I don't have the PST downloaded for this game anymore, but they might not be that bad. While Nano/Adrenaline saw a bigger nerf to effectiveness, the fact that their drain was cut so heavily should have a larger impact on how they are used. Originally, when you activated these two shields the initial or activation cost took a decent chunk of your bar away. Now with the drain set at ~12 per sec or something I would think the drain would be much smoother. If anyone remembers testers showing that once you actually activated the shield you ended up with ~670 extra HP (not the full 750). *Note* This might have changed, the last thing I saw about this was probably well over a year and a half ago. Granted resist/asc has been better for the longest time and is now even more so than before with these changes. Given the most popular whine is "The Heavy Flipped on his shields and killed me without ever even taking health damage (or damage at all) that 1 extra bullet won't keep the bads from whining. But it will allow better players to more comfortably engage medicore HA's as other classes. Of course while this balances out infantry combat to some extent (that so many people whine about for the wrong reasons) this leaves MAXes and AI vehicle farmers in a better position to get their farm on.
I think with NMG at least that it's increased duration ( 36 seconds ish ) will allow for a greater depth of preemptive activation ... Which might suit a lot of people .. I know it will certainly be nice for Nix cam mode ..
Implying HA shield (and by extent, HA in general) is of any use against vehicles. Overshield can be helpful against a long range barrage of rocketpods, but most tank weapons will still oneshot on direct hit. HA can only do something against vehicles in 2 situations: when there's a critical mass of them, or when he can safely peek in and out of cover at close range to dumbfire. Either way overshield doesn't play a role in this.
Yes thx, I will enjoy the straight up HA shield nerf when im getting farmed by tanks and rockets pods simply because every one wants to pvp CallOfDank themselves. If it would be me I would nerf the HA weapons and actually buff the shield into the havens to deal with the vehicle spawn room spam. As a result I will be exposing myself less when firing a rocket launcher.
The information on the HA changes was not satisfactory to me, so I went into PTS to test a couple of things. Namely, what is the new activation cost, does it remain a static # or a percent of total shield and how is the recharge rate affected by the change, does it remain a static # or a percent of total shield. Results: PTS Up-time = ~35.7 seconds 35.7 * 12.5 (drain per second) = 446.25 So, activation cost may be 4 damage worth of shields or 1% of total shield capacity, or removed completely. Although the latter seems unlikely, as I would imagine that would have been mentioned in the patch notes. NMG 0-100% recharge time = ~26.7 seconds 450/26.7 = 16.8 100/26.7 = 3.74 You'll regenerate 16.8 damage worth of shields per second, or 3.74 percent of your shield capacity per second. Live Up-time = ~14.6 seconds 14.6 * 50 (drain per second) = 730 So, current activation cost is only 20 damage worth of shields or 2.5% of total shield capacity. NMG 0-100% recharge time = ~40 seconds 750 / 40 = 18.75 Currently, you regenerate 18.75 damage worth of shield per second, or 2.5% of your total shield capacity per second. So, it appears that you'll not only have a smaller damage buffer, but you'll also be regenerating less shields per second. This will be counteracted by a lower activation cost and shorter wait times before your overshield is back to maximum capacity.
Err... What? While nothing really protects against the 1 shot of a direct hit tank projectile the ability to soak extra splash is invaluable for HA's when going up against vehicles who get in close. I can't imagine how this hasn't been part of any players experience for the HA - Vehicle dynamic. Unless you are standing perfectly still 9 times out of 10, no one is going to hit you with a direct hit from a tank shell. Your thinking about this in an extremely binary way. The reality is, as a HA when you are peaking and trying to get shots off to at least chase off a vehicle (if you don't have enough HA's to get the kill) the ability for the overshield to soak additional splash can be the difference between getting that extra rocket off forcing the vehicle to retreat or dying with the second shot and letting the farmer continue to get his farm on. Previously, with full health and shields you could safely soak 2 HEAT splash damages (750 before 1 M) now you'll be dead. Previously with full health and shields you could soak 2 prowler HE splash shots and barely survive. Now you'll be dead. Previously with Flak Armor you could survive 3 indirect splashes from HE rounds (1000 damage inside 1 M) now you'll be dead. If you aren't running into vehicles as a HA, then you can't be pushing the front lines because after you push infantry far enough you start to get to the vehicles. (And I don't say this as a poke against your play style because I know you are aggressive, but it is really the way things are)
No it actually means your flat out ded by then when taking the heat. You will now run around like a glowing stick only to attract attention and get rekt faster by the lol pods than ever before.
I'm just salty after trying to fight vehicles as HA. It always feels like an extremely uphill battle. Like "lol why do you even try" level of uphill. Sure it's a nerf, just - in my opinion - a very small one that doesn't come into play most of the time. Besides, it's not all nerf. Energy drain is reduced for all shields. Like previously you would be only at half shield after just several seconds, now you will have 90%, even if those 90% are lower.
So just keep moving? The only people not using AP are the ones who haven't got the certs for it yet. I can survive a lot more HE near-misses than that. The only time I ever see HE is when I'm locked in a spawn room, and those shields can take a beating and leave me perfectly healthy. HA shields protecting you from vehicle splash is not a thing. I have no idea why anybody's trying to defend that. It's almost as ridiculous as claiming MAXs will somehow benefit from this.
Personally I think from the vehicles vs infantry perspective this is a nerf... but a very trivial one. If I'm running an AI loadout I can kick HA ***** even with their shield. The shield change will barely make a difference. From the infantry vs infantry point of view this is surely an improvement. HA will feel less I WIN now.
A nerf to the over shield is a nerf to overall hp. Only 300, which is 2 shots to the chest but it's still a nerf to hp. This nerf really isn't as bad as people are making it out to be.
It may be enough to make the difference though. I'd long ago started consoling myself with "I died to that HA, but I did take him down to 75% HP so without the shield I would have won handily". Considering 300 shields is 60% HP, more of those fights are going to end with me standing (or at least a trade).
Someone said in other threat that heavy assault would be worse than light assault. Let"s compare: HA got shield LA got jump jet seems legit. Ha got rocket launcher LA got nothing. HA got big magazines lmg"s LA got same carbines as engineers do. How can people tell that this nerf will badly affect heavy assaults? This will balance them even better. Becouse now people spam them like crazy and most of deaths is becouse "shield win" stuff.
They could have done this, holistically, in a number of ways, including leaving HA as is and buffing LA somehow. Or the movement speed. I personally think they chose correctly. It's just weird to have such differences in effective HPs in an FPS game. I know other games pull it off, but I think the way it was done here, especially from a newbie perspective and frustration of playing a non-heavy and wondering why they keep dying to heavies in their engagements, will help. Newbies, who are otherwise skilled in general FPS play had no idea out of the box that certain classes have more HPs than others. None. It's not explicitly stated or explained anywhere, only inferred. It's stupid and this adds to their frustration. Yes, it does.
