Braced Heavy Bolter is in a very good place. Frighteningly effective in its area of effect, but with multiple counters at range and close up. It's taken a lot of tuning to get to this place. LSM actually has some of the best counters: Stalker Bolters. Remember, you don't need to kill them, you need to displace them. Personally, I'd like to see the HB equivalents on the other races brought up in effectiveness. The Shuriken Cannon and the Dakka Deffgun are noticeably less effective than the Heavy Bolter, especially at longer ranges. Autocannons seem to be in a mostly good place too, though their alpha strike capability is greatly increased due to latency. The rest of the heavy weapons don't benefit to such a large degree from bracing, so I'm going to assume you're largely talking about Heavy Bolter equivalents.
that is how warhammer 40k is. in most other warhammer games units that are "braced" rekt everything in front of it even more than in this game.
I must be a heavy bolter magnet then, because I get sniped from across the map by braced heavy bolters all the time. Feels silly.
I don't have a problem with braced heavy, but with walking & gunning heavy, HB players using it often as the weapon doesn't suffer that much from movement shooting. A reduced rotation spreed and increased spread while standing should be added, forcing player to take position and crouch for better aiming instead of playing Terminator.
The only thing that might need looking at is a limit to heavies. On fortress defense a wall of Heavy Bolters can be almost impossible to penetrate.
I think if anything heavies shouldn't have such a tight cone when hipfiring or even ADSing while on the move. It's a heavy machine gun, not a submachine gun and besides fulfilling Marine players rambo fantasies, it doesn't much if any sense. Leaving bracing alone, it's where heavies should shine, but reduce the ability to clear rooms at close range. If i get headshot by Abaddon's Disgrace at 3m again I'm gonna scream. They wanted the autocannon to be good at long range and bad at close range. And increasing cone for hipfire is how its done, and that wasnt done, and guess what the autocannon is good at both close and short range. To be entirely fair, Eldar and Ork heavies deserve this nerf too. I, a self-aware awful heavy player, scored 25 kills in a <5 minute game with the dakka deffgun. Less than 10 of those while braced. Guildmates of mine score 30+ kills on attack using a cannon like a shuriken catapult. It's absurd. Keep heavies good where they should be, don't give them advantages where they shouldn't have them. At the very least, remove suppression when unbraced. It makes it nigh impossible to dual with a heavy class at more than 10m since your chances of roll+melee to disrupt their fire is nil. I also agree with the sentiment already conveyed above this comment that making melee classes usable again will prevent the Heavpocalypse.
Almost all Chaos weapons at this current time literally kill you in either one or two shots. The Autocannon is literally an automatic sniper rifle with infinite range. I have never played a game with such unbalanced weapons. Eldar have to use half a clip to kill an enemy where as Chaos can "spray and pray" and clear a whole room. The skill cap for chaos is so low at the moment I can't imagine how it is even challenging to win in a pvp match. I usually never complain about weapons being overpowered but in this case the difference is so blatant you would have to be lying to yourself to say otherwise. I agree 100% with 3dbocatt's statement above. Melee needs to be strengthened, and Heavy needs to be good at where its meant to be, and crap at close range / hip fire / while moving etc...
If you remove suppression while unbraced fortresses would be impossible to take.Its not all you vs a heavy you know,you also have them on your team supporting you by suppressing the gun line tearing your team apart.. Also while on foot it takes the heavy some time to start firing so you could shoot a nade or get some headshots in before he starts shooting..if you engage a heavy head on while hes aware in any situation you are doing it wrong. Weapons don't need to be balanced this is a team game not a 1v1 dual game.
^This. The only thing that should be reduced is the amount of braindead people charging frontally against braced heavies.
