Good morning all,

Took a bit of time today to start diving into the PTS and I have a few concerns I wanted to express regards to Heavy. It looks like there have been a number of attempts to rebalance them, which I think is fine, but some things are concerning.

First, thanks so much for all your hard work on this game! It has been an absolute blast. I've got hundreds of hours into it at this point, so it's fair to say I love the product you've made. Pretty much all of my time (outside of the campaign) has been playing Heavy because it's the class that really speaks to what I like in team shooters akin to Operations Mode. Know that my comments come from a place of love for this class and a desire to see more of what I love about it rather than less.

1) Multi-Melta Perk: Trick Shot (new) feels like a major step down from the 2 segments of Fast Regeneration (current). A lot of what I end up doing when playing Multi-Melta is to play swarm interference for my team, so they can handle Majoris and greater adversaries without the constant chip damage of the swarm. Fast Regeneration rewards that kind of play by alleviating the long wait for armor to recharge by reducing it when killing swarms. It's nice that Trick Shot gives a guaranteed armor segment back (whereas Fast Regeneration's -2.5 or 5 seconds on armor cooldown may make no difference if you just get hit immediately after), but it feels noticeably worse for me.

2) When I consider a perk on my Heavy, the first thing that goes through my mind is, "Does this help me press/hold Left click more than I already do?". I can't speak for everyone of course, but the reason I play Heavy is I enjoy the fun that comes from firing a Heavy Bolter into a swarm of enemies, or launching large charged shots from a Plasma Cannon at a boss, or dodge rolling and launching waves of melta from a Multi-Melta. I'm not looking to get into brawling range, and if I do, I'm looking to get out of that situation ASAP so I can get back to doing the thing that I love doing: mowing down swarms with a Heavy Bolter or Multi-Melta, or launching balls of Plasma at a boss.

With that in mind, I've found many of the Heavy Prestige perks to be rather disappointing. There is love for the Plasma Cannon in Overcharge and Perseverance, and Restorative Capacity is absolutely a banger, but Exponential Force? Best Defense? Auxiliary Reload? Why are Prestige Perks, these major boons rewarded for a lot of play, building on something a Heavy wants to do as little of as possible? If we wanted to melee, there are 4 other classes built around it. Auxiliary Reload is a fraction away from being interesting, but why is it rewarding pistol ammo? Why can't it be that killing an Extremis is worth a magazine for the big gun that is the entire reason we play Heavy?

If the concern is that Heavy is doing too much damage, lower the damage. I would gladly go for less damage if it meant I could fire more.

The worst time for a Heavy is when our ammo is strained and we're struggling along to the next ammo box. With good play and trigger discipline, we can minimize how often that happens (and that's a good thing!). However, sometimes RNG is against even the best of us and we end up in a tough spot without ammo. Giving us more melee power is an answer to that, but it isn't a satisfying answer that plays into what many of us enjoy about Heavy. I don't know what the right answer is, but I strongly encourage reworking some of these to both, 1) work for Heavy Bolter, Multi-Melta, and now Heavy Bolt Rifle instead of just the Plasma Cannon, and 2) give us a way to keep shooting the big guns we love in those tough RNG stretches (even if it's at a massive penalty or cost, like using up armor or having significantly reduced firing speed speed or something like that).

Thanks so much yet again for all your hard work! Really appreciate it.

P.S. Any chance we can get some pelts on the Space Wolf armor? Can't play a true Long Fang if we don't have at least some furs!