HA's balance in PS2

[SKYeXile]

Originally Posted by Coreldan

Just to make sure, you do realize that "highest TTK" means it kills the slowest, not fastest?

Just making sure, cos your post sorta felt controversial with itself

i always sget them confused, light assault is said to have the lowest TTK :/

[Talek Krell]

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

i always sget them confused, light assault is said to have the lowest TTK :/

Oh. Well that does seem rather odd.

[NewSith]

I know this thread is about HA in general, and its niche on the battlefield, but I'd like to say something "not exactly on topic"

The HAs were balanced in theory. The problem was that When Lasher Theory had met Practice it all came down to enemy's strafing, something hitscan JH and fast-travelling bullets of MCG could mostly ignore. The Lasher Design was flawed from the beggining, despite its very promising idea.

Right now we have ES LMG, MCG and JH, so I propose "wait 'till beta" on them. Lasher, however, needs to be redesigned into a close-range LMG with projectiles forsaken, imo. This way when it comes to actual manyvsmany combat in beta Lasher power will be easily adjustable.

EDIT: ES LMG*

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

i always sget them confused, light assault is said to have the lowest TTK :/

Seems to be a common mix up. I saw another guy using it the same way earlier. I think it's because we tend to equate things like high and fast as being the same, where in this case they are opposites.

If LA has the quickest time to kill, that will be pants on head retarded. Hopefully it isn't that way, at least by the end of closed beta if nothing else.

[SKYeXile]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

Seems to be a common mix up. I saw another guy using it the same way earlier. I think it's because we tend to equate things like high and fast as being the same, where in this case they are opposites.

If LA has the quickest time to kill, that will be pants on head retarded. Hopefully it isn't that way, at least by the end of closed beta if nothing else.

it was in one of the PC gamer articles i thought, i cant find it said again...also the way it was written did leave it open that HA could kill just as fast.

[Xyntech]

Originally Posted by SKYeXile

it was in one of the PC gamer articles i thought, i cant find it said again...also the way it was written did leave it open that HA could kill just as fast.

Considering how much has changed over time and how open the devs seem to be about changing stuff once beta data comes in, at least if that was true in earlier builds it may never see the light of release.

Even if I have lower armor, why am I ever going to go HA if LA can do just as much damage and fly around too?

Well, to be fair, I'm probably not going to go HA much regardless of how much damage they do. But that's beside the point.

I'm still somewhat concerned with what they will do to differentiate HA's role from MAXes

[Warborn]

I don't agree with the premise. Heavy assault sacrifices mobility and utility for armor and firepower. Balancing it with the MAX will be the real trick, but in a straight-up fight HA should be unambiguously better than what medics/engineers/LA are packing. A MCG/whatever should simply be a better close range weapon than shotguns or SMGs, and the heavy cycler/whatever should be better than their standard counterparts, period. That is the price of playing a class that can fly, or that can rez, or that can build stuff/repair. You get utility at the expense of head-on combat ability. The strength of the LA class should be flanking/attacking from unexpected areas, and if it simply flies into a direct fight with a HA guy it should lose, every time, skill aside.

[Talek Krell]

Originally Posted by Xyntech

I'm still somewhat concerned with what they will do to differentiate HA's role from MAXes

That occurred to me as well. The HA does have his damage shield or whatever, and presumably grenades, as well as the recharging shield. So I guess there's some differentiation. Maybe MAXes will end up being the heavy brawlers while HA ends up acting as a direct support role?

[Kriegson]

Roles aside, I think some issues that could potentially balance out some of the weapons I'm familiar with:

Jackhammer-
Secondary rounds, Slugs.
This would work great in utilizing the bullet trajectory system to make heavy, inaccurate rounds but potentially adding range to the jackhammer for those who learn how to arc an automatic shotgun :P

MCG
As mentioned before, needs recoil. What would be fantastic is if they could implement the recoil in a fashion in which a weapon with rotating barrels would pull. In a spiral, in the direction of the spin.

This would make it feel completely different than most other automatic weapons, and require a special bit of expertise to control it effectively.