[Suggestion] Idea for balancing Heavy Assault

Discussion in 'Heavy Assault' started by mer1c, Jan 6, 2015.

  1. mer1c

    As most of you are aware there's an influx of complaints on forumside regarding the OPness of the HA. Maybe this could be a solution?

    When the shield is active only let the HA turn about 70° to the left and right and 90° up and down. If they want to turn any further or aim at someone behind them, they need to deactivate the shield again.

    That would still keep them deadly when a player is right inside their firring radius but give players a chance to escape if they're quick enough. Or you could just take the risk and try to run right past him for example.

    Attacking a HA from behind would require him to turn first THEN activate the shield, giving you back a bit of advantage as you managed to sneak up on him.

    At least you would have some kind of option/action to take. Currently it's mostly try (go for headshots and hope the HA won't do the same) and die.

    What do you think?
    • Up x 6
  2. HORNYBOSS

    If Heavy assault class gets nerfed, Planetside 2 will loose 90% of its players.:(
    • Up x 2
  3. hostilechild

    With all the nerf threads people should just realize its just fine or SOE would have nerfed it already. HA has a place, the point of a fight.

    My worst K/D of all classes HA, because i play it like an HA not a pussyfoot worried about k/d. It is also the least fun to play, you point and shoot. You can't flank, you cant help the team other than to push a room.

    I am actually a bit suprised they didn't do to HA shield like they did the MAX. It is suppose to be frontal assault so make the shield only cover front&sides (btw max shield needs to cover sides and feet too). If you get behind an HA or above you still have the advantage until he turns with shield on.

    But then we all know based on the MAX shield that SOE can't do this right and probably why HA will stay as is and should. Kill them quick (headshots) or run and let your outfits HA fight them.
    • Up x 2
  4. DoctorXqY

    This is a joke, right?
  5. Cheetoh

    HA aim for your head too you know.
  6. HadesR


    If that happens it would maybe show that if people relied on one class to play the game, then something might have been wrong with said class in the first place ..
    • Up x 1
  7. Allin

    As much as I don't agree with "nerf HA" new train, I would not mind directional shiled, or resistance giving full cover, nanite giving partial 180' front one.
    • Up x 1
  8. Waratorium

    HA is fine- it sacrifices having abilities that are useful to the team for pure killing power. It is supposed to win the majority of head to head, 1v1 infantry fights. That is what the HA is for. Medics are a far stronger class in proper teamplay, as they literally keep the fight alive (you can respawn yes, but being revived on the point instead of having to walk through enemy territory from a spawn location can be the difference between winning or losing a base.)
    • Up x 2
  9. Cheetoh

    Isn't that the role of the MAX.
  10. Reclaimer77


    And HA+overshield is responsible for losing UNTOLD numbers of players. Seriously go look at what gamers in general are saying about Planetside 2.
  11. Waratorium

    The max is essentially a hybrid between an infantry and a vehicle. Its role is to be even killier than the HA.
  12. hostilechild

    1. HA guns are not as accurate (well most and hipfire like **** so they almost always go to ads adding time)
    2. You should be attacking from behind/above or at least the side. They are dead before fire back with headshots.

    Yes facing front to front they might get enough headshots in to kill you assuming they got the shield up in the < .5ttk of headshots
    • Up x 1
  13. AkharGriffon

    (This story is a work of fiction, made to show why I don't feel like HA is OP.)

    Today I joined a public squad as a Heavy Assault. The squad was just about to drop into a base. Alongside me I had an Engie, two Medics, an Infiltrator, two Light Assaults, and three Heavy Assaults.

    The base had been under in a very small fight for a while now, and there was an opposing squad defending the base. We first moved onto A point, which was located on the first floor (Or second floor, depending on which system you use.) of a building. We met a few enemies inside, things got nasty. We took most of them out, but nearly got ruined by a heavy standing in a doorway by the stairs to the roof. Fortunately, one of our LA's snuck went onto the roof, and snuck up behind him from the stairs, saving our hides.

    Our remaining medic revived everyone that had died, but as we were capping, a grenade flew through a the doorway of a previously thought empty room, missing our squad, and instead landing near the pile of enemies. We were greeted by a rather underwhelming quiet, green, explosion. Crap. The enemies sprung back up, and hell broke loose. We got them again, but not before our Medics both died. Well, now we're without revives.

    On our way to B, (walled off, but little roofing) our Infiltrator hacked an exposed infantry terminal, and an aircraft terminal. Our Engie pulled an A2G ESF to offer some bigger guns, and an eye in the sky.

    We were greeted by a rather disappointing resistance, being a BR 3 HA. There was no damage. We began capping, when a box dropped from the nearby Tower.

    When the C4 detonated, we lost one LA, and had heavy damage on the survivors. The enemy LA had the height advantage, and neither party could shoot the other when he ducked his head away, so he dictated when and where the firing happened. He managed to pick off our other LA, but fortunately for us, our Infiltrator pulled off a quick headshot on the enemy LA.
    I switched

    We marched to C, as A started being captured briefly. Our Engie then earned 100 EXP for killing a BR 12 medic, and got the copper medal for his new Spitfire.

    At C, we discovered that the rather open area around it was covered by some MANA turrets on a roof. We lost one of our HA's and our infiltrator before we managed to react and duck under cover.

    It was just us, three heavies against the world. Oh, and our friend xXSnorkerLoverXx! (Turns out he's surprisingly fond of suicide bombing!) The MANA gunners were quickly shredded by a Banshee and Hornets.

    Unfortunately for him, his hovering moment was quickly met with the unjust fury of a particularly angry Shrike.

    Inside we met one more Engie with a ScatMAX, who killed my two friends, but it turns out ScatMAX + ML-7 is not a good combo. The Engie died pretty quickly to me after that. But now I was pretty much doomed.

    I was going to run out of ammo, because there was no Engie.

    I can't flank or make quick escapes, I'm a Heavy, not an Infil or an LA.

    And I can't bring back my teammates or keep my HP up, 'cuz I'm not a Medic!

    However, if I was any one of these classes, while I'd be a bit worse in the shooty-shooty department, I'd certainly have an advantage of another sort as a different class.

    So, I ran back to the infantry terminal...

    Wait a tick, that's not red, that's bl-

    *Plink*

    killed by Stew360 with a Railjack. (I actually have no idea if he uses it, and usually just see him in a Reaver, I just wanted to use an NC player that some count of people would recognize.)

    Infil takes out high-importance targets,
    LA flanks and attacks from advantageous positions,
    Medics give their teammates practically infinite lives,
    and Engies can pull turrets, set up powerful mine placements, bring back generators or keep vehicles alive.

    As a HA, you've got a great leg up in the shooty-shooty department, but you're helpless as you watch your teammates die, your allied Prowler slowly get plinked away at by rockets, or unable to stop the advancing Vanguards because you're out of rockets, and your Spear Phalanx turrets are down.

    That's it. Every class has strong powers, HA's power is being better at brawling and AV than other classes.
    • Up x 3
  14. Cheetoh


    Maybe in theory, but the HA is more mobile, can use medkits and C4, toss grenades, regenerate it's powerful overshield, and use lock-on weapons.

    And then gain 200% more new players.

    It needs changing, but I doubt they have the balls.
  15. UnDeaD_CyBorG

    No, MAXes are meatshields.
    Only NC MAXes actually offer a significant advantage in killing power, at the cost of being horrible at longer distances.
    Most Infantry weapons are so much better than a MAX weapon even two don't make them particularly good. (Heavies don't deal out the best damage either, they just have the ammo)
  16. Posse

    Sure, that's why every single AI MAX weapon has a MUCH higher KDR and also a significantly higher KPM than any other small arms weapon in the game, no matter what class.
  17. UnDeaD_CyBorG

    Imagine you can just round a corner and keep shooting until everyone's dead despite 5 people firing back at you.
    One has to assume that reflects on your Kill ratio somehow.
    Not dying is a significant part of Kill/Death-Ratio, and being alive sure contributes on being able to shoot people.
    A little comparison:
    An HV-45 or Serpent has roughly the same DPS as dual Nebulas, with better accuracy and the ability to ADS, but significantly less ammo. And the wielder might just die.
    I sure wouldn't want to wield MAX weapons on a heavy (NC not withstanding)
  18. Shiaari


    What are they saying? And by that I mean do you have something other than a few Reddit posts, or tweets, or something generally substantive to validate that claim?
    • Up x 1
  19. Shiaari


    Ummm, I don't know what game you're playing, but that doesn't just happen, and if it does happen it's because those dead players were really awful, or the player that killed them all is really, really good. In the latter case a player like that will do the same thing with every other class in the game.

    I've never personally seen that happen. Most of the really good players are smart enough to not think they can do that. Which is why they're really good players. They think tactically. Not like Rambo. Most of the really good players I run into hit and run. They strafe a doorway, kill a couple players silly enough to stand in front of it, then duck back to cover, and rinse-repeat.

    They may run into a room with an SMG, score a couple kills before they're empty, and then run away as fast as they can to reload. They may come back and try to repeat it. But, they never, ever, ever, just walk into a room and gun down a crowd of hostiles and walk away. When they find it necessary to push like that they almost always return from the spawn tubes.

    Also, don't let yourself be fooled by videos of players pulling off those kind of kill streaks. They don't happen often, and those streaks are compiled over many, many hours of gameplay into the videos you watch.
  20. UnDeaD_CyBorG

    Or because the room had multiple doors; You can assume that there's more Infantry on the MAX side that one could look out for as well.
    But let's assume a simplified engagement:
    The MAX can drop a player in a half seconds (let's say 0.6, to account for potential nanoweave), the players would need ~2 seconds if all fired at the same time (16k effective health, perfect conditions, no one ever dies), and neither side ever missed a shot nor hits the head or legs.
    I assumed dual Nebulas as MAX weapons, and an Average dps of 1670 for the Infantry.
    The MAX can reasonably win that engagement with a killtime of up to 0.63 seconds.
    So I didn't actually exaggerate, just simplify it a lot. I think that was a fitting approach, given the main point I wanted to make was that a MAXes KDR / KDM is largely influenced by it's durability.
    I sure would play a MAX with the equivalent of a Gauss Saw or Betelgeuse, but I'm not so sure about playing a Heavy with heavy Cyclers.