HMG dps and range will be toned down, burst hmg will keep current range, assault hmg will be a longer range autocannon with anti-vehicle capability.

Aeon, you put Gallente Assault Rail as pure.

As much as I'd love for that to be true....nah.

Have you considered that the HMG is simply in massive usage due to the fact that PC map design heavily favors it because every PC battle is a cargo hub where they are the strongest? Heavies on, say, a production facility, typically get wrecked because they are being peppered from everywhere in the open and can't fire back.

As far as pub data would go, its another simple reason. Most people play Domination, where a bunch of people are typically concentrated in one area around a single objective. That is the definition of HMG heaven.

So it seems to me that the weapon itself isn't problematic. Rather, your maps and your overall design around them is problematic. It also doesn't help that current game mechanics allow the fatmen to spawn right next to the action, where again they are strongest. Extreme force projection for a unit who's largest downside is a lack of mobility is simply a bad game design choice. It wasn't your choice, of course, but there it is.

Gimp the HMG any further however, and you're going to have a suit that only does as much appliable damage as one of the rifles but with no mobility, crippled scans, no ability to chase down an enemy, can't be used to really damage enemies behind partial cover unlike rifles, etc etc etc.

Overall, it'll be just a bad weapon. Imo, you need to revamp force projection. Then you're going to find fewer people willing to use the heavy suit as they would actually have to move through exposed areas at a slow pace before they get to be effective.

Ditch uplinks from the game, force people to use mobile CRU's. Put some actual tactical play back into the game rather than make it super-whack-a-mole with the uplinks.

The concern at the time was how these changes would affect the Heavy/Logi blob. Looking at this data, that concern was well-founded. Imagine if the blob had unbeatable passive scans out to ~30 meters (instead of 10). That is what would've happened had Cat Merc and Zatara's proposal been passed without Rattati's intervention.

Yes, the Range Amp nerf rendered the module useless, but it was a necessary evil. We could fix Range Amps if we found a way to extend upon Middle and Outer Scan Rings while leaving the super-precise inner ring constant. That is, if we wanted to ... I distinctly recall being told that "360 Wallhacks" were OP.

yes,

not sure, or hybrid, laser profile is very un-lorey

The fact that the HMG tears apart an entire racial weapon line In that entire racial weapon line's optimal range. With no recourse. This is an imbalance. Saying that only maps are a factor when the HMG rendering gallente CQC killers pointless there is a problem.

The gun performs universally well on all heavy suits. Light infantry weapons cannot say the same.

In CQC there are no drawbacks to deploying an HMG sentinel. It is always the optimal choice. This is TEXTBOOK imbalance.

This meta needs to be killed with fire.

The HMG is THE ONLY CHOICE, for every Sentinel that wants to do CQC, what they are meant for. You cannot nerf the HMGs CQC, nothing will ever stop it from being used up close, you nerf the Basic and people will just use the SKB, which even now is just as good as the others.

You reduce its range and damage too much and, like at the start of upraising, Heavies will just switch to Rifles, Combat Rifles to be exact.

I forgot, you want the Heavy "out of CQC" and forced into some arbitrary role. Agaan, what is going to stop Heavies from having logis glued to them a pushing points?

The balance has always been the Heavies lack of Speed, lack of passive scans, lack of slot variety, lack of equipment, and the need of Logistical support to be effective.

I agree with the content of your message, Aeon, but the delivery struck me as a tad cheeky.

Also, let's not be too hard on them for locking down the meta. As bad as Scout/Heavy 514 was this past year, it was no where near as profuse and rampant as AR-514 the year prior. We have more build variety today than at any time since Chromosome.

Bunch of maybes

The TL;DR

I have a great idea to nerf the HMG!

Everyone keeps focusing on range.
That is one factor in all weapons.
Why don't we take the ammo in the hopper down. Then we will see heavies perform closer to the PLC (I threw up a little thinking about heavies with PLCs.)

Heavies will then still be dangerous and use HMGs, but they will be down, reloading more. Using the burst like I do, the heat is the factor that has a huge impact, but bullets are also needed. This will take the time the guns are spraying a crowd down. Don't expect them to disappear from PCs, just expect more percision and team work to keep the HMGs up on the battlefield then.

As a heavy, I yell out, reloading a lot, then step back. Sometimes my logis and I have had to fight with sidearms because the scouts wouldn't let us reload. It makes for more nail biting conflicts. Instead of the back and forth of nerfing ranges and dps.
The HMG needs to continue to out DPS the other weapons at CQC. If you make variants that is great, but reduce the ammo on the boundless because it doesn't have a downside or skill requirement. Make clip management the downside.

What do people think?