Importance of ST Punt

[ArtAshoak]

New player here trying to understand some of the meta here.

Just starting out as a BO lvl 23. I was reading the patch notes and and saw for the ranked scs they won’t match double BOs or SMs because of their lack of a st punt.

So the devs recognize this as a huge meta aspect to the power that a tank has.

I’ve read in many posts that one of the major weaknesses of the BO is his lack of st punt but when I saw that in the patch notes i knew it was more than just an opinion.

Could you share your perspective on why a st punt is so important and why an aoe punt is limited in its usefulness. Is it just not as precise/accurate? Or is it the cool down? Is it because it punts both a guard and a guardee together without separating them? I just figured I’d have to save and wait to use my aoe for st but I guess it’s not that simple if the devs are organizing the ranked scs around having at least one tank with st punt.

Thanks for your wisdom.

I’m not at endgame yet so all this is over my head. I do see myself get punted backwards into the enemy wb in orvr and it is definitely powerful.

[Aethilmar]

Single target punts are for separating tank and guard so you can kill the guardee.

AOE punts are imprecise (it is very hard to get exactly between the guard and guardee and send them exactly where you want them) and generally speaking just hand out immunities so you can't use a single target punt to create separation. AOE punts can be useful in certain defensive circumstances (talking SCs) where you need to clean a melee train off of someone though but you want to avoid them unless you have to b/c of the immunities thing.

[Marchmain]

I am sure there are times when the AOE punt has been useful but compared to the single target w/tactic punt that sends people too the moon it is depressingly inferior. My first main on live was a BO and it was the one thing I didn't like about an otherwise super fun class. Now I am playing a KotBS and away they go. Sailing through the air. Nothing makes me happier.