assault can fight at virtually any range
You know what I don't get? When this was the case for the assault/medic in BF3, BF4, Hardline and BF1, no one complained about it. It was fine that he was the best gunfighter in the game at all ranges, AND had the by far strongest and most important gadgets in the game. That bothered no one.
You know, in Battlefield 1, the name change for Assault and Medic was completely unnecessary. The Medic in BF1 were just like Assaults in BF3 and BF4 - The best all round guns, the strongest gadgets, and grenade launchers. And the class BF1 called Assault was literally still the Engineer from BF3/4 - Shot range weapons, anti vehicle weapons, and repair tool. Oh, right, they took away the repair tool and gave it to the support so that literally no one will use it because support has way better gadgets. But other than that, yeah - still the same thing. Close range/anti vehicle. They really should've just left the names as Assault for the "Medic" and Engineer for the "Assault".
But, here's the thing. Now, in BFV, the assault class is an actual assault class. It's the class whose primary, and ONLY, directive is taking out enemies, whether it's infantry or vehicles. You ask what drawback the assault has? That's the drawback. That's all assaults can do. They can't spot people. They can't heal people. They can't give ammo. They can't repair vehicles. They have no way to aid their team at all, other than killing enemies. It's all they do.
But GOD FUCKING FORBID they are good at it. Nuh uh, that would just be too much now wouldn't it? Medic, the class that received a GIGANTIC buff by being given a third gadget, is also supposed to be better in CQC - where a good 70% of engagements occur - than the assault, whose ONE AND ONLY job is to take out other people.
The issue is that people here claim to love teamwork oh so much, and were supposedly so excited to see that BFV now is more teamwork oriented. But that's simply a lie. Because the current class balance is honestly perfect the way it is. And it's the epitome of teamwork-oriented gameplay. You no longer have a 1-class-beats-all option like you did in BF3/4/H/1.
If you want to be the strongest gunfighter, you go assault. You see a medic in CQC, blast em with your AR, and it's all good. But then you notice the gunfight has left you at 20% HP and you already used your pouch earlier because a sniper shot in your general direction. So now you sit there, waiting for a medic to arrive, and die before anyone arrives.
So you pick medic next live, and then you die to an assault in CQC. And then you consider this unfair, because neither of these two classes allow you to be stupidly efficient in solo play like they did in BF3/4/H/1.
So you go on reddit to complain that the medic needs stronger weapons again. And unfortunately, DICE is gonna listen and ruin the class balance, making assaults obsolete once again.
This is the first game in 7 years where a team isn't 80% medic. First game in 7 years where killing 8 out of 9 people in a flank doesn't mean a revive train will be started and those 8 kills were useless. But unfortunately, it's not gonna stay that way for long.