I'm going to attempt to breakdown your breakdown of my ideas here. Sure, I won't say the other classes aren't powerful, especially in specific situations. But there is a reason that a large amount of BR 100s stick solely to Heavy Assault, because they get those kinds of killstreaks with enough regularity that it isn't entertaining. Nobody wants to post a video of them walking into a room, shield up, and mow down a few guys before they go into the next room and repeat. Well, maybe it's what they have always played and are used to it. I've started playing Medic on my NC now as a little project, to prove that similar KDs are possible with Medic or any other class as they are with Heavy, and a 1.0 kd player won't magically become a 3.0 kd deathmachine when he puts on the overshield. I don't disagree with you that other classes can't do well. [quote:Sure, I won't say the other classes aren't powerful, especially in specific situations]. But what I intended to say was that the HA is powerful enough that, while getting an amazing killstreak as a LA is impressive, it's not so impressive as a HA. The HA is, quite simply, a mathematically superior class when it comes to getting kills. Largest damage per mag, largest health pool on command, and highest alpha Tool. It won't make a bad player good, but the point still stands that two players of equal skill, one HA and one LA, the Heavy Assault player will almost always have the better score and more common killstreaks. It's my personal opinion that the reason (aside from being easy to play and phenomenal at 1v1s) Heavy Assault is played so often is because of it's adaptability. It's a Jack-of-all-Trades, with access to Anti Air, Anti Vehicle, and Anti Infantry Launchers along with their already powerful Anti-Infantry LMGs and Ability. The problem arises for the HA because it's a Jack-of-all-trades and Master of all. It's the best choice for almost any situation. Honestly, I don't see why this "versatility" is a problem. I'd rather have mastery in one thing as opposed to versatility. That's why I won't bring my SAW into a bio lab, even though you can make its headshot damage work. Engineer arguably has better AV options, and "anti infantry launchers"? Lol seriously? Engineers can snipe infantry with their turrets AND use them for cover (either one, even thoguh of course the ai one works better). This brings me to my next point, AI turrets brah. Anti-Air is a trait that is shared with the MAX, so i'll give you that. The versatility of the HA is only a problem because the other classes don't have the same versatility. This same versatility, mind you, encourages mastery. In the same way a tank can, with it's versatile loadout options, master in one target type (i.e. Anti-Vehicle), the Heavy Assault can diversify or specify it's Loadout to be AV/AI/AA oriented. Want a biolab fight? Bring a CQC primary, Decimator/Default launcher, and you shield of choice. Lots of Air in the area? Whip out the AA launcher. Tanks? Got a launcher for that too. Players are dissuaded from playing other classes simply because that class won't be able to deal with whatever Planetside in all it's big-battled glory throws at them. The other classes might be powerful in their own right, in their own element, but only the HA can deal with literally anything in the game. But this isn't a bad thing, so I suggest my next idea: As for the 'Jack-of-all-trades' thing, I propose this solution: Give all other classes access to AA/AI/AV weapons/tools tailored to their class playstyle. Light Assaults would need a set of weak, short range grenade launchers (or something), with AA/AI/AV variants (as well as an ES version?), Infiltrators need an Anti-Material rifle and a tool that Magnetizes tracking beacons to Aircraft (or some other soft AA tool), and Engineers need and Anti-Air turret. (would accept Medic ideas) C4 is probably best suited to the Light Assault (jetpacks work better than a running heavy or medic). Engineers get AV turrets as mentioned before, along with the all powerful mines. Infiltrators getting Anti-Material rifles? You think Lancer or Vortex spam is a problem, imagine the hate you'll get when the people using them are invisible. And with this idea, you're jumping on the "versatility" train that you seem to lambast when it comes to Heavy. If we added AV/AA/AI options to each class, just as all vehicles, MAXes, and HAs have, then they'd all be on equal footing. Perhaps not equal strength, I'm still all for the HA having the biggest, baddest tools and guns in the game, but they'd all have the same opportunities and versatility. As for the balance issues you brought up: The LA/C4 combo is quite powerful, arguably too powerful, but it isn't a tool, it costs resources, and has extremely minimal AA capabilities. Currently the LA relies entirely on C4 for anything other than AI work, which means that the developers can't even think about touching it's strengths or weaknesses without it directly effecting the LA's power. Giving LA's a set of AA/AV/AI tools would eliminate this balance problem, freeing them up to change C4 without nixing or overpowering the class. Engineers are in a pretty good place right now (and, as you'll note, are played as often as HAs, give or take) in the versatility department. The only thing they're lacking is an AA turret. Anti-Material rifles could potentially be quite annoying, but they don't have to be. They can be sufficiently weak in some areas and powerful enough in others to be a non-issue. Make them kill infantry in two hits, but not OHK headshot, give them a long rechamber time. Suddenly not a rifle that people will take out for AI work. Make it deal enough damage to Armor and MAXes (depending on weak spots) that it is little more than a support tool. No Infiltrator is going to take on a MAX or Tank alone with this, but it can still be used against them. Say, make it a three headshot kill on a MAX, 6 body shot, and it's an effective, specialized tool that adds to the versatility of the Infiltrator. Now, as for my thoughts on the HA shield change, this is solely to reduce it's immense situational power. The HA can not only deal with any possible situation, but it can deal with it as it happens because it's just an F-key away. Making the shield operate identical to the Vanguard shield would add risk and skill to using it. "Do I want to pop this now to win this fight? Or save it for a breach later?". Currently, the shield decision-making goes like this: "Being shot? Shield up!" There is potential for this change to make the HA ability a bit too weak though. If this change were put through, I would fully support an increase in HP gain. So there. Break down for break down, my ideas and reasoning. Tada!
"The versatility of the HA is only a problem because the other classes don't have the same versatility. This same versatility, mind you, encourages mastery. In the same way a tank can, with it's versatile loadout options, master in one target type (i.e. Anti-Vehicle), the Heavy Assault can diversify or specify it's Loadout to be AV/AI/AA oriented. Want a biolab fight? Bring a CQC primary, Decimator/Default launcher, and you shield of choice. Lots of Air in the area? Whip out the AA launcher. Tanks? Got a launcher for that too. Players are dissuaded from playing other classes simply because that class won't be able to deal with whatever Planetside in all it's big-battled glory throws at them. The other classes might be powerful in their own right, in their own element, but only the HA can deal with literally anything in the game." Bring an AV oriented rocket launcher with a longass lockon time that can be outpaced by a vehicle simply taking cover! There's a reason why you rarely get locked on by g-launchers and take more damage from AV turrets. So versatile. I wish the Medic could have the ability to heal/revive others in a game where everyone can die at any given time, or the light assault could have a jetpack to get up into places where people aren't really looking. I wish the infiltrator could have a cloak to help with his task, of disrupting groups of enemies and causing them to whip out pistols with flashlights. Nah, only the Heavy Assault gets tools to deal with obstacles in game. I don't disagree with you that other classes can't do well. [quote:Sure, I won't say the other classes aren't powerful, especially in specific situations].But what I intended to say was that the HA is powerful enough that, while getting an amazing killstreak as a LA is impressive, it's not so impressive as a HA. The HA is, quite simply, a mathematically superior class when it comes to getting kills. Largest damage per mag, largest health pool on command, and highest alpha Tool. It won't make a bad player good, but the point still stands that two players of equal skill, one HA and one LA, the Heavy Assault player will almost always have the better score and more common killstreaks. That's natural, but suffice to say you won't get badass shotgun stomping killstreaks with a HA as much as you'd get one with a LA. The Heavy Assault takes some damage as he jumps off of the side of the tower, lands down below and dies. The LA jetpacks up one level and then kills his attacker 20 seconds later. Now, as for my thoughts on the HA shield change, this is solely to reduce it's immense situational power. The HA can not only deal with any possible situation, but it can deal with it as it happens because it's just an F-key away. Making the shield operate identical to the Vanguard shield would add risk and skill to using it. "Do I want to pop this now to win this fight? Or save it for a breach later?". Currently, the shield decision-making goes like this: "Being shot? Shield up!" Can't tell you how many times the "shield" has failed me. With the amount of kills I try to get, and my reckless and stupid style of play I'd have a 10 kdr if the shield was so strong. Do you ever pay attention to any of the vehicle (vanguard) nerf threads? Did you ever even visit the Vehicle forums while it was still a thing? Vanguard shield currently is "Oh ****, being shot from behind? As long as it isn't an anchored prowler 100 m away I'll pop my shield and win/trade!". There's no risk to it if you're a smart tanker, just as there'd be no risk if you're a smart infantry player. "Oh snap, my shield's on a 45 second recharge. Better use my teammates as cover until I can once more tank all of my enemy's damage and spit my payload in their face for the knockout."
So really, all I'm asking for are: A) Other classes get AV/AA/AI tools B) HA shield comes with a bit more risk in using it (as a caveat to part A however, it is quite possible that the HA's intense popularity and competitive power becomes a non-issue should A) be implemented. If that's the case, then the shield would be fine as it is.)
as a dedicated HA i have been in favor of adding a short delay to shield activation for a while now. the shield SHOULD NOT be a panic button to save you from ambushes, i do not like it on vanguards and i also don't like it on heavies. if a heavy gets ambushed they should have roughly the same chance of survival as all of the other classes.
If you add delay to the shield then every shield should be reworked. Anyway, if shield would be delayed I vote for Medic regen to have same delay.. Hmm Medic regen is truly a panic button if you think more about it and have no downsides. Interesting.
The delay would be a bad solution that would feel very counter-intuitive, and as such really not a proper solution. HA is not my main class, but i'd definitely hate that solution. Perhaps they could use something closer to resist shield: the overshield could be a partial ablative absorbing a portion of damage in which you tap in. Right now it's a 100% ablative, but it could be made into some 60% ablative (since the current effective value on activation is 607 adding to a base 1000hp, that's roughly 60% added). That way if activated at full health it gives the whole 600hp advantage, but if you've put, say 3x143 bullets (429dmg) into the HA before activation he'll have (1000-429)x1.6=913 as opposed to 571 without anything and 1178(571+607) in current gameplay conditions. That way the advantage of activating is still there but diminished, while the ambusher retains a bigger boon for having the initiative than what he does in current live conditions. The bigger problem in terms of balance though would be how to factor in nanoweave/flak armor: do you tap in the ablative on the final damage, or on the initial damage?
Made a stupid math error in my example while i was explaining how to not make that very same error on some other topic about resist shield, silly me. 1607hp is equivalent to an ablative of 1- (1000/1607)= ~38%. So 571hp with such an ablative would be 571/ (1-0.38)=918. The logic stays the same but the numbers were off.
Remove the shield altogether. They'd still have extremely powerful weapons and unmatched versatility. With the added bonus of not being easy mode at killing infantry.
medic ability operates too slowly to really be effective as a panic button, the HA IMMEDIATELY gains around 500 hit points. if activated IMMEDIATELY the medic ability MIGHT make it so you can soak an extra hit, because most weapons have a standard TTK of less than 2 seconds. what i would really like to see is a short delay added on to the HA shield and the effectiveness of the shield dramatically increased giving the HA the ability to take hits like a MAX for brief periods. right now the shields stop like 2 or 3 bullets making them only truly effective for use as a panic button. for kicking in doors it is largely useless and for spamming in a panic situation it gives you a mild edge, which means that it is generally being used for the exact opposite of what it should be used for. the resist shield is somewhat better, but is still generally underwhelming when used for ASSAULTING. so we have a heavy ASSAULT that can't really ASSAULT effectively.
I completely agree , that's why PS2 has classes in the first place. If you see too many HA's in the area or you have a problem with them , then equip the HA class for yourself , deal with the problems , or aim for the head, keep the HA's at a longer range and use your strategy to against HA's effectively. If a player has a problem with the HA class , then the player is not skilled enough to pick on the weaknesses of the HA class.
To respond to the title of this thread, the short answer is, "no.". The long answer? "Nooooooooooooooooooo.".
Heavy assault is the omnisoldier class that can do everything for basicaly no cost Rules in a firefight Soft-counters vehicles Soft-counters aircraft Hard-counters MAXes Most importantly counters other Heavy Assaults If any class is truly "easy mode" it is the MAX and rightfully so, pulling one is practically as crippling to your nanite bank as pulling a tank. However the Heavy Assault is just overpowered for being a free class and I will elaborate. Having access to 50, 60, 75, 100, and potentially 200 bullet per magazine weapons (Including the Betelgeuse that never has to reload) means the Heavy Assault is the class least reliant on a sidearm of all 5 infantrymen. This means the smart thing to do when certing up your heavy assault is to pick up the Hunter QCX and some detection bolts to expand your battlefield possibilities. In doing so partly because the HA is the most popular class and because is also the hardest to put down means the assault infiltrator (900HP base Vs. 1600ish HP base) has effectively been put out to pasture. EMP grenades do not prevent the turning on of the overshield unless the overshield was actually turned on when the EMP went off. This means the 900HP base class still has to contend with over 1000HP. Given the current state of hit detection overshielded heavies can absorb absurd levels of punishment compared to everyone else and get away with it. With the addition of the regeneration implant less and less heavies are running restoration and medical kits in favor of C4 to expand their destructive arsenal. This wouldn't be an issue with the Heavy Assault if the NMG and Adrenaline shields didn't break all damage allowing for shields and health to regenerate while the Heavy is still taking periodic damage. In theory this expands the health pool of the Heavy Assault by an even wider margin over everyone else. Now with the clear vision implant Heavies are now able to throw concussion grenades at their own feet and suffer no damage or any of the effects from the blast meaning while everyone is disabled Heavies can begin to rack up kills with their high capacity guns and explosive immediately without having to discover or acquire targets. If you can't see these things as definite game changers for players when they pick up the HA you are smoking something. It is a widely known fact the Heavy Assault has been getting away with too much as of late and you don't have to go far to see it. For example just type what I did into Google and see for yourself one of the first results. Some people will try to explain it to you that the game for some reason needs an overpowered class because some situations demand someone have the balls to be the first to enter a room or be on call at all times to lock-ons at strafing aircraft but that is not that case. What is really up is some players need an excuse to feel like they excel at everything without having to switch it up and play other classes because in fact hellfire will not descend from the sky in the form of rockets and rotary canon fire and rooms will not be left unentered if there isn't an overwhelming number of Heavy Assaults on the ground at all times. Most likely people will still use heavy assaults to keep vehicles at bay and still breech using maximum health to their advantage but everyone else will be able to actually have some veriety in there game when half of the people they are fighting aren't all the same class. So do I think the Heavy Assault is the "easy mode"? Not really. I think everyone suffers frustrations with this game, one of which is trying to kill other Heavy Assaults, but without a doubt I can say among the 5 free infantry classes the Heavy Assault has it the best in almost all fields.
Pretty sure all the people from CoD want to do Medic cuz health regen and are very confused about the presence of vehicles in game
so you die every time you walk in front of a heavy. reminds me of all the randoms who always attack through the same direct path, hitting their head against the wall and getting farmed with no knowledge of flanking. we're at a point where people see a heavy ingame and alt+tab to forums to complain instead of shooting
I know it's a main combat/assault class here and it should be better at killing infantry than other classes, but when I am flanking and getting hype on HA then unloading whole af-4a bandit magazine in his head just to see him turning around and killing me with in 0.01 second (using a default LMG, somehow finds me sitting 40+ meters above him without any kind of searching), something is wrong. It maight be hit detection, but overshield should work with .5 second of delay (make it more powerful though, an 1000 additional HP seems like a good trade off) also, bandit sucks, it's basically a worse mercenary with 0.75 ADS multiplier,
As someone who primarily plays an armorbusting HA, I rely very heavily on my Sidearm whether it be a Desperado or Underboss to deal with oncoming threats quickly when I don't have time to bring out my LMG. When it comes to the Infantry fight, however, yeah. You're right. Any word from SOE whether this is a bug/oversight or working as intended? The crappy hit detection works both ways though. The shield can only withstand a few shots. Not only that I don't see how this expands the health pool because your health would need to take damage in the first place in order for the implant to disable. If your health is getting hit by the time you pop your shield, then you're most likely going to die anyway as the shield takes a moment to start up and if you're still engaged in a firefight, then with current TTK's your implant isn't going to start up while you're still fighting. Why on earth would Clear Vision affect concussion grenades in the first place!? Flash grenades mess with your sight. Concussion grenades mess with your head. I agree that there should be a hard-counter to concussion grenades, but not like this and I don't believe it should protect you from your own nades. That might be a discussion for another thread though but I agree with you that this is ridiculous.
Easy mode? Perhaps the best for straight-forward infantry, since they have the shield and really good LMGs, but every class has it's strengths and weaknesses(though I would argue that the ENG has no distinct strengths in infantry combat). Actually, the cloak makes you transparent. Translucent means light shines through.
engineers tend to be better at everything IF they are given enough setup time (part of why i keep a UB smoke launcher on my weapon for my engi, to give me that setup time in hostile areas). engineers are the ambush/trap class (when they are actually on foot and not hiding in a vehicle). turrets AV mines C4 (which they can carry more of than any class with a satchel) AP mines ammo kits and a repair tool for keeping all of the equipment around in the fight.
I would disagree with everything, except for the C4 one(I didn't know they could carry more). Turrets are situational at best, and basically useless against experienced players. They just make you a target. AV mines have nothing to do with infantry combat. AP mines...do they carry more of those too? INFs and LAs can get into sneakier places to place AP mines, so I think they automatically win that one. And ammo kits aren't that big of a deal, except for people who are sneaking into enemy territory to get kills, like an LA or INF would do. Don't get me wrong, infinite ammo is nice, but I'd rather have jump jets and just use an ammo belt. I'm guessing the C4 one could be the most useful against infantry, although LAs tend to benefit the most from having C4. ENGs do have access to the battle rifles, but I'm not exactly sold on the usefulness of BRs. At this point, I don't even think ENGs are better than medics in combat. Medics have ARs and health regen powers.
my point was if the engineer had a chance to prepare the area ahead of time. if i didn't have my lasher i would chose an engineer every time for holding and defending a point. the AV mines and whatnot were merely thrown in to express the versatility of the build. in the open during a rolling battle, engineers kinda suck, but in an enclosed space where they have time to set up on approaching enemies, the engineer is king and can (again with proper set up) easily butcher countless enemies. the problem is battles in the game shift so much that there are very few good opportunities for engineers to properly shine in combat.
