The problem isn't head on fights, the problem is flanking, attacking, and being killed in under a half second by the HMG before my fifth shot can hit the heavy....Thats the problem for scouts.

I really don't understand how new players are dealing with heavy spam, as it may well be the most difficult thing for them to counter. ARs and the like only deal real damage inside of the HMG's "insta-gib" range (50 meters and under), so it makes no sense for people to say "use a long range weapon", as not everyone has access to one. What if someone put all their points into gallente assault and plasma rifles, what then? You essentially are killing an entire play style by arguing that heavies should always win at anything under 50m. They should always win in a straight up firefight, thats their role. However, they are not vulnerable enough to 1. Surprise tactics, 2. shorter range rifles, which leads to an imbalance....

The suit is fine, the HMG is not

Well, after running my HMG heavy, I can tell you right now that the sustained killing power is ridiculous, and the only thing i die to is other HMG's. Iv only been SGed once by a proto cal scout, while fighting another HMG heavy.

Id really like to see something done about perhaps increased overheat as well as making aHMG's more long range and bHMG's more CQC killers

My ideas:
aHMG: Greatly reduce spread, keeps current damage, RoF is reduced to 2000-2100
bHMG: Keep everything the same, except the spread needs a slight increase

Yeah I agree. He is worried heavies are making it harder for new players, but really his style is far more oppressive to a new player.

A heavy with a HMG will just be a target that scares new players into retreating. It soaks up damage but its lethal range dropoff is significant. New players will run at a heavy HMG once. After that they learn to keep distance.

As a new player, I would find it much more frustrating and discouraging to be up against invisible enemies than can OHK me.