When will heavy weapons (Lasher, Minigun, Jackhammer) be for more than just the lolz ?

I don't, because I got it on purpose, and they WILL fix this thing. If not, they should get shot by it on 20m range, which would be rather cruel considering it is that awful at killing at this range.

Page one of this thread has enough valid content to merit stopping there after reading it, just FYI to anyone coming here in case they somehow see this early on.

This comment about MAX and Heavy Assault relationship changes is spot on, now we have some new content here worth discussing. After making a change like this the Jackhammer will still be broken, but the MCG and Lasher will both be finished weapons.

I wouldn't mind a refund on the Lasher myself. It's too inaccurate without modifications, the damage is abysmal thanks to the slow speed of the projectiles, and if I happen upon someone at close quarters I kill myself with splash damage before it kills them - even if they never shoot back.

As it stands the weapon is only useful in really rare situations, and even then a stock gun is probably the better choice overall.

I'd like to see several modifications: get rid of the forward grip and make that the default accuracy when zoomed in, replace this with something else. Increase the projectile speed. Increase damage by a small but meaningful amount - maybe 10%? And finally reduce the amount of splash damage it does to the owner so that the person firing the gun into someone's head doesn't die before their target does. It would then be a true upgrade and could be used for more than spamming doorways or mediocre suppressing fire.

Faction lash damage needs to be stopped
and higher damage with reduced clip size.

Weapon would be fine IMO.
in PS1 the lashers ability to have a big COF made it very fun and great in tight situations.
Giving it accuracy wont help much cause its not meant to go long range like the other factions rifles where they can waste you up close or shoot you long range as well if they can control their gun.
Jackhammer is a shot gun, so thats close range too.
TR really win on this one if you think about it.

I got a kill or 2 with it the other day, but got sick of infiltrators wasting me (yet again) and just switched back to the default HA weapon. I've gotten a lot more kills since.

it really is a "why bother" weapon.

If they ever fix it, i'll be happy to already have it.
but for now, its gonna gather dust in the closet.

Well, they fixed the reload animation issue with the lasher.

Whooptie doo.

The overall TTK in the GAME is too FAST.

To make the Faction HA Guns like Lasher, Minigun and Jackhammer good the overall TTK must be longer.
All other Weapons need to make less damage then the Faction HA Guns can be made like they were in PS1,
the feared weapons they were.

I bought the lasher with release and it´s still a f u c k i n g JOKE.
If u want to really really excel indoors with HA guy, i run with my shotty, outdoors with my ****** SVA-88 with forewardgrip.
If i want to make fireworks i go with hte lasher and get killed.

I'd say the minigun is more for what professional military call "suppressive" or "covering" fire. They are great weapons for spraying into the two large entrances on the biolabs for example. It forces the enemy to duck or run, even though your shots are not accurate. When you have the minigun with extended magazines upgrade, that is 200 rounds coming at you (and you can do it the entire time with a engineer who is dropping ammunition supplies). I've also gotten into extended fire fights where as you would run out of ammunition in other weapons, but not with the mini gun with extended mags.

My advice to those wanting to get it. The only upgrade worth getting is the extended magazine upgrade. The flash light and laser sight are useless. Don't go lone wolfing with the weapon because you will get out played in 1v1 situations if the other person isn't terrible. When clearing a building, always start spinning up your chain gun as you go around corners. And most important of all, don't be afraid to burn through your ammo...that is what the chain gun is designed for.

/QFT
/w0rd

I would suggest giving MCG the possibility of mounting them on a stand (just like engineers turret) highly reducing the CoF. That would be nice...

...and a backpack stuffed with ammo belt for 2000 rounds

omg. Why do they keep respawning there... they can't even get into the biolab there. those certs....

Terrible as **** iron sight, though.

I think they changed it a while back, and it was fine back then. Now I only want to slap a reflex sight on that thing.

It always was a good base def weapon even in PS1 2 guys with it used to lock down doors due to the lash.

I rather like the lasher, except its easy to rack up grief points without killing team mates. Had my first final warning from a lasher with a total of 0 FF kills,
I don't understand how its easier to get weapons locked from doing lots of small splash damage, rather than outright gunning friendlies down.

Fix the Jackhammer, Nuff said

This boggles my mind to.

I don't know what chaingun you were playing with, but mine is amazing. It's what made me love playing TR again. It kills in a split-second, you can harass from long range because of the insane fire volume, and if you have a good position with ammo you just can't be stopped.

The spin-up problem is a problem, but it can be easily worked around and it's the price you pay for the insane firepower you get.

Lasher could use a little bit of a buff, but otherwise I'm inclined to think it fits the role it's intended for well enough. Jackhammer definitely needs a buff though.

About MCG as AA: it works. Projectile speed is a bit slow, so you need to aim as if firing Burster MAX.

As it is today, heavy weapons simply got no reason to exist in Planetside 2. Unlike PS1, here time to kill is very short. You can kill in 1-2 seconds using a common assault rifle. In many situations the target cannot even react, so why should you need to do that faster?

Then Heavy Weapons suffer a huge competition with Max Units. Instead of being walking mini-tanks, they've been designed to be the best AI damage dealer of the game (which should instead be the HA's role, imho).
Roughly speaking, when things like double Scatter / Mercies / Cosmos are actually available combined with high resistance, who the hell needs a Jackhammer or a MCG?

Heavy weapons do not fit this kind of gameplay: if you need to kill fast or to increase your fire volume you spam grenades, you don't roll heavy weapons. Or you roll some Max Units with an Engineer sticking to their back, that's much more reliable.

I don't know if this can be somehow fixed, I'm not so sure, but imho increasing resources cost for all deadly grenades and trading Max AI damage for higher resistance would be a first step in the right direction.

You do realize that the Lasher is LESS accurate in ADS mode than it is in hipfire mode, right? Using any sight at all on the Laser makes your aim worse. Don't zoom in, don't use sights, just hipfire it and it's as accurate as a sniper rifle.