Yep its been nerfed too hard. THis has made killing hvys vvv unrewarding

The overheat was definitely a needed change. The damage was not. It was silly you could fire 210 out of 300 rounds before you overheated in the last build, it made the skill to reduce overheat buildup completely pointless. The weapon was meant to sacrifice pre-spin by making it pretty inaccurate until it spooled up.

Totally agree though that both nerfs in tandem make this gun much less viable. It's far from useless, but it is not where it should be. The base damage on a standard dropped from 25 to 16. It simply takes too many bullets to kill someone currently, and is generally a handicap and only those with higher player skill than the people they are shooting will do well with the gun currently.

Didn't they say this was just a temporary nerf until they can think of a better solution?

One of the problems with the over heat is that a HMG should be able to take out a group of people, now it over heats or you have to stop shooting and they just turn around and shoot you in the head

I personally feel like you can take on several people at one time the heat of the gun is easily controlled, the distance of the gun reach is what it's intended for (close encounters) and if the gun does overheat switch to an alternative like an smg sidearm... Works great for me.

The only person who would worry about the heat and accuracy would be someone who holds down R1 prayin for a kill... Try using some skill with controlled bursts... It helps both accuracy and the heat problem.

But that's right everyone else who's posted in this thread likes it op.

Didn't they say this was just a temporary nerf until they can think of a better solution?

I personally feel like you can take on several people at one time the heat of the gun is easily controlled, the distance of the gun reach is what it's intended for (close encounters) and if the gun does overheat switch to an alternative like an smg sidearm... Works great for me.

The only person who would worry about the heat and accuracy would be someone who holds down R1 prayin for a kill... Try using some skill with controlled bursts... It helps both accuracy and the heat problem.

But that's right everyone else who's posted in this thread likes it op.

Most carry ARs since the HMG does seem useless

i still use the heavy/HMG combo, you just have to focus all your skills into the two and ignore things like grenades and vehicles. i still think they swung the nerf hammer too hard. however, i also see why they did it. people with skill can still absolutly murder the other side, while spray and prayers suddenly found themselves dieing all the time. i make top three every time these days. all you need is some skill and people still go POOF! when you start firing the HMG

So now the class is useless.

I said it pre build (and told I was over dramatic) that this nerf would kill the heavy. And I was right.

Please keep all HMG threads to this one, spamming the forums wont help anyone

Picture related: http://imgur.com/qthe9

+1,
I was shooting at someone (looked like they were in Assault armor) I was in a heavy with an HMG, i litterally shot the guy about 25-30 times and he did not die. I know people are going to be like "You weren't hitting him" "You just suck" but i'm being as sincere and honest as i've ever been with this. I'm not kidding, if i could've taken a picture i would have.

It seemed to work to get it nerfed.

seriously, pre E3 build i was getting killed left and right as a heavy. Granted, I was in militia armor but it's not like its an impossible ******* feat of skill. Either reduce damage, or reduce cooldown, you can't do both! Preferably I'd rather be able to shoot more, less powerful shots than freaking out because that damn scout is still in front of me, I missed every shot, and I have to wait for the ******* gun to cool off.

Little tip if with the over heating (if you wanna even try the HMG) is to burst fire it.

Burst firing is not how the HMG intended to work plus this way will only make you loose accuracy and scatter the bullets everywhere

anyway as a person who played heavy since i joined the beta (more than 2 month ago) the current heavy class(Heavy dropsuit + HMG) is completely underpowred and no one can't argue with that, the things CCP need to do to fix it is:
- bring back the previous HMG damage
- decrease the current overheating rate a tiny bit
- DON'T even think to nerf the turning speed
- buff the militia Heavy dropsuit armor a bit its too damn low

EDIT: Yes i created a thread about the heavy class because i have the right to give my own feedback
https://forums.dust514.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=24998&find=unread

Picture related: http://imgur.com/qthe9

As I put in a different post, I've gotten more kills with my SMG in my Forge/SMG Heavy loadout then I have with the HMG in my HMG Heavy loadout. It's really messed up that the HMG was nerfed so bad yet still takes so much from a dropsuit. A secondary cannot be equipped with the HMG but the Forge, which was harder to get and way more powerful, takes less of a dropsuit. Things are seriously off now with the HMG. I think to compromise CCP should go midway between where the HMG was and where it is now; that way it will be more powerful but not too powerful and could go through most of a clip with the trgger down without overheating.

Thanks for the info.
The point I was trying to make though is the HMG still has the same dropsuit draw it had pre-nerf but has been nerfed retaining the same dropsuit draw which is higher than other more powerful weapons. I'd hate to say it, but I prefer the HMG the way it was to the way the HMG is now.

Also keep in mind that in the previous build, we had a lot of CQC going on. All of the ridges, chokepoints, canyons, and buildings served the Heavy very well by narrowing combat into channels. This map is MUCH more open, giving enemies much more room to navigate around you or to just avoid fighting you altogether.

That said, however, a bit of an overheat buff or adding a skill that reduces heat buildup by... 3% per level would be welcome.

hmg proficiency gives u the 3% on heat build up