This post brings up some interesting and important points but I would suggest we all slow down a little for a second.

We moaned because Veterans "didn't feel veteran-y enough" - they are too easy to kill and don't feel special. Now we are starting to nerf them back before we've actually seen their "extra survivability" in action. They might not be as strong/survivable as you assume.

With regards their spawning; leave it for now at 2/3 per match as controlled by the player or have it on a timer basis to be used within a certain time frame when the player chooses. Two things for me are certain;

• Leave the control of their spawning to the player ie - no limitations based on what other players have chosen.
• Do not link their spawning to kills/performance.

I don't like being limited in my choices by other players.

I don't like being steamrolled by a team only for them to gain a further advantage and steamroll us further.

If they avoid these 2 pitfalls I think the veterans will be exciting an will hopefully bring a new dynamic to the game.

I won't touch on what's required to get the classes during a match, as better people than me are trying to figure out a balanced route to that already
I, however, will try to explain where the terminator equivalents should shine, and where they should be outmatched by even basic classes.

Starting off, the Chaos/Loyalist Terminator, as I don't think much will differ between the two.

They will most likely default to using an enhanced storm bolter and power fist, as well as the iconic supertough armour.
They're going to dominate enclosed spaces where you can't escape the storm of bullets they'll be sending out, and you'll be crushed if you engage him in melee, as a terminator would strike much faster with a power fist and won't be staggered by basic class's power attacks or bashes.

Out in the open, though, is a much, MUCH different story. The stormbolter's inaccurate past a certain range, he can be kited, vehicles will be shredding and knocking him about. Hell, a lascannon equivalent is going to lock on and strip him of his valuable armour! He's too slow and outranged to counterattack infantry, and massively outgunned by vehicles. He will DEFINITELY be tough to take down, and a few basic classes may die in the process. The terminator is the cream of the crop, after all.

Then, come the Elder Wraithguard/Wraithblades. These are different, because there are two distinct loadouts for them. One uses a reality-tearing cannon, and the other uses a sword/axe and shield. In their respective specialty areas, they'll be tough to defeat. Out in the open, Wraithguard dominate the ranged field. In the open, and in enclosed spaces, Wraithblades slice through infantry once they get into range.
The cons? They're not organic. Let me explain: number one, their fragility, they sacrifice super toughness for the ability to sprint. They'll still be tough, but notably more fragile than their counterparts. Number two, their nature. Simply put, without a spiritseer, I don't think there'll be a way to heal them. Anything that gets through the armour stays, and that builds up over time.

And now onto the funnest one. The Ork Meganob. They'll probably be as tough, if not tougher, than the Terminators, but they'd be heavily focused on melee, and I doubt they'd have much range to get. They're slow, so they could never get into melee combat, you think, but I, believe that they'll have some form of bullrush ability. On a cooldown, mind you, that sends the at full speed straight ahead, and any enemy they collide with that isn't also a Terminator is ragdolled and thrown into the air, but halts the Meganob. (Colliding with vehicles knocks them back and stuns like a heavy attack from a power klaw. Colliding with a wall or other obstacle staggers.)
The Meganob will dominate in enclosed spaces, even more profoundly than Terminators because of their charge and massive melee capability.

There is, I believe, a fatal flaw.
The Meganob has next to no ranged capability, and extremely slow with a cooldown movement ability. This means they suffer against mobile enemies, and heavy weapons users, being painfully vulnerable in the open.

Be aware, these are just theories and suggestions, but I like this format to the Terminator equivalents. I may do an Elite specialty chart.

A slight problem

Wraithguard are probably the most durable and slowest of the heavies due to them not being organic and their gun is probably as a short and as weak as the warp hunter and they use a weaker variant and have a fire delay like the rokkit launcha, plus I doubt we will have wraithblades since no dual wield animation exist unless they get power axes and shimmer shields and power axes are not the ideal melee meta due to slow speed.

They are tougher and have more damage than any other variant but probably have the slowest speed and shortest range out of all the heavies and most notably can't fight in melee unless they give up all their guns while every other heavy using their fist/claw can pose a threat to infantry and vehicle alike.

In sort they function the complete opposite of what you said and are very meh at range since they are slow and easy to exploit and their weapon glows as they slowly try to ready a shot although I guess they would be the superior when fighting over heavies since they excel at shooting individual guys like heavies and tanks and hitting very hard when they do, although their DPS vs a storm boltor/shoota and the time it takes the fire would have to be tested when they actually release.

They are also made of Wraithbone which repairs with psychic contact which all Eldar healing is.

For Nobs I swear Mega Nobs use twin linked shootas which are basically storm/twin boltors so them and Termies are kinda similar in function although I expect them to have Wraith style stats with a Termie style kit of versatility. although I would like them to give aoe buffs to close Orks with a boss pole or something as that would be cool.

My suggestion for Wraithguard was based on the sense of some form of balancing so that they're not juggernauts that can't be stopped by anything short of a salvo of lascannons. Also, I believe dual wielding and two handed weapons are in development, you can't have Wraithguard without Wraithblades! They don't just use Power Axes, either, they're specially crafted Ghost axes, which would destroy anything short of a power fist if they clanged.

Meganobs do indeed have kustom shoot as, which are extremely fast firing weapons. However, just like other shoota weapons, it'll be incredibly inaccurate and drop off quickly, so it'll be a short range sprayer at best. The storm bolter would far outclass it in medium to long range, but the kustom shoota would fire so many bullets that at short range you'd be hard pressed to not be shredded.

But as I said, Meganob will probably be easily kited and destroyed by tanks and las-equivalents in the open. The idea of an AOE buff around the Meganob is appealing, because it makes the Meganob a great supporting role even when shielding a mob of works with his body.

Side note: Terminator equivalent defensive bashes should be a punch with the gun/shield hand, dealing sixty damage and staggering (normal Dbashes do thirty as I've tested in the garrison, perhaps mitigated by toughness and/or armour.

I find being the slowest and countered by moving behind a wall within 3 second in a range fight and being unable to fight melee units and win is a pretty big weakness for a juggernaut and if anything would make them very weak.

Same with the Wraithblades being slow and melee with no gun or gap closer will make them pathetic outside of cap rooms without some combat charge mechanic .

How I like to see the heavies are (very simplified):
Termies being good at everything, storm boltor for medium and short range with a power fist for AV and melee dominance with very good armour making them have great sustain.

Mega Nobs will be the same but with a higher number of melee weapons over the others and have wraith like health stats and maybe have Boss pole buffs, like a stronger squad banner.

Chaos Termies would have less weapons compared to LSM but could take Marks to alter the Termie into a role with it, perhaps they can alter from Armour to Health build compared to LSM or can become snipers with an Auto cannon

Wraiths are the most durable of all with very high toughness and health but are bad at range fights due to poor gun mechanics and is unable to fight melee

They can get rid of all firearms fot melee dominance but give up all range capabilities as a result

The thing with Wraithguard is they are a wall designed to go hand in hand with a warlock, he is meh at range and melee but his gun is still very dangerous yet easy to counter, this gives into agro tank like playstyle, they are a threat but not as big as it seems, he will get shot but then with warlock help allies can kill these engaged enemies who are distracted, they are MMO style tanks in a sense, it feels much like a Carnifex, big and scary but can only kill like 2 a turn which is not that threatening in the grand scheme of things.

On the filp side I see Wraithblades being very good defenders and siege breakers.

This is why I look forward to seeing Heavies get added because I really wan't to see how devs go about making them and their playstyle because what I described is very fitting of Eldar right now, they suck without Teamwork

why dont they make these vets/elites/heroes specific sqaud classes...like for example:
theres a game of refinery olipsis of Orks vs Space Marines, both faction in this match have 4, 5 or 10 man squads
both Alpha squads consist of the Alpha squad Leader being a Hero, so SM's would maybe be a captain while the orks get a small Warboss or something (considering withing EC fluff this is a rather large waagh i wouldnt be surprised if Skarbliutz had smaller warbosses under him like Thrakka in during The War of Armegedon) meanwhile the REST of Alpha Squad consists of elites, so maybe Termies or vets/sergeants for SM, and Meganobs or normal Nobs for Orks, ect.
however Squads Bravo through Delta have instead their Squad Leaders are Vets while the rest of the squads consist of jsut basic classes (so basically bravo through delta are weaker than alpha squad alone! but each consists of quiker/ spammable infanty, SPAM DEM BOYZ!)

infact EC could share the mechanic Planetside 2 has for Alpha Squad Leader when he makes a platoon in which he is allowed to ping missions/ objectives for all the squads and his own!

i feel this would make the elites more of a rare but noticable site within the game (which they really should be) as well as making people actually want to be a sqaud leader within the game! hell this would even work to even greater effect if the game goes Open World (which i really hope and pray for)

TLDR: make the squads within EC work similar to Planetside 2's squad system while also only allowing the sqaud leaders as vets/elites/heroes!

I think I understand where you're coming from now, and I very much agree with it. Wraithguard using short ranged but powerful guns are going to be excellent at holding points, and Wraithblades with a charge ability would be excellent at aggressive play.

I believe the term you're looking for is Distraction Carnifex. It's used when you talk about something that looks big and scary, so that everyone's going to focus fire on it while the real danger goes ahead without any harm.

Simplifying it more, Wraithblades work with teams of Elder to make pushes and hold points, while Wraithblades are more like the leaders of the charge; they go in, followed by Howling Banshees, Dire Avengers, and other assault-based classes, and cut a swathe through enemy defences. While defending, however, they can protect multiple people with the Shimmershield.

I think that the only way we can get Wraithguard to a non-useless state it to have Wraithcannons 1-shot everything (including termies). I mean, if your stupid enough to engage him and stay in LoS of this slow, short range, long-charging gun. You deserve to be blown to smithereens.

I think that would work with a couple considerations.

1.) How fast will termies actually move? If they are moving half the speed of a regular marine, then the charge up time on the Wraithcannon would have to be VERY long to somehow miss the Termie because the Termie will be a large target, and it could take the Termie longer than 3 seconds just to get to cover even if he's pretty close. A long charge-up won't matter (at least against termies) if the termies move at half the speed of smell.

2.) Will Termies have their teleport pack? If Termies move slow, but have a telepack that works like the JPA's jumpack (with a long cooldown, like a minute) that can propel said termie 10m let's say...then that changes the rules entirely and would completely change how we look at balancing Wraithguard as well.

Just some food for thought.

The range wouldn't be that much. A terminator could say, just sprint to the Wraith and smack him in the face.