Concession

Before I go on the propose my solution I need to provide my concessions to this arguement.

• The HMG is meant to kill things in CQC
• It should be allowed to have the most firepower
• It is very close to being balanced

The problem with the HMG currently is that it has the highest DPS of any weapon with little drawback. Sure Heavies move slowly, but they can be made to move just as fast as light assaults, which is a daunting image to see, much less experience. Note also that the HMG was never nerfed during the 1.8 update, which nerfed all the rifles by about 10%. This was modification made it so that the HMG was indirectly buffed, and in addition to that, it's ranged was extended, essentially tipping the power of the HMG slightly towards the unbalanced side.

Thus to correct this slight imbalance, we need to examine some options and come to a consensus about what or how we should go about modifying the heavy.

Possible Avenues

Modifying the HMGs Reticule - A huge proponent for the HMG is that it has a very large reticule, and with so many bullets scattering so quickly, it drops players so quickly they can't even react. We can modify the reticule to mimic the current Blaster tank reticule, which decreases the reticule radius as it fires, making the player rely more on aim than blatant shooting.

Heavy/HMG Turn Speed - Another reason why it's easy for heavies to kill players is because they can turn just as quick as a scout can, yet they move half as fast and tank 5-8 times as much eHP. This logic seems quite confusing, as someone would think it would be difficult to move a large weapon so quickly without experiencing some drawback. Granted this is a futuristic game, but it is unreasonable to have HMGs spinning around without having even the slightest aim to kill a player. If this option is selected, turn speed would be nerfed slightly, slower than the current speed, but not to the point where it makes heavies unusable.