This is kind of long and dramatic but, if you have the time, bear with me. This nerf will be a total game changer the likes of which we have never seen in this game and, IMO, it wont be for the better. When a new players joins the game, which class does he usually pick? Probably Medic or Engineer to get the Certs, right? What if that player continues to play the game after 50 hours of game play? He is going to get a little bored of doing support actions, right? He is going to want some sweet killstreaks The player looks over at his Heavy ally and wonders why he isn't getting the same amount of kills. He deduces that it is because he cannot take on the enemy Heavies easily enough. He expects to get the same amount of kills as the Heavy and still perform the support actions. He doesn't want to rely on back up or tactics to take on the Heavies...he just wants to kill them all by himself and be done with it. The player ponders selecting the Heavy class to get the kills he wants. He realises that he doesn't have enough Cert income to select a new class because is still playing for free after 50 hours gameplay and doesn't have a boost/membership. He doesn't want to pay for the game. "**** that", he says. "This game is free", he says. He complains about the Shields being instant win buttons. SOE/Daybreak panics and decides to add a delay to the Shield. SOE/Daybreak indirectly promotes free loading (playing for free beyond a reasonable time frame). I know, free players are important as they keep the numbers up, but some do it for extended periods of time and some start to cause problems; they develop opinions on balance but are not on the same wavelength as those of us that pay for the game. This is a dangerous mix and things get broken when the developer listens to them. All of the above is just one reason why the nerf should not happen. I realise that there are a small group of paying customers who still want the nerf, but I think the enormous majority of what we are hearing is coming from the free loaders. Obviously, I cannot prove this. I can only say that I am very confident that it is true. The Heavy class will become largely unused if the nerf happens. The primary method of earning XP when playing as Heavy is to get kills. The Heavy will start losing a lot of his XP income. People will simply stop playing as Heavy. Some will even stop playing altogether. If you don't want the nerf, you need to be as vocal as those that do want it...and they have been very vocal.
Honestly as it stand heavy assault is the most overpowered infantry unit currently in game with no real counters other than shoot this way and pray you can get a headshot or two off. Even jumping a heavy from behind as an infiltrator with a commie is not a guaranteed kill. LMGs are the best option for cqc even though people refuse to believe, combined with overshield is godly. Sure, they have the same DPS (or slightly higher) as smgs, but they are SMGs with mid and long range capabilities, very versitile, giant mag sizes, topped off with 700 free HP at max rank NMG. Theoretically infinite with Adrenaline. I did math in a different post showing TTK a heavy with a t9 CARV using a terminus if he uses his shield its 0.9 seconds. Meanwhile TTK a medic with a carv is 0.55. A heavy will almost always win direct conflict unless the attacker is a fantastic headshot aim of 40% or higher, which is twice as accurate as the average player being only 20%. Im glad theyre finally adding the damn delay
Have I missed a Tweet about this ? Or is this just all speculation ? What wavelength would that be ? And any plerson who plays the game is entitled to form his or her own opinions on balance .. Paying a Sub doesn't make someone a " Balance Jesus " who can do no wrong and knows all the right answers ...
You don't have to take on a Heavy. You're an Infi. You have low armour. Run off and pick off the weak targets or use cover when attacking a Heavy. It sounds to me like you are trying to run in and just own everyone. As for not killing a Heavy when you have the jump on him...I don't know what you are doing wrong, then. Are you lagging maybe? When playing as Heavy, plenty of Infis have wrecked me with an SMG before I can even think of hitting F.
they are supposed to be the main infantry unit, they are the soldiers, it is their job to win head on fights with doctors, technicians and spies that are silly enough to fight a soldier head on. also, did i miss something what nerf is coming?
It'll happen soon enough. They already said it will happen, it's just a matter of time. They want to add a delay between pushing F and the shield activating.
Yup has me head scratching to .. I can't find anything official about it ( Well not on Reddit or Twitters I know about ) And afaik the only " Semi " nerf planned is the buff to EMP's to effect HA shields as well
what about not nerfing the delay but making the shield protection directional, so it only the protects the heavies front but leaves the back open for the tactical flank. it would make getting the jump on the heavy from behind more promising while still keeping the heavies offensive play style intact.
/thread You make it much worse than it is. HA will still remain the most versatile infantry unit, with weapons with huge mags and good accuracy stats. A small activation delay of ~0.5 second doesn't break HA as a class. It only limits overshields usage when HA has been flanked, so he can't just flick the shield on, turn around and kill the attacker, even though he was caught by surprise. When HA is attacking himself, he can turn on the shield in advance.
I think though a delay would work pretty well. For offensive action, the Heavy Assault would be thinking, "okay, I'm going to assault that room, so I should press my button now to get my shield ready". Having a delay is fine, because the Heavy Assault can control when they're going to push. But for defensive action, having a delay would negate the defensive usefulness of a shield so long as the delay is longer than a reasonable TTK. And I think this is the type of shield usage that we'd want to avoid, where a HA can turn around once he's been shot, activate the shield, and go on to win the firefight. Having the shield be directional wouldn't really help, because in a situation where the HA is being ambushed they are likely to just spin around and face their attackers anyhow. Often at the same time when they would activate their shields. I also think HA's should have a slower overall move speed than normal infantry (carrying two heavy weapons ain't gonna leave you light on your feet). And no LMG should have a 0.75x movement multiplier. And rocket launchers should have a longer ready-time before it can fire. Just a few more things for HA's.
Oh no, not this all over again . Can a heavy fly? cloak? heal? revive? repair? supply? snipe? deploy a turret? use an assault rifle? hack? Would anybody seriously think that imposing a delay on any of these abilities served any useful purpose? HAs can basically just kill more effectively helped by having some temporary extra survivability (and fire RLs).. Diminish that and you diminish their only significant role. I see plenty of people playing other classes and killing HAs. Overshield imo is a counter to ambush, which some other classes excel at, and being farmed in a frontal assault.And no, I don't always get the chance to deploy it before getting killed either. Perhaps a more fundamental look at the three different shield types (and why the differences) would be a more measured review? Some wild options could be considered, like choice of a temporary flak shield, bullet shield or a cloaking shield?
What? since when do Heavy Assaults trigger Flak Burst? Edit: and, in case you thought I was being serious. I only have to wonder whether we'd now have to create some kind of "flak stacking" fix the same way we had to fix "resist stacking."
As a new player I can tell you now, No! My first pick was the HA.. and I struggled, didnt really like it much since I was rubbish, but I stuck at it, bought several weapons all the adapters and just got more and more annoyed with it, I noticed that medics enginners and LA all killed me with ease.. Heavyt Assaults arnt heavy at all they are slow which high recoil, then while looking for advise and watching twitch and youtube I saw about how awesome the TORQ was and started playing medic, and then started playing engineer more.. and now, I MUCH prefer playing medic and engineer not only for their support rolls but because I enjoy combat with them much more than the heavy... and really, the HA sheild is ball-sack compared to medic and engineer. I only now go to HA when there is a tank / vehicle zerg, to say that they are over powered is pure hyperbole from my perspective. Im not saying I agree with the proposed change to the HA Sheild, but reading your counter arguments makes me feel that your way off the mark... and actually, now that I think about it, sure, a "heavy" assault should have more EHP the sheild thing is ********. thanks for convincing me
So much ******** in this thread. You know why the nerf hasn't happened? Because look at the numbers -- it is fairly evenly matched for class to leader board rankings. The most legit obscene k/d's scores are still done by air and snipers. I know of one HA that is on the leaderboard and most of his deaths are suicides -- which if he didn't do his k/d would be like 10+/1. But that isn't due to any shield or any legit HA ability. People need to just **** and enjoy the game -- its incredibly balanced considering it has 3 factions with all the different weapons(which are not that different). Coming from a beta PS1 player -- PS2 is a lot more enjoyable and a lot less head smashing on my keyboard.
I say that the shield nerf is completely unnecessary because there is nothing unbalanced about the shields to begin with. As I have said many many times, classes are not meant to be balanced against each other, they are meant to be balanced against equivalent classes of other factions. This isn't WoW, you are not limited to playing one class at a time without being able to swap without logging out, it is up to you to use whichever class works best in any given scenario.
End thread? No. Why should I? There are of people that agree with what I am saying and I feel that this is something that needs to vocalised. Anyone failing to kill a Heavy when they have got the jump on him is doing it wrong. When I roll as Medic/Engi, I use cover and go for headshots. I also make sure I have backup...you know, being a support class and all. When I go as LA, I get up high and shoot on top of a Heavy's head. If I am Infi, I get very close and unload SMG; he will be dead before he even knows what is happening. If he turns around and beats me during any of these scenarios, I accept it and move on because I know I must have ****** up. It's not reasonable to nerf the Heavy because other players are doing it wrong.
A delay to the shield will make it more tactical instead of a panic button... players will have to use it before a battle instead of in it. This change will add a degree of skill to an otherwise unskilled class which can seemingly charge face first into battle, pop a shield and ultimately win no matter the skill of the opponent. Besides, I doubt the delay will be huge and gamebreaking as the Heavy Assault still has incredibly powerful weapons for close, medium, and sometimes long range.
This. The whole issue stems from the fact that some people are stubborn and refuse to change class. This is a game where you change class on the fly. As you say, for an MMO, that is rather unique. They think they should be able to get XP doing support actions and getting as many kills as Heavy. I don't understand why they think that is realistic. It isn't. If I get beat by a Heavy and I want revenge on him, I just swap to Heavy myself and go get him. It's simple stuff.
Or even the fact that people who engage other heavies often do it face to face, where the heavy is at his strongest, instead of utilising their class to give them an advantage, and therefore lose.
