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[EnigmaticHat]

The rocket launcher is the Heavy's primary.  The LMG is for support, mainly pinning.

To use a heavy properly you need to use a combination of pinning, shooting, and explosives as the situation demands.  They aren't like snipers or assaults where standard shooting is the main point of the class.  Trying to hit the enemy with LMG at anything other than point blank is a bad deal because the to-hit is typically ~50% which is just not good enough.

Because the rocket is the heavy's primary, and because standing still lets you use bullet swarm (even if that's not worth the ammo most of the time), you need to treat the heavy as a stationary shooter same as a sniper, but move the heavy up with the squad.  Its ok if they lag behind a little, rockets have extra range and suppression can be used even if they move.  Then, and this is important, always take the heavy's move last.  The heavy has two actions that can be used to save the squad if enemies are left standing at the end of the turn: supression/overwatch and rockets both of which have a low failure rate.  Thus, the heavy is a sort of guarantee that if your more accurate squadmates miss, you can blow up or pin down whoever's left.

For heavy builds, a lot of their choices are no brainers.  The big choice is really shredder missile versus suppression; suppression lets you kinda-sorta ignore one enemy while shredder missile is effectively a second rocket (against early enemies its still one rocket to kill, against late enemies its a rocket+another shot, so its the same amount of actions to kill as a standard rocket).  In theory you can build heavy to add a bunch of extra effects onto suppression (holo-targeting, AOE, and damage) but personally I find that most of the abilities involved in that are mediocre and by the time it all comes together you have better things to do with your time.  So I build my heavies as demolitionists; I'm a bit unconventional in that I almost always choose grenadier for cover killing and HEAT grenades.

My favorite build right now is Bulletswarm/Shredder missile/HEAT ammo/Grenadier/Rocketeer, but sometimes I go for suppression and maybe a buff to that.

[hemmingjay]

I believe the media is chasing the wrong rabbit, but it does confirm that they are indeed working on the very thing I mentioned 2 days ago. http://kotaku.com/5992126/could-this-be-a-new-xcom-game-in-the-works

Once again, I have been led to believe it is dlc/expansion, not a sequel. These things do change due to market analysis, but I have no reason to speculate that it is now a sequel.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

First thing to mention that Kotaku is horrid and it's opinion always best disregarded.
Second it's most likely an expansion/DLC. It's way too early to be considering a new game when there's still a whole range of DLCs that could be milked. It's not unusual to see trailers about larger DLC these days.

[umiman]

Yeah kotaku is basically the gossip rag of gaming.

[gogis]

Mind you I never used a winning combination for a Heavy yet.

2(3?) seeking rockets doing shitload of AOE damage is nothing to sneeze on. Seriously, this rockets is IWIN button.

[MaximumZero]

I believe the media is chasing the wrong rabbit, but it does confirm that they are indeed working on the very thing I mentioned 2 days ago. http://kotaku.com/5992126/could-this-be-a-new-xcom-game-in-the-works

Once again, I have been led to believe it is dlc/expansion, not a sequel. These things do change due to market analysis, but I have no reason to speculate that it is now a sequel.

They need to finish the damned story before moving on to the sequel. As it sits, the game is way too short, which is possibly the best problem a game can have. I want more, dammit!

[Drakale]

Actually, I think rockets are best used for their wall/cover destroying properties than actual damage. One rocket can allow your In the zone sniper to clean up everything. Shredder rockets are also really good to soften up the big guys. Also, if you play with the randomized stats for the soldiers, you can end up with heavies with excellent aim. If you play vanilla, the best thing that can happen to you is a psychic endowed heavy, all the goodness of the rockets for those situational shots and none of the wasted 40% hit shots.

It's sad that the upgraded rocket are rather irrelevant since they come in play at a point where the game is basically won anyway.

[Mephansteras]

I love heavies. Probably my favorite class in the game, although I can't argue with a Colonel Sniper being godlike.

But, seriously, a Heavy with a Scope and Bullet Swarm is damn awesome, and something that you can get early on in the game. I'd say that the majority of my Berzerker kills have all been done by heavies, and heavies are very often my best unit when dealing which Chryssalids. And that's not even including the Rocket, which of course gives you a huge amount of firepower and terrain modification.

Of course, that's one of the things that X-Com does really well. Different play styles will favor different classes and none of the Classes are objectively better than any of the others (A squaddie sniper, for example, is often worse than a rookie). They all have their uses and very few people have a team loadout that doesn't include at least 1 of each Class.

[Nadaka]

If there is a flaw in the class setup, it is that there is pretty much only one support build to use: Medic.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Untrue, there are three support builds, medic is just by far the most useful. The second most useful is making your support a dedicated allium catcher (the movement, rifle suppression, and smoke grenades are very useful for this). The least useful is making them a heavy smoke-thrower with good rifle skills.

[teoleo]

Best mods??

[Mephansteras]

Untrue, there are three support builds, medic is just by far the most useful. The second most useful is making your support a dedicated allium catcher (the movement, rifle suppression, and smoke grenades are very useful for this). The least useful is making them a heavy smoke-thrower with good rifle skills.

Yeah...Although, I did have good luck with a team that had two supports on it. One Medic and one based on the Smoke/Rifle path. Ultimately ended up being a good combo, since the Smoke tree is REALLY good at covering your troops when you get up to Colonel. The ability to do two reaction shots actually makes the Overwatch on enemy fire ability actually pretty handy, since it means that your support will almost always be getting two shots a turn and can help pin down enemies.

[gogis]

It's sad that the upgraded rocket are rather irrelevant since they come in play at a point where the game is basically won anyway.

Well, when you get seeking launcher heavy class becomes superb, thats right? Time to take couple for final fight. Or atleast one, thats for sure.
Also, early on, when all your troops positively blind, this fancy rockets is only true way to kill things, because hit rate (90%) is abnormally high compared to others.
Thru all my playthroughs I never found any class to be clearly superior/inferior, I enjoyed wounded rotation alot.

I think that despite being a truly game design masterpiece, the major flaw of this game is content, or rather lack of it. Seriously, I was in awe playing new XCOM and Dragon Age 2, but why, WHY they make these games so short? Give me more content, damnit!

You know, recently I played all possible variants of xcom genre (classes took right from Aftershock btw) and all games was long. Painfully, grindingly long... I LOVED IT. GIEF MOAR XCOM!!!1!

[PanH]

Honestly, I prefer taking another class with a nade than a heavy with rocket. Rocket has a bigger radius, but it can miss (nades can't), and most importantly, can be launched after moving. It's also a one-trick pony, which is rather sad, because the heavy is mostly useless after having launched it. The 2 interesting thing with heavy is heat ammo, and the 3 nades, but the other class have as good (or better skills), so yeah ...

One path that really surprised me by how good it is is the Assault with close combat change. You can come up with some crazy shit like a reflex attack (without over-thing (can't remember  )), and then attack at 100% hit and critical at 5 squares distance (alloy shottie).

[Nadaka]

Honestly, I prefer taking another class with a nade than a heavy with rocket. Rocket has a bigger radius, but it can miss (nades can't), and most importantly, can be launched after moving. It's also a one-trick pony, which is rather sad, because the heavy is mostly useless after having launched it. The 2 interesting thing with heavy is heat ammo, and the 3 nades, but the other class have as good (or better skills), so yeah ...

One path that really surprised me by how good it is is the Assault with close combat change. You can come up with some crazy shit like a reflex attack (without over-thing (can't remember  )), and then attack at 100% hit and critical at 5 squares distance (alloy shottie).

Close combat shot is also great against berzerkers.I typically use my other units to draw the 'zerker in and if it survives the CCS, he is still standing right next to a soldier with a shotgun.