Battlefield 1 bringing specialisations back

Hello fans of pointless mud-soaked combat without end. Battlefield 1 [official site], the most recent French real estate sim from Dice, will be reintroducing a feature that had previously been a mainstay of the series – specialisations. They are those perks and customisable skills you can attach to your soldierfolk to make you invisible to dogs, or 20% more fireproof or whatever. They’d been omitted from the Great War until now for some reason and, actually, nobody seemed to mind. Maybe because it felt cleaner without them. Anyway, looks like they’re coming back. You can find the real list of the specialisations below.

This is all courtesy of a developer’s post on Reddit. Players gunning each other down on the community testing server (the server where dreams go to be thoroughly killed over and over again) are getting access to all these perks, some general and some limited by class. But when it comes time to release them into the game proper, you’ll only have three at first – Flak, Cover and Quick Regen – with the others unlocking via a new upcoming feature called “Service Assignments”. Anyway, here’s the specs:

Generic:

• Flak: Incoming damager from explosions is reduced by 15%
• Cover: Incoming suppression is reduced by 25%
• Quick Regen: Decrease time before Out of Combat Heal by 20%
• Quick Unspot: Decrease length of time you are Spotted by 2 seconds
• Bayonet Training: Bayonet charge lasts 1 second longer and recovers 1 second quicker
• Hasty Retreat: Increase your maximum sprint speed by 10% whilst you are Suppressed
• Camouflage: When moving slowly or stationary you are invisible to Spot Flares

Assault:

• Juggernaut: Your Gas Mask also reduces explosive damage by 15% (does stack)
• Controlled Demolition: TNT is now detonated sequentially

Medic:

• Stimulant Syringe: Reviving an ally give you both a 20% sprint speed for 8 seconds (Does not stack)
• Concealed Rescue: Downed Squad Mates within 20m drop smoke to cover their revival (40s cooldown)

Support:

• Unbreakable: Incoming suppression is reduced by 75% when your Bipod is deployed
• Pin Down: The Duration an enemy remains spotted is extended via Suppression

Scout:

• Scapegoat: A decoy is automatically deployed when struck below 35 health by a distant enemy (30s cooldown)
• Perimeter Alarm: When your Trip Mine is triggered enemies within 15m are marked on the mini-map

The developer notes that these are all for testing purposes and may change. The list is also incomplete, with new specialisations planned for further updates.

I’ve never understood the desire for multiplayer skill-based murderthons to include incrementally beneficial add-ons like “damage from explosions reduced by 15%” or “bayonet charge lasts 1 second longer”. But maybe its for the “meta” I keep hearing everyone natter on about.