Won't the nerf of a ramp up time not affect you at all then? I think it will hurt people who use the other shields and the F button as a free "I win this 1v1" button. Let's be honest too, that is totally how the shields work. I went from LA to HA primarily because I was sick of ESFs, but the shield is amazing. You can just run around freely. 9 times out of 10, if someone jumps me, I simply have to turn on my shield and ADS. The shield completely negates ambushes unless they are almost in knifing distance. Rarely does one person ever remove any of my actual health bar, even if they start shooting me from behind while I'm sprinting.
Just to be clear, I mean 9/10 times if a single infantry jumps me, they die. Obviously if I run into a Max, tank, or multiple people the shield will not be enough. However, actual 1v1's (which can be common outside of hex's with 48+ people on each side) are a joke as HA, turn on your shield and you win unless the other person simply out classes you in skill. Like I said, I picked it HA because I was pissed at vehicles. Only then did I find out just how effective you are against infantry. Hell, I got so used to my win-duel button I sometimes hit it when I play other classes. As much as fun as it has been, I think the nerf as it has been described seems reasonable.
When does this nerf or patch happen? And also when this happens I want my certs back and nothing is going to happen to the infiltrators? That's pretty bull**** SOE
The game has pretty much become "Infilskrubside". Half of my deaths are either to Infilskrubs or at least assisted by Infilskrubs. It destroys all the fun in Infantry Fights. Even Vehicle Spam isn't this disruptive to gameplay since it can be countered to some degree. And now the Grunt class will be nerfed? Why? Because it is doing it's job by killing Infantry. Even though his weapons are worse than carbines or ARs. Excellent logic SOE...
Bro, what game are you playing. Infiltrators are your main cause of death? LMGs are bad weapons? Anyhow, HA are clearly the best at killing infantry, but they are also the best against vehicles on the ground and in the air, and the best against maxes. Were they meant to be premier kill everything class, with all other classes acting as support? I don't know, but I bet they will still be the most effective verse infantry, just not quite as effective.
I don't play Heavy very much, but I have to agree with you. I die to them plenty, but realize their SOLE role is to kill infantry with about ZERO utility to do anything else except be an annoyance to planes and tanks. I've had many a dirt nap as an engineer courtesy of the heavy assault that I had no business going toe to toe with. I accept he beat me, I'm not equipped for that kind of encounter, but I can do all kinds of other things he cannot. 1vs1, unless you are another HA, or a Max, you should likely die. I don't get why they want to nerf the shields. HA is doing his intended job. I think the current extra survivability fits very well with the class and it's intended role and should put the fear of God into every other class in infantry fights.
True, But if you take the time to flank and get behind them, You should get the kill. What happens now is you ambush a heavy and he instantly plays the shield, and I die. This way, they have to be a little more tactical with the shield, but you can still dominate with it.
You do realize that other classes weapons are much better than the HAs? Carbines and ARs make short work of the HA Overshield. If you get the jump on a HA and he still kills you, it's a bit of a L2Aim issue.
The reason why this doesn't stack, is that 1) that's not other peoples experience of what happens when you flank a Heavy and 2) Other classes has class abilities that allow them to get the drop on other players. It is perfectly balanced for Heavies to have abilities that help when out flanked, just as it is for other classes to have abilities that help them achieve the flank.
This shouldn't happen unless you do something silly like engage the heavy from a distance with an SMG (I stupidly did this over the weekend at first forgetting I had an SMG equipped), or miss your initial salvo, yes in that case you probably just alerted the heavy to your presence and given him time to spin around and zero in on you.
I play all classes pretty much and while I agree with the shield nerf I also understand ha players who play ha 90% frustration. No one likes their gameplay style to be nerfed. The only thing I find frustrating is ha players thinking having a rocket secondary is not a huge important thing. Saying they could go medic and drop ha and it would not matter is silly. Ha with a decimator can one shot infantry and 2 shot maxes. Ha is a huge important factor in any fight. Killing the most powerful units (maxes) can and does decide large fights regularly. I understand the frustration but can we have a good discussion without pretending the ha class doesn't have a huge role with or without the nerfs to the shield. And no c4 is not better then a decimator at killing maxes. Any max that is awake can avoid c4 generally.
The issue really isn't that HA's would be useless. The issue would be that our special ability would be less useful. Heavy Assaults are already fairly easy to take down even with their shield ability activated. Especially when ambushed. if we are suppose to be the primary front line soldier we have to be able to take more of a beating then the other class's. Our shield ability already prevents us from a escaping due to its slow down effect upon activation. Which means when ducking into cover we are just as "squishy" as other class's. What we have going for us is that if we do choose to stand and fight the shield gives us a means of doing so. After all a medic vs an heavy assault should more often turn out in the favor of the heavy assault then said medic. Now the problem with the changes is that activating on the fly is no longer feasible. Since it still instantly slows us down thus making us a almost standstill target but does not offer us the protection that we sacrificed our speed for as quickly it is no longer useful for fast moving smaller encounters. What purpose would the shield be then? Only in massive fights where we are torn to shreds anyways or against vehicles we are targeting with our rocket launchers which can still 1-2 shot us. We're still slowed down on activate which means if we pre-activate not only are we lit up like a Christmas tree (which practically screams shoot me) but we crawl very slowly around a corner or over a hill to acquire our target thus wasting valuable shield time. If we wait to activate we may not be noticed as soon but more then likely still owned (and even sooner) because we did not have a shield ready for the task ahead. Heavy Assaults may still have plenty of uses its just that our ability itself would be a whole lot less useful when compared to the other classes abilities.
If the shield really is that big of an issue then they need to rework it completely to be viable in a different way, after this change, if they were to refund the certs (and I'm sure they won't) I'm doubt I'd be putting the certs back into any of the shields, as I mentioned before I rarely use them anyway cause of the current drawbacks and the few places I would turn them on I probably won't bother anymore.
Quite honestly the slowdown effect should be removed if the a ramp up is added to the shield itself. Give HA a chance to dodge until the shield is ramped up. This would also allow HA to preactivate the shield when taking on armor.
If you are being killed by infiltrators sooo much, I got some bad news for you: your the problem. If your getting sniped then you need to snipe exclusively for a couple of months until you are 1337 sniper pro. Then, when you switch back to HA or LA or whatever, you will magically know where not to be so that you don't get sniped. I installed this game originally just to snipe and now that I mostly play MBT and HA, I very rarely get sniped. Conversely, I rocket primary lots of sniping snipers (or HEAT them up) because I know where they will go to snipe. If you are being trashed by SMG infiltrators because you don't see them, turn your 'graphic quality' setting up. If you can't do that because your PC is soo old it has a floppy drive, then go play on a console. I'm not trying to be mean, that's just the way it is. I don't have my settings maxed, but I have my 'graphic quality' setting turned up and I see cloaked infiltrators all the time that others just run right by. In fact I have been nearly TK'd by these players because they thought I was trying to TK them and then, surprise! A enemy inflildweeb drops dead at their feet. I laugh so hard at the new infinite 'hide in the corner' cloak because I always see these goofs crouched, just waiting to kill that one guy that strays into the room all alone. It might also help to turn your gamma setting way up outside of the game.
Honestly the problem here is a bunch of support class players running around trying to be John Rambo with a backpack instead of doing their damn job. Medics should be reviving and healing and engineers should be resupplying and repairing. If you want to run around killing then PLAY AS A HEAVY ASSAULT! And light assaults, you are LIGHT, if you're running around on the ground and charging through doorways you get blown away. Use your jetpack to get up high, flank and get those cheap, lame cowardly kills that all good LA players are know for. Seriously people, you can't do everything with one class. Watch some Youtube vids on how to play the class that you want to play and then play it to the best of its abilities. If you want to do something different that your favorite class sucks at then you need to start certing into a class that excels at this new thing. The solution is not to nerf other classes to make your favorite class better.
