Breakin Stuff wrote:The current screaming over heavies, demands for turn speed reduction, demands for the nerfing of HMGs etc. Have all been born of one thing. The demand for nerfs have resulted in sentinels only being good at two things: CQC and AV.
How did this come about? Lets begin in chromosome:
1. Heavies began with the ability to apply DPS at approximately 55-60m. With the dispersion the applied DPS was much lower than a rifle , but a heavy attacking another target who was distracted or wounded allowed for "vulture kills" decried as no-skill scrubbery that needs to be nerfed. As a result, we now have heavies who die when I stand still with a rail rifle at 42m. Because I put every single round of my STD rail rifle center mass and lost... 20% of my shields.
2. Enter the cries to limit heavies to cqc. The reasons ranged from ability to outshoot assault rifles at range (a flat lie) to the assertion that heavies "should never exist" and should thusly be relegated to being an SP trap for the stupid. Alternately people demanded World of Warcraft tank/DPS/Healer meta with high HP, low damage, slow heavies being a thing, even though against live opponents not programmed to focus on the tank to get slaughtered by the allies that pretty much means a death sentence instantly. We found this out when CCP flushed a third of the HMG DPS down the toilet with uprising 1.0. It is only recently (patchwise) that...
I recall mass drivers and grenades that could one shot most suits and obliterate heavies. Why they got nerfed
I recall heavy machine guns with extremely low dispersion that could kill from across the map. Why they got nerfed
I recall scouts who couldn't take two steps without being killed. Why they got buffed
I remember a spool time to the hmg and much higher dps. Honestly I don't know what the hell happened, the spool time was like the best balancing feature it had.
I also remember heavies being very good at what they did but the cost of the suit and hmg was extremely expensive, but worth it for an extremely effective suit. This was a good balancing factor for heavies
Edit: in the past hmgs did compete with AR and they still do kind of, not at the max range but within 0-30 meters an AR has no chance. But I feel that many of the old nerfs and the some of those who still carry over are from balnket fixes that never fixed problems only symptoms.