If you consider it in terms of a hot fix it's a very generous buff that Heavies should be very grateful for. CCP is usually very conservative when it comes to hot fixes, so this buff at least should make the class very effective in close quarters. I'm curious though when CCP was talking about a damage increase of 18 to HMG's that they meant the Boundless HMG instead of the standard HMG. I doubt it's the regular HMG's because that would be an increase of 4 damage and it's probably the Boundless HMG with an increase of 2.6 damage. The new Heavy buff is significant enough that I am considering going back to HMG's. They might not have the range I was used to, but Heavies should only be useful at close range anyways.

In your world, people just stand outside of a Heavy's 30m range and "touch" them. This renders the HMG useless.

What you have described is contrary to every "HMG" ever produced. Maybe they need to change the name of the weapon?

SRBBG - Short Range BB Gun.

It is basically a 5% dmg buff and a reduction of 5% to the dispersion of bullets. will help for sure, only testing will tell.

So you will kill faster than before
Die faster than before
hit efficiently a little further than before, about 5%, but when moving.

Not sure it is right, but looking at Wang last explanation, I think all weapon will be at 100% efficiency from now on, decreasing over distance. Which is good, since we were at 95% at optimal while AR at 110%. So basically AR wouldn't get any buff (+10%-10%=0%), while HMG and other guns would get 20% (5 from the eff.+10% from weaponry+5% from the weapon).

Wont be playing until monday most probably, so I wont test this until then I guess