What is the point of Maskman?

[beonow]

Maskman is the only character I have invested a lot of time into and for some time now I've been wondering if I have made the wrong choice. I chose Maskman because I'm not obsessed with loot and before I properly understood the game, considered him likely to be the most helpful during co-op in the future. My initial impression of Maskman was that he was the weapons expert.

Now, after gaining some experience, I see what an absolute joke Maskman is, especially now with Gunhead and always compared with Bagman. Bagman is completely overpowered and really needs a nerf. Bagman is the meta. Shaman is for noobs and a great character for learning the game (although it can be a shock moving onto a less, shall we say, mobile character.

His passive is a joke (why are you laughing at me). Extract location shows on the compass from any point on the map. It's a noob ability better suited to Shaman as it's basically worth nothing even when combined with the 2x visibility of loot. Additionally it's completely out of place with what Maskman should be.

I'm sure most people will say "just play Bagman, he's the meta" but what purpose then do any of the other characters serve. Even the girl has greater potential usefulness in teamwork situations, especially if her movement speed eventually allows her to outrun cryborgs. I can see a lot of potential in team gameplay for her if this is made the case.

Okay, Maskman can use standard rifles right out of the gate and can train them up. With M4A1 being the current weapon meta that's something but Maskman really could benefit from a bit of attention and some more well thought out stats and abilities.

Also general character discussion thread I guess. Nerf Bagman.

[SpidersInABirthdayCake]

He is faster than bag man and has more health than old man. He has immediate access to good rigs and the almighty rifle skill. And for dessert he can also run grenade launchers/anti-tank rifles.

[Calgar]

Mask Man offers a good balance between weapon variety, rig load variety, and speed. Bag Man has more HP, but he's slow. And in a game where the enemies can stun you and liquidate Hp in seconds, I'll take more speed over Hp.

[White.]

Mask Man main here!

Let's start with weapons. Mask Man has access to all kinds of weapons (except Painless). Compare this to other classes with limited access to weapons like Old Man, Scav Girl, Shaman and Bag Man. For stats and passive perk, he has average HP and Speed and shows where extraction zone . This is really helpful when I play this game for the first time; knowing where the extraction is and having decent stats is good enough. For rigs, Mask Man can equip a variety of rigs without having to put skill points into it, unlike Old Man and Scav Girl who otherwise require the skill to equip them.

So overall, Mask Man is a versatile class with a wide range of weapon options while having average HP and Speed and finally, can equip variety of rigs making him a decent striker class and can help fill the team's firepower gap

edit: grammar mistakes and misinformation

[Crystal meth enthusiast]

Maskman is the only character I have NEVER invested time.
He is Combat character and has no skills for Survival and loot. There is no any point in being proficient in all weapons.
M4A1 can be used by ALL. So it;s not advantage to have 25% accuracy.

In comparison to my "mains", 20 Oldman and 21 Bagman, he loose in everything.
Oldman tanks with 25% more heal from medkits and skilled with AR and Sniper rifles. A main guns right now. And can carry "Pack mule" while maintaining high speed.

Bagman with more than 2200 HP with medkits can tank whole patrols and does not need speed, but he gets some from lvls.
He can use AR or grenade launchers but META are LMGs. Not broken and bugged "Painless", but SAW. Fully moded SAW is like assult rifle with 300 mag, 150 damage and hight stability + SUPPRESSOR. In combo with 2200+ HP i can take out frontally ANYTHING.

And what Maskman can offer? Where is bag upgrades? Where is healing? Where are speed upgrades?

[Garder =RGBD=]

Maskman is all about the easy way.

You don't have to suffer for the long-awaited 25 prestige
Oldman and Scavgirl struggle with a small backpack <...> What's the point of being excited about Shaman's bag upgrades if Maskman can just get a bigger backpack much faster, just like Bagman? And so you don't have to sacrifice your speed.

The catch is that he won't reward you for your efforts, except a better grenade launcher.

(That's right, if the promotion system changes, you won't need Maskman anymore)

[Saws n Sins]

The best class is what's best for you, not meta. For me Old Man is the best character in the game cause it fits my playstyle.

I have healing (i do a lot of killing), meaning those stims heal a lot more then they would normally.

My primary weapon I run the rsass .308 and for my secondary I run one of the 2 rare .50 cal snipers you get from quests. So both the normal rifle and heavy rifle skills work for me. I can wipe a whole damn map minus big mech and tanks. Hunter killers? Nothing I can't handle.

And the bag skill tree let's me unlock all the bags I would ever actually want to use with him.

So for me Old Man is the best. The best character is whatever character fits your playstyle.

[Bones Johnson]

Half-size (literally) bagman. Gets everything bagman does except for painless and the rack rig and has to invest XP for grenade launchers / LMG's, but fortunately it's super cheap to do that, unlike unlocking good rigs on old man / scav girl. And has a sprint that does something. And being short is useful for taking cover and having like, his entire back shielded by his rig if you've got the biggest ones.

Skills aren't special, and you can only benefit from 2 at a time since you can only hold 2 weapons at a time, but no ones skills except gunheads, well, different gunheads is all too notable. And you'll be resetting them often anyway for prestige levels.

Probably not the like, most optimal of optimal, but only when you're at the near maxing everyones pretige levels out stage which isn't going to be most or any of your playtime unless you go sicko mode on FW.

Funny that it's common to say "why not just be bagman" when I think "why not just be masked man, whose half the physical size and quicker, and who 90% of the time has everything bagman does unless I wanna mess with the painless or do big water runs?"

[Rogue]

Hes my goto guy for all combat related endeavours.

[SpidersInABirthdayCake]

Pack Mule is my go to rig for Mask Man. Just keep looting those bodies.

[Uncle_Franco]

SAW + Grenade Launcher, not too slow, carries big rigs and his audio barks are hilarious.

Maskman is awesome.

[Eclanatha]

my opinion maskman if for combat role to ensure the other scav make it safely, bagman can do the same and have better rigs but damn he slow af. I already level up my maskman to 30 and got access to almost weapons in the game ( except for painless ) and i don't care to much about loot anymore i'm rich

[Judaspriester]

Another big thing about comparing mask man and gunhead: Gunhead brings another weapon mounted on his head and therefore a good brunch of extra firepower, BUT he can't heal. so if your HP are gone, they are gone. Therefore you really want to burst the enemies down with gunhead before they can harm you, where maskman can stand some longer fights by going into cover and using a med pack between 2 magazines.

[M@ngouste Agile]

Speed + health + mule rigs + all weapons but HMG.
Say no more, he's my main.
Any other char can be better than him in one domain, but he's the overall one.
Play him with RPK / SVD
And switching to anti tank rifle or vector if needed.

[Remoxidate]

comparing mask man to gunhead/bag man is nasty work. mask man is a generalist and a good one at that. gunhead is a walking turret that cant heal, bag man is a slow giant that WILL be found when he stealths. mask man rules, bag man doesnt need a nerf, theyre just different characters that serve different roles.

[SpottedHare]

Honestly he seems to be the balanced class, even if the game seems to think he should be a weapons specialist, the other charters can be better in some situation but Maskedman i find is better in the situations other charters would be worse in.