INTB: Heavy Assault

I've noticed that a lot of people are complaining about stuff in the game which sometimes annoys the crap out of some other people. They back it up with data without any source and they call for outragious buffs or nerfs.
This is why I want to make threads like "It's Not That Bad: Heavy Assault"

I'm sure you all noticed the complaints about the Heavy Assaults, and to be more precise, its shields. They say it's overpowered because with a bit of skill they can win every firefight by just activating it. This is true, however, this is what the Heavy Assault was designed for all along. The HA is a front line fighter with the job of breaching or holding a line. That would simply be impossible without their shield as they would get mowed down one by one trying to rush into a building. This could cause battles in which neither side could advance to the objective, making the whole PS2 experience a lot more boring.

Another thing is that HAs are meant to be the Anti-Vehicle class. Taking away their shield would give them less possibilities to get up and close to an enemy vehicle to destroy it. So nerfing the HA shield would indirectly mean buffing vehicles, and we all know that's not what we want.

Lastly, the HA is not a support class. Pretty much all other classes have a way of supporting their team mates, so to be of use to their team, the HAs need to put all that support to good use. If medics revive someone who dies in the next few seconds anyways because of a low health pool, the time reviving that person pretty much gone to waste. The HAs have no such things as tank mines, revive tool, repair tool, jet packs, sensor darts, cloaks, .... Only having a rocket launcher doesn't compete with the advantages the other classes get.

ps. Yes, I do play other classes than Heavy Assault a lot (mostly engi)

Sometimes you just need to look around and see how beautiful this game can truely be.

I'm just wondering now if the HA can't just be redesigned to keep its role, but remove most of the stuff that gets complained about.

To me the issue seems to be Shield with lag and medikits causing the problem/complaints.



So why not just PS1 the HA to remove this problem?


1) HA gets more base hitpoints or better resistances (like the PS1 HA had more armour than Agile)
2) HA gets a base movement speed reduction (I dunno what it was exactly in PS1).
3) HA shield is either completely removed, or I think a better option is (as TheKhopesh orginally suggested) just have the shields just protect from AOE.



This removes the turn on shield issue (although it still doesn't stop lag or medickits) and give permenant +ve (more durable) and -ve slower (and still allows HA to breach with shield against AOE)...... it seemed to work well enough in PS1 (minus the shield).

This has been done to death already, on both sides of the argument. The majority will never settle on anything, just banter on about things which have already been discussed at least four times.

I think removing head shot protection from overshield would be enough to solve most problems, and it seems like something both sides can agree on.

Yes HA is designed for killing that is all nice and everyone should know that by now. Though my personal issue with HA is and always has been the fact that you can have builds that make it overly independent from team support. I don't get why a stock HA needs to have has so much ammo in reserve. That on top of up to 4 medkits when it already has the overshield. We all say it's a team game then how come that there's a class that has all the tools to play almost completely independent from their team for quite a significant amount of time. Or in other words how come we have support classes when our meat and potato class functions perfectly fine w/o team support?

I would like to see heavies more akin to MAX suits when it comes to team dependency. No more medkit tanking, instead healing grenades as the new meta? How does that sound? Anyone ever used ammo belt for HA? Me neither. Or the i dont even know what its called (lmao) suit slot for extra rockets? Me neither.

What if you actually had to decide whether you want extra explosive protection against explosives from say vehicles, or more ammo for your rocket launcher to more efficiently deal with said vehicles? What if you had to decide whether you wanted extra HP in the form of nanoweave or more ammo for your LMG to solo a small outpost? What if you were actually reliant on medic and engi support? like actually. All that probably sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn't it?

I mean there's teammates and terminals around every corner anyway. Then why does the HA need to have so much ammo/HP in reserve? I don't get it.

I disagree. It *may* work gameplay wise, but is quite a sily suggestion on it's own. It's an energy fields ffs - it does not take directional damage. Also - all the HA whine is mostly a l2p issue, really...

HOW TO FIX ******* HEAVIES
>lower shields to 400 from 700, OR 500 from 700. either one amounts to about one less headshot to kill or two fewer bodyshots (from 143 and 167 guns at least) STILL A VERY POWERFUL ABILITY
>Remove dumbfire from lockon launchers
>Remove dumbfire rockets from HA, give them to the engineer, cap their rocket resupply to a similar amount to underbarrels
>Lower max resistance value to LMGs

This
>Keeps them having a very strong ability while not making it as IWINcrutchmode
>Gives them VERY VERY good AA AV options (one of their intended rolls)
>Emphasises the engy AV roll
>Still gives them good AI and antimax ability, engies can also still shoot the mans

HA is fine as it is.

No changes are required.

People just need to stop complaining about stuff.

It is amazing how even a thread about how all those complaints are rather silly devolves into a bunch of complaints.

I see this nonsense so much, and it is so divorced from the reality of this game that I can't understand how people keep saying it.

HA does not breach rooms. They sit at doors, peek-shooting just like everyone else. You know what breaches rooms? MAXes, usually about 12 at a time. There's a ******* reason people call for 'MAX crashes' and not 'HA crashes'.

But of the non-MAX classes, only two things break an entrenched room hold: Grenade spam, and Light Assaults ceiling surfing dropping C4.

I'm vastly unconvinced that if you can reliably headshot that you have any problems at all with 90+% of HA you come across.

Because even with lag, HA shield and medikits hitting someone in the head with a high DPS weapon means you win/they die...... unless they do it to you too.... win which case c'est la vie!

The people complaining (I would imagine) have very low headshot % and such a change wouldn't help them at all...... and therefore would do nothing to reduce the complaining.

Sorry Ballto, but you're pretty much the source of most ridiculous nerf calls on this forum backed up by arguements that don't make sense....

I know.

Honestly, the only topics i actually give any sense of a **** about are HA shields and the commie. The rest is just attempts to piss off the turbo sperg keyboard warriors.

Heavy assault does need a change of some kind, because here are facts nobody can deny

Heavy assault is the most played class in the game
LMGs, statistically, perform better than most other weapon types in at least one or two fields.
Heavy assaults can be very capable against anything as they have a counter to all comers with their default kit across all factions.

Anything that is used more by a significant amount in a game should be looked at somehow, as there is a reason most players are choosing that particular item, class, or vehicle. Remember the pistol in Halo one? That thing was broken as all hell, and going into any lobby both back then and now youll see mans spamming this sidearm in wizard or derelict. Of course, this had its own counters that every player of any skill level could get, and of course everyone had their own on default (assuming default server settings)
it only took one guy with a needler and good bunny hopping to wipe out a MLG420BLAZEMOUNTAINDEWITOS magnum user.

Im not actually sure by how much of a margin LMGs perform in relation to SMGs as i dont look up non class specific weapons but LMGs are statistically higher performing in KPH and KPU than ARs and carbines in both BR 100 KPU/KPH and normal KPU/KPH. If this is caused by LMGs being good weapons, or heavy assault just having a shield, i dont know. Its probably a mix of both.

Starter kit heavies can fight off infantry, vehicles, maxes, and with luck air. Thats not really something anyone can deny. Heavy assault can fight off any comer, with minimal ability on his part.

The change i suggested may not be the best one, but it's better than what most buttmad forumsiders suggest, as most of it just boils down to "Heavies can still survive a hell of a lot more than most classes and still shoot everything,"

Heavy assaults whine about l2p and say aim for the head and ***** when people suggest something that forces you to aim for the head

Unless you have Rexo and Personal Shield, combined with Medkits (including those dropped by your enemies), and a body armor repair tool (BANK). For a good player, self-sufficiency in Planetside Classic could be easier than most people gave it credit, as early as BR6. At BR7, if you freed up the certs not use by the above build, you could even afford your faction specific heavy assault weapon too.

Additionally, taking a cheaper weapon cert gave you an option that had some AV and some AI in the same package, rather than waiting "three more certs" for dedicated AV.

Nothing forces you to aim at the head. You can aim at the feet for all I care. People tend to go for headshots regardless of the enemy.

i was just pointing out that heavies ***** about people ******** and not aiming for the head and then ******** about a change that would make that a completely valid statement instead of just partially

First off - my gripe is with the proposed change to the Overshield. I find it stupid and attribute it's emergence to all the whinage and QQ so common on these forums.

It's perfectly possible to beat a HA with bodyshots alone; headshots simply make it easier. I doubt more incentive is needed since everyone knows that a headshot = 2x damage; Overshield or not.

*If anything* I'd argue that 0.75 ADS on LMGs can tip the scales of an engagement fairly often, but before anyone nukes me for it let me make it clear - I find it a very useful advantage but *not* overpowered.

Feel free to disagree with me, but I'll stick to my guns on this one - the "contra HA" whine is just that: whining.

Fair enough. I know i probably wont sway you, and you probably wont sway me.

The actual truth and solution is between our two arguments though. Somewhere over the rainbow

Yeah although that was open to everyone IIRC (think I used to use it on my MAXs?) and it would nuke your stamina too which was bit of a drawback, at least until they brough in multiple implant slots (which I don't think they had when I was mainly playing)