Why do people criticize those who main heavy?

because every class has an environment that it does best in, which seems like heavies winning would be a l2p thing, but the problem is the heavy's environment is anywhere that extra health and/or a rocket launcher would be useful, which is everywhere.

There There, little medic. You stand back and let the big boys do all the fighting. Don't worry your little head none.

I laugh when people call it cheesy. It's honestly hilarious how cheese you can be with any other class in the game and reap benefits much higher quality then you can on HA. Few examples: LA tower stomping, overhead sniping positions, tanking (engi), and Nanoweave self heal medic. Nanoweave medic is a bit trickier because it requires you to actually be extremely good at infantry but you have incredible sustain, access to C4 or run med kits for extra peel, and you also get some of the highest DPS guns in the game.

Every class can be cheesy in its own way, people that complain just aren't very good at the game or their computer hinders them to the point where they think everyone else is cheating.

I don't care which class you use, but don't consider yourself good when you main the easiest class.

If we're talking about infantry combat the heavy seems a popular choice due to the margin for error it allows: namely an overshield and a high-capacity LMG. I guess players that main the class get some flak because they're seen as relying on these crutches to get them through combat situations, rather than their "skill", aim, positioning, whatever. Not saying that's what I believe, just postulating here.

I main a mix of light assault, infiltrator and medic, and will admit I've found myself cursing HAs and their overhshields on more than one occasion. But I wouldn't go as far as condemning players that use the class primarily. If the game was just about 1v1 infantry fights then maybe, but heavies are an important tactical unit in storming bases, dealing with vehicles, holding down points, etc. etc.. Each class has its use.

I see two problems:

1. Everyone plays HA, which forces people who want to be effective to also use HA.
2. The class lacks a ton of variety.

Work on the first issue and you will be able to use a different class and still be as effective. Work on the second and people could start playing their own flavor of HA.

Which one? Medic is easy, infiltrator is easy, HA is easy, MAX is easy and Engineer and LA is just a bit harder to use than the rest of the classes.

I think people rage about it (myself included) because even if you get the drop on a heavy assault their over shield basically destroys any advantage you had on them. Also an issue people might have is they are the best at everything.

AI - Heavy assault
AT - Heavy assault (you could argue Engi with AT turret but you have to stand in one spot for that, while HA can move around and fire)
AA - Other than max, heavy is the only class that actually engage air from the ground (not talking just firing your gun at it)
AM (anti max) - Rocket launcher

They sacrifice nothing to be the best at everything (infantry wise).

I see people talking about the other classes are for specialized roles, while sorta true it kinda isn't. Heavy assaults don't require a medic, while nice, every heavy assault and their mother carries medkits, so other than a very few niche things heavy can do just about everything.

Even with that said, do they need a nerf? Naw, maybe some tweaks but no class sweeping nerfs. These don't even need to be direct heavy assault changes they could be just things that effect them such as putting diminishing returns on medkits so its not 4 full heals. A buff to engis AT abilities, like why does the stationary AV turret do less damage than the decimator?

You are probably correct in that. However it is simply not true. Lag and latency alone will stop the Heavy just pressing F half way through being shot and turning around to fire, on the other hand there are hit detection issues comming into play. You have to have had a bad aim, in each case for this to happen. Someone getting the drop on a heavy, or indeed anything but a MAX and keeping the shots on target will result in a kill, long before the server even registers that the F key has been pressed.

I suspect people then get pissed off because they had the drop and failed to make the kill. They blame it in the overshield when it is their own lack of accuracy at fault. I have been gunned down countless times by all classes because they got the drop on me, playing as a heavy, and killed me before I could react. Conversely I have killed many who had the drop on me and failed to make the kill before I got my shield up and countered. In all these cases I know it was their mess up, not my shield that decided the outcome.

It's lack of restrictions ...

The shield + rocket launcher combo makes it played a lot ..

Then add to that

Shield + Rocket Launcher + Pretty much any weapon type you want from ( Rifles , LMG's, Shotguns, SMG's ) makes it even more viable for most situations and thus played the most ..

Throw in the ability to self heal ( kits / implants ) and there you have the reasons ...

To late now but the class should have had more restrictions, as in not be able to carry med's / implants ( It should rely on its support ), have to trade the shield if it wanted to equip a shotgun or SMG .. As a couple of examples ..

What, like a heavy?

Ya, I've often had these same thoughts while playing but that's mostly because my 15fps makes me rage a lot. I wouldn't call it an "I win" button though, more like a "Press F to not die" button. So perhaps if you really wanted to change it from that you could make it so that the shield sharply increased health and speed but stopped the HA from being able to fire while it was activated. Making it more of an "O S***!" button for escaping bad situations because currently that's how I use it however the speed decrease makes it so you must return fire on what ever is attacking you and hope you can kill it before it kills you.

What isn't the HA's environment?

Because they make the game boring and are consider no skilled players?

If I was to change anything about the HA shield to make it more fair, I would make it work just like the Vanguard shield. So remove the speed debuff, but make it so once the shield is activated it can't be turned off. That way they can still use it for breaches or to save themselves from a surprise attack, but it won't be up for 100% of engagements.

Why are people complaining about a class they themselves can just go off and play? Don't you switch classes to suit the need? I dont run a medic if there's a ton of medics. Its pointless. I run heavy when there's an Air/Tank or Max threat, infil when I'm too tired to teamplay and LA when we are fighting at tall buildings or compounds with high walls. I generally run a max when there are lots of engy's around and/or a large scale air threat.

The "i-win" shield is just an excuse because you got caught out. If anything, I bag HA's far more often because they are the ones easiest to hit with a sniper rifle when they aim rockets, well apart from engy's on a badly placed turret.

Please stop trying for pointless nerf's. Go and play one if you think they are so OP. Whats the problem?

What's wrong with heavies?

If it's a 100 v 100 battle...side A has 50 heavies and 50 else, and side B has 50 heavies and 50 else...isn't it still balanced?

if "Everyone" is a heavy, is the game not still balanced? Afterall everyone is equally hard to kill.

Just because there are alot of heavies doesn't mean it is imbalanced. If anything the HA is reliant on the other classes because it's so numerous. You need the Meds to pick em up. You need the Engs to keep em supplied. Infils help with dislodging and spotting for 'em against entrenched foes. LAs do the same in a different way.

And Conversely, HA need to protect their support classes from vehicles & MAXs. They need to absorb the bullets for those softer classes. If those softer classes go down they go down and vice versa.

Just because there's a disproportionate amount of 1 class doesn't mean things aren't balanced. And if you want to play your Med/Eng/LA/Infil and have an easy time taking out an HA Toe-to-Toe all i can say is...You're doing it wrong.

The problem is that the vast majority of players stick to HA, the discussion here is why. The opinion of many is because they're OP and I agree. In the spirit of discussion, why do you think the HA is so overused?

I've been using HA the last couple of days with the ability button on my gamepad not functioning probably due to an update and I'm too lazy to change it to a button that works. Guess what I am still beating people in close-quarters with no shield whatsoever,just relying on adv.shield capacitor and the anchor with a few conc nades. So all of those people probably would have gotten smoked anyway.

If everyone had access to a weapon that could instagib people through walls and did the aiming for you, would it still be OP? Yeah. Just because everyone has access to it doesn't mean it's balanced. In a fighting game it is not healthy to have a class that is mathematically superior at fighting.

Each class should be equally effective at combat but through different playstyles.

Infil: Stealth/Prescision
LA: Flanking
Engineer: Fortifications
Medic: Sustainability
MAX: Tank/Pusher
Heavy Assault: Brute force

Currently however the HA, while certainly filling the brute force playstyle, is just simply more effective at killing across the board. A big part of the reason is because it can stomp on anyone trying to fight it because of the shield. It really, really needs a tweak.