Heavies were way too easy before. How are you using the MD? Are you maintaining range whenever possible, using its long range with no damage reduction out to maximum range to full advantage? Are you using its superb accuracy out to maximum range (once you get used to the arc and aiming/ranging with the bottom of the hip fire reticule)? Are you using corners to fall back, while inflicting damage to the advancing heavy, whenever you meet a heavy up close?

IMHO, the mass driver has never been as well balanced as it is right now. The Exo-5 is my primary weapon; usually with no secondary weapon on my logi suit. I'm much less likely to survive a 1v1 with a shotgun scout than a 1v1 with a heavy. Heavies are still fairly easy to deal with unless you stumble on one without any corners to retreat around. In any other circumstance, I have a range and mobility advantage to leverage against any heavies I come across.

Even in close quarters, if I have corners to retreat around, I can constantly splash an approaching heavy, without giving him direct line of sight long enough for him to waste me. Use the mass driver's slow travel time to your advantage. You get to fire at the ground ahead of him while he pushes around the corner, while you retreat around the corner, at the same time backing up to the next corner you'll be using for cover. You can kill them without them ever getting direct line of sight, without them ever getting a shot on you.

The only heavies that give me trouble in close are just better players than me, or average heavies with burst HMGs, so even a moment of exposure or lag gets me killed.

If you told me I had to duel someone and I had to use the mass driver and I got to chose their suit, I'd put them in a heavy suit.

The one huge weakness (every weapon should have one) is running out of ammo when using the MD. The nerf to nanohive clusters was a bigger MD nerf than buffing heavy splash resistance.

Mass drivers and heavies are very well balanced IMHO. If scouts were just a little bit slower or squishier, the class/weapon balance in this game would be outstanding.

I'd love to see hard data, since the above is just my sense of things. I'd love to see weekly kills/deaths/isk destroyed, broken down by suits/weapons.

Actually if there were more classes of heavy than "bricktank" and "not quite assault" they would be fine because people would opt for other fits.

It's the lack of choices other tthan "bricktank, more bricktank and yet more bricktank" that make the sentinel a pain in the ass.

Unfortunately the heavy frames are piles of crap because they are too damn squishy. The lack of the resistance makes them horrific to use because mass drivers basically instapop you. Plasma splash is similarly bad. This could be compensated for if the suits had other bonuses but I do not see that happening any time soon.

Maybe we should be looking for variant suits.

Come to think about it, if there were variants on assault and logi I might bother with them, or scouts.

The mass driver and flaylock were the exact reason that sentinels were given splash resists.

C'mon dude, your argument against this nerf boils down to "Don't be Seen", in a game where being seen for 1 second by a good rifle/hmg user means DEATH.

A smart heavy will begin advancing out of cover to a position where you can't have any cover as soon as the first MD round lands, he's not going to be hugging corners. Splash him with an entire clip, even after a flux(for armor builds), he'll be getting a bead on you while you're fumbling with reload.

Okay it just seems that some want the sentinels to be a joke suit. If you remove splash damage then you will further turn sentinels or heavies, into a instagank situation.

I'd be OK with removing that bonus if in its place you put a headshot damage resistance.

That way my sentinel isn't being constantly OHK'd by charge rifles post-Delta.

I would rather see the sentinel role broken into three suits, one a door kicker, one AV and the current suit for hard defense.

Sentinel - dropsuits as we see them now. Resistance bonuses to racial enemy damage types, splash resistance, very high eHP. Loses grenade slot. Headshots less effective on this dropsuit class.
Vanguard - Less eHP than a sentinel, but more than an assault. Slightly faster walk/sprint speed than a sentinel. Bonuses with racial heavy weaponry. Loses resistance bonuses. Maintains grenade slot. Headshots just as effective.

Both still wield heavy weapons. The FG and plasma mortor were intended to be AV weapons. The Vanguard dropsuit can be given bonuses with these weapons and become the AV dropsuit.

Something similar to that yes. But keeping the current sentinel in entire. One suit attack focused. One AV. I'm waffling between wanting an attack sentinel or a detector sentinel that is basically a radar b*tch.

EWAR sentinel doesn't make any sense. EWAR is a Scout (major), Logi (minor) role specialty.

If "tanky" sentinels aren't given some sturdy bonuses then they will not be chosen over the "DPS" sentinels (aka vanguards).

Radar isn't EWAR. EWAR doesn't actually EXIST in DUST.A sentinel detector makes a lot more sense than a blind b*tch who gets ganked in the back by everyone and their brother because he doesn't see radar blips unless they are literally right on top of him (in shotgun optimal).

A sentinel needs to be able to see incoming to defend points.

I never hang out in static locations because everyone with sensors that work immediately run off to the next point.

Bolded above for emphasis. If you're standing in full view of a heavy for 1 full second, no weapon can save you. Can't you back around a corner when you get surprised by a heave in about a quarter of a second? That's why the burst HMG is so devestating; against a burst I entirely agree with you. Even pulling back as fast as my reflexes and lag allows, I frequently get toasted by a burst HMG, but against other HMGs, I more frequently than not can break contact when surprised by a heavy. And that's as a brick tanked, kind of slow logi. Heavies are the only suits I can outmaneuver, IF they aren't running KinCats. Are you having a different experience with breaking initial contact when surprised by a heavy? How are you approaching corners?

I asked you the questions quoted above, not to be rhetorical, but to genuinely inquire. I guess a more general way of putting some of those questions: On average, how far does a round from your mass driver travel before it hits something? If its less than a third of your maximum range, can we agree that you're not taking full advantage of your ability to out range an HMG's damage?

Does your playstyle with the MD more closely resemble a shotgunner or a sniper, if we consider those two roles as the extremes on a continuum?

The quarterbacking is interesting, it really is, but the core issue is that the Mass Driver is one of the LOWEST DPS weapons in the game, and it doesn't need to be 25% lower on the count of a fat suit with ridiculous HP.

Sentinels are balanced around the idea that they need scouts/logis to support their weak passive sensors. Imagine a dropsuits with resistances, incredible anti-infantry weaponry, high eHP, AND above average sensor strength... it would be OP, to say the least.

Did some numbers on a worst case scenario against an Amarr Sentinel suit with two weapons:

MILITIA Rail Rifle
DPS: ~361
-10% damage to shields
-10% damage to Amarr Sentinel Resists
DPS against Amarr Sentinel: 389

PROTOTYPE Mass Driver
DPS: 160 (splash)
-20% damage to shields
-25% damage to Sentinel Resists
DPS against Amarr Sentinel: 88

ThatGÇÖs an EXTREMELY disproportionate and unnecessary disadvantage.

The rail rifle resistance only applies to the dropsuits' shields... which are not as thick as armor.

The resistance is to the mass driver's splash. If you were to directly hit a sentinel with a mass driver round he would not enjoy his 25% resistance. It's easier than you think because armor sentinels are slow like turtle.

The resistance only applies to splash damage, so if you hit them with a direct shot it will do full damage. It shouldn't be too hard considering their massive hitboxes.

The mass driver and flaylock were the exact reason that sentinels were given splash resists.

I don't really care either way, I don't even play this game anymore. But if I was to play again, that would be a change that I would like to see implemented by the time I get there... You are talking almost 2 whole mass driver clips to kill a heavy with splash.

The resistance only applies to splash damage, so if you hit them with a direct shot it will do full damage. It shouldn't be too hard considering their massive hitboxes.

...What unit in a game of skirmish ISN'T pushing a point or defending a point? And what bearing does the description have on pragmatic balancing?

Splash is the PRIMARY mode of damage for the mass driver, direct hits are very hard to land against even a slow moving target (if the MD were easy to use, everyone would be using it). It's ridiculous to empty a whole clip of MD rounds onto a heavy and he only ends up halfway through armor.

What other weapon has this disadvantage against heavies?

Here's the reasoning as I see it.

Sentinels are slow. Very slow. They cannot avoid mass dirver rounds like, say, a scout can. Therefore, Instead of trying to evade it, they simply soak it up.

Plus, There are many different weapons that crack them just fine (shotgun, CR, RR, etc.) so I don't see what the problem is. Plus, With MinSentinel at 5, I'm not exactly laughing madly as I stand with impunity before droves of mass drivers. I just don't have to boogie as soon as I see a few rounds headed my way.