I do not play raider; I play heavy (always) but I would like to add something to this thread and that is that there is growing concern in the community that the game is being 'tweaked' to favor those who like to use the chain gun and who like to use the outrider. This is of course, simply a perception and cannot be proved definitively but I have to say that, as a heavy class player, nothing seems to have been altered in my favor of late while the outrider now seems horribly overpowered in the sense that it can float forever, is highly manoeuvrable and even seems to be able to take more hits. The question I am asking is not whether this has actually happened or not but whether the devs more or less all play the lighter classes and whether there could be an unconscious trend to 'tweak' things in favour of the lighter classes. I know I am not the only one who is saying this and I am not being accusatory when I say it, but I do feel it needs to be said and asked. If I was a developer, playing with the class I do and with my customary high ping, I know I would have to be very careful not to change things slightly in favour of the heavy and the grenade. The grenade suits high pingers because of the nature of the timing and the fact that it is a 'safe distance from chain guns' weapon. Please note that I am voicing the opinion of more than one person so please don't shoot the messenger. I also remain grateful and appreciative of everything the devs have done and continue to do for us, the community.
I'll be honest, I haven't seen any of the devs play heavies very often. But there's a catch: I haven't seen
any significant group of players playing heavies. They're a very niche class right now, effective primarily on defense. A select handful (and I'm basically just talking about Homingun) can actually effectively chase with the Sent, which is utterly bewildering to me, but in general, unless you're trying to have a little fun or step outside the norm, most players play Raider to duel/LO and Outrider to cap/chase. That's a pretty large portion of the player base, so it makes sense that we would cater to them first.
That said...
We're NOT catering to them first, because we haven't been making any changes to classes. Aside from the Netfix, there have been ZERO alterations to the feel of the game, nor have there
ever been changes to any class's physics. That means that:
Everyone has the same energy, the same health, and the same mass they had when Legions: Overdrive was first released.
Yes, there have been changes. The Chaingun's damage was reduced from 8 per shell to 5 per shell (which means the CG does LESS damage than it did before). Explosions' blast radii were shifted around a bit, but the sum total was that the splash damage was reduced slightly. We released Gorge and re-released a modified version of Core, and have more new and returning maps in the pipeline. We've worked on getting more stable servers up and running so that folks have good experiences in both PUBs and PUGs. Mabe made the netfix, which affected everyone across the board. And we've been working behind the scenes on all sorts of new stuff that's not yet ready for release, but still has us all sorts of excited.
But one thing we haven't done is buffed any specific armor class. Outriders are supposed to be able to float forever under the right hands, but they still only have 75 health. That means a single MA takes away
two-thirds of their health pool, and basically anything after that is pain and agony. The Outrider can't take more hits; people are just learning to dodge more and get hit less.
The Raider DID felt heavier but it feels like the jet on the Raider lasts more longer than the old one.
Again, everyone's going to feel heavier since the Netfix. Feeling "heavier" menas you're falling faster, which is true. But you're doing everything
else faster, too: jetting, skiing, shooting, and so forth. The pace of the game was accelerated slightly, but all weapons are now more accurate, and the game feels tighter, more contained and fluid.