Does anyone else get a little frustrated with Heavy Assault?

yep... I don't know who decided the best anti-infantry class should also be the best anti-tank class at the same time. Hell, even MAXes have to go back to the terminal to switch...

Splitting the HA into two separate classes would be nice, but won't happen. Having to choose between shield and rocket would be a decent solution as well, but also probably won't happen.

Everyone would choose shield because c4 is a better AV weapon in any situation beyond an enemy vehicle zerg. In which case it doesn't matter either way.

Nah, it would be more like Shield in Infantry vs. Infantry situations, AV rockets to take out vehicles.

Good tankers do not die to C4. Also it's a lot easier to dumbfire+AV grenade a MAX than it is C4 one.

Edit: I'll concede that good tankers don't die to AV rockets either, but at least you can make them go repair...

skip to 1:00:20. Your crutch will be nerfed.

"learn to adapt" = press F5 when you die and press F a lot when youre alive

in b4 the crowd chants about how HA is totally supposed to be OP and how vehicles are all evil, or how the HA weakness is flanking them and then hoping that the guy has the reaction speed of a sloth and cant press F in time

I used to yes. Then I realised that as a LA I should be everywhere that a standard troop isn't. Heavies die just the same when you get the jump on them before they can put up their shield. If you do happen to meet one head on, you can generally escape and regroup or do the old 'fly over top and hipfire your jag into their head' trick. It doesn't always work, but then again, I should never have been meeting them head on (that's my mistake).

Mhmmm my over-shield feeds on the tears...

My favorite excuse is that HA players will switch to Medic as the next overpowered class as if actually standing a chance of being healed and revived is such a terrible change for this game.

If you really want to balance the Heavy Assault out a bit, then fix the ADADADADAD dancing **** that is -still- in the game. If half your dead-on shots don't even register, then that shield counts for a LOT more.

I don't have a main, but I spend most of my time as Engineer first, Medic later. HA is my third played class and only because their directive requirements are a lot harder than those of the Medic, Light Assault and Infiltrator. I also happen to use Resist shield exclusively, so my personal play style will not be affected, at all.

My point stands. Any type of delay beyond the natural lag of the game will make anything but the Resist shield obsolete. Which is why they never went ahead and implemented this idea to begin with. Putting delay on a reactive shield ... well, what kind of a reactive shield is it, if it has an activation delay?

No, there are better and more elegant ways to go about lowering the overshield health, if that is the goal. One way is to lower the health absorbed, but raise considerably the recharge rate.

What did happen to all that furore over it a while back with all the suggestions of how to balance the heavy?

Did it get put back to before the t shirts had been developed and their full potential realised? Long development and marketing cycle on t shirts.

Easiest thing to balance them would be to be unable to fire when shielded or the shield dropped, that would make them tactical like a chess piece instead of just being able to increase your health at the push of a button and pwn.

But, in a F2P title you aren't going to do anything that alienates your potential customer base so balance will be sacrificed on the alter of t shirts.

Why PS2? Because nanites and F2P.

Maybe the shield is supposed to be proactive and not reactive?

I mean when we think of the Heavy Assault, maybe more of us are fine if they go, "Okay, I'm about to assault this room full of bad guys. So I'm gonna toss a concussion 'nade, flip on my shield, and run in. 'Nade out, shield... on, good to go!"

But what often happens is HAs instead can use their shield reactively, negating much of the idea that you can kill them through surprise or flanking. Which, as many people who defend the HA class say, is how you're supposed to defeat a HA as any other non-MAX infantry class.

Adding a 1-2 second delay to the HA shield would still allow them to be quite strong proactively, but not reactively. As such the HA would be at an advantage when they planned to engage you, but if taken by surprise they'd be as vulnerable as any other infantry unit (well as vulnerable as someone toting around an LMG and a rocket launcher can be).

Exactly. Most other games with infantry classes split the LMG class and the AT rocket class because that stuff is heavy. The BF series has the Engineer armed with rockets while the "Support" gets LMGs and ammunition. This is because the LMG shouldn't be a viable general weapon, but an area suppression weapon that is most effective in a supporting role.

At the very least in PS2 HA's should be forced to chose whether they want to be in an anti-infantry or anti-vehicle role. Their LMG or their rocket launcher should be their primary choices, and they just get to carry along a sidearm on top of that. Additionally their shields should be split between resisting infantry projectiles or explosives... but not both at the same time. These minor changes would fix the problem of class-smashing and sort out HAs a bit.

There are two types of shields in the game right now, two of them are reactive and one is proactive.

• Reactive: Nanite Mesh Generator (the default starter shield), Adrenaline Shield
• Proactive: Resist shield

The main difference and the reason that separates the two is simple. The Reactive shields lose their power the more you have them activated. The proactive does not, however it relies heavily on the amount of health and normal shield the player has. The reactive shields are overshields, they add some health on top of the normal shield and health. The proactive merely increases the damage resistance of the normal shield+health.

Both of those need to be used differently:

• You need to activate the resist shield BEFORE taking damage, so as to apply the resistance to the maximum of the health available. The shield applies the full resistance effect regardless of how depleted it is.
• You need to activate the nanite/adrenaline shield ONCE you start taking damage, otherwise you deplete the protection. The shield applies only percentage of the overshield, depending on how depleted it is.

As a level 70+ you should have know how these stuff work, they are basic information of the specific class. You should also understand that putting a delay on a shield that is depleted over time, renders that shield useless compared to the true proactive shield.

Maybe I wasn't clear. Regardless of how stuff currently works in the game, my point was that all shields ought to be proactive and not reactive. I mean it's not like HAs are currently limited between choosing an LMG or a rocket launcher... these are suggestions to make the HA class properly balanced.

People are generally fine with an HA prepping their shields and running into a room where they know there's going to be incoming fire.

People are much less fine with an HA popping their shields as a reactionary measure when someone has gotten the jump on them.

Even many HAs who endorse flanking and surprise as tactics to take down a HA are in a way supporting proactive instead of reactive shields. The solution? Make all HA shields proactive instead of reactive.

I actually like playing against HAs. From a psychological stand point, these encounter feel like a win-win situation to me.

Won against a heavy with shields up? That means I'm so good I could beat that guy despite his health advantage! I'm awesome! I'm fabulous!

Lost against a heavy with shields up? Meh, would have wiped the floor with that scrub if it weren't for his crutch shield. I'm still awesome and fabulous.

And then there are my favourite encounters of all: HAs with shotguns/SMGs in close quarters. Guys got both the shortest TTK and the biggest health pool of any non-max infantry unit (because devs said they could, so why not), and I LOVE it. When I win against those, I feel like a god. When I lose, I still feel good about myself because at least I'm not one of them. Win-win.

...

Er, yeah, so, a bit more seriously, I think the shield is annoying to fight against, but not OP, in the same way that it's annoying to get sniped or ambushed at a terminal, but that doesn't mean the sniper rifle/stalker cloak itself is OP. What I do think is problematic is the weapon choices of the class: to me, giving shotguns, SMGs and the Jackhammer to the tankiest infantry class in the game doesn't seem to make much sense from a balance standpoint. But that's probably the RPG boy talking here: either you are a tank or you are dps, but if you are both you are op, or something.

I think the problem is that: if you go up to a BR90+ Heavy with a CQC infil and get him down to a sliver of health, the overshield will stop all of the rest of the damage AND get you dead, really, it's the overshield, I think it just straight up shouldn't entirely absorb damage, but I'm not to mad at the Heavy, it's fairly balanced, it's shields should just be like 95% damage resistance and 10% less overshield energy taken away from damage.
Really, nothing should ever have that advantage, "Oh, you flanked me? Well, very funny, my giant shield here can defend me 100% of the time, I'm basically a mobile spitfire turret that can detect cloaked infiltrators."

Also, Shotgun and SMG heavies *Shakes head*.

I know right? Talk about being blatantly OP. I've no idea how anyone can be so shameless to play a class that get those things man.

#HigbyPlz

IMO the heavy assault is the easiest to play, most straight forward and most versatile class in the game.
It is also the weakest.

Every other class in the game can gain significant advantage over the HA, if they play to their strengts.
Infils can snipe from afar or stab from behind.
LAs can engage from any direction or just blow the HA up.
Medics have access to an ability similar to that of the HA, and weapons that remain more accurate in general, and to top it off they don`t suffer from reduced mobility or increased visibility and their ability is beneficial to their teammates aswell.
Engineers have access to a wide and very effective selection of traps, higher dps weapons, and mobile cover/ distraction in the form of a MANA/Spitfire turret.
MAX is MAX.

Not only is the HA very unfavored in any engagement not made on their terms,they are also the class that scales worst in the entire game, aside from the rare cases when they get dropped on top of vehicles.
Only 3 gud well positioned BASR infils working together mean instant doom for any infantry target(except MAX), with no chance to hide or get into cover, assuming you even survive the first shot.
LAs scale better then any class in the entire game, where a couple can take out a sundy, and a squad can clear out an entire platoon from behind.
Medics in large quantities when spread out properly make for a near-impossible to breach defense, where you absolubely need to have superior numbers in order to break trough.(EDIT: Or MAXes)
Engis can completely deny entire armor columns access trough a chokepoint, with well positioned AT mine clusters and spread out AT turrets. They are also almost as equally versatile at defending positions from infantry, with AP mines, AI turrets used for cover and Spitfires for distraction.
MAXes are MAXes and they scale to the max.

To top it all off, in a mixed composition the HA is the only class that has nothing to offer to the team.

Unless you play strictly as a loner, or you are a very new player in the game, there is always a better option then the heavy.

Imo the HAs got some kind of '(un)holy trinity' thing going for them. They simply got too many direct combat advantages.
Primary weapons:
LMG! Huge magazine, capable of laying devastating suppresive fire. Not useless in 1on1 combat either.
SMG! My DPS says you ain't even gonna drop my shield!
NC! Uhh I mean SHOTGUNS! Did someone say "indoor fighting?"
ESHW! The one and only infantery weapon with real faction flavor (I don't think pistols, sniper rifles or the TRAP count)
Rocketlaunchers! Deal with vehicles and be able to OHK all infantery except MAXes and other HAs that activate their shield fast enough.
Overschield! +70% HP because you're heavy! Also assault! Sideeffects may include walking a bit slower.

Best weapon selection of all classes, rocketlauncher and overshield?
The other classes seemingly only exist to support this one it seems. By distracting, healing, dropping ammunition. (LA/infiltrator, medic, engi)
Infiltrator and Engineer have at least a bit of a task for sniping/recon and their turrets/keeping the sundy alive.

I think it was a bad decision to give the heavy assault rocketlaunchers.
It should be split into a second class that only has a RL and a secondary (HA loses the RL obviously).
Alternatively he can swap the RL for a grenade launcher for infantery suppression and anti-MAX duty.
Also give him a special overshield ability. Instead of soaking ANY damage it soaks damage from a vehicle weapons direct hit. A LOT, let's say 2k.
I'm not really sure how that would work out, but I'd be willing to at least try.