Disclamer: This post was made with PvE in mind, PvP should be balanced separately.
Overall, I had mixed feelings about the skills in the beta. While the increased player control on the damage skills made them much more fun to use, they were distracting from the gunplay. Aiming a skill properly took time that I could have use to shoot the NPCs myself, and most of the skills did not do enough damage to make them worth actively using in encounters. I used most of the damage skills as something that might provide a distraction or pleasantly surprise me with a couple of kills rather than trying to optimize their damage output during each use. I ended up gravitating towards the passive skills in the game, which I found much more effective. The healing drone and seeker gave me great value every time I used them as they helped me trade damage very effectively with NPCs. While the healing was not instant, I got over an entire armor kit’s worth of healing from it out of every use, keeping me in fights longer and enabling me to do more additional DPS than a damage skill would have done. These two skills were by far the most popular, as a vast majority of people that I matchmade into groups with were playing survivalist with both the mender seeker and fixer drone. In my opinion, most damage skills should get buffed to make choosing them viable over the healing skills. I do not think players are currently rewarded enough for taking the time to optimize their skill usage, which causes people to gravitate towards the passive skills that require much less effort for arguably greater value. I will cover each skill mod specifically and how I think it should be changed to better balance the skills and increase diversity.
Turret
Assault- I was fine with the controls on this skill for the most part, as you could mark a target for it to focus or let it shoot at the nearest enemy. However, I found the skill itself to be very situational. In most cases, the turret would simply force an enemy into cover and do little actual damage. There were very few situations where my assault turret killed someone that I was not already shooting at and couldn’t have easily killed myself. In addition, I am not sure how the assault turret will be balanced with the striker turret in the full game, as the latter seems to do the same thing but can be repositioned, greatly increasing its versatility and effectiveness in each encounter. I would increase the damage on the turret slightly and increase its aggressiveness when detecting enemies to increase its damage output.
Sniper- I did not really like this skill for several reasons. For one, nothing about it is AI-controlled: you have to manually select the target and manually shoot it. This felt really gimmicky most of the time, as I would have done a lot more damage if I just shot the NPC myself. Secondly, I found it to be wildly inconsistent: It would either hit every shot or miss several shots in a row on an NPC in a direct line of sight. Because you only got 5 shots with the turret, it was easy to get poor or no value from it. I would like to see this turret have an option where you can select a target for the turret to fire on without having to press the button, a slight damage increase, as well as the removal of the set limit of shots and instead let it remain active based on a duration that drains slowly over time and faster with each shot, similar to how the fixer drone battery drains faster when in active use.
Bombardier- I also found this turret to be very inconsistent. Like the sniper turret, a player had to manually aim the turret, but I think this is acceptable due to the area of effect nature of the skill. While the mortars shot out of the turret pretty fast, in many cases the target would move and completely avoid the damage, wasting one of my 4 shots. The damage was also not that impressive when it did hit. I think the turret can use a significant damage buff in PvE to encourage skillful usage. Just like with the sniper turret, I would also remove the set limit of 4 shots and make it drain passively over time, with active use draining the turret faster.
Seeker Mine
Explosive- I liked with skill mainly due to its consistency. Its aggressive tracking meant that I could select any target and expect it to inflict a solid amount of damage, taking off a chunk of armor off veteran and elites. Its great consistency and low cooldown made it my go-to in terms of damage skills. I feel it is properly balanced and would only change it if the other skills get major reworks.
Airburst- I did not like this mod because it was useless in many of the situations in which i used it. It took a longer time to reach my target (compared to something like the mortar turret) unless it was thrown directly at it, meaning the target I intended to light on fire moved to a new piece of cover several seconds ago in most cases. The airburst seeker needs a radius increase, the ability to lock onto NPCs directly like the explosive seeker, and a fire damage and duration buff, as currently I felt this skill was less useful than a grenade.
Mender- I felt this was the strongest skill in the beta because it could simultaneously heal both you and nearby teammates, allowing you to stay in the first longer. I do not feel it needs a nerf, but instead I would buff the other skills to not make it as much of a crutch for many players and provide real effective alternatives to the mender.
Drone
Bombardier- I enjoyed using this skill because I thought the effect was really cool and the area covered with explosives was pretty big. However, because it is a one-use skill, I would like to see its damage increased and its cooldown decreased to make it more in line with the seeker mine, which was overall more effective due to its lock-on nature.
Fixer- The most popular skill in the beta by a large margin due to its availability on all three specializations. Like the mender seeker, it was very strong, both due to its passive nature and healing effect, but I do not think it needs a nerf. Rather the other skills should get buffed to offer strong damage-dealing alternatives and reward those who play around their skills.
Tactician- My personal favorite skill in the beta. I liked it because it helped the entire team at once and offered both player control in selecting a good spot and passive effectiveness by highlighting all targets. If the other skills get buffed, I would like to see the pulse apply some sort of debuff to the enemies to keep it viable.
Specializations
My biggest problem with specializations was the ammo economy. The sharpshooter, which had a chance to drop 50 cal ammo on headshot kill, was the only one I could use often. However, it was also the hardest to use, as the forced scope upon aiming and lack of a separate scope sensitivity made it clunky and unwieldy. As I discussed in a previous post, adding the ability to aim without scoping and a separate scope sensitivity would greatly increase the 50 cal’s usability. The demolitionist, which had the chance to drop grenade launcher ammo on explosive kills, would drop inconsistently. I felt I had to play too much around the skills to get ammo, and unfortunately the damage skills were for the most part not great. However, if the skills receive the changes I outlined above to make them stronger, I think the ammo economy for the demolitionist would be balanced perfectly. The survivalist, which had a chance to drop crossbow bolts on status effect kills, was balanced poorly. I know there was not many options to CC enemies in the beta, but the ones that were present, like the airburst seeker, felt pretty bad. Fire did not last long and usually sent the enemy running for cover, making them hard to kill. If the chem launcher, firefly, and weapon/gear talents in the final game make crowd control more effective, the ammo economy will be fine, but currently I think CC needs an increase in its effectiveness to make the CC skills more viable.
TLDR: Increase the damage on damage skills, add a debuff to the pulse effect, increase the effectiveness of status effects to bring all the skills in line balance-wise with the healing skills and improve the ammo economy on the specializations.