Personally I really enjoy playing Commando. It's a very versatile class that excels in almost all ranges against mobs, in both camping and kiting scenarios.
However, as I've played this game I started to notice something: in the current state of Killing Floor every perk has one way or another to handle Fleshpounds and/or Scrakes by themselves in and emergency, except the Commando.
Allow me to explain. While I do not believe Commando is underpowered, (it is indeed, to say, a balanced perk) at some point in the game the other perks got too advantageous to the point where Commando was left in the dust.
Sharpshooter: Entire arsenal murders Scrakes, can also kill fleshpounds if you can land a headshot. Almost all of the guns will stun or flinch Scrakes on headshot
Support Specialist: Can handle both Scrakes and Fleshpounds, albeit with tricky combos. Still, the neccessary equipment can be attained at reasonable prices. No flinching or stunning shotguns, but the hunting shotgun works as amazing finisher against scrakes and FP.
Berserker: Ridiculous speed and Damage resistance, can stun and flinch scrakes with melee weapons. Super speed and resistance help with FP kite.
Firebug: Thanks to the advent of the flare guns, firebugs can flinchlock scrakes for $300. Husk gun also allows for Scrake takedowns, though not the most optimal method.
Demolitions: Demolitions do struggle against Scrakes, but make up for this with their sheer power of explosives against Fleshpounds. This guy eats Fleshpounds for breakfast. The grenade launchers also flinch scrakes, LAW and Pipebombs stun them.
Medic: Medic has weak smgs that dont do too much damage against scrakes, but like zerks can tank and run super fast. Medics can also carry a variety of offperk weapons with the extra money they have.
Where does that leave Commando?
-like medic, assault rifles do not have power to take down scrakes or fleshpounds
-No kiting or tank bonuses to compensate
-perked arsenal does not contain flinching or stunning weapons against Scrake.
In the current state Commando is the only class gimped against both of the two "big zeds." Hp vision does help with kiting FP and determining scrake rage, but still leaves Commando at a "stalemate" scenario against both of these specimens.
The Commando obviously should not be able to have raw firepower against fleshpounds with auto rifles. In fact most perks except demo cannot confidently face fleshpounds head on all the time. But what about Scrakes?
To take down Scrakes reliably and safely, flinching and/or stunning mechanisms are almost always used. Supports, Medics, and Commandos do not have any perked equipment that do this, so these classes use offperk weapons to fill the gap. However, Commando is shorthanded in that the perk does not have the available weight neccessary without sacrificing its own firepower.
Supports can carry two shotguns and still have plenty of space for an axe.
Medics have plenty of space since two medguns weigh only six blocks.
Commando usually carries two assault rifles, which leaves at most 4 blocks for a weapon to help with Scrakes. This leaves you with the machete, which is extremely risky and unreliable because it requires a headchop, or a katana, which is very expensive at $2000 offperk.
Of course another option is to run with 1 Assault rifle, freeing up more space and options. However, this often forces players to spend multiple waves playing other perks to afford the offperk weapon, or save up.
M14: 2500 offperk, using that money one could purchase SCAR and FAL which both have higher DPS, less recoil, better sights.
Husk Cannon: 4000 offperk, slow and unwieldy against trash
M32: 4000 offperk, risky from self damage
These aren't the entire list of options but are often most common. Should you die while incorporating one of these into your loadout? Good luck trying to obtain another one if you didnt drop it.
Sure if you are rocking that game or have a well funded team you can get your equipment pronto. But most money doesnt start rolling in until the late waves anyway, so throughout the game you will be doing anything and everything to obtain that offperk weapon giving you a fighting chance against the scrake. Not only that, but the weapons listed above can be equally, if not more effective against scrakes in the hands of the perk that weapon belongs to. Why bother taking an M14 with commando if you can take it as a sharp and destroy everything?
In short, the offperk weapon is the dominant element in the loadout, not commando.
Of course it's not that such options make the Commando gamebreakingly bad, or underpowered. Of course not. Commando is extremely efficient against trash specimens and the rifle scopes give it long range capability rivaling that of the sharpshooter.
The disadvantage is not severe enough to where it places commando as an inferior class, but definitely enough to turn off many people from the perk as a viable option on higher difficulty.
However, as I've played this game I started to notice something: in the current state of Killing Floor every perk has one way or another to handle Fleshpounds and/or Scrakes by themselves in and emergency, except the Commando.
Allow me to explain. While I do not believe Commando is underpowered, (it is indeed, to say, a balanced perk) at some point in the game the other perks got too advantageous to the point where Commando was left in the dust.
Sharpshooter: Entire arsenal murders Scrakes, can also kill fleshpounds if you can land a headshot. Almost all of the guns will stun or flinch Scrakes on headshot
Support Specialist: Can handle both Scrakes and Fleshpounds, albeit with tricky combos. Still, the neccessary equipment can be attained at reasonable prices. No flinching or stunning shotguns, but the hunting shotgun works as amazing finisher against scrakes and FP.
Berserker: Ridiculous speed and Damage resistance, can stun and flinch scrakes with melee weapons. Super speed and resistance help with FP kite.
Firebug: Thanks to the advent of the flare guns, firebugs can flinchlock scrakes for $300. Husk gun also allows for Scrake takedowns, though not the most optimal method.
Demolitions: Demolitions do struggle against Scrakes, but make up for this with their sheer power of explosives against Fleshpounds. This guy eats Fleshpounds for breakfast. The grenade launchers also flinch scrakes, LAW and Pipebombs stun them.
Medic: Medic has weak smgs that dont do too much damage against scrakes, but like zerks can tank and run super fast. Medics can also carry a variety of offperk weapons with the extra money they have.
Where does that leave Commando?
-like medic, assault rifles do not have power to take down scrakes or fleshpounds
-No kiting or tank bonuses to compensate
-perked arsenal does not contain flinching or stunning weapons against Scrake.
In the current state Commando is the only class gimped against both of the two "big zeds." Hp vision does help with kiting FP and determining scrake rage, but still leaves Commando at a "stalemate" scenario against both of these specimens.
The Commando obviously should not be able to have raw firepower against fleshpounds with auto rifles. In fact most perks except demo cannot confidently face fleshpounds head on all the time. But what about Scrakes?
To take down Scrakes reliably and safely, flinching and/or stunning mechanisms are almost always used. Supports, Medics, and Commandos do not have any perked equipment that do this, so these classes use offperk weapons to fill the gap. However, Commando is shorthanded in that the perk does not have the available weight neccessary without sacrificing its own firepower.
Supports can carry two shotguns and still have plenty of space for an axe.
Medics have plenty of space since two medguns weigh only six blocks.
Commando usually carries two assault rifles, which leaves at most 4 blocks for a weapon to help with Scrakes. This leaves you with the machete, which is extremely risky and unreliable because it requires a headchop, or a katana, which is very expensive at $2000 offperk.
Of course another option is to run with 1 Assault rifle, freeing up more space and options. However, this often forces players to spend multiple waves playing other perks to afford the offperk weapon, or save up.
M14: 2500 offperk, using that money one could purchase SCAR and FAL which both have higher DPS, less recoil, better sights.
Husk Cannon: 4000 offperk, slow and unwieldy against trash
M32: 4000 offperk, risky from self damage
These aren't the entire list of options but are often most common. Should you die while incorporating one of these into your loadout? Good luck trying to obtain another one if you didnt drop it.
Sure if you are rocking that game or have a well funded team you can get your equipment pronto. But most money doesnt start rolling in until the late waves anyway, so throughout the game you will be doing anything and everything to obtain that offperk weapon giving you a fighting chance against the scrake. Not only that, but the weapons listed above can be equally, if not more effective against scrakes in the hands of the perk that weapon belongs to. Why bother taking an M14 with commando if you can take it as a sharp and destroy everything?
In short, the offperk weapon is the dominant element in the loadout, not commando.
Of course it's not that such options make the Commando gamebreakingly bad, or underpowered. Of course not. Commando is extremely efficient against trash specimens and the rifle scopes give it long range capability rivaling that of the sharpshooter.
The disadvantage is not severe enough to where it places commando as an inferior class, but definitely enough to turn off many people from the perk as a viable option on higher difficulty.
