The reason why people "think" NF/BE heavy tanks are imbalanced.

i used it on homeland (not the best map to use it on but regardless) and the only time i killed something was when a heavy was on a repair pad with no armor.
unless they were using capacitative, i know for sure other weapons are able to kill heavies faster and easier

 

I'd also like to point out that HE is good over ER and Rails because of its weight. Weight is a VERY important factor. 20 additional weight is only 10 off of adding an additional weapon like HEMG or DU which drastically increases the DPS (well above rails) with the same armor as rails or in this case 1 plate less than ER. With this configuration, I roll with 5 plates on the sides, 4 on the back 6 on the front.

Now, if we do the same with ER, we have an additional 20 weight over HE, meaning 2 plates off compared to dual HE cannon (or 1, really depends on armor). Now, if I want to add DU or HEMG at around 30 weight, thats 2-3 plates off compared to the HE counterpart for a significant DPS increase, however compared to the Dual HE tank you have 1 plate less on all sides which can make a big difference. With this configuration, I roll with 4 plates on the sides, 3 on the back and 5 on the front.

Now for rails... rails are useless. Might have the best DPS but they run out of ammo very quick and they are heavy as hell. If I dual equip Rails, it wont do as much damage as a Dual HE heavy with HEMG meaning the dual HE heavy is superior. If I want a third weapon to compensate for the rails running out of ammo quickly to further increase the DPS, I am now losing almost 2 plates of armor additional on each side. This is absolutely shitty, yea it creates a high DPS tank but when you lack armor you lose quickly in combat. Literally, by having dual rails you could have Dual HE, with DU or HEMG with more armor. The last time I tried this configuration, I rolled 3 on back, 4 on front and sides and I would never even attempt to roll it with an HEMG or DU mg as it would create a tank that is weaker than mediums.

There is a good mid point between armor and dps, and dual Rails simply doesn't cut it in open combat from my experience and weighing out the armor/dps values I think even shows this. Its unfair to simply point out and say DPS values are everything, because DPS means nothing if you die quickly in open combat.

 

You can load 5/4/4/3 (15 weight armor) with dual rail + HEMG.
You get around 500 effective HP on the front, this is enough for you to survive 2~3 waves of dual guided with your hull intact, also keep in mind, I am assuming that all the missiles hit.

Let's not forget that you can deal 152.5 DPS with this build.
It's pretty much game over for that NF heavy tank if he fails to kill you with one clip of Guided ML, which is very likely to happen, you just need to let 1~2 missiles land on a different side.
As I said, missiles have to reload, cannons don't.

Let's not even mention the fact that NF heavy tank has inferior model, you can easily flank.

-------Below goes to all of you------

Rule #1 : You should always sacrifice armor for anti-vehicle MG if you know you are fighting NF heavy tank.
Rule #2 : You should NEVER use HE cannon if you know you are fighting NF heavy tank.

I'll stop here, I already made my point.
NF heavy tanks are not OP, you just need to stop using HE cannon all the time and wondering why this "best cannon" doesn't work well against those "OP NF heavy tanks".

 

4 plates of Reactive with armour upgrade can survive 4 salvos (no damage upgrade). Double HE, bio engine, reactive worked very well for me in, Money last time I played, even versus multiple enemies, because missiles are on the move, and BE heavies are harder to hit because NF had a tall turret. So saying it outmatches BE in close quarters is a lie.

5/4/4/3or4? (I forgot) of reactive and HE works fine. HEMG just annoys me, so does guided, because pratically I have to aim for two weapons. I suppose I'm not a good multitasker.
I'm very happy about HE overall and I don't see where all this hate for it comes from. In some cases I would indeed use ranged though.