The correct way to balance/nerf the Heavy Assualt Sheild

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HA are doing their best at holding back the MAXs, leave them alone.

The problem with this game is the focus on selfishness that everything promotes. (KDR, directives, auraxium) This is what leads people to come on the forums and try to break everything down to 1 vs 1 and my individual skill vs their individual skill. The game is supposed to be a team game, each class has a role, the attitudes in this game are taking it off the rails.

Know that any nerf to the HA will come around to your class too, forumside is a harsh mistress like that.

I don't think it needs to be nerfed, my heavy shield drains faster than I can hit the button.

ridiculous, then u want to make HA a LA without a jetpack,
this is bullNanite!

So then lets fix that and remove headshot resistance.

I'll answer your reply to me by replying here:

Once again, we can't be telling you something you don't already know. The engagement starts way before the first bullets are fired. Position is key. You SHOULD NOT start firing unless you have a clear exfil plan, period. That goes for any class, not just LA. Anyone who doesn't take into consideration where they will go if sh*t goes south is asking to be taken advantage of. So if the HA pops his shield and starts to turn on you (barring the hacker who can turn instantly) you can get out of his line of fire and reset the engagement.

If you blindly rush in to a situation and find yourself at a disadvantage, that's your fault. If he gets the drop on you, he did something right. If for some reason you are running down a hallway and he's running the other direction, well, that's his domain and you're out of luck. Should have gone a different way.

I think HA is broken from the start. It's the only class that can deal with everything in a single loadout.
The shield should protect against explosions to help them deal with vehicles. But not against bullets.

The solution? There's no solution. Leave it as it is.

People need to stop complaining about the Heavy Assault shield, nerfing this only takes more away from its intended role. It's a HEAVY ASSAULT, it's supposed to take massive amount of damage. People just see the shield ability as unique, therefore people tend to dislike it because all the other classes cant use it. Guess what a heavy assault doesn't have? Jet packs, cloaking, repair and medic tools. Again, nerfing the Heavy Assault shield would make the class have less of a role in the game.

In open, you can't duel HA as a medic or LA just as HA can't duel a MAX. Period.

That's its thing, the only thing it can do is kill. Every other class is more varied.

Guess what it does have? LMGs, rocket launchers, unique HA weapons, AV grenades and Concussion grenades. And an overshield.

There is a reason why I don't talk to anyone on anything regarding the Vanguard Shield beyond correcting facts and misinformation.

And SMGs battle riffles (lol) and shotguns.

You seem to know what it is capable of, so now with this knowledge you can make a strategy to deal with them.

I'm on the fence, I used to think the shield was fine, I also only used to play HA, I've started branching out more and now I'm less sure.

One thing that bothers me though is that many still act as though the shield is the only thing the HA has going for it, and that's nonsense, the firepower they walk around alone is worth the price of admission, the shield is icing on the cake.

Anyway I'm going to stay on the fence for now, I think a simpler solution would have been to simply let the HA have a standard bit of extra health, less than what the shield gives, but more than the other standard infantry units (to still give that impression that HAs are the frontline soldier), however I know this isn't going to happen.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize the bar for balance was "it's not invulnerable, so it's balanced".

It seems to me that this is a refusal think about what you are doing. And I'm not going to do it for you. No class in this game gives me any trouble because I know how to deal with each one.

A MAX costs 450 resources.

I mean really. I don't much care if HA shield gets nerfed or not but some of you aren't even trying to see this from the perspective of other classes. Fact is this game is about combat, every class is a combat class.

MAX can swallow 2x or more damage and it can evaporate infantry with weapons like 2 miniguns firing simultaneously. And they can use a MAX shield. So in next thread we'll be nerfing MAXes?

Unless u solo in max against a platoon you usually live long enough to save up 450 nanites.
And C4 is also worth nanites, it's not a giveaway

No? I usually kill HA with a pistol because it's more precise.

I also use combat medic.

I also play engineer and lighting driver, sunderer driver and ESF pilot.

I know how I feel countering HA. They're fat, slow and usually push blindly forward, easy targets.

And one more thing - If I lose 2 ESF in a row then only two thoughts come to my mind that:
- either I screwed something up
- or I screwed something up

and guess what, in long term analysis of my tactics I come to the conclusion that I was right!

I never think 'nerf the AA max, nerf the skyguard, bla bla bla...'

You could certainly remove the HA shield entirely and they'd still be viable, I suspect LA or Medic would just swing pretty seemlessly into the most played combat class though and the cycle of complaints would continue.

Personally I think it'd be better to improve (which is to stay broaden the role of - not so much increase the power of) LAs though instead.

As basically that seems to be the only class that really has a legitimate issue with HAs (Engis and Medics are fine, flexible, have serious support roles and in Medics cases actually pretty good 1 on 1 vs a HA & Inflitrators now have 3 specific roles/ways to play Sniper, SMG ambush and Stalker Cloak)..... or rather a legitimate issue with lack of roles (I don't think LAs should be HAs as many would seem to want - i.e. front line toughest troops but with Jetpacks - as that is more than a can of worms).

So then lets fix that and remove headshot resistance.

That's a terrible game. There are those high tier people that I know when I fight them, that I can kill them when I get the jump on them when they are playing any other class than Heavy Assault. When twitch aiming and avoidance skills get up on that level and edge, that half a second of resistance is everything.

I have no problem with the average player using the heavy shield. They are very easy to take down, maybe with one extra bullet in me but that doesn't matter. It's an equalizer. It's supposed to make bad players feel less bad. The problem is when someone of the same skill tier is using the shield.

The almost purely negative impact the current MAX suit has on indoor infantry combat can be talked about later.