swing your aim at each one (precisely) as Gunslinger. Demolitionist is a good class with Seeker Six, because of the 6 round mag. Demolitionist is fundamentally what you need on your team. The Demolitionist is somewhere between good unconscious flow (SWAT) and inconsistent unconscious flow (Gunslinger/Sharpshooter).
So, we can draw up some DPS values for each class - but that's only theoretical DPS, and always will be. Actual DPS would have to factor in mag size, bullet spread (P90 versus MP5RAS), dmg perks, reload speed perks, and then class specific variables like damage reduction, Berserker's healing.. and how much of a load regarding conscious thought, is that weapon going to be. Melee weapons would be the least in terms of a load on your conscious mind. C4 and semi-auto weapons are the most demanding.
It's not a bad thing to have to use conscious thought. Some games feature it, some have very minimal conscious work and are considered boring. The beauty is in combining both to the effect that it feels rewarding; it was a challenge; it's something others can see or be affected by. When you switch weapons - that's a conscious thought. You didn't automatically do it with no regard to what just happened in your conscious awareness. What you can do unconsciously is move somewhere out of harm's way, but then have to eliminate some zeds or large zeds, turning 180 at times, without having to consider to yourself: "Is this right? I'm not doing enough". When that train of thought breaks because of a problem, you are now in the realm of conscious thought.
So basically - there should be some more appropriate "risk vs. reward" built into the classes, considering the above.
Commando, Support - these are mostly useless but can carry the team in terms of total damage.
Firstly the actual damage dealt by weapons is poorly communicated to players, because of the damage bars versus the actual damage values on the wiki. Compare the Berserker rifle to any SMG or assault rifle. In game the damage per projectile is deceptively large. It is wrong; it's not even a matter of it not being to scale.
Sharpshooter is the worst class in the game. Not only do you get no innate weapon damage scaling with lvl, your perks are only useful when killing a Scrake/Fleshpound or a boss. And it's either that your team generally can get rid of them, or you are left on your own in which case it's no time to be standing still or crouching. In fact, these perks require so much conscious thinking, to get any advantage (the meat of which is clearing trash which SWAT can do) that it's just not worth it. Add to that, the Sharpshooter's weapons are semi-auto which again requires precision and weaving of conscious thought into what is for other classes (SWAT, Commando, Berserker, Support) an unconscious flow.
To understand what is meant by unconscious flow, read this article on flow and watch some Gears videos. Unconsciously we are making calculations in our aiming and in where to turn to (even where it's safe to maximize the number of exits/retreats, and which are dangerous zones). The best players learn how to lift conscious understandings about spatial units, spatial awareness, optimal steps and directions to achieve desired results - and put that into their continuous, fast, automatic unconscious mental routines, allowing them to access them at any time. You can then pull off things like headshots on 10 different enemies in a row - then swing 180 and deal with more enemies that some poor sap hasn't cleared any of. Or - we've all seen the players that survive as long as possible during the boss fight that everyone died on.
The point of talking about this, is that conscious versus unconscious thinking is very important. Particularly because, these are two prime different ways that the mind works. Gunslinger is the next worst class in the game, because like Sharpshooter, you have to consciously fret and worry about where the enemies' arms and legs are, every time you shoot. And that's semi-auto firing. Let's say you were a god at aiming and shooting as a Gunslinger.. even then, you would actually have to dedicate time to thinking and not just automatic unconscious thinking where you can zone out while you're doing it, but you would have to actually watch each zed's arms and legs, and watch to tell which direction they were facing, all before you take that shot. Every. Single. Time. And what DPS advantage do you get from that? What fun factor do you get?
Unconscious thinking is a lot cheaper than conscious thinking. Your unconscious focus can quickly switch in between aiming; turning around and dealing with that pesky Husk or crawler that you know about in the back of your mind; considering healing; keeping away from the direction of danger, or precise locations of danger; running versus shooting; swiftly shooting explosives at the feet of an enemy (jumping if it's near you); electing to go for headshots; weighing up how much health that Skrake or Fleshpound has left; maxmizing the number of enemies hit by an explosive splash damage. You cannot do this while chained to a semi-auto weapon and all that's implied by it - imagine an associated hierarchy of needs and considerations, like a pyramid, that apply to every weapon.
People play games to use unconscious thinking, and maybe if you are less of a Judging person, you'll try to maximize your contribution to the team (or your survival) by using semi-auto or melee weapons. Maybe you thought the game was designed with unconscious versus conscious thinking in mind - so that semi auto weapons really pack a punch that no automatics do; or maybe they do more DPS if your aiming and "tactical reloading" is good. Surely there should be a benefit for that extra risk, right? Well, no. SWAT if you're king of aiming can headshot to death 3 fleshpounds/QPs in a row, I did it once. SWAT has a bigger mag. That's fundamental to DPS calculations.
So it's hard to consistently hit anything at all when zeds are moving and when you have a couple of hand cannons. SMG/AR users don't have this problem. Again, it's fundamentally an unconscious versus conscious thinking problem: you have a one-track mind as regards shooting when you can spray until no zeds are left or until someone else is handling those zeds. It's easier. There is no stress. It's practically carefree.
This is me on wave 57 endless, using ARs. It's easy when you have ARs because you can just prioritize shooting, running, avoiding danger, and reloading. Under stress, you start missing. A Gunslinger has it even worse because of the lengthy reloads, trying to aim (thinking consciously about the thing you are looking at, rather than simply an outline to shoot) and even having to think when to shoot, at the potential cost of missing because of "poor trigger discipline". Well, it's kind of an impossible task. And who would go to those lengths just to shave a fraction more DPS?
Demolitionist is different because it deals splash damage. Splash damage can be useful clearing multiple zeds.. versus.. trying to headshot every trash zed as Sharpshooter. Or trying to swing your aim at each one (precisely) as Gunslinger. Demolitionist is a good class with Seeker Six, because of the 6 round mag. Demolitionist is fundamentally what you need on your team. The Demolitionist is somewhere between good unconscious flow (SWAT) and inconsistent unconscious flow (Gunslinger/Sharpshooter).
So, we can draw up some DPS values for each class - but that's only theoretical DPS, and always will be. Actual DPS would have to factor in mag size, bullet spread (P90 versus MP5RAS), dmg perks, reload speed perks, and then class specific variables like damage reduction, Berserker's healing.. and how much of a load regarding conscious thought, is that weapon going to be. Melee weapons would be the least in terms of a load on your conscious mind. C4 and semi-auto weapons are the most demanding.
It's not a bad thing to have to use conscious thought. Some games feature it, some have very minimal conscious work and are considered boring. The beauty is in combining both to the effect that it feels rewarding; it was a challenge; it's something others can see or be affected by. When you switch weapons - that's a conscious thought. You didn't automatically do it with no regard to what just happened in your conscious awareness. What you can do unconsciously is move somewhere out of harm's way, but then have to eliminate some zeds or large zeds, turning 180 at times, without having to consider to yourself: "Is this right? I'm not doing enough". When that train of thought breaks because of a problem, you are now in the realm of conscious thought.
So basically - there should be some more appropriate "risk vs. reward" built into the classes, considering the above.