I'm not a heavy player, I've stuck to mainly assault since the start. That said, i very rarely see anyone using a HMG anymore, they're pretty much on the same level as a mass driver, definitely lower than a sniper rifle and absolutely nowhere near a forge gun, which every heavy should have switched to nowadays (along with an SMG for anti-dude stuff).

It's frustrating as, dispite Darky Si's OP, the HMG was never actually overpowered at all. If an assault encountered a heavy and tried to engage at medium range (or close range if they couldn't dance) they would die and that was that. This upset a lot of people, seemingly unaware that they were actually idiots.

Their idiocy however was becoming fairly obvious the further the last build progressed and we saw the endgame full prototype assaults with Creodron AR's take out heavies with ease, from long range by utilising cover w/ ADS and close range by out strafing them (now fairly obsolete). Mid-range being the HMG's only decent killzone, requiring cunning ambushes by the heavy to apply the damage before the target would just sprint away or close the gap and blow their brains out while the heavy had a seizure trying to turn around. Just how easy it was for an assault to dispatch a Heavy HMG user was only amplified by a scout.

I say all this, as it's concerning to see the constant "X is overpowered", "Nerf Y" threads. People encounter a new thing, whine that it's overpowered, learn how to counter it and then CCP, being fashionably late to the party, second guesses themselves and nerfs it into the ground making it no longer viable. We're already seeing the river of tears run again with marauders, it'll be interesting to see whether we see them nerfed into the abyss as well.