[Suggestion] Delay to the HA Shield? Ok, lets add a delay to all abilities then.

People want to nerf the HA shield in the name of fairness. I don't agree with them at all, but if we're going to be fair, then lets be fair across the board, shall we?

1) Infiltrator's cloak now takes five second to activate and the user will need to stand completely still.
If I get the jump on you then its not fair that you have any chance of running and hiding from me. You should pay more attention to footsteps if you don't want to die all the time.

2) Five second delay to LA jetpack.
Flying up that tower or down below that bridge should take some planning. You should have to turn that jetpack on first before you take flight.

3) Six second delay on medic's nano-regen device.
Why do medics get to instantly regen their health? If I'm trading shots with an enemy medic and he runs behind a corner he shouldn't get to regen his health that fast! You want instant health regen? Carry a medpack.

4) Three second windup delay to engineer's turret fire.
You guys get infinite ammunition, it should take more than a moment's notice before you start firing all over the place.

5) All anti-infantry mines now take ten seconds of standing in place to deploy.
Getting kills with AI mines takes no skill, and as such the person should have to take more than a moment's thought to deploy one. What's that? You need to drop a mine instantly because someone is chasing you? GUESS YOU SHOULD'VE THOUGHT OF THAT AHEAD OF TIME!

lol, the OP's tenacity, I like it.

Aye, the concept of just "adding a delay" as opposed to tweaking it's actual stats is odd. What functional aspects of the game truly deserve to be delayed? Is there a rule of thumb? Or is it just a lame idea slapped on stuff that is over-performing/rustling peoples jim jams?

Time will tell, by the end of 2015 even the WASD keys might have delays.

The tongue in cheek here is excessive and I don't normally like hyperbole, but I gotta say the OP is on to something. It sounds disturbingly close to the anti-HA whiners.

This is clearly a ridiculous rage post, but i am totally against the shield delay. When someone starts shooting at you, there is a delay between him seeing the hit marker and you noticing the hit. This happens due to ping.

If people are such imbeciles and they can't kill an unaware HA before he pops his shield, they deserve to die.
If however someone suddenly finds themselves in a 1vs1 situation where the HA has noticed them, then i don't see why they should win the fight. This class is called HEAVY ASSAULT. No medic/light assault/engineer/infiltrator should be able to win a 1v1 against a HA because that's NOT THEIR ROLE. Medics heal, engies repair, LAs fly and flank and infils are a general pain with their cloak/mines/claymores. Heavies can't do anything other than stand and fight.

HEAVIES KILL PEOPLE. AND THEY SHOULD CONTINUE TO DO SO, SO STOP RAGING AND LEARN TO PLAY PEOPLE.

You'd have a point, if any of those were I Win buttons.

Note, I don't actually care either for or against the nerf.

It's true many arguments one makes for the HA shield nerf could be applied to the infiltrator cloak.

I'd really rather we leave all the classes alone. The HA shield nerf will snowball against every perk the other classes currently have watering and dumbing down the game. Let's keep the classes strong in their roles, have some diversity between classes so that there is meaning and value in playing each one.

What this game needs is better meta, it needs to shift focus away from individual achievements (stats, KDR, Auraxium medals, directives) and give more meaning to teamplay, base captures, and recognize players who contribute strategically over kill farming.

I'm guessing OP spends most of his time as an HA.

1. Infiltrator cloak already has a delay of a second or so, between the time you click the decloak button to the time you're actually able to fire your weapon.

2. LA jetpack also has a delay, if you count all the time spent hanging in the air before you actually arrive at your destination.

3. Nano-regen also has a delay, considering it's a heal-over-time instead of an instant heal.

4. You've obviously never counted how long it actually takes to deploy a turret, have you? How long it takes to find a flat piece of terrain, how long it takes to spawn the turret...

5. Mines already have an arming time. And as far as AI mines go, yeah, they probably need an arming time too.

So, yeah. HA is really the only class that has an instant "BAM, I survive and you don't" shield. I mean, I don't personally care all too much about it, but come on.

Nano armor cloaking gives extra EHP and can be instantly turned on. Better give that a delay, and nerf tanks just in case

The part about the post that I personally liked the most is how nearly all of OPs exacmples already have a delay or significant effect-over-time element baked into them. It serves to add that nice little ironic contrast to the OPs admonishment about the importance of being consistent - no doubt a very subtle element of the post meant for the attentive reader I'm sure.

-Stigma

Engi turret already has a delay to firing. It takes about 4 seconds for the turret to materialize, and then to be able to man the turret and begin firing.

HA's should kill stuff. HA's kill stuff. They always killed stuff, and they should continue to kill stuff. The shield helps them kill stuff. Therefore, the shield does not need some huge nerf.

At the VERY MOST, maybe a delay ONLY when the HA's is already taking fire. So if I start firing at the heavy, he will have a very short delay to use the shield, but if he sees me first, he can start firing at me with no delay to starting up his shield.

You guessed wrong, sorry to disappoint. No offense but I didn't read the rest of your post since your assumptions were the exact opposite of reality.

They weren't though, what he said was pretty spot on. LAs fly super duper slowly, Heal is over time, Cloaking has some obnoxious delay before being able to fire, and engie turrets take a good 3 seconds to come into existance. HA is the only ability that is an instant health boost. A shield delay might not be the best solution to the shield, but I certainly would like to see an element of skill integrated into using the ability.

I'm of the mind set that HA is op not because of the shield but because they get the biggest mags and long range lmg weaponry, the only built in infantry av weapons, and the shield. It's not the shield itself that makes them op, but the other things.

Before we hear an argument that HA is supposed to be the best at killing, I counter argue that all this game is is killing, so your specialization is shared by literally everything else in the game.

As some vehemently against any heavy shield nerf (Thousands of hours in Engie, i've honestly lost track at this point, given my 4 chars and extreme lazyness) and only a few hundred on Heavy... I really don't see any overpowered aspects of heavy shielding. My dinky little engineer versus your average hulking, heavily overshielded HA results in the HA being a spot on the wall. Why? I don't engage face to face when i can help it. I hide in bushes, I duck around corners with ADS IRNV, aiming high. I'm not a tremendously skilled infantry player, and there are plenty of others that have superior twitch reaction time, greater rapid strategic thinking capability, etc .... but I have learned from my FPS experiences well enough to compete on a reasonable level.

At this point, I almost want to suggest replacing all heavy shield mechanics entirely. Overshield mechanics are, at their core, designed to be used reactively, or very shortly before initiating combat. Not allowing reactive use (via implementation of delay) effectively removes to be what I see to be around 80% of it's functionality. If i'm caught with my pants down, and are forced to go head to head with the premier frontline combat class of the game... All else being equal, the HA should win.

I disagree. Everything in the game is ABOUT killing, but not everyone is the best at this. Light assaults and SMG Infils are flankers. Snipers are flankers / long range target elimination. Medics allow people to keep up the fight, even after being taken down. Engineers are the reason vehicles get to continue existing, as well as fire support, repairs, area denial via mines, and of course Ammo, without which none of the above could take place. Heavies are the best at taking down enemy targets en masse, engaging on the front lines with heavy gear - they also serve as the primary infantry counter to vehicles of all types.

There's defensive support, offensive support, flanking, and pure offense / defense. Everyone can do a bit of all of the above, but the heavy's job is the latter two roles. Without that shield, you severely cut into both.

Exact opposite of reality? So, like your first post, then? I mean, if you want to talk about unrealistic things, any of those suggestions you made take the absolute cake.

1. Would barely change anything as it is already a plan before activation tool. You don't cloak reactionarily, that is a great way to get shot :|

2. This would change nothing, because as with 1, it is already a plan before use tool. If this charge up meant I got to where I wanted to go instantly then this would make sense. Hitting your fly button in a firefight is a great way to get yourself killed.

3. If their health instantly popped up to 500, sure. Unfortunately it slowly heals its way up to 500 instead of being there at the press of a button. A redundant change since all it does is justify having the health instantly pop up. If they heavy's shield slowly ramped up to 700 health I could understand your angst on the topic.

4. Spin up for turret? Pointless as it already has rapidly expanding COF and takes several seconds to deploy. I would only be fine with it if they became Gatling weapons if only in appearance

5. Mines already have an arming time. This would be a redundant change as it already takes several seconds to arm and be ready to explode.

I hope this was a sarcastic thread, because you did not think it all the way through. Every class has a delay before action or some other time cost involved for their ability. HA only has a cooldown, like all the other classes :|

Bingo!

I made a list of completely ridiculous, sarcastic suggestions that should in no way EVER be implemented in the game. I know they're BS. Just like adding a delay to the HA shield. THAT was my point.

But you fail to recognize that all the other abilities have time costs to complete the full effect of their actions, right? This is why the devs initially suggested a ramp-up so that the shield gradually builds when activated instead of all at once.

Delay to LA jetpack? I want all the janky *** bugs fixed about it first. Grenade thrown? lol no jets. You're flying? Have fun shooting. Tap space 3 times to hover? Your jets cut out, oops sorry!
HA's should cry more about this, you guys will be fine because everyone will switch to resist shield and will have to use the shield proactively instead of reactively. God forbid.