Snagman 313
Carbon 7
CRONOS.
128
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Posted - 2013.10.06 08:11:00 -
[1] - Quote
Good morning my fellow Mercs!!!,
I've been off the forums for quite a while and some of you may not remember me but I've had a bit of experience with the various HMG builds and the discussions about them in the forums. I agree with the OP in general but a lot of the problems with the HMG are compounded with the Heavy suit mostly it's fairly large hit box.
We used to have the HMG running at 3000 RPM in Codex, ahhh yes good times but not so for others. I should mention that the damage used to run at 19,20 and 21 dmg for std,adv and proto respectively. So overall the HMG used to be a beast easily outgunning everything else within it's range, which also led to it's downfall as if you knew what you were doing you could basically create a pinpoint stream of death.
So then came the dark days of the Nerf Hammer, I won't bore you guys with the details but we've been slowly recovering ever since with the current version IMHO being the best since Codex..... Man that's sad to say.
I honestly can't come up with much good to say about the Assault HMG, I've been mucking around with the Adv version on more open maps as I can't be bothered to waste the ISK on Proto versions. But honestly you're better using an AR for suppression fire as it has more range, greater accuracy and higher DMG per shot which is what you need to get folks heads down. I personally would tighten the spread, increase damage per shot to above the regular version and lower the RPM on the Assault HMG then I think it might be a contender, I see the odd one about but it's not a used weapon.
The current HMG does out DPS all other infantry weapons in theory but getting every round on target can at times be a bit of an effort.... I was interested in why I was getting messed up by SMGs when I should be walking all over them so I got some help from my corp mates and made a BPO scout SMG/AR fit to go heavy hunting. Basically at ranges under what I consider 5m the heavy fits perfectly into the hip fire crosshairs and even with the turning buff once the HMG is spooling and you try to turn you're done. I don't know what to suggest about this as it's the Heavy's main drawback for out high eHP and simply buffing the HMG won't solve the fact that a SMG can almost without fail empty every round in a mag into a heavy from hip fire (please note the same goes for other weapons as well I'm not attacking the SMG, I'll never let them touch my lill Toxin!!) and nerfing other weapons won't help either.
I think the major issue that often get's overlooked is what the HMG is designed to do and in tandem the Heavy itself. Now in most games these days I run a multiple of different suits when I used to only run a Heavy due to the changing tactics and the increased map sizes. But the one suit I have in my arsenal that when used for it's designed purpose truly excels is what I call my Attrition fit now without giving away much it's a heavy with 1500 ish eHP and a boundless with 2 complex damage mods. I use this when theres either an objective or installation that has to be defended and has already been overrun. No other suit I have found can do what this bad lad does, survival doesn't come into the equation but killing as many enemies as I can before death certainly does and it does this well.
I think this is what CCP designed the suit to do. However this doesn't help when maps are large and there are sniper tanks taking out your LAV before it hit's the deck. So in the past we had the MK 2 heavy which was stat wise kinda similar to what we have now and you could move with reasonable speed around the map with your HMG and allowed you to help assaulting positions rather than sitting on objectives eating Hippo sarnies while the rest of your team do the work. Obviously we'll get the other racial variant's at some stage which I reckon will sort this issue and give some scope to the HMG in whatever incarnation it finally ends up in.
But what to do now??? Logi ARs still rain supreme and SMGs out DPS us through accuracy. I don't know but I'm looking for a solution all the time, CCP won't buff the HMG lads and I don't blame them god help us if we have a weapon that heavily outguns ARs just look at what happened to us after Codex, I never want to go through that again. I'm not saying don't try for a buff to the HMG but watch out you might just get what you wish for.....
See you out there,
Snag |