I'm not sure there is a balance issue.. but regardless, it makes sense that adding thicker and thicker armor plating slows you down because you are adding a lot of junk with that protective trunk.


I think, more towards your point, if there was a balance issue- it would make far more sense to just up the repair rate of the armor repper.

Think of it this way. Right now, armor add very little to a heavy suit (relative to the high HP they already have) and thus also affects them less because their speed is already slow...so % penalty doesn't lower it that much.

A scout on the other hand, can add a considerable amount of HP (relative to their base stats) but also is drastically affected because their base speed is so high, that they see a larger speed drop.

Fair enough. My thought was this:
A heavy has a speed of 3.5ish (can't remember exactly what it is) If you give them a 20% speed reduction by stacking some plating, their speed goes down to 2.8. Very slow, and I agree with you... it'll get you killed that much faster.

But, a 20% reduction to a scout slows them down to around low-to-mid 4s for speed. That's logi speed, and with pretty low HP. I just felt that the scout gets hurt more by the speed reduction.

Perhaps you're right, but either way, both suits are hurt by the plating.

My point still stands. There is little reason to armor-tank in this game.

Since I love terrible ideas so much, I decided to roll an armor tanking heavy this build. I've learned a couple things, and here they are in a badly formatted list with a terrible segue -

1. Armor plating is all but f'ing useless on a heavy. Just run the numbers. Regen is the way to go if you are armor tanking. a basic armor plate gives 65 static hp, you take one or two rounds and the advantage is gone leaving you with only the penalty of choosing a terrible mod. Enhanced lets you take 1/2 an extra round, and complex lets you survive a whopping 4 extra rounds from a gek at the cost of 10% movement penalty and 10k a pop. Not freaking worth it. you'll be better off with a basic rep mod than a complex plate.

2. Armor regen has potential, but needs work. Having constant regen even under fire is nice. It let's me keep up the pressure as shield tankers pull back to try to give their shields time to power up again. Unfortunately the passive skill is broken and provides no boost to regen rate. Once they fix that and add racial suit skills to boost that even more (gallente heavy? yes please.)

3. We need resistance mods. whats the point of having a large buffer if you arent able to use it to it's full potential?

It makes plenty of sense! 3% of a Scout's speed is greater than 3% of a heavy's speed. Therefore, scouts lose more speed than heavies, but of the same proportion.

What is this bunk logic that says scout's can't tank (BTW I'm not directing this part at 2 ton)? I see people suggesting that everything be based on percent, so that a scout will get less shields/armor from extenders/plates for the same CPU/PG as everyone else. Why? So heavies can get even MORE HP? Yes they are UP but adding more HP is a buff in the wrong direction sometimes....

On Topic: I honestly think that what the OP says is very true. People find Flux nades OP because they shield tank. But one thing to consider from armor plates is the CPU/PG use versus the HP given. Basic plates give you 65 more armor, for 1 PG and 10 CPU. That's a fricken steal compared to extenders.