As it stands now, the shield that heavy assault gets is broken. It's basically a guaranteed kill every 20 seconds or so. Heavy assault should not, (nor should any class) have this kind of power versus both infantry and armor. I feel that the heavy assault shield should block explosives damage only to reinforce the role of HA's as an anti armor class and not an anti everything class. This would fix the problem with heavy assault making it so that infantry could actually combat them on equal grounds, but they would still have the power to avoid death from tank shells and rocket pods. they could even use the shield to bypass enemy heavies with rockets or even claymores/BB's/MM's. As it stands though, the heavy assault shield is a braindead guaranteed kill that makes the HA into a class that can effectively combat all other classes in any situation and come out victorious a majority of those times as well as having the ability to take out vehicles with ease.
Your opinion of the heavy assault shield is a gross over simplification of what it actually is. I play HA about 80% of my time and have 25% of it unlocked. In that time I have only ever gotten EXP from kills, and baring capping bases, its only been kills. I say to you sir that if you believe the heavy shield should be taken away or altered because you believe that it is "Braindead" I say we also take away the engi's ammo pack and the medics ability to heal. Both of there ability's require vary little skill to actually use, and its nearly free certs. Now anyone who doesn't have an opinion based on extreme bias should understand the point of my last statement. Every class has ability's but they all require skill to use. Most fallow the adage "Easy to learn, hard to master." so yes it is vary easy to heal people as a medic or use your shield as a heavy but it takes time and practice to master how and when you should use there abilities. the shields are fine. I would say that heavies need another way to get exp other than kills as our farming is the only one that shoots back. Also your opinion on how heavies take on tanks "With ease" is flat out wrong. Its obvious you spend most of your time as an engi as you have no really idea of what its like to be a heavy Assault in any real way. It takes 36 seconds for a heavy to kill a Prowler from the front arc. It doesn't matter if you are using the dumb fire or the lock on rocket launcher for your empire it takes the same amount the rockets (6 hits) and the same amount of time assuming your right on top of it. Though it is true that it only requires two hits from the rear to kill a tank, but anyone who has ever tried more than twice knows that its not always a given that you will ever actually be able to get behind the tank.
To say it's a brain dead guaranteed kill, just shows little you actually know about the game and the actual situations which arise. It's very common for me to push forward and get absolutely chewed to pieces by combat medics, who not only have a health buff with F but also uber weapon pools. I'm pretty sure you play another class, that often gets killed by said class = arbitrary qq.
8/10 troll thread. Just enough eloquence to make it seem plausible you actually believe something absurd, but not so much that you would seem too bright to really believe it.
Thats why it's called HEAVY ASSAULT. It IS the class for an assault. Not that you couldn't defend with it or support. Yes, we could probably get some kind of physical tactical shield instead of energy one. Even deploy it making barricade. But we probably won't see it until some urban environment. So lets leave class redesign for better days.
besides the ******** fast fire rate AR's and carbines, lmg's are the best weapons in the game. The medic healing himself is nothing compared to a heavy shield, the medic will block 1 bullet at best and requires a good amount of certs to be dumped into the ability in order to do any more than that. if you guys are honestly stupid enough to think that i'm saying that the heavy shield is so good that you can just walk into a room and wipe them clear then you have taken what I said to a level which I clearly was not saying. a heavy with a shield (one that can aim) will win a 1v1 firefight almost always. if you don't stand in place like an idiot, or stand out in an open field like an idiot, then a heavy with a shield can outlast any other class with little effort. the heavy assault is a class that is made for anti vehicle purposes, and should be made to play that role more specifically, but in the current state of the heavy assault, it is an anti everything class, and is the most powerful class against both infantry and vehicles alike. you don't see nearly as many engineers or snipers taking point in an assault because they take the roles that their classes are made for, whereas heavy assault you see everywhere on the battlefield in copious amounts because of the ease of use and extreme versatility. all classes are good at taking out other infantry in the right hands, but there is no reason that the heavy assault should be as effective as it is currently. the heavy assault is not a jack of all trades but rather a master of all. it is a matter of balance, which heavy assault lacks right now. in the hand of a bad player it makes them good, and in the hands of a good player it makes them the best.
The heavy assault is supposed to be the main soldier class in the game, they're not only supposed to be good against enemy vehicles. If you made the shield only useful versus explosives it would by in large make the class just about the worst class in the game ( not to mention it would make flak armor redundant and or make it so they take NO damage from explosives.) LMG's are definitely not the best weapons in the game. They're by in large the jack of all trade weapons, much like the class is. If you're going toe to toe with a heavy assault in 1v1 battles then you're not really doing it right. As a LA you should be able to use you mobility to sneak up upon them and if you've got the drop on them you should be able to take them down. As an infiltrator once again you shouldn't be engaging them in a face to face battle, snipe them and or use a combination of stealth/dart/smg etc... The medic and Engineer still have access to great weapons and frankly while they don't have the mobility or stealth of the other classes they've got so much utility that it would be absurd to give them something more on top of that. The assault rifles are great, as is self healing, rezzing, healing others etc etc... As the Engineer you've got access to so many toys not to mention I find them one of the best classes to play with shotguns as you don't have to worry about chewing through mass amounts of ammo. At this stage in the game almost every class, but the infiltrator, has some anti-armor capabilities. The medic gets c4, which they should take as they don't need medkits. The LA gets c4, which is great with their mobility. The Engineer has c4, tank mines, and the AV Turret. Now I realize many of these options need certs, as well as cost resources. I am simply stating that it isn't like a heavy is the only class that can take out vehicles and because of that they should suck at everything else. Sure at the end of the day the heavy's shield gives the a benefit in 1v1 engagements. But don't play to their strengths, even with the shield the TTK is still so low that if you're connecting with your rounds and you get the drop on them you still shouldn't have an issue killing them.
Nope. It's fine. I play Heavy Assault 95% of the time and I'd say CQB fights are 50-50. Granted, I get horrible FPS so it's hard to aim, but let's not talk about that.
HA shield OP? hmm, nah. Its only good for like 1 soldier, the 1st will blow it out, you will more then likely die to the second, or you will kill 2 and a 3rd will kill you. It does give the HA a neat little niche in the game. The ability to storm in like you dont give a **** and go gunz blazin' into a room. Its not like a total easy button. Ive died my handful of times to LA, CM, Infil, Engis.....only classes that really dont stand a chance vs HA is a MAX.....they are to slow and inaccurate. If an HA dies to a MAX, the HA is doing something wrong, or the MAX just got the drop on ya. I dont think the Shield should be messed with at all.
Meh, the shield is good, but it doesn't even give a full second of life against a single person's gunfire. That's really not a big deal, especially with its crazy long recharge time. It only really screws people who aren't good at keeping their crosshair on target. Why? Well an "optimal" kill takes under 1 second, and the shield doubles that to around 1.5 seconds. But if you miss 2/3 of your shots, a kill that normally takes 2.5 seconds winds up taking 5 seconds because of the shield, AND you empty your 30-shot magazine before they die. That's your problem, not a game balance problem. Now compare the shield to a combat medic reviving multiple people, including MAXes, without cooldown - which is almost as good as saying, "these people are unkillable as long as the medic is alive." It may not be as glamorous, but the point is, if THAT isn't overpowered, then the shield certainly isn't - complaints about shields are purely a result of whiny players that can't handle the odds going against them in even the slightest way. That "guaranteed kill" line is especially hilarious - you know if you and a heavy start firing at each other, you don't have to sit there and lose, right? That's such an auto-pilot way to play, to pretend like your own performance has nothing to do with it. If you have cover nearby, sprint behind it. If you put some shots into him, you probably removed his shield, and that isn't coming back for a long while. So pat yourself on the back - you're beating someone who has an advantage against you. Good job.
The HA is the 'try-hard' class. For those who want the safety of an [I WIN] button. Personally I don't like to play with weapons that I feel are just too strong so HA is my least played class. It's annoying whenever you find yourself in a 1v1 against an HA and they just pop the shield = you lose. I think the shield should be more specifically used for AV work. Maybe also anti-MAX work. Whilst I feel it should still help against other troops, It should mitigate less damage from Infantry weapons.
I don't really get the correlation between a 'try-hard' class and 'I WIN' button. What exactly does that even mean? As I said before the shield is really the only thing that makes them unique, and considering the shield SLOWS you down its often the last thing you want to use against vehicles. If you literally lose to a heavy every single time you fight them 1v1 well you've frankly got more issues than their shield. As has been stated TTK is so low that frankly if you're keeping on target the difference that it makes isn't that big of a deal, it gives them a very slight edge. This is also in a void, where they get to pop their shield on at the perfect moment. If you sneak up behind them you'll largely negate the use of a resist shield as they'll already take X amount of bullets before putting it on. Also I don't really understand the people who claim that the HA's weapon is 'just too strong' with the exception of the Saw, the lmgs tend to do damage that is in like with the rest of the weapons in the game. They generally are out performed by various weapons in different situations. The biggest thing the lmgs have for them of course is the larger magazine size, and the larger ammo pool. But hey if we are only talking 1v1 here, do you really need more than 30 rounds for that type of encounter? If you do, well once again you're doing something wrong.
Fact is HA is not anti armor class. It's anti armor AND anti infantry. And it's perfectly fine, they are supposed to be the core of an army.
Rules of nature. If you play non HA class you should be sure you would kill him man o mano before you engage. If you don't feel like you can make it just lose him or run to your allies. You would be surprised how many times i was more annoyed not by being killed but by seeing my target slip away. I won't question your playstyle but don't expect game to adopt to make you feel better.
