Battlefield 3 Support Class Guide: Maximize Your Points and Your Squad's Effectiveness

Battlefield 3 Support Class Guide: Maximize Your Points and Your Squad's Effectiveness
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Of all the classes in Battlefield 3, none are as essential to the long-term viability of an operation as the Support soldier. Capable of laying down suppressive fire, keeping teammates fully loaded with ammunition, delivering devastating mortar strikes to opposing objectives, and even taking down enemy vehicles in a single strike, the Support class is among the most versatile in the game.

When playing Support, you never have to worry about running out of grenades, explosives, or bullets. Your LMG is powerful and accurate enough to take down enemies at most ranges (provided you’re using a bipod), and carrying C4 charges makes it possible to take down enemy armor faster than an Engineer with an RPG.

Looking to make an immediate impact on the success of your squad? Spawn as a Support soldier and start taking care of your squad members.

General Combat Tactics

Support Class Soldier

LMGs are not good “run and gun” weapons. If you want to move quickly from place to place, taking down enemies as you run, maybe the Engineer or Assault classes would be a better choice for you.

The Support soldier excels at finding a place to hunker down and deliver pain to his enemies from the prone position. Perfect for defending objectives in Rush or providing covering fire for a friendly assault in Conquest, the machine gunner can do the most good while remaining stationary. Firing on the move is certainly possible, even necessary in certain situations, but it’s very difficult to remain accurate, even when firing short bursts.

Stick with squadmates wherever possible. This may seem obvious, but the Support soldier excels at helping out friendly soldiers with ammo resupplies and suppressive fire. It’s difficult to do either when you are nowhere near your teammates.

Resupply Tactics

Support Your Squadmates

A huge portion of your experience points while playing Support will come from resupplying your teammates. Watch out for the “ammo” indicator above the heads of your teammates and drop a kit nearby to earn some quick xp and start working your way toward a resupply ribbon. It’s possible to get several of these in every match.

Look for high-traffic areas or places where your teammates are hunkered down and drop an ammo kit nearby. You’ll get a constant flow of resupply experience as your teammates swap out mags and toss grenades nearby.

Another good place for an ammo kit is near a friendly sniper. Recon soldiers who are sniping tend to stay in one place and survive for a lengthy amount of time, necessitating multiple resupplies. You’ll keep your teammate going strong for as long as possible and earn yourself a hefty experience bonus in the process.

If your team is defending an objective, dropping an ammo kit nearby is always a good idea.

Remember, resupplying your squadmates nets you double experience, so be sure and utilize these tactics near members of your squad whenever possible.

Ground Vehicle Destruction

Dominate IFVs

The Engineer is known as the anti-vehicle class in BF3, but in certain situations, the Support soldier is actually more effective at taking down enemy armor.

A clever Support soldier can take down even an enemy tank in a single strike. Three charges of C4 will take down a tank quickly, and often without the driver even knowing he’s under attack.

When you hear enemy armor approaching, find some place out of sight to hide until it’s nearby. Watch the turret. Tanks have a limited field of view, so chances are if the turret is facing the other way the driver will not see you.

Make sure there are no infantry nearby, then sprint up to the side of the tank opposite where the turret is facing. Plant three C4 charges and sprint back to some nearby cover. Hit the detonator and you’ll take out the tank and up to two soldiers inside instantly. They’ll never know what hit them.

The great thing about taking out tanks this way is that you can then just drop an ammo kit at your feet and resupply your own C4, then take out the next tank that gets too close.

Weapon Attachments

LMGs are fairly effective weapons, but they can be made even more effective with the application of attachments.

In most situations, a bipod is essential. Unless you’re constantly on the move or on a map without good defensive positions, the ability to almost completely reduce recoil while in the prone position is a life saver when using a machine gun.

Extended mags are also very useful once they’re unlocked. Suppressors and laser sights don’t really fit the playstyle of the Support class. Having twice as much ammo with which to suppress and devastate the enemy team is much more useful.

As far as optics go, IR scopes are incredibly useful once they’re unlocked. In the meantime, a good medium-zoom scope, red dot, or holographic is a good choice.

Never forget that the primary purpose of the Support class is to actually support your squadmates and teammates. Keep this focus in mind, and you’ll be racking up massive resupply and suppression experience in no time.

References

  • All references and images from Battlefield 3.

This post is part of the series: Battlefield 3 Class Guides

Take a look at these class guides for Battlefield 3.

  1. A Guide to the Battlefield 3 Engineer
  2. More Than Just Ammo: Dominate With The Support Class in Battlefield 3