It felt inconsistent, sluggish, and weak. Unless hitting an enemy pointblank with it twice, it never kills anyone. Projectiles either need to be faster, do more damage, or increase its rate of fire.
Edit: If the sole purpose of the gun is to ricochet, then that very action has to feel rewarding. Shooting around corners felt unpredictable and like a waste of time and ammo, so after emptying half the mag into a wall, I either gave chase or gave up. Maybe a buff that makes it so the projectiles deal more damage the more they bounce? With a cap, of course.
Edit 2: I understand it’s a niche weapon, so stop saying “you’re not using it right”. We’ve had plenty of niche weapons in Halo, the plasma pistol is a fantastic example, and the grenade launcher from reach is another decent one. Both these weapons have the same niche, but perform it in ways different enough that both of their existence is validated.
The Heatwave’s niche is the same as the scattershot, the plasma caster, and, funnily enough, the grenade launcher: IT BOUNCES. What then is the difference between these and the heatwave? Simple; The Heatwave deal no damage.
It shouldn’t be a forerunner fuel rod, but it needs to deal more damage, in some way, in order to be effective at its niche.
> 2533274868938324;1:
> It felt inconsistent, sluggish, and weak. Unless hitting an enemy pointblank with it twice, it never kills anyone. Projectiles either need to be faster, do more damage, or increase its rate of fire.
The consistency is what felt the most off to me. There were some times where I picked it up and got 3-4 kills and it felt good to use, and then other times where I felt like I put a whole clip into an enemy and it wouldn’t even break shields. Also, I felt like the Horizontal projectiles felt way worse to use than the vertical.
I agree, I passed on this weapon every time after the first. The side-to-side spread was cool, but you hit your target with 2/3 projectiles and then had to shoot another 35 times in hopes of a kill. The top-to-bottom spread was better and seemed to stay closer packed at distance, but still took a lot more shots than I would think for a power weapon.
I feel like people aren’t using it for its intended purpose. It’s not a scattershot. I had more success with it when I didn’t try to use it to outright kill, but mop up a kill around a corner or weaken a team’s shields with the horizontal fire mode. Maybe the projectiles could be a bit faster? I think the damage is alright.
> 2535445157734653;4:
> I feel like people aren’t using it for its intended purpose. It’s not a scattershot. I had more success with it when I didn’t try to use it to outright kill, but mop up a kill around a corner or weaken a team’s shields with the horizontal fire mode. Maybe the projectiles could be a bit faster? I think the damage is alright.
I agree that the damage is fine. I just thought that it felt inconsistent. It still has a purpose, but in my time during the flight I never felt like a had a good idea of its TTK like I did with other guns. This might be down to user error, but out of all the guns in the flight this was the only one I felt was inconsistent to use.
> 2533274814533237;2:
> > 2533274868938324;1:
> > It felt inconsistent, sluggish, and weak. Unless hitting an enemy pointblank with it twice, it never kills anyone. Projectiles either need to be faster, do more damage, or increase its rate of fire.
>
> The consistency is what felt the most off to me. There were some times where I picked it up and got 3-4 kills and it felt good to use, and then other times where I felt like I put a whole clip into an enemy and it wouldn’t even break shields. Also, I felt like the Horizontal projectiles felt way worse to use than the vertical.
For me, I couldn’t land shots quite as well with vertical, but horizontal just wasn’t doing enough damage.
> 2535445157734653;4:
> I feel like people aren’t using it for its intended purpose. It’s not a scattershot. I had more success with it when I didn’t try to use it to outright kill, but mop up a kill around a corner or weaken a team’s shields with the horizontal fire mode. Maybe the projectiles could be a bit faster? I think the damage is alright.
Grenades already fill that roll marvelously. When shooting around a corner I could never predict where the shots would go, so I’d hit maybe 1 out of every 4 shots, and the gun only has 16.
I agree that the ricochet application needs some attention to give the weapon a worthy place in the sandbox. Now it feels like a worse bulldog with an RNG chance of a cool kill or a nasty betrayal…
Kind of bothers me as well that the ravager fulfills the CQC weapon role better then both the bulldog and the heatwave -_-
the heatwave isnt a damage dealing weapon (it can be but its not its focus). Its a utility weapon thats meant to surpress indoor/inclosed spaces with its bounce mechanic. Its also not a shotgun but classified as a grenade launcher as a result. Lets not try to push all weapons into the pure “damage dealing” role. It makes for a boring sandbox
Rather than a buff to the base damage, I think it would be a good idea to buff the damage off banked shots. After the shot has hit a an object, the projectiles would do 30% more damage or so.
Maybe even reduce the base damage a little as well to encourage bank shots and rely less on it being a replacement to the Bullpup.
> 2533274840624875;9:
> the heatwave isnt a damage dealing weapon (it can be but its not its focus). Its a utility weapon thats meant to surpress indoor/inclosed spaces with its bounce mechanic. Its also not a shotgun but classified as a grenade launcher as a result. Lets not try to push all weapons into the pure “damage dealing” role. It makes for a boring sandbox
I agree, the Heatwave is a weapon meant to force someone out of cover, its not meant to outright kill someone, its like the Plasma Pistol in this respect, a side weapon that sets you up for a kill once you switch to a more reliable weapon as they attempt to escape with devastated shields. Halo 5 made this mistake, every weapon was good at killing which resulted in players just going with whatever weapon felt best to them, which is pretty boring and isn’t remotely “Halo”.
I was really surprised it couldn’t one-hit-kill if you land every projectile, it feels like it should… Although at the same time it would immediately become much stronger than the Bulldog, Sword, and Hammer if it did and would make a future classic shotgun even more pointless than it would already be if they add it.
Thats a shame although maybe you haven’t been using it right? I’m not implying you are bad. Just acknowledging the weapons utility is unconventional and that maybe it has a curve to learn?
Hit detection felt broken on it. Other than that, I liked it.
I thought the heatwave needed a buff, but check it out…
Vertical fire has tight grouping, it doesn’t spread. It’s fire rate is decreased, but it only takes 2 shots to kill.
Horizontal has increased fire rate and still takes 2 shots to kill but effective range is decreased by quite a bit.
Alternatively, you can shoot once and melee like the bulldog for CQC.
The ability for the shots to bounce around makes tight spaces where someone might hide a death trap (like the interior of green structure on Live Fire)
This weapon might really stand out as a great anti vehicle because larger target means easier to hit.
I think it’s fine.
> 2533274840624875;9:
> the heatwave isnt a damage dealing weapon (it can be but its not its focus). Its a utility weapon thats meant to surpress indoor/inclosed spaces with its bounce mechanic. Its also not a shotgun but classified as a grenade launcher as a result. Lets not try to push all weapons into the pure “damage dealing” role. It makes for a boring sandbox
Except it doesn’t even do this well. In order to force someone out of cover, or make them desperate enough to flee, the gun has to be intimidating, and it’s only intimidating if it can actually hurt someone. I’m not saying it needs to one hit kill, I am arguing that no matter how you use it, there is ALWAYS a better alternative atm.
> 2535411919953126;13:
> Thats a shame although maybe you haven’t been using it right? I’m not implying you are bad. Just acknowledging the weapons utility is unconventional and that maybe it has a curve to learn?
The purpose of the weapon is seemingly to shoot around corners, or to bounce in corridors to limit movement. I’ve tried it in point blank range, long distance, vertical, horizontal, and ricochetting it off every surface in the three maps available, yet it never seemed effective at anything.
If you want to stop enemies from advancing down a corridor? Ravager or grenades do a better job.
Enemy around the corner? Grenades.
Enemy close? AR and melee, or shotgun.
Enemy far away? BR/Pistol/Commando/Carbine.
Multiple enemies? Grenades and or retreat.
No matter the scenario, I found there were always better alternatives to the heatwave; And seeing as I saw other people use it maybe twice, I think others agree.
Nah.
Its meant for area denial.
It might act like an evolved scattershot, but went full on in the bouncy projectile part and added two distinct angled modes.
It also penetrates a trade off for less damage than a assumed shotgun or scattershot would do.
It clearly takes skill to angle all the bouncies into an enemy, like in the gameplay trailer.
It have its role. MAYBE a slight, SLIGHT dmg buff. But you wouldnt want a target penetrating -Yoink!- weapon that ALSO does more pellet/ projectile damage than the shotgun(s, if the classic pump tactical M series return ).
Then that could risk making the shotty redundant. For now you have a " shotty " that you can choose projectile angle, penetrates, skillbouncing projectile and are area of denial.
> 2533274868938324;16:
> > 2533274840624875;9:
> > the heatwave isnt a damage dealing weapon (it can be but its not its focus). Its a utility weapon thats meant to surpress indoor/inclosed spaces with its bounce mechanic. Its also not a shotgun but classified as a grenade launcher as a result. Lets not try to push all weapons into the pure “damage dealing” role. It makes for a boring sandbox
>
> Except it doesn’t even do this well. In order to force someone out of cover, or make them desperate enough to flee, the gun has to be intimidating, and it’s only intimidating if it can actually hurt someone. I’m not saying it needs to one hit kill, I am arguing that no matter how you use it, there is ALWAYS a better alternative atm.
theres do other weapon that does what the heatwave does. No other weapon allows you to spawm an area without actually being in there. Tosss a nade and spam the heatwave and your golden. When they are in your sites, switch to vertical for the kill
I didn’t really try out the vertical fire mode but as far as the horizontal mode goes I don’t think it needs a buff. It’s basically a shotgun that can collateral hit, was kinda nasty in that regard.