Many of you may see this as a nerf, but I believe that its implementation would bring the heavy in line with other classes, while still fulfilling its intended role as a heavy front-line soldier. As we all know, the heavy is the most forgiving class (aside from MAX). The main problem being able to recover from mistakes (because of shield), and nullifying situational advantages of other enemy individuals. So I propose a small change. The shield could only function as a directional shield. Meaning... it has a 180 degree arc in the direction the player is facing. All damage received within this 180 degree arc would be mitigated like normal, such as the shields are currently doing. However, the shield would have ZERO effect upon incoming damage received in the other 180 degree arc, that is: BEHIND the player. If implemented, what we should see is less survivability of a heavy when caught off guard and out flanked. Tbh if you flank and catch your opponent, you should come out on top. When LAs, Medics (etc.) get flanked, 90% of the time they die, so perhaps the same principle could apply to the HAs, reducing their absurd survivability when flanked or simply outgunned. I dont think that this change will really detract from the enjoyable experience of playing the HA. It will still give the class the ability to go toe-to-toe with other classes and win, but ONLY IN A HEAD-ON ENGAGEMENT, which is ofc, what the entire class was built to do.
Well, this is one of the more constructive nerf HA suggestions, to be fair. But really! no one complains about Engineer having unlimited ammo, Medic having self heal, Infiltrator being (gulp) nearly invisible and LA being able to leap tall buildings. All this other nonsense about HA shield nerf because "I lost a fight with an HA when (a) I took him on in a face to face fight (b) I emptied a whole mag into him but no kill (yeah, right)" really needs to stop. At least OP is not complaining about situation (a) and I have to say this is not an unreasonable post....except maybe that it fuels all the QQ posts that still pop up. The trouble is that the most effective way of infantry killing an HA at short range in my experience is from ambush. LA and infil have a significant ability to do that, in fact they're designed for ambush and surprise so there would be no counter to their first strike advantage. When I play HA I think twice about ambushing a Max (should I be so lucky as to be in that situation) because I know how tough the little skank is even with me getting a free shot - but I don't propose changes to Max defenses
This is actually a pretty great idea, and something I'd like to see, at least in testing. Only downside is that I'd have less reason to practice my headshots.
I mentioned this before, but if you flank a HA you theoretically have an equal or better chance of beating the HA. It's all about your aim. The reason why you feel like you lose more is because most elite/elitist players play HA almost exclusively. Pow, pow, pow, headshots, and all of a sudden you die a lot faster than what you hope to achieve. Counter that with headshots of your own and you have equal footing against any infantry player.
Heavy can have infinite ammo too if you're VS. Plus most of the time, average player won't run out of ammo before dying. And all classes can self heal for a small resource cost. It's kind of obvious why no one would complain about those aspects of Engi/Medic, honestly. And infil/LA pay for their flanking abilities with weapon limitations and in infil's case even a durability reduction. HA doesn't really lose anything for having their high durability. They have a ranged explosive that can one shot infantry and deal damage to vehicles, a high capacity primary that's great at all ranges and only real weakness is hip-fire - and they can use SMGs or shotguns for CQC anyway. I know I'm VS and have the Orion, but still, as HA if I could pick any primary I'd... probably still choose Orion. As TR though I might pick an AR but that's just due to their weak LMG options and higher capacity ARs and I feel they're kind of the exception. And on NC the Anchor/Em6 are both great guns plus they can use the Cyclone. OTOH I'd definitely trade Carbine and any infil weapon for an AR or LMG on LA or Infil. No question. Also personally when I see a MAX as HA I feel like it's my job to take out MAXes, try tossing an AV nade at it and then hitting w/launcher, kills pretty reliably assuming you land both. But HA vs. MAX =/= infantry vs. infantry since one is basically a 450 cert indoor vehicle. Not quite fair to suggest HA vs. MAX is equal to LA or Infil vs. HA.
In theory if you manage to flank a HA and your aim is decent ttk will be so short he won't even have the time to switch the shield on. All this HA nerf story is just mass hysteria.
Because the most competitive players push and hold points hard. And that's the HA's role. Not because they're OP, but because that's what they're meant to do. Plus it's to counter the opposition's HA, creating a cycle of HA vs HA.
That might be true for some " elite " players .. But in regards to the" elitist " ones, Ive found a lot try to avoid anything that puts them adversely at risk, like pushing points ( Gotta protect that KDR )
There's elitists and there's wimps. Not even the worst elitist in the game would credit a stat-padding crybaby who brings shame to the HA class.
You mean a "slow firing with even slower travelling with even shorter effective range but high bullet drop explosive weapon that requires a direct hit to kill someone" rocket launcher?
IDK, directional shields. I know some people have some valid gripes with aegis shield for its functionality. The latency between the way you are facing and the way you are facing on the enemy's screen in a game that does client side hit detection causes it to be spotty in terms of when it does and doesn't work. Example: You activate it when you see a guy round the corner. On the guy's screen, he's already to your side and shooting you from the side/rear. You turn to face him with 100% tracking and on his screen he can get behind you and just shoot you.
Are you trying to draw the HA as some sort of honorable samurai, instead of the crutch class that it is? No one plays the HA to be the point rushing hero. They play it to artificially inflate their KDR.
