So you base your opinions on a totally different gameplay than others are experiencing ( due to your in house rules).
At the same time things that are considered OP by the players are not so to the devs (for instance they dont find +100% infiltrator damage OP) and thus nothing will change.
This makes whole discussion sort of pointless.
Actually, not according to Snapshot stats. What I mean is that my in house rules are about avoiding certain builds (like AR + RC, or Explosives + Sneak Damage, that sort of thing) and Snapshot stats apparently donât show these as overweight - this is why they are taking their sweet time dealing with them, because they are only an issue for some players. So basically players largerly either donât know about these meta builds, or are also avoiding them.
I used to have more restrictions before Chtulhu related to Speed/Dash and multiple use of abilities, but I donât need them anymore.
Wow I TOTALLY disagree on this one with you MadSkunky, the heavy was the only one capable of dispatching this frog only because he was close enough to it to get there with 1AP. Thatâs not a good example. Most assaults can close in, snipers can shift around, but heavies can only close in for the next turn. Theyâll only shoot if theyâre already next to the enemy.
Your example and screens are even the best ones to describe the problem⌠if youâre in open space itâs much easier to move the heavy around and fire, than when youâre inside buildings. I had a Pure mission (the last one with Subject 24) where every enemy was inside buildings. All of my soldiers were capable of attacking but the heavy, because he couldnât close in with the jetpack. Yes I tried blowing walls, but most times they were behind 2 walls and some cover and it was not effective either.
Hilariously, my heavy killed Subject 24 with one Hel shot, on overwatch from afar, when he moved way back from a door and the heavy got los. It was an almost impossible shot, a true snipe. The heavy was outside the building, in fact close to another building entirely, and there was but a brief moment were the enemy was visible through the door space as he was way behind the door position inside the building.
This was in a building ⌠?
I have my heavies almost close together with my assaults, or I should better said my assaults close by my heavies, even in buildings. Yes, sometimes they lack behind because they ARE slow as hell. On the other side they have the possibility to come from the rooftop faster than my assaults (for instance in this final pure mission on the upper floors).
Edit:
It seems to me that we keep talking about different tactics here. If I align my tactics with the heavies, it works out quite well. When I align my tactics with my assaults, my heavies also often lag behind (as often my snipers). And now the Heavies in their current form are useless?
What do you want? Fast, accurate and also highly protected heavies? I highly doubt you will ever get this âŚ
Never talked about useless nor OP, youâre losing arguments! 
I once forgot what you wrote earlier, now I forgive you for doing the same 
Yes I did take my heavies (there were 2 in this mission) into the rooftop first. That did not help much in this case of reaching the inside enemies afterwards, but I did soften one guy up there with bash and killed him afterwards with an assault doing 2 dashes + I think it was a close shotgun that maybe had the bonus perk to shotguns, it was a cthulhu play.
What I think would be a good option is a small increment to range for current Hel and MG, plus a new, better version of them for mid-late game when most pandorans have armor. Better yet would be the mechanics for gaining accuracy bonus for stationary shots (preparing the weapon to shoot in the next turn or using 4 AP to shoot or overwatch with +X accuracy). The heavy mechanic from the gears game was mentioned and would also be a good fit, as would be overwatch based on remaining APs although thatâs another matter.
Armor could also use a small upgrade but I find this less important.
Touche 
Iâve never opposed upgrading the Heavy, even though I have my doubts about the usefulness of a stability stance. This makes the Heavy even more immobile and I donât see that many ways to use something like that to good use (pure basis, where would you use your Heavy to do something like that?).
Honestly, actually Iâm at the point to just simply get rid of the -30% acc penalty from the heavy armor and then we see.
I also insist on a Jump & Shot skill, that would be ossom
Edit:
To come again back to the topic of this thread. What I say is that the Deceptor as it is in the game is not really awful. In the hands of an Assault it is better than most ARs, in the hands of a Sniper it is a very accurate MG on range (for sure not as accurate as sniper rifles, but try it, it is a killer at ranges around 15-20 tiles). But in the hands of an Heavy it needs special circumstances that it can shine and of course when you can do a rage burst.
So the problem seems to me not the gun itself but the main class that should use it, the Heavy. And thats why Iâm not convinced with a solution that simply only makes the gun better (more range, more damage, what ever).
Deceptor is a bad weapon, not because itâs a bad one but we need to use it even at end game because we donât have any other when other weapon types somehow get an update.
Heavy is a bad class, not because itâs useless but he cannot use heavy weapons good enough as it has not usable skills with those weapons rather then rage burst.
Heavy is bad armor, not because itâs not good at defence (i think itâs still not enough), it does not let you use heavy weapons with those penalties.
So DLC 4 - âHoly Gattlingâ will solve many problems. But until that, there is not much to doâŚ
It is still the weapon with the most possible damage output per shot that one of our soldier can use directly even in the late game (this way I except the OP turrets 
). How much more you would like to have? Like the Scorcher AT turret with 60 x 10 and 24 range? Holymolyshit ⌠
I really, really would like to have an updated MG or Cannon, but I doubt then we will see another nerf on the Deceptor and also the Hel II before.
Edit:
OK, I thinkt this is probably a good time to tell what I have in my head to get something like an upgradepath for the MGs in this game.
Thoughts?
Need an energy version too. Gattling laser should have a great acc but maybe low bullet, slower, no penetrarion.
The whole discussion here can actually be argued quite simply:
Which opponents with which weapons are the most dangerous?
Snipers are dangerous, for sure. Also heavy BUT not with his Deceptor, but with their BOMBS! If AI would also use Boom Blast, then there would be an outcry and whining after an unplayable game. The AI would only have received what the player actually has.
Which opponents are the harmless?
Forsaken (low weapon range, slow and suicidal)
And heavy with their heavy weapons (not bombs)
Seriously: these are the types of opponents that I can safely ignore and that I only take care of in the last turn, because only then they have reached the range of their weapons (also because of their speed).
Edit: What do you mean with âslowerâ? 4 AP to fire?
Slower is not logical yeah. So nice one you got there. Give it to me! Give it now!
This Gattling Laser Gun is a great example how broken all the actual damage and acc buffs and debuffs are.
Lets fix the values to 25 x 20 and 20 range.
A Heavy with full heavy armor (-30% acc) and no additional buffs from skills would have a hard time against targets with all around at least 20 armor. Without any help from others that shred the target he cannot deal more than 100 damage (25-20 x 20) and would have a hit chance of around 50% on 14 tiles range.
A Sniper/Infiltrator with Strongman (+20% damage +20% acc), Reckless (+20% damage -20% acc), Sneak Attack (+100% damage), Master Marksman (+30% acc), full Synedrion sniper armor (+50% acc), together +140% damage and +80% acc (=range), could deal at the same target maximum 800 damage (60-20 x 20) and would have a hit chance of around 50% on 36 tiles range.
In short:
max 100 damage on 14 range vs max 800 damage on 36 range
â x8 damage at around x2,5 range
I upgrade heavies to assault class to avoid using useless guns. Even some of living weapons I find bad. Not to mention that skill to shoot 5 times in area, very unprecise.
Even with assault Synderion laser rifle works best for me.
So I find late game shred weapons and upgraded lasers quite dissapointing - upgraded lasers seems not to be able to be used by assault class (am I wrong). Piercing class has lower stats then original e.g. snipers from Synderion and NJ.
I just did not like this sandbox lvling. I would like to have proper classes with special weapon and armor and good skill variations.
I am not use it, I find it odd. Impossible balancing, unavoidable broken mixes, nerfing nice things because of terminators.
Yeah I am old school maybe but I will make a mod about this as fast as I can when modding tools come.
Thatâs it and for me the dark side of all this sandboxing.
You canât avoid this. Itâs like adding different abilities to chess pieces and then try to rebalance. Itâs impossible. So I am using single classes as assault, sniper and mechanics, at least for a long time. But heavy⌠Oww my heavy⌠Heavy alone is sad.
DLC 6 rise of the heaviesâŚ
@MadSkunky you asked about how the stability stance would be used by the heavy⌠for example you could perch in the top of a building and machine gun enemies to death. You would miss some bullets but would hit others and be able to do damage even if you did not move. Take a look at some Gears Tactics videos and skip to the part where a heavy is used, just to see what it looks like. I know theyâre very different games, its just to understand the mechanic better.
@Everyone: I just had a thought⌠what if soldiers could have an accuracy bonus for HW based on strength? Meaning that the soldierâs more able to secure the weapon in place. The same way melee weapons get more damage⌠they would be highly inaccurate with low strenght, maybe the way they are today at 18 str. Each point into str could give +0.5 or +1 range so that at 30 str you wouldâve +6 or +12 range only. Itâs not much at +6 (am I right? Or not?), you wouldâve to invest a lot of SPâs into it, and would take your sweet time reaching it.
As I said I just had this idea, I havenât thought it through. What do you guys think? The âaimâ (pun intended) would be for +10% to +20% (+15%?) accuracy improvement at 30 str, I guess. This would push heavies to be more strong while keeping less mobile (since you wouldnât spend points on speed), a bit more accurate, and also more durable as they would have more hit points, easing the armor problem too. When the player finally got to 30 str, most enemies would be armored and have higher HP anyway, so not OP.
@VOLAND knows the gameâs maths and most details, Iâm sure he could come up with the best values. That is, if he doesnât find a valid reason to shoot the idea down
I know how it works on gears tactics, I have also looked some videos. But the only times I saw that this could really be used effectively was when the player was swarmed by enemy units and had to hold a certain point. That happens in GT pretty often from what I saw. But that is exactly my point, because I donât see that many situations in PP. I did not get swarmed and have to hold a certain point, mostly I have to engage and that ASAP. 
Normal melee weapon attacks (Strike) doesnât profit from strength, only the bashing.
But this suggestion sounds not that bad for me. Only for HW, i guess? Other classes would have the same way to get the bonus if they have HW proficiency (?) but have also to invest in strength to get there.
Hmmm âŚ
+6 is pretty much for a Deceptor which comes from 11 and ends then at 17 range (>+50% acc boost), and +12 would more than double the actual range (11 â 23, >+100% and better that NJ assault rifles)
At the end it is still better to change to sniper armor to get an even better accuracy/range.
I think any solution should be combined with the heavy armor in some form, otherwise we will always have complaints about how useless a Heavy in his own armor is and the âbest way to go with heavies is to switch the armorâ.
I suppose Strength could reduce the penalty to accuracy from HA, at a rate of 2% for each point in Strength above 15.
Though perhaps not easy to explain to the player. For instance, comparatively few players know how bash scaling with strength works (itâs weight of the weapon * STR, btw). Or how hand thrown grenade range scales with STR for that matter (I donât: I can see that operatives with higher Strength can throw grenades further, but I donât know the formula). Iâm sure that many players donât even realize that HPs and resistance to paralysis also scales with Strength.
Come to think of it, arenât there enough incentives to invest in Strength already?