Played literally a couple matches, but got enough kills and deaths to figure out it's "role".
Basically 1-10m you're main enemy is the shotgun. The HMG is effective in this range, and with concentrated fire, you'll get the kill. I faced Militia Assault all the way up to Proto Suits. Up close the proto assault poses a clear threat, but in most cases a good player would either run away, or kill you.
Shotgun? Allot trickier. Because of the optimal range on the HMG, which the numbers might say is 15m, it feels more like 10m, by the time the shotgun gets in HIS range, it might be too late to take him out. Especially if he's shield tanking.
MD's? Clear winner against HMG's. You can't get close enough, fast enough is basically the problem. The range on the HMG doesn't allow for keeping people's heads down.
Past 10m going into 15m is where things get hazy. At this range it takes ALLOT of bullets to take down Adv suits, even suits that have taken damage. Not because of damage, well tbh a little, but the BULLET SPREAD. Nerfing the range, but not buffing the horrible bullet spread makes it a tripple nerf imo.
Dmg, range, and not touching the bullet spread.
15m-20m range, it's more like farting against thunder at this point. If you wanna feel like you're doing something or if someone is really weak, yeah. Spray in the direction and hope you get and assist or better yet a kill.
Now being a heavy myself, i try to be as objective as possible. I'm aware we got a buff in HP, and tbh, it's needed with the amount of bullets required to kill. We go down just as easy with team fire as we did before.. Nothing changed there. I'm also aware we got our prices reduced, but one can argue every class got their prices reduced.
Does the price drop make a difference? My Adv set up is 60k+ ISK. Adv suit + Adv HMG. + complex extenders. If you die more than 3 times, which is VERY LIKELY, your profit margin is slim to none. You can try running cheaper fits, but that means your killing efficiency and your chances of staying alive longer drops. It's looking like a high risk, low reward atm.
ONLY way to make your heavy set up profitable, is to have a Logi player tied around your neck.
Personally, I would like to see a buff in either range, dmg, or bullet spread. The effect of these things put together makes the HMG feels like a toy gun.
People always bring up the argument that HMG are suppose to be used as a supportive role. Well, how can we support with no range? How can we help with low dmg, and how can we keep people's head down with a bullet spread as bad as it is now?
As always, opinions, and arguments for / against are welcomed. Keep the trolling to a minimum please.
Update: CCP Remnant wrote:I don't hate the Heavies. Or the HMG.
Well, actually, I hate everyone on the planet equally so technically I guess that means I hate no-one (we're all snowflakes!)
Good to see some intelligent debate and solid points in this thread, so thanks for that! Just wanted to jump in an explain the thinking behind some of the recent changes.
- The SS skill had to go. It should never have been there in the first place as it pushed all weapons well beyond their intended ranges and with more racial variants coming into the game (rail rifle, combat rifle etc.) it was more important than ever to have cleaner range profiles for all weaponry.
- The Sentinel was designed primarily as a point defense role. His speed and slow turn rate make him unsuitable for frontline combat. His presence should make anyone think twice before approaching a position. I'm not sure but it seems to me that a lot of the complaints about the ineffectiveness of the HMG stem from the fact that people want to use it to lead the charge into enemy territory. The HMG is not well suited for use in open areas but it comes into its own when used in outposts where targets are confined to narrow spaces. And at close range, the HMG is still very effective, I believe.
The HMG's optimal range is up to 30m and max. effective range caps out at 50m. (This is currently a hard cap - all weapons stop doing any damage beyond their max range - but we're going to be fixing this soon. Like soon soon, not SOON(tm).) What it needs is not a damage buff (it kills just fine) but a gentler damage falloff curve so that it can be used as an effective suppression weapon in the 50-70m range. As an attacker, right now it's too easy to shrug off the hits and close the gap between yourself and the person wielding the HMG so that's something I'd like to address as soon as possible.
Other smaller tweaks like lessening kick (which gets pretty excessive as the weapon nears its heat threshold) and a modest improvement in how quickly the weapon reaches optimal dispersion should make it feel much better.
Anyway, thanks for the ten-page thread, guys. I look forward to the next ten pages!
CCP Remnant answers a few questions after his initial reply. Starts on
page 10.Last Update:
CCP Cmdr Wang wrote:Posting the following info on upcoming changes to weapon damage and HMG balance on behalf of CCP Rement since he's knee deep in making these changes. He will also be answer questions and discussing this topic in this thread as well.
GÇó In the next hot-fix weapons will all get a 10% damage increase to compensate for the removal of the Weaponry skill bonus.
GÇó HMG damage buffed to 18 HP (including aforementioned 10% increase) and given a 5% dispersion buff.
GÇó In the near future, we will address range issues by removing the hard stop that currently takes place at maximum weapon range.