The upcoming Battlefield V is carrying over the class structure from Battlefield 1. Those of you jumping straight from World War I to World War II should have a decent idea of what you’ll be doing on the battlefield.
However, with this change in the historical period comes a host of new weaponry, new abilities and some new tactical advantages of some classes over others.
Here’s how each class has changed between Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V and what we learned.
Battlefield V Classes Guide
Medic
As a soldier in World War I, I spent more time as the Medic than any other class. Battlefield V has made them far more valuable.
There are two really big changes to the way Medics work in BFV, mostly that they’re the most effective means of reviving teammates. In the previous game, Medics were the only class that could revive.
Although it made them useful, it did mean Medics needed to sacrifice an item-slot for the medic syringe. However, since BFV is now allowing everyone to revive teammates, suddenly the Medic gets a really valuable boost.
The syringe no longer takes up an item slot, instead, it acts as a passive boost to the speed at which Medics can revive teammates. That means you can play the Medic for the sweet submachine guns, take the rifle-mounted grenade launcher for a bit of stopping power and still be a valuable member of the squad when holding points.
The second major change is the Medic Pouch. Where in BF1 most medics took either the pouch or the crate, in BFV this is another innate class ability. Each of the classes in the game has a much more limited amount of health regeneration, meaning you won’t recover from extensive fire by just hiding behind a low wall. To regain health you need to self-heal using a Medic Pouch.
You start each respawn with one, which is bound to the ‘5’ key on PC, then you either need to collect more pouches from an ally-controlled base or from an allied Medic. This limitation on the rest of the classes in the game inherently makes Medic players more valuable to the overall war effort.
Each other player has more than enough to keep them kicking for one sustained shootout, but the addition of Medic Pouches and revive syringes means that the Medic can extend their team beyond the need to respawn almost indefinitely.
And in a game like BFV that is predicated on player numbers, that’s a pretty big buff.
Support
No matter which class you play, you’ll notice one thing right off the bat, there is far less ammunition in BFV than any other game in the series.
It’s a far more realistic approach to warfare, as you’ll have one clip in your gun, and usually two spares on your person. If you run out of ammo with your primary weapon, you’ll be switching to secondary pistols or melee weapons and need to resupply at a control point on the map.
That is unless you have a Support player nearby. Whereas in Battlefield 1 the Support players had the option to resupply as needed, this ability is far more crucial to surviving a match in Battlefield V.
Like the Medic with their pouches, the Support players in BFV are able to supply other players with ammunition as and when needed. and don’t need to sacrifice another item to do so.
This means that if your squad is stranded in a house, surrounded by enemies and holding off as long as you can, that survival can be made a whole lot longer and more effective with a Support player to supply you with ammo.
The other big addition to BFV is the ability to build fortifications at set points across the map. All classes are able to do this to an extent, it’s just a more limited selection of fortifications and a much longer build time for the other classes.
This solves a long-term issue with the Battlefield series’ destructible environments – that after long engagements you’ll be left with a smouldering pile of rubble right where all your cover used to be, and suddenly all the snipers are picking you off like shooting fish in a barrel.
As a Support player, this means you can rebuild and fortify areas that have come under heavy fire, as well as change the flow of battle by modifying the maps as you need. A couple of great options I found were building French Revolution style barricades in the middle of tight alleyways and force the enemy to find another way around.
As well as placing huge metal tank blockers to stop the entire enemy armoured division from getting behind your more valuable positions.
Recon
One of the big things you’ll notice playing BFV from the outset is that the spotting mechanic has changed pretty drastically.
In previous games you could point your cursor generally in the vicinity of an enemy soldier and mash the ‘spot’ button, to give them a big red triangle above their head, pointing them out for teammates and generally calling all your nearby sniper buddies.
This could lead to a lot of generally scoping over the battlefield and tapping ‘spot’ before jumping back into cover while all the spotted guys got peppered.
However, in BFV, this has changed from a pinpoint kill button to a more general threat signifier. Now, as any other ordinary class, you can still spot threats, but the game won’t slam a big red triangle right over any enemy you’re kind of looking at.
Instead, it will put a marker right where you’re aiming, telling your friendlies that there’s an enemy “Over there”, rather than “there’s a sniper over there wearing green boots and now you can see him anywhere he goes.”
All that goes to say that the Recon does get a buff that keeps them on the more competitive side of the spotting game. When you aren’t taking pot-shots at enemy snipers or dudes out of cover, you might grab your telescope item out, which does in fact tag enemies in a more permanent way, and much closer to how spotting worked in previous games.
It’ll highlight enemies, tanks, and threats with reliable accuracy and point them out for friendly snipers, pilots, and explosive-wielders to rain down hellfire on.
As a slight change to the weaponry, few of the Recon rifles seemed quite as powerful as those in Battlefield 1. Even though many of them were more accurate and boasted higher fire rates than their World War 1 counterparts, there weren’t any that could reliably kill over a long distance if you weren’t landing headshots.
Assault
After all of these changes and buffs to the other classes, it feels like the Assault class has had the least attention in Battlefield V.
Yes, they can revive teammates, but not as quickly as the Medic, they can also build fortifications, but not as quickly or with as many options as the Support.
What the Assault class does have is the broadest range of weapons, as well as the explosive power to consistently deal with enemy tanks stalking the battlefield.
The first thing I found was that the Assault class has access to honest-to-goodness assault rifles. Now that Battlefield V has stepped into World War 2, we’re starting to see the return of more modern machine guns with high rates of fire, good manoeuvrability, and larger clip sizes than their earlier counterparts.
The STG-44 was one such rifle that tore through me and my allies on more than one occasion, it boasts a very accurate three-round burst that can consistently double-tap an enemy in the chest, with the third shot pulling up to land a headshot. It’s a fiendish little rifle that highlights what the Assault class does best, moving quickly getting into close-medium range, and out-shooting their opponents.
On the explosive side, the Assault class came equipped with the Panzerfaust, an early version of the shoulder-fired RPG, which could do a sizeable chunk of damage to an enemy light tank, and a few shots could level some heavier armour.
It’s also far more manoeuvrable than the BF1 anti-tank rocket gun that needed to be prone in order to fire. The Assault also came with the returning dynamite charge, which can be thrown and detonated at will, very effective for laying traps, levelling walls, and taking out tanks that find themselves in tight city streets.
Squad Leader
While not strictly a class of its own, being a squad leader has received some changes as well as some powerful new abilities. Just like in Battlefield 1, playing as a squad leader means you’ll be placing objective markers on the various points, and along with the other squads on your team, you’ll be trying to tip the battle in your team’s favour.
However, new to Battlefield V are powerful squad leader reinforcement abilities. By completing objectives, taking bases and earning kills, squad leaders collect points which allow you to call in reinforcements when needed.
These include supply drops that gift your squad a cache of health and ammo when you’re deep behind enemy lines and running low. Thre’s also the Churchill Crocodile tank, a rolling death machine with a menacing main gun that could punch through buildings and players alike, as well as a casual disregard for whatever it rolled over.
A more terrifying reinforcement is the V2 rocket. With it you can paint a target and call in a powerful missile to level buildings and melt enemy squads.
You can choose an enemy squad and wipe them out with impunity. And yes, I screamed like a student in a slasher flick when someone dropped one on the cottage I was hiding in.
No, I did not survive.
These are just a few of the changes to the classes in Battlefield V that I saw throughout the open beta.
Stay tuned for more details and in-depth guides as we get to play more of the game ahead of the November 20 release date.
