So about that upcoming HA shield nerf... Whether or not HA deserves it, people who play this class a lot will be affected. So... Is it worth investing anything further into NMG or Adrenaline? Or will Resist Shield reign supreme now, having to activate it before taking damage already? And: Should I just invest in Resist Shield + ASC/Grenade Bandolier now and get used to it so I don't get caught with my tail between my legs post-nerf? I am rather worried about what this nerf will bring to HA gameplay, as I enjoy being able to adapt to pretty much everything in one class. As I cautiously await further developments, What do you, the experienced HA players, think?
It will be an annoying nerf...cuz im sure the delay will be something that is a bit to, too? 2? two? much.... Like some absurd 5s delay.... IM sure it will be.. Lv1 NMG: 7s activation delay.....draining the shield the entire time, 10s total duration lv2: 6s, 10s duration lv3...and so on and so forth..
I'm guessing the delay will be no longer than three seconds at the absolute most. That's a lot of time in a firefight, especially with PS2s TTKs. You probably know the idea of the delay is to stop the shield being used as a instant counter to being outmaneuvered or making bad decisions, which is what currently makes it frustrating to deal with. A 2 or three second delay is enough that should you get the drop on a heavy, even if they hit 'F' a split second after the first round hits them they're still going to die before the shield can be activated and save them. I think the change is for the best, I mainly play Light and Heavy Assault and have been on both ends of the equation. It's pretty annoying to have a heavy suddenly soak an extra half a clip and then kill you while only having lost half their shield. On the flipside I was recently in a biolab fight and was in the proccess of reloading my primary when an enemy got behind me without me knowing and unloaded his primary into my back. The shield gave me enough time to not only consider whether to wait for the reload to finish and then turn around and kill him or do something else, but also pull out my pistol and kill him with that while he was at full health, Afterwards I realized there was no way I should have won that fight. It's those kinds of incidents that make me realize that the Heavy Shield is overpowered in it's current state, and the delay, I think, is the best way to balance it out and ensure it's used in a more tactical manner.
They'll get spammed as much they always were because it's their ability to kill everything head-on that makes them the "competitive" class, not the shield.
3 seconds sounds high. Given the Resist Shield's delay, I would guess that it'll be something like 0.5s to 1s at most. It will still come out ahead of the RS as a reactionary shield, but there'll be a much smaller window. But that's all conjecture. It all depends on how bad the time is. If it's much longer than half a second, then I'd never take it. You'd just die first.
Even with no ramp up delay, resist shield user ambushed is pretty vulnerable as other classes. It is just my guess. The april balance thread has been moved from Roadmap to Achieved Features. Perhaps the balance has passed without this ramp up time? What I mean is that SOE is not going to add this silly thing.
Given the long TTK on most weapons you will probably still have plenty of time to activate NMG/Adrenaline even after you get under fire.
Not really, a decent LA can kill a HA before he can even react to press the button as things are right now, this is completely unneeded.
Ah, I see. So NMG and Adrenaline Shields will still be able to protect HA's from fire, just not surprises... That's not too bad. Let's just hope it doesn't get pounded into the ground by the mighty nerf bat, like a delay of 1 sec or more with most TTK's of ~.5 sec with perfect accuracy.
Decent anybody can kill anyone before they can react :shrug: 1-2 pistol shots to the head and knife swing make a short work of any infantry unit, as well as burst to the head or a shotgun shell to the face. The question is whether this will happen often enough.
HA will be pretty much be toast in CQB. You already can't hipfire effectively and the new delay is way too long at close quarters. The shield might be effective at longer ranges, but at longer ranges you don't really need the shield anyways since you can run away.
if SOE implement this, it will kill HA as a class (which puprose is go in gun blazing & lay'n death in a face to face fight). aside from that HA is bad at long ranges
I truly fear for how long the delay will be. The shield only stays on for like 8seconds, the NMG and Adren eat themselves a good portion each second. So if the delay is much longer then maybe half a second, those shields will be almost useless. The more appropriate change would be to lower the durability of the shields maybe. But a Delay? ugh lol. NMG already eats like 52 of its 600pts every second.... Resist could maybe be dropped to 35% or something,. However, all that aside, the shield isnt the issue. I die plenty of times having activated my shield. Ive died tons after being ambushed and popping my shield. Ofc ive also won plenty. The shield change is really needless. This is just another ton of bads who cannot aim and shoot well anyway crying for the game ot be nerfed in hopes that nerfing everything will make them viable and competitive players. Lag and Hit detect also play more a part in HA durability then the shield. The shield really doesnt buy any HA more then 3 bullets.....until lag kicks in, then even an Infil will take 20 rounds...he has 100 less shield and no extra anti bullet abilities but NWA.
I stated this in another thread but to me the best thing about the nerf is the fact that since I've heard about it I've started playing other classes more. Gotta say in that I'm glad I did, but if anything it reinforces my original belief that this change is not needed. Do I lose if I run into a heavy that knows how to shoot and gets his shield up quick enough? Sure, but not all the time, and honestly I don't even care. AP and AV Mines, EMP grenades, smoke launcher, endless ammo, the Bandit, flanking SMG runs, self heal, the freaking Reaper. I'll still pull my HA, the Launcher and AV grenades is still the safest way for me to deal with Max Units (though I've got some nice kills with clever use of the different explosives including AV mines) and shooting down ESF with the dumbfires is fun, even if I do generally suck at it. So anyway nerf no nerf doesn't make a difference at this point, I think it's not necessary, and I really think that any one complaining about the HA is doing something very wrong, but at this point whatever.
