Why do people criticize those who main heavy?

The class should Imo have been more restrictive to force the player to have to think just a little ..

Ie:

Can have the following loadouts:

LMG + sidearm + Shield
LMG + sidearm + RL

or

LMG + sidearm + Shield
RL + sidearm + Shield

It still allows the HA to be the front line troops but just means they can't be good at both AI and AV in the same loadout ..

The only reasonable critique of "maining heavy" would be that you're maining anything. A rigid inflexible playstyle is always going to be inferior to one that adapts to the conditions of the current battle.

Certainly others have brought up the design flaws of some of the existing classes (the do-everything nature of HAs, and probably someone has mentioned the vast overpoweredness of MAXes,) but when these imperfections cause a class to be too strong it would actually be foolish not to use that class a lot.

agreed, I was thinking the same thing.

except for earlier BR where it makes sense to focus on one class...once you get around br 15, you should strive to be a universal soldier.

Change classes as needed. That's why PS2 has the class system to begin with.

I tend to use heavy assault a lot because it's the only thing besides MAX decent at charging against a group of defenders holed up in a point room. When I grab jackhammer and concs, at least something will get done.

See thing is that the support rolls aren't "in the face of the opposing team so they aren't complained about as much however even a short look at the light assault section of these forums will show that there is quite a bit of hate directed towards the C4 fairy.

It's sort of like an "out of sight out of mind", but instead it's "If it doesn't kill me I don't notice".

Due to hitcihng/god awfull hitreg that we had for quite a while, HA's was able to survive ambush by using the shield. That what left the most bitter aftertaste. Also, only two classes in the game have a clear benefit in terms of their activated ability - HA's and Medics. LA less so - he had when he could ADS mid-air for ADS-dropping from above. And there are two classes who are at disatvantage in terms of their activated abilities - Engi has zero combat potential with his F key (It's either easier to run to terminal, or location is allready flooded with ammo packs (at least on Cobalt while playing Vanu)), and Infil's cloack is usefull only on long ranges - spotting this ghiant glass statue is trivial, and Infil can't retaliate while cloacked. Not to mention OBNOXIOUS and LOUD AS HELL cloacking sound - I mean who am I: sneaky Infiltrator or massive Dreadnaught from Warhammer 40K???
Also on the topic of the cloack - I know Flashlight had to have some use, but it bugs me all the way from Darklight FL implementation - why the hell a flashlight is a counter to a refraction (!) based cloack? It's supposed to BEND the light and thus give stealth.
And on this point : "Even if they by some miracle get the shield up in an ambush, you still are basically on even footing shield+scrap of health vs your full." Here lies a major and deadly flaw - just imagine the situation - you have a gun, and I have a knife. I sneak to you and stab you in the back of your neck, but you have more muscle mass than I do, so my knife doesn't kill you instantly, because it only invades between your spine segments. It gives you so much pain that you are in a shock state. Tell me - will you be able to turn around and shoot? Answer is NO.
I know that bringing up real life in video game discusion is usually a stupid idea, but I think it was a perfect example to bring up my point (again) - WHY ONE CLASS IS ALLOWED TO BE ABLE TO IGNORE OTHER CLASSES ADVANTAGES WITH A PRESS OF A BUTTON (even if it happens once in a blue moon)?

Can you show me where you are getting the facts regarding most players playing Heavys?

I thought you were asking a question about "why do people criticize those who main heavys?" - instead your post is a criticism of the Heavy class and why people would be drawn to play it.

I don't find the Heavys to be OP. They are slow moving and they give nothing more than fire-support to the other classes. They can't repair, they can't drop ammo, they can't recharge shields, they can't rez, and they can't heal (other than themselves).

Think of them like a mini-Max. Depending on the load-out, they are well suited for anti-personnel, anti-vehicle, and/or anti-air.

Looking at Engineers, they can give themselves and others ammo, repair all kinds of stuff, put down anti-personnel and/or anti-vehicle mines, and deploy anti-infantry and/or anti-vehicle turrets - neither of which cost nanites nor use ammunition.

Looking at Medics, they can heal (others and/or themselves), recharge shields, rez, and rez and/or heal a group of friendlies from a distance with heal and/or rez grenades.

I don't see anything OP about playing heavies.
If you want to ask why so many players do it, I would say players are more likely to play non-support/damage-first roles than support roles. This is obviously the case in DC Universe Online. It seems to be the nature of gaming these days that many players don't understand the bonus of synergy in working with allies with a mix of classes that augment each other.

But, yeah, it's easier to slog into a fight rather than using tactics, right?

I disagree.
In the case of the infiltrator you get to see your enemies coming and have wall hacks to a certain extent and are good at long range and CQC.
For the LA they are the one I feel like is the most lacking. They don't have much going for them outside of flanking from unexpected angles.
Medic is by far the most powerful class IMO being able to take out vehicles/maxs with C4, being able to bring the dead back to life 1 by one or by the squad/platoon in some cases. On top of being able to heal yourself by default and Assault rifles are some of the best weapons in the game.
In the case of the engineer they can lock down long hallways, buildings, and choke points better than almost every other class. They technically have unlimited ammo, can fix turrets, heal maxs, repair vehicles etc. Solid class.
For HA what it has going for it is that it can pop its shield and in most cases come out with some health left. RL are good, LMGs are some of the top weapons in the game. Take away the shield/nerf the shield (which given SOEs history of hammer/oblivion nerfing) will no longer be useful and everyone who has play HA will swap to medic.

I use to play HA exclusively but recently switched to LA and I really haven't looked back.

The only time I really play HA anymore is if I'm in a lancer camp of I can farm with my lasher to get the last few kills for auraxium.

LA to me is just so much better than HA simply because the entire point of the class is to never fight fair.

Oh, and my KDR hasn't dropped and keeps improving once I made the switch.

Agreed, there's a little room for specialization right at the very start of character progression, but with the way things are priced that specialization is more like "plunge one class til I pick up all/most of the 100-cert things for it, then start branching out."

I think the biggest mistake people make is getting to more than ~1000 lifetime certs without putting any preliminary certs into vehicles. Vehicles are so critical in PS2 that players who don't start certing them early are setting themselves up to be cannon fodder.

Don't patronize me like a little child. I'm a big girl. I even wear pullups.

I don't think it is balanced around supporting the HA at all. The game consists of 5 classes, and only two of them are half-support. That's a 4:1 ratio of Combat to Support, not 1:5 like you suggest. As far as my interpretation goes, that mentality is just another example of how OP the HA class as a whole is, and as the topic of the Thread implies, why people criticize HA mains. Because this kind of opinion belittles other players, saying "Everything you do is to support us, the real players in this game". Just a nasty way to think.

It's my opinion that if we gave all classes the same options as far as AA/AI/AV goes like the HA, the disparity between classes and the frustration would be mitigated to the point a shield nerf wouldn't be needed. Not to say other classes don't have their niches or their realms of power currently, but the biggest reason the HA is so overplayed is because it's a "Jack of all trades, Master of all". Giving all other classes the same "Jack of all trades" potential would do wonders to help ease players away from HA dominance.

Personally I view the HA as the useless class. In the grand scheme of things.....oh wait, there's still no meta-game.

I'd like to argue that the 10 people I just revived are better than any HA spammer.
Or that my ammo hungry team mates being re-armed while I blow up a tank with my deployable turret are much more effective than any HA spammer.
Or that an LA creating an unexpected bottleneck or C4 fairy'ing is better than another HA spamming solo gunning "hero".
Or that a MAX that can actually run over an entire squad is better than some guy playing 1v1 Iwinshield.
Or that an infiltrator.....never mind SoE still hasn't given them a reason to exist for team play.....yeah I know some of you stealth troll in outfits but there's a reason it's not common.

But what's the point in hating on the solo-hero class? So what? I made my team more effective by not being selfish.....it's not like we're getting any sense of achievement from doing better. So long as teamwork doesn't matter I see no reason not to play the useless class.

The amount of hyperbole in this thread is almost as bad as a Daily Mirror report...or Fox News....

Because people want balance as in every class should be able to 1v1 with the exact same amount of health. To give one class more health (yes its a shield but you get the point) + really good gun +rocket launcher and available med kit syringes.

Heavy assault can heal itself with syringes.
Heavy assault has LMG which are accurate and more ammo (.75 moving speed with LMG as in faster than some assault riffle???? Its suppose to be bigger heavier)
Heavy has more Health points with shield on.
Heavy can counter vehicles at range.

Bf 4 is an example of good balance class.

Assault are mobile with good moving cone of fire. [Option of running med pack or Grenade launcher]. They are the mobile class but don't have long range options or anti vehicle weapons

Support have bigger cone of fire moving, less mobility, they can lay down suppressive fire (Prone) + ammo pack [Option mortar or Airburst rifle]. They act as long range support + shelling an area for denial against infantry.

Engineer have carbines which are weaker assault riffles but have rockets for vehicles and c4 or tank mines or repair bot. (Rockets have less explosion radius than mortar or airburst as its meant for vehicles)

Recon have snipers, recon sensor + laser targeting equipment for missiles or UAV drones. (They work with engineer to guide missile toward the target at range)

Basically every class has to trade something for something in terms of specialisation. Which makes every class useful so it creates more diversity as every class brings something or is missing something.

..because almost everybody need something to whine about , doesn't really matter whatever it is. short & simple.

I've been playing LA exclusively the past few days, and here's a thought:

When vehicles (especially lolbanshees) can lock down the outside portions of any base on a whim, infantry have to stick indoors if they don't want to get farmed.

Now tell me, which infantry class does the best indoors, especially once a significant portion of the base's infantry have been pushed inside, making the fight a cramped ***********?

Compare that answer with the class a lot of infantry players tend to main, and you might catch on to the bigger issue here.

Ummm I know this...uhhhh.

Infil.

Vehicle spam has always been a problem in this game.