The correct way to balance/nerf the Heavy Assualt Sheild

It sounds like you're mad because you keep trying to take head-on the best 1v1 class in the game as the one of the squishiest classes. Have you considered the possibility that you aren't skillful?

As an LA you should only be engaging HA's from places that they wouldn't expect to be shot at, such as the sides of towers or the rafters in the room. If you get the jump on an HA and still can't kill him, then that is YOUR l2p problem.

HA shield is fine.

If you charge head-on on a Heavy Assault you ARE BOUND to die. That's the point of a freaking heavy assault. HEAVY, you know.

Why should it and where did you get this idea? Why do we have classes if everything is supposed to be equal? Revome al classes already so everybody have everything. That would be equal, and boring.

It's not instawin. People should really STHAP saying this bulls*it. You can't head on charge into an heavy and PRETEND to win. And if you are so low-skilled to flank and get killed by an Heavy that pop his shield and turn 180° to headshot you: kudos to him and L2P to you.

You already are.

Heavies are fine as they are.

Okay, so either you're new and/or are just making things up. The shield does not negate/mitigate headshots and it certainly doesn't recharge anywhere near as fast as the standard shield every class has. A headshot with a PA shotgun still one-shots a heavy, shields or no. I've been 3-5 shot from 100m+ with shields up.

The players with whom I, personally, have the most trouble are those who flank or bait me. Should I be calling for a nerf to LA jumpjets because some savvy players have baited me into elevation-based battles I couldn't possibly win? Should I be whining about infilitrators that knife me while I'm desperately looking around boxes for them? What about those cheater engineers that setup turrets at the top of stairwells? Mowing down anyone before they can even make it halfway up -- clearly the turret is too powerful. Medics reviving and healing those guys I already killed once... The list goes on and on.

The players I see coming down field in a blind rage, guns-a-blazin', on the other hand... As soon as they get within range, I pop my shields and giggle -- and that's exactly how it should work. If you go screaming at an HA from miles away yelling for a battle, you should know damn well what you're getting yourself into. No heavy expects to be able to bum rush a MAX, and, likewise, the non-HA classes shouldn't expect to take a HA in a head-to-head match like that. Unfortunately, the latter bit gets ignored and we get whiners on forumside. Kinda sad when it comes from people with BR50+. You'd think they know how the game works by now.

Rocket launchers aren't good at taking out infantry (5s+ reload and no splash, anyone?), the unique heavy weapons are very situational, at best, AV grenades don't do their job and concussion grenades are very weak in isolation and require synergy from other weapons/skills/strategy. Just stop.

To me it just seems like an issue of playing the strengths and weaknesses of each class. If I, as a HA, try and take on a sniper infiltrator of equal skill on grounds that favor him, I will lose. Same goes for a LA ambushing me from atop a building, or any other class using their strengths and exploiting my weakness.

Sometimes you're forced to play on their turf. Sometimes you just get outplayed. I'd rather not homogenize classes to lose that.

And just a note OP. ALL classes are very well balenced in this game. The weakest class is most likely engineer. But, you make lots of certs. So stop with the crying. HA is suppose to kick your a$$ 1v1. Duh...

You guys are crazy. Why even have different classes with different abilities then? Forumside will complain until there is only 1 class in the game, and all the factions weapons are exact symmetrical copies with different skins, vehicles will be removed except sunderers but they won't have weapon systems.

A MAX killed me when I tried to 1v1 him as a infiltrator with an SMG. Please nerf the MAX!

Forumside strikes again...

'I have a way to balance the game guys! There will be one class with a medic tool, repair tool, jetpack, cloaking, and overshield. This one class will be able to pick any weapon they want because that makes the most sense and gives the player the most freedom. Also, there will be no faction specific guns and no faction specific vehicles. Everyone will use NS weaponry. I have now solved all game balancing issues forever. There is no need for a forum now so we can get rid of this place. Everyone will be happy now. Happy happy happy.'

Please, stop. Stop ruining this game with 'balance'.

Let's just get rid of classes and have a free-form ability certification system with limits on how much you can get based on battle rank... Wait, where was this done before? Hmmm...

You are confusing terrain / weapon advantage with class ability. Yes some weapons are restricted to some classes, like the Light Assault will never get a battle rifle according to Josh Sanchez because of the sniper height advantage being too easy for them to obtain, but that isn't an issue with direct gameplay of the jump jets.

A tank killed me when I tried to 1v1 him as a infiltrator with an SMG. Please nerf the tank!

Your post makes no sense.

Would be funny if they allowed it but made it so the weight of the gun slowed the upward thrust of the jump-jets... The LA would get up there eventually but it will take a while and he might get shot before he can get up high enough...

Le sigh

If Forumside had it's way we'd have the most homogenized, boring, uninspired shooter in existence.

"OMG HA is stronger!"

No bloody kidding. It's the shock troop. It runs in first.

Medic and Engineer are unequivocably support roles, and HUGE force multipliers.

LA nad Infiltrator are flank and harassment. You don't need a ton, but a force without a few will not fare near as well since the enemy will be able to more easily choke point the push.

There's nothing wrong with class balance. Only your perception of it.

Sure, nerf the HAs ability to be a frontline soldier, then make Light Assaults jump jets louder and have large flames that glow brightly in their factions color and whenever they walk their factions theme music plays from a little speaker on their shoulder.

In any FPS with support class and dedicated fighter class, you deserve to die in 1vs1 with equal skill. Nerf the heavy shield isn't a good idea.
The only class that need to be changed is the LA (buff).

At worst, a shield with a delay with the goal to be the "tank" in the group isn't that bad. But the shield should be usefull.

Invincible shield
-Increase heavy resistance to small weapon by 80% and every other damage source by 75% (stack multiplicatively with nano armor and flak armor).
-Knife & Max punch bypass the shield. (0% resistance)
-While active, the heavy can't shot and his hitbox is twice larger
-2 sec delay.

I maintain that the reason I get instagibbed by heavies I dump 8 hitmarkers into from behind - is not because of the sheild they activate while frantically trying to turn around - but because of the crappy lag comp / hit detection that makes their first shot an instant 1000 damage headshot.

Heavy shields seem pretty well balanced to me.

Sadly LMGs are some of the worst guns in the game, craptastic hipfire even on the cqc ones and poor TTK comparatively. Rocket launchers were nerfed, some more than a few times. Unique HA weapons are all pretty ******.

If they put a delay on HA shield they would have to buff LMGs to make up for it.
If they removed the shield they would need to buff LMGs and give another skill (maybe sprint??? would love that for getting into a room)
Reduce the amount of damage it blocks (again would need to buff LMGs) to compensate

But still best thing to me is leave the dam thing alone, its been around almost 2yrs and only now the complaints?? Guess nothing else to nerf.

How about more power in being able to jetpack over any enemy who's not in the air and instakill them? But that's not overpowered right? Oh and we know why you guys hate air iridar,it's because you can't pull your cheap C-4 everything "skill" on air. Anyone who has tried C-4 knows it is actually way too easy to get close to tanks. Does HA have a jetpack that allows it to ignore terrain and obstacles,can it turn invisible? No it just has marginally more health which is less of an advantage than any other class,if anything the other classes are are overpowered game mechanic wise compared to the heavy assault.

I'd sooner see improvements to the LA. The jetpack is too slow, make it thrust upwards faster and allow faster movement through the air. If that is the LAs main gimmick, make it a good one.

The overshield does need a tweak. I like Klypto's idea of removing its headshot resistance. I understand the role of a heavy (to those of you complaining that the only ones complaining are people who don't understand what a heavy is supposed to do). Removing headshot resistance (or at least lowering it) would reward players who aim and be the same crap for the scrubbies who can't (which is like 99% of the player base).