I found recon to be the hardest to level. You can play them liked a gimped assault role if you have a selection of non class restricted guns I suppose. it's just that engineers always seem to be in supply of things to blow up or repair, medics are always in supply of dead bodies to rez, assault on camper friendly maps can just toss an ammo box in a wookie nest and speed level off that
Recon, well, getting kills? any class can do that. Support points only available via spotting & motion mines?
Not that spotting and motion mines are hard to get points off of, but I think it's pretty much worthless on hardcore mode servers AND it's the only support bonus contingent on everyone else actually doing their job and killing them before the "spot" wears off.
Recon is also stuck in an uncomfortable position of "OR"
while every other class gets "AND"
observe..
Assault. Kill dudes, AND supply ammo
Engies. Kill dudes, AND repair
Medic. Kill dudes, AND rez/heal
Recon, Kill dudes, OR, spot them.
You spot them, you get the 20/30 pts whatever and someone else gets 50 for the kill.
You shoot them, you get 50 at the exclusion of any chance of support points
Design flaw IMO.
that said, I have a lot of fun playing assault. Recon doesn't feel like a good class to me considering there are only really 2 maps large enough to take advantage of that 12x scope. Atacama Desert, and Arica Harbor.
Every other map has way too much cover to warrant gimping yourself the points that come with the built in "AND" support roles of the other 3 classes.
Besides, that 6x scope works great on an AN94 or M16 and takes guys down just as fast, doesn't have any of that nasty "dead zone" that recon/sniper guns suffer from.