Currently, heavy is outclassed by every other class in terms of damage on VSH, and at this time he is mostly just an easy target for hale, much like sentries, (except they have a lot of knockback and can be rebuilt by engineers who also obviously build dispensers and such, making him a lot better than heavy.) Not only that but it's not as easy for him to escape from hale anymore. The most I see a heavy do nowadays is up to 3000 damage, and even if he's ubered hale can make a very easy escape through super jump. Because of how hard it is to do damage and how easy it is to get killed, heavy isn't a really fun class to play. Here are a couple ideas I had in mind to buff him. Not all of them need to be included should he be buffed.
Bring back his health to 450.
Months ago heavy used to have 450 health which allowed him to take three hits from hale. Even with 400 health, heavy only takes two hits from hale. By the time he stops revving up his minigun, hale has already gotten a hit in making it impossible for a heavy to escape using the knockback you take if you're hit in the air. This would also make it easier for a medic or pyro to save the heavy through airblast/uber and give him time to escape.
Give his miniguns a lot more knockback.
The easiest way heavies get killed is when hale super jumps to them and hale uses the weighdown, allowing a one hit kill from hale after the stomp damage with no time for the heavy to escape. Sentries usually stop hale mid super jump, so heavy should be able to, at least with a weapon like the brass beast (with how slow this gun is, it's way too hard to do consistent damage to hale unless he's close, and usually that's when he's super jumping towards you and you'll be dead in a few seconds.)
Remove the double damage taken on the GRU and bring back the 7 health loss per second.
This change happened when VSH2 was first introduced. While it wasn't a very good change, heavy had 450 health so he was still able to make an escape using hale's knockback. However since heavies health was nerfed, escaping using knockback is usually not possible and even if a heavy decides to run away with this weapon, hale will catch up and one shot him anyway. If the double damage taken was removed and the health loss per second was brought back, it'd make the GRU a more viable weapon for escape.
Bring back the natascha slowdown.
The natascha was changed back to stock again months back for unknown reasons, removing the slowdown it had on hale. This weapon made heavy a great support class and an actual threat, as the slowdown made it much easier for backstabs, market gardens, etc. Minicrits from taunts should be removed on this weapon however, as the damage penalty wasn't too harsh if you were to take advantage of the minicrits. Perhaps a health penalty of one hundred could also be included so hale could have a much easier time taking out heavies with only one hit, since multiple heavies using this weapon may be too much of an advantage.
Overall, these changes would make heavy a much more useful class. Bringing back the natascha especially would made him more useful, as the slowdown during the time it was in the game allowed him to save other classes lives. As of right now engineer is a more useful class, and all other classes like demo and spy can deal a lot more damage.
Bring back his health to 450.
Months ago heavy used to have 450 health which allowed him to take three hits from hale. Even with 400 health, heavy only takes two hits from hale. By the time he stops revving up his minigun, hale has already gotten a hit in making it impossible for a heavy to escape using the knockback you take if you're hit in the air. This would also make it easier for a medic or pyro to save the heavy through airblast/uber and give him time to escape.
Give his miniguns a lot more knockback.
The easiest way heavies get killed is when hale super jumps to them and hale uses the weighdown, allowing a one hit kill from hale after the stomp damage with no time for the heavy to escape. Sentries usually stop hale mid super jump, so heavy should be able to, at least with a weapon like the brass beast (with how slow this gun is, it's way too hard to do consistent damage to hale unless he's close, and usually that's when he's super jumping towards you and you'll be dead in a few seconds.)
Remove the double damage taken on the GRU and bring back the 7 health loss per second.
This change happened when VSH2 was first introduced. While it wasn't a very good change, heavy had 450 health so he was still able to make an escape using hale's knockback. However since heavies health was nerfed, escaping using knockback is usually not possible and even if a heavy decides to run away with this weapon, hale will catch up and one shot him anyway. If the double damage taken was removed and the health loss per second was brought back, it'd make the GRU a more viable weapon for escape.
Bring back the natascha slowdown.
The natascha was changed back to stock again months back for unknown reasons, removing the slowdown it had on hale. This weapon made heavy a great support class and an actual threat, as the slowdown made it much easier for backstabs, market gardens, etc. Minicrits from taunts should be removed on this weapon however, as the damage penalty wasn't too harsh if you were to take advantage of the minicrits. Perhaps a health penalty of one hundred could also be included so hale could have a much easier time taking out heavies with only one hit, since multiple heavies using this weapon may be too much of an advantage.
Overall, these changes would make heavy a much more useful class. Bringing back the natascha especially would made him more useful, as the slowdown during the time it was in the game allowed him to save other classes lives. As of right now engineer is a more useful class, and all other classes like demo and spy can deal a lot more damage.
