OK, need to repeat how I use them I guess .
In deed, you canāt jet jump and shoot in the same turn (except a pistol of course).
But you can jet jump and bash. And trust me, bashing is some heavy damage very often followed by a daze (if you didnāt kill the target).
bash damage = strength x item_weight
letās say you start a Legendary run: in the beginning you dish out (14 x 5) = 70 damage (not cool but wait)
level 2, you pick ābrawlerā (50% bonus bash damage) and 4 more strength. damage is (18 x 5 x 1.5) = 135, already better and a good chance to daze starting Arthrons and Tritons (if not kill them).
level 3 you pick āwar cryā so the enemies are limited to 2AP (just like that).
etc ā¦ until you reach 30 strength where the damage becomes (30 x 5 x 1.5) = 225, not bad
Now if you happen to have āmelee specialistā (+20%) and/or ārecklessā (+30%) => damage is (30 x 5 x 2) = 300.
My heavies were in first line and donāt even bothered going in cover (unless there was a sniper lurking around, in which case I would approach more subtly). And once you get Fury, then Thor, no mission can be lost.
Good info, but this seems to me like the only way to actually play this game is to treat it as 3rd ed D&D and try to min/max between multiple classes on a single character build. If thatās the case, man did I back the wrong game.
I personally think the heavy class is one of the strongest classes in the game and he doesnāt even need to multi-class or take sniper armour to function well. If you want to keep him as a pure heavy then itās best to get access to the NJ tech, plus technicians. I think of the heavy as mainly a short ranged fighter - bash and war cry both push the heavy in this direction and also the fact his armour trades accuracy for defence.
However, his explosives and jetpack are also incredibly useful too for supporting your snipers and assaults by clearing enemy cover to line up good shots for his buddies and rage burst means that he can wreak the big nasties when heās leveled up - heās incredibly flexible. A heavy mob is one of the best ways to take on lairs too as they can just jump pack over to where the spawnery is located without having to navigate through all the mess on those maps.
By himself heās pretty tanky but he becomes a real tank when backed up by technicians to buff his armour and provide heals and if heās also given a clarity head cybernetic then he canāt be mind controlled either - a squad of high level technicians and heavies is strong enough to take on anything.
That said, if you plan to ally with Synedrion or Anu then youāre better off picking more snipers/assaults and playing to those factions strengths in other classes.
Heavy is very weak in compare to another classes. With heavy armor it has low speed and accuracy. Close combat fighter with 3AP for one shot and low speed - bad choice. Yes, in the few missions in the beginning you must have heavy to fight with new factions due to there armor. In all other cases heavy good only as second class to assault or sniper.
Other than the heavy, what other unit can utilize a grenade launcher and mounted missiles? With Boom Blast a heavy can launch 1 missile and fire the grenade launcher twice in 1 turn. With this long range, they donāt need much movement. One can augment heavies to give them better accuracy without sacrificing much armor.
With a Deceptor MG, the heavy doesnāt really need a ton of accuracy. Multi-class them with Sniper and they can use skills to lower the APs needed to fire their cannon or heavy machine gun plus up their accuracy.
Each class has its strengths and weaknesses, itās up to the player to find ways to counter the weaknesses and utilize their strengths.
Boom Blast, 1 Rocket (0AP!) and 1 normal Grenade (1AP), good against clustered enemies and even in the endgame with the virophage grenade devasting, plus shreds armor. Or ā¦
Bash (1AP), with the skill and good amount of strength you can disable many low Pandas
ā¦ and for sure Warcry to reduce the AP of all Enemies arround you.
Rageburst and the Helcannon is very nice even in the late game, I personally like it more than the Deceptor because of better accuracy.
Heavies, even without multiclassing, are strong throughout the whole game, but you have to utilize their strengths.
Yes snipers and assaults are also very good and in my first playthrough I basically spammed beserker assaults and pretty much ignored heavies besides the one you start with but I decided to focus on heavies this time round and in many ways I prefer them to the other 2 classes as theyāre so versatile. Itās a personal preference, all 3 starting classes have their strengths in my opinion
This game is about killing enemies in one or two turns. In that way, heavy much weaker, then other classes.
Grenade launcher firing only basic explosive and itās one of disadvantages of heavy.
Bionic torso with shield is much better for tanking damage, but it replace heavy armor and heavy canāt use rocket launcher. Itās another disadvantages.
If this game was tactical, then maybe mix of different classes with different roles will be necesary. But right now, when even sniper can have heavy armor with energy shield - slow, armored and with low accuracy class is not welcome in squad. On legendary difficulty at least.
Well Iāve been playing it on hero setting as opposed to legend, Iāll probably have a crack at legend next time I start a new runthrough. I understand why you donāt like the heavy, he has downsides but Iāve found them to be incredibly useful - one of the most useful skills in the game in my opinion is warcry, it shuts down so much from the enemy and itās only 3 WP.
On legendary Iāll probably cross class heavy and assault as I feel those are the strongest 2 classes.
I also agree that the shield cybernetic is the tankiest thing you can get but I prefer the utility of the rocket launcher and jetpack, itās personal preference I guess.
Rageburst is great with the paralyzing sniper rifle. (Just wish there was more use for captives, since I donāt use mutations.)
One of my deadliest builds is Heavy > Assault with sniper rifle proficiency, even better if you can get quarterback and bombard proficiency. With zero AP reload, you can throw four grenades in one turn, plus launch a missile. The +1 willpower per kill ability works great on levels with worms.
replace the heavy helmet and pants with a snipers (banshee if its PP stuff), you can also replace the shirt if you donāt want the extra armor and the jetpack
the heavy gun is meanāt for short to medium range, its only good at further ranges if it involves shooting really big stuff
the rage ability is great for close range destruction of well everything that a siren or chiron or scylia or anything gigantic
if you want range pick either sniper or soldier for a secondary role and get their class specific primary weapon though personally the soldier is better because you can fire an assault rifle twice if you didnāt move
.