When heavy drops I don't mess with the HMGs. Rocket launchers with prox or tracking are the way to go. You can't risk the enemies having heavy when your team doesn't. Winning the heavy fight is very important. We all know that HMGs get more kills but with that high of a reward comes risk. A risk that's just to high. Maybe if they were stonger, but my last word hits harder and just as fast as a jolder's hammer. And with supers it's not long till you die. Everyone should be equipped with rockets that preferably have prox so you can best prepare for the heavy. There's are lots of times where i had to pick up the heavy by myself because they're about to come in with their heavy. It's almost like I feel responsible for taking out their heavy. And HMGS won't cut it. when I'm playing skirmish and my two randoms have heavy machines and the enemies have rockets 1/10 times they'll hold there own and at the least trade kills, it's rarely ever better than that. And in a lobby with good kids your probably not gonna even get 4 kills even if they don't have heavy. Update Wow I didn't think this many people would comment but since most of these comments say how I suck and can use a machine gun let me try dumbing it down. Last word - maxed out - aggressive bullets= 3 Shot in the body. Thorn with lingering damage = 2 shot to the head Jolder's hammer= 3 Shot to the head and shoots just as fast as a last word. Before you say I'm bad why don't you check my stats. #282 for xbox live pvp on dtr with over 40000 kills. Now I'm not saying my stats prove my skill but they show I'm not ass. You'll never see the top players using machine guns because they also know that no heavy can compete with rockets and prox. If you went on a 10 kill streak with it that's great. I can do the same when I pair up with bad kids. But when your up against me with a machine gun here's what going to happen. We see each other. You aim down slights and I'm pressing my launch trigger. You get 1 shot off before I blink and my rocket kills you. Or even better i blow you up before you even turn the corner, the radar makes it too easy. Don't call me bad and Unlike some I don't need heavy to get 10 kill streaks. I need heavy to stop their heavy and a heavy machine gun doesn't work as well as rockets. And if you think other wise you definitely don't keep up with the competitive scene. Seriously how are you going to stand a chance with a machine gun when I blink up in the air around the corner and blow you up right away. You can probably pull it off against bad kids the same way I can do 30+ kills with over a 2.0kd with a nlb... does that mean the nlb is good and you just have no skill if you think it's bad. As much as I love that gun I could never use it in sweaties. I'm just mad at when their whole team picks up heavy and rushes out heavy, and it's me and 1 dude who have to pick it up right away. (Blind watch door by heavy opens) as soon as those doors open rockets come flying in. These guys are Shotting rockets then jumping away, THEY DON'T EVEN AIM it's that fast. And here's that dude with a machine gun getting blow up with no kills. While I'm in the back shooting rockets and blinking to avoid theirs. When player skill is equal among all players the team with rockets (prox) will beat the team of heavy machine guns. Rockets and machine guns are a risk reward type of deal. Machine guns have more ammo (higher reward) but are less effective (high risk) while rockets are low reward they are also low risk. But I don't think bungie knew how good the prox was when they develop this game and I know they didn't consider how close HMGs are to thorn or last word.