Why play a Decker?

[Revolution]

Given the fact that there dont seem to be opportunities to just go wandering around the matrix picking up info to sell, combined with the extemely limted number of chances to hack into anything during the shoot em up missions, I'm wondering why the Decker is a feasible player class?
Surely, Dodger and the Janitor are perfectly fine for the mandatory hacking sessions but the points you dump into decking mean that a main character decker is extremely underpowered when it comes to actual street fighting, which seems to be 99% of the game.
I love the game and I think once player content starts rolling in it will just get better, but the lack of matrix quests is a very serious oversight and sort of dooms people who want to play deckers to sort of nominally effective combat support roles.

[Kujako]

There are objects (computers, door panels, etc) that require a given Decker skill level to interact with. That's about it as far as I can tell.

So it gives you a path through some chapters that otherwise would not be available.

[Azure Sky]

Just finished with my decker. I didn't struggle...In fact, Pistols were a pretty valid combat option for the most part due to their critical rate but yeah, I wish they had more input, maybe using their deck to screw with enemy agumentations etc.

[billy]

to be honest i don't see the point in playing one , the game doesn't give you much to work with. Shame , you can still play one just because you want to be one i suppose.

As Azure says they should have given deckers skills against cyberware or something.

[sarx]

The game is practically like the main Neverwinter Nights module in that respect. Something to tide you over and show the constraints of the engine but mostly focused on combat. My Shaman was of dubious usefulness as well.. There will be fan modules that offer more options I reckon..

[zzzzzzzwwwwww]

I felt that magic is pretty weak in SR. Looking forward to patches in the future to tweak this if possible.

Right now Street Samurai is the way to go.

[greywolf00]

In the vanilla campaign Deckers do feel under whelming. I'm sure we'll eventually see user content that fleshes them out more though.

[JookySeaCpt.]

I'm most of the way through the game as a rigger. There are a few interactive spots that let you send a drone through to open a door, but that's all I've seen so far. The drones themselves...honestly I just use them to tank. They have high hitpoints but low damage. Some drawback is fair I suppose as drones essentially multiply your AP (you spend 1 AP to control each drone, but the drones themselves have AP).

The support drones are of dubious usefulness. The robo-doc has free medkits on it that are handy, but it's weapon is practically useless (VERY low to-hit chance, even standing next to an enemy). I mainly leave it on follow until someone needs a heal. The smoker drone I haven't really figured out yet. I think you just leave it near your people and it passively vents smoke. The tooltips for drones are not helpful.

[Stick]

Originally posted by Revolution:

Given the fact that there dont seem to be opportunities to just go wandering around the matrix picking up info to sell, combined with the extemely limted number of chances to hack into anything during the shoot em up missions, I'm wondering why the Decker is a feasible player class?
Surely, Dodger and the Janitor are perfectly fine for the mandatory hacking sessions but the points you dump into decking mean that a main character decker is extremely underpowered when it comes to actual street fighting, which seems to be 99% of the game.
I love the game and I think once player content starts rolling in it will just get better, but the lack of matrix quests is a very serious oversight and sort of dooms people who want to play deckers to sort of nominally effective combat support roles.

1st Character here is a Decker... Intelligence up to 7 right now, Decking at 6, ISP(esp??) up to 4/5 (can't remember)... Ranged weapons and Pistol up to 4 I believe on each...

Have had ONE time of being killed... other than that have only lost 1 hired runner during a run... have held my own during all combat sessions...

As for the decking...?? Meh, nice in the few spots that have shown up helping to open a locked door, get a code to get in other doors, etc...

Loving every minute of being a Decker so far... (Not too mention the Tourist outfit... LOL)

[Kozak]

I haven't finished the campaign but, just having missions where the decker needs to enter the matrix to turn off auto turrets shooting up the team or something would be more exciting. There's been at least one mission like that but entering the matrix more often for objectives while the team protects or does other things would be great.

Not having problems with combat though. Decided to go Techmaster so I'm a rigger/decker. With 2 drones combat hasn't been a real issue. I haven't lost a runner or died yet. I spent a ton of cash on decking stuff though and would love to get a little more use out of it.

[Infinite Probability]

So far ive found that shamans are pretty useless, I have not used any summoning yet, but having your summoned creature take up you action points seems a bit.....limiting. I have fought the summoned creatures and they seem to miss a lot. I will give it a go.

[Niknud]

The earth elemental is the best summon imo. at level 4 he hits hard and drains ap. I started out decker and stopped putting points in pretty quick. Since I was already deep into intelligence I just switched to drones. Those little sucks are pretty amazing.

[syntacticalcrab]

I'm a picky person, so whenever possible I go custom. I played a ranged street sam/decker. It was pretty awesome. I can't even imagine playing only one set class in this setting. That's why I like SR so much.

[GrYeYeS]

Ive encountered a few options that required a decking level of 6, something none of the npc's available at the time had. But they were few and far between, and since you cannot backtrack to those points with a decker in tow they can only be opened with a PC decker.

[sarx]

I hoped for some decent spells for my shaman... You get some weak support/debuff options but seriously why would I silence an enemy mage for 2 AP when a combat mage simply obliterates him with the same investment. Playing a shaman feels really really passive you do not really do much.. you sometimes summon a weak spirit and pretty much play its anchor for a while. Underwhelming. Halfway into the game I got two points in grenades and started lobbing those - being more effective with these 2 points in throwing than with 8 in Charisma and spirit usage.

[Ishan451]

Originally posted by Azure Sky:

Just finished with my decker. I didn't struggle...In fact, Pistols were a pretty valid combat option for the most part due to their critical rate but yeah, I wish they had more input, maybe using their deck to screw with enemy agumentations etc.

Its not 2070 yet. Its still 2054, stuff isn't wireless yet.Wireless comes 2060 as option and i 2070 standard. 2070 you can screw with augmentations, if people are stupid enough not to deactivate the remote access (which should be a given for anyone that is working in security, be it sinless or sinner)