I really agree with the poster. I still think heavies should be the pushing class but I don't think they should be able to spin around and kill so easily. I personally would like to see the heavy have something similar to the Aegis shield, this would enhance the teamplay of HAs as well, allowing medics to take cover behind them. They could still turn around and put up their shield but they wouldn't be able to shoot, allowing them to possibly get away. Some people say that the shield only give you .5 more seconds of life but you seem to be forgetting that the regular ttk is about .5 seconds, adding .5 more onto that is HUGE. The ttk on a Light assault is about .508 seconds with the Mercenary, on a HA it's 1. That might not seem like a lot but it pretty much doubles the time to kill a heavy assault. If a new player who hasn't started going for headshots yet gets the jump on a fairly experienced heavy assault, don't they deserve the kill? Or is the element of surprise no longer important? Note that those TTKs are at point blank range with 100% accuracy without accounting for damage dropoff.
Lol no, I can easily pull a nano repair MAX and get many more kills than what I get as a HA Yeah, because medikits are free, lol. And if you're not using medikits you're playing HA wrong. So yes, it's directly comparable, the difference is that with MAXes you pay up front.
I understand what this posters saying might be true to a degree. However you cannot hold everyone else hostage who plays this game on a daily basis. Sometimes changes have to happen... Granted no one enjoys being nerfed. Iv been on the receiving end of these more then a few times. Change is hard... Iv had to relearn infiltrator several times already. One of the most memorable times was shortly after SMGs were added, cloak was changed to add faction colors which removed all ambiguity. This made the choice to shoot a "blur" so much easier for enemies and removed our ability to blend. There were all sorts of tricks we used. Standing still among the enemy line, ADS the direction they were all looking. See no one would pay us any mind. All we had to do was act natural and find cover to recharge your cloak. If you had a tail simply cloak take a corner, and double back fast enough they wont register the blur going past them. Consider that camo was all over your body you could pull off some pretty nice disguise camy and break LOS to keep them guessing. Cloak sound was hard to pick out beyond 50 meters and just the faintest squeak at 90 meters. The point I am trying to make : It was a completely different ability. Then Boom. It was probably the biggest cloak change we had to face. It was a sad time but you will get over it and learn to adapt. Then we adapted to radar changes, using multi levels to throw off unmanned radar flashes. Eventually radar got sorted out to what we have today. Your right most of the older well known infils back then just quit. However we have a huge... swell... in new infils. So the point a posters made about gaining 200% more isn't far off. Ultimately even Stalkers have been learning to take down HA's with secondaries. The only way this is even possible is when we can beat the human reaction time of the player on the other end. Any good HA pretty will much mitigate all but the finest ambushes. Why do you think the average stalkers score is so low? Trust me when I say to play stalker with any degree of mobility we REALLY have to be ultra dirty and resort to using EMP, Mines, Knife, or ganging up on them. Otherwise its just sit and wait for rainbows to appear, the clouds to open up and shine a light down saying "Ambush that one while hes tea bagging!" From a personal standpoint: I have to say I have noticed a huge increase in players selecting to use HA between this year and last. Before I get blasted by glowing ragers, understand I have been leading efforts on the infil boards to try and get stalkers to adapt regardless if shield changes happened or not. Less crying more adapting. I think the majority of HA will still play the class if they love it dearly. However just like the cloak changes, it wont be the end of the world, or PS2. People will adapt, maybe the developers decide to leave resist shield alone since that is probably the only HA ability that needs to be used effectively with planning. Sure you could reflex click resist shield but from my understanding its better to use before you start taking damage. It is already the most fair one versus ambushes IMO. If a shield change does happen I just hope SOE gives HAs something new and shiny enjoy as well. Nerfs without something different to try is just no fun.
HA: This is a misconception to begin with. HA DOES NOT have an infinite shield. Yes you can use as many times as you want but standard NMG gets weaker the longer you use it. Its damage absorb is at 750 but gets lower as the ability bar gets lower. So unless they wait and let it fully recharge everytime they can be at a disadvantage. The Pros use adrenaline so they can kill and go and kill some more. A single head shot from most weapons (especially NC) takes off NMG. Plus, why the **** are you attacking an HA head on at short-med range to begin with?! Health packs max out at 4 and even still its either them or C4 and most people grab C4 unless they are absolutely certain its an infantry only fight (like biolabs). Also nearly ever class has this decision to make so its kinda moot to bring up but hell i'll throw this out there too (->). With the addition of implants most heavies dont even grab healthpack unless they have Adv. Shield Cap. Its easier to have Regeneration and have its start up sync with your shield regen. Pro-ist Tip ever : KNOW WHEN TO BACKUP FROM A FIGHT! That tip applies for MAXes as well. These days infantry want MAXes to rush them as they know how to setup traps. If an HA didn't have its NMG you (whatever class you play other than MAX) would be dead! HAs are designed to hold the line of a fight by staying in it longer. They act as the front line. Medics support them like how Engis support MAXes. They are meant to dominate 1v1 battles unless you get the jump on them (headshots bro, use em!). MAX: Regardless of engi, a MAX has the capacity to get the drop on any unaware player. HAs are designed to counter MAXes so of course they'll use rockets or AV grenades. AI Maxes are **** past 80m regardless of team so if a max is being hit from a distance by a HAs LMG then hes doing his job wrong! MAXes need to use cover as much as the other guy. Only times i've successfully soloed a good scat max was by being a martyr for my team and going in there to stick 2 AV grenades to the MAX's head. I died but he died. You get slightly better results against VS/TR maxes but still anyone could come by and take you out after that. A good MAX player should never let a single HA scare them. Simple tactic is to rush them and gun em down. Unless they preped C4 they will most likely die. If the HA isnt alone, then the MAX keeps his distance. He should stay within his attack range 0-80m but kite his opponents and ween them down.
You used feature creep improperly. " and I frankly don't care to even try." Then why are you even here posting if you don't care so much? The fact that you posted back to begin with means that you care to a degree. Gimmick? Gimmick?! But your jet pack/AOEheal/AOEshielddevice are all "gimmicks". I agree the topic won't go away just like that but still, believing you are so high and mighty because you can use your class strengths against others is petty and arrogant. Just because HAs can't scale walls doesn't mean they go into a fight without a plan. I played PS1 for 9 years. I preferred the heavier armor because for most of those years I wasn't very good at the game (I also preferred having a second primary weapon). When playing PS2 i've tried all the classes but none the less HA is my favorite. I feel comfortable in it. When I first started playing the game back in beta I had a hard time adjusting and my KD (way of reflecting my performance) was low, way, way low. But after developing strategies to counter other classes and group mixtures of classes my KD has risen to being mostly above 2.0, some days at 1.6 but usually 2.0. I always fight for the objective but I do it the HA way (kill the enemy). Keep in mind HA is the most noob friendly class. It allows new players to take in more about the game and learn from their mistakes easier by having them live just a bit longer. Hence why you will always see more HAs anyways.
