(Asking skills opinions) Overrated, Underrated, and the Ugly

[Vantusman]

I'd love to see what you'd choose for these categories:

1)Skill you consider overrated
2)Skill you consider underrated
3)Skill you wish did not exist (Maybe cos you think it's an unhealthy skill for the game or maybe a skill you are always tempted to take and you hate that, as examples)

[[SCZ]Celestrian]

throw everything into the trash.
remake the whole damn thing.
put someone in charge who actually played a videogame at least once.

[DeeEcks]

Overrated: The most overrated skill is probably Plate Up. It takes a lot of skill points to put together a build that can keep Grit up, and ever since the addition of Transporter, you really have to sacrifice on some essential skills to do so. I've stopped running the skill and have been using the Light Ballistic Lining ever since the Armour Up nerf, and it really gives you way more spare skill points to work with, without losing out on much survivability since the regen is so fast.
Underrated: Manipulator/Silver Tongue. I barely ever see pubs running these hostage trader skills, which is pretty crazy since they're capable enough of buying you enough time to get multiple objectives done before the first assault. They're essential on the heists that can benefit from them.
Bad: Replenish. Way too OP in a way that removes skill depth and complexity from the game.

[Vantusman]

Originally posted by DeeEcks:

Bad: Replenish. Way too OP in a way that removes skill depth and complexity from the game.

I am actually amazed that I found someone else who thinks Replenish is problematic. I barely even see anyone talk about it.

I think skills that improve Negotiation Phase trading help with that on every heist besides NRFTW and Road Rage (Just cos they basically don't have a negotiation phase. Didn't play Syntax Error yet so dunno about that one). With Menacing and willingness to stealth a bit, you could get a good amount of extra time even on 99 boxes .

And I personally never considered taking Plate Up. I usually play with 1 other person and I instantly wanted to make an "Objective Runner" foundation for my build, so I was running Light Lining from the start!

But thank you for contributing to this thread :)

[kyuketsuki★]

Overrated
• Disengage
Comes handy when you're lacking, but throwing a flashbang or good teammates are better.
• Cutting Shot
I played all weapons for at least a thousand kills on OVERKILL, you don't really need "more damage" unless you're using R700.
• Swift
You don't really need 10% speed increase ONLY on sprinting, I usually run loud with 3 armor and the speed I got is fine.
• Face to Face
Like I've said, don't really need that extra damage.
• Engineer ACED
Cooling System is enough for less heat build-up.
• Gunslinger BASIC
I get why people love hip-firing, but honestly, there are better ways to generate EDGE.

Underrated
• Scrounger
10% might sound low, but it's per ammo-pickup and extremely useful.
• Manipulator ACED
People might sleep on "count as one additional" feature, this is not only for trade phase. FAKs and ARKs also get advantage over hostage count and I barely see people running this tree.
• Negotiator
For the same reason.
• Menacing
Extremely useful on builds that doesn't have any suppressed weapons when getting caught during stealth. Also quickly disarms shotgunners on loud.
• Scramble
Adds around 1~2 seconds for your stuns with Flashbangs and Concussion Mines, is just amazing. Getting human shields will be easier, also helps when Assault is over and you want to trade 2 cops near each other.

The Ugly
• Replenish
Makes armor recovery too easy, I believe it needs to be for only manual ammo-pickup.
• Last Man Standing
This is "better swan song" but even after the nerf it's just extremely powerful.
• Solid
I just can't believe Pin Puller consumes your GRIT but Solid doesn't. This skill needs to be reworked on some aspect, it doesn't require much to make it work and reward players too much.

[Colelyoe2]

1: cutting shot, it's actually not that good
2: Combat marking, especially after the buff it got
3: Crowd Control, there's like zero reason to use it, complete waste of a skill point to use

[Vantusman]

Gonna add my picks to bump up/finish up the thread. I'll specifically go for skills no one mentioned here for variety!

Overrated : Overcooked
After playing with and without Overcooked with both frags and flashbangs, I honestly believe it doesn't add much to them. I'd even say it's detrimental for Frag Grenades, cos you are basically guaranteed to damage yourself(Or lose Grit) with an explosion unless you are far enough away. I can see it's use as a Panic Button, but you honestly shouldn't put yourself in situations where bombing/flashing yourself is your best bet to get out alive. Oh, and Mamba is not that hard to use without it either.

Underrated : Tactician Basic
It is so easy to maintain Edge with it, just shooting at the enemy body has a high change to make them stagger(Or in the head, if you aren't using one-shot weapons), or just melee hitting someone near you. And for spending this one point, you get access to Discombobulate and Expose. It's honestly better than spending 1 skill point to Ace either of the skills that give you Edge refresh.

Ugly : Walk the walk/Social engineering
Let's add some stealth skills to the mix! These 2 skills are basically on the same level, these skills simply dumb down the stealth and make it less interesting. Anything you can do with these skills can also be done without them by just being careful, and these skills enable you not to learn to be careful so then you can struggle on mostly Secure Areas heists in the future! Basically, I think these skills stump the growth of your ability to stealth.

[Meredith K Pseudonym]

Overrated: Mag Throw.
It's redundant and Rush is easily the most tightly controlled buff in loud gameplay. It's a pain in the ass for poor man's Replenish. Transporter might've made it more workable but only by encouraging bad habits.

Underrated: Strategist Ace
I've never seen anyone else use it in any context and I feel that if they had it, it'd at least be really obvious in stealth because being able to keep track of that many people for that long is an absolute godsend and unlike the motion sensor it'll still actually work three minutes later.

Ugly: Grifter Ace
Most of the Grifter line warps how unmasked stealth works in such a way that you're getting away with the most ridiculous things where your attention is shifted towards that little box outline and where you can replace it. Then you have a pager answering skill which mostly just ruins the fun of answering the pager and makes it too easy to cut the lines short. Then there's that one near the beginning. Grifter Ace is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ trap. Want to mask up and climb a floor from the outside in Under the Surphaze? Tough, you just alerted the map. Same deal but you wanted to climb that car in the alleyway in Dirty Ice and thought you'd be out of sight before anyone cared? Tough, you just alerted the map. Even when you're more cautious about that, is saving yourself a couple of clicks of M3 worth a skill point? No. It's a trap. It's not bad, it's a liability.