If you could change the Heavy Assault shield how would you?

Supposing you had the magic dev wand to change the heavy assault shield. What would you do?

Nerf it? Buff it? Both? Completely change it? Would you change something else about the HA in exchange?

In light of how they're tweaking the Heavy's now, my version of it would be:
Have each faction's small-magazine LMGs (the ones with 50 rounds in them) have a .75x ADS and better hip-fire capabilities, effectively turning them into Close-Range weapons as every other class has a weapon for them for CQC, excluding Shotguns and SMGs. All other LMGs would be tweaked, as well, to perform in their ADS better than their hipfire, and would only have the .5x ADS.

That way, all classes have an option when it comes to butt-slapping combat. The NC's GD-20-something would hit hardest per bullet, the TR's 50-round LMG would fire faster, and the VS simply start with the Orion.

remove resist and merge it with the normal shiled mechanic in such a way that:

the shield acts only as resist against small arms
the shield acts as the standard shield against explosives, and select vehicle weapons (not AI secondaries like kobalt) blocking all damage.

the shield would be changed to act in a new way, it would act like the current resist shield when active, always stopping the same amount of small arms fire damage, but being able to stop all the damage from one vehicle burst source such as an HE shell or grenade. (stopping damage from a burst source would drain the shield instantly)

id leave it alone cuz its fine, and tell everyone who complains about it to get better

Remove adren shield and NMG. Resist shield only. Not necessarily a nerf since resist is a solid shield type, but it has actual weaknesses unlike the other two. The HA loses most of his advantages if he's surprised or ambushed, it can't be combined with nanoweave for even more effective health, it's significantly worse if you're using it to run away, and it rewards players who put some thought into when they should turn on their shield, rather than simply being a button that you reflexively press whenever you take any damage. It's also more likely that encounters will dip into a heavy assault's actual health pool while using resist, making them more dependent on medics or forcing them to more frequently use their medkits (which I think should be removed as well anyways)

I think that it fits the concept of a heavy assault better as well, since it's mainly useful for head to head offensive encounters and less useful for retreating or being outflanked/ambushed.

I'd change the movement penalty to 0.5x and possibly add a deactivation delay of ~1s. I think that's all it needs.

I've been playing only as medic/engineer since coming back and heavies aren't really a big deal. Yeah, they have a shield but a lot of them still get killed fairly easily. I don't really see what the big deal is.

The role of the HA (as compared to the LA) is to attack with direct action. LAs and HAs should both be about equally formidable as a combat class... with different styles. The LA should be encouraged to win with flanking or ambush tactics, while a HA should win if it prepares and charges.

One problem that exists now is that the HA is good at dealing with ambushes and being flanked too well... bringing up the shields and turning around is good enough to deal with most threats that aren't extremely short TTKs. To fix this, HAs should have a turning radius speed limiter, much like how tanks have a fixed rotation speed. This means that HAs would not be able to react to attacks on their rear or extreme sides as well.

As an alternative to this, HA shields should have a delay. After pressing "F", the shield should have a charge-up period of 2 seconds. Only after those 2 seconds are over is the shield brought online. This means that if the HA is ambushed or flanked, it will not be able to activate it's shields reactively. Instead the obvious use of the shields would be for getting ready to charge a room or when an enemy assault is known and imminent.

Finally, shields should be separated into "kinetic", anti-small arm flavors and "flak", explosive-resistant types. In that way a HA who is kitted out for AV work is in turn vulnerable to infantry attack, while an anti-infantry HA would be weak against vehicles. This would further encourage specialization in HAs (much like how tanks need to pick between HE or AP shells and cannot do both at the same time).

Unrelated to shields, HAs should be also forced to pick one heavy weapon to carry at a time... either a LMG or a rocket launcher. Their only other option would be their sidearm. Again, this forces an AI/AV specialization which many vehicles have to follow (except a HA can change loadouts on the fly).

the only problem with this is that you are limiting this class, that the only thing that separates it from the other 'classes' (non maxes) is that it has access to a shield, LMGs, Heavy weapons, and launchers, to a nerf that has no reason to it.... Why would this class take seconds and seconds to turn around? what is stopping it? the shield? the **** would it do that for?


now if you were suggesting this for maxes I would be more inclined to agree with how it would work that way but some guy with a shield strapped to his back? no.

i'd let it stack with nanoweave again
if i'm wearing armour that offers a damage reduction, and i have a shield that offers damage reduction,
i should get the effects of both!

I'd:

1) Reduce HA base run speed ~10-25% (whatever it was in PS1 basically)
2) Make the shield just function against AOE damage (they can stay the same in other function and use)
3) Make HAs base armour greater (to the same extend it was in PS1).


This results in a much more balanced HA, that doesn't have a "shields up" ability in a 1on1, but which retains its breaching and AV/AA role and indeed retains viable diffrent shields.

I never had any problems dealing with HA playing as the other classes for some reason.
It seems a bit weak, compared to the other class abilities.

I see alot of HAs who either dont have shield charge or forget to turn it on before they die.
Shield makes you very slightly better at 1v1 face-first combat, but the game isnt really about 1v1 duels.

Maybe change it to passively make the HA more resilient.
With the different "shield" types specializing in certain damage.
AOE damage. Bullet damage. Reducing friendly damage (up to 90% maybe?) and maybe even headshot resistance.

To be honest, I wouldn't muck about with the shields at all. I don't think they're the problem with HA.

What I would do is:
a) No Shotgun/SMG on HA.
b) Move the rocket launcher onto the Engy.
c) Give the HA two sets of grenades to compensate (concussion / anti-MAX, frag / C4).

Take away HA shield ability but increase HA's shield capacity and damage resistance. Basically, just make PS2 HAs like PS1s rexo users. Because thats exactly what it is. Two weapon slots, increased armor (ability shield). There really isn't anything special about the class beyond that. The only thing that would be different is that I don't think there is a movement speed difference between heavy assault and the other classes. If not, make it so they are slower

You can't make any real changes because they will cry no matter until the classes they play can pwn HA everytime...

Why can't you dumbasses just learn to aim for the face?

Some good ideas in here. I like the sound of Resist Shields only, I also think dropping the shield altogether and giving the heavy more base health and less speed would go a long way into defining their role a bit better.

An idea of mine would be to make the shield directional, basically have it protect against shots from the front only so HA aren't able to instantly nullify an ambush.

I'd like to see it to work more like Riot Shield, just like NC MAX one does, but with ability to use sidearms

I'd just start with toning it down a bit, calculate whatever amounts to ~2-3 fewer shots to kill a shielded heavy and is fair to 143 and 167dmg tier.

Then I'd nerf the Cyclone.

People in this game move around and not everyone has great aim? Has nothing to do with being dumb if your aim just isn't great. It's difficult, but they should balance around players of different skill levels otherwise they'll lose a lot of players.

+HA's still take more headshots to kill than other classes.

The only classes you play are a ton of HA, engineer for vehicles, and a somewhat astonishingly large amount of MAX compared to most other players. 0-2% for LA/infil/medic, and going by your engineer weapon + vehicle stats you clearly do not play engi as infantry. Perhaps you're a teensy weensy bit biased? Maybe just a liiiiiiitle?

Pulling the gitgud learn2aimattheface card is also pretty grand considering your relatively poor K/D for an exclusively HA/MAX/Vehicle player (and incredibly low SPM). Certainly can't claim you're just really into squad support. Maybe you're the one who should be learning to aim for the face, ~15% automatic weapon accuracy dude?

Please yes.