For those who weren’t aware, 343 recently added a 6 player limit for fireteams in warzone. In my opinion this was the best and most impactful update to warzone since its launch. However, some people have taken issue with this change so I am going to address the concerns they have listed.
- Farming and Blowouts - This was a HUGE issue in Warzone. It made the game mode unplayable. Every match was me and a bunch of solo players getting farmed by a full party from the beginning of the game to the end. Additionally the way snowballing req points works, once you farm a team for 5 minutes, you gain such a significant advantage that everyone on one team has level 6+ reqs while the opposing team is limited to BRs for the duration of the game. Calling in any high level req is pointless as you will be farmed the moment you leave your base. This is the reason I have not played a warzone game in 6 months, despite enjoying the game mode when it was released. However, critics of the update claim that this update will result in more farming and blowouts. This is an absurd notion. The massive teamstacks were the source of the problem, and the update removed it. The critics also claim that imbalanced matches were resolved quickly as large fireteams could end games whenever they felt like it. Anyone who is familiar with warzone knows this doesnt happen. The whole purpose of getting a 10 man fireteam is to farm a team on one base for as long as possible. Lets not pretend otherwise. - Competitive Halo - Okay, this one is kind of funny. Critics claim that the update is bad for the…are you sitting down…‘competitive warzone community’. Well, there’s 3 words I never thought I would see next to each other. This is apparently a surprise to some people, but warzone was not designed around competitive play. In fact most of the weapons are intentionally made to be imbalanced versions of their arena counterparts. Warzone is meant to be FUN, not compteitive. That’s why there is no ranking system for Warzone. Its silly. 343 knows its silly. Thats the point - fun. Having these insane weapons is supposed to mean that everyone can feel powerful and enjoy themselves. As I stated above, teamstacks ensure that no one on one team feels powerful, rather they feel utterly useless. The casual nature of warzone is part of its attraction. It has a very different feel from true competitive halo. Players who dont want intense competitive matches can enjoy themselves in warzone. - Halo Communities - People believe that this update harms halo communities. This is not true in my opinion. There are more ways for parties to play together in halo today than there ever have been. Additionally, its a very selfish mindset. What is so great about 16 players having fun together if they are preventing the 16 people on the other team from doing so? 6 players is more than adequate for a fireteam size. If you have more than that go into big team battle. If you have more than that, well I hear the new battlefield game is pretty good. I dont feel like this is a real complaint, as there are very rare situations where more than 6 people are desperately trying to play together. IF you have that many people, split into multiple fireteams.
So thats basically it. There were suggestions of creating an additional ranked playlist for warzone. I sincerely doubt that the warzone playerbase is large enough to support splitting it into 2 separate playlists. You could add warzone into custom games if you really wanted, but this would be a waste of development effort in my opinion. People were never teamstacking because they enjoyed warzone as a competitive playlist. They were doing it to farm commendations and to curb stomp randoms, because it was funny. I applaud 343 for coming out with this change, and look forward to going back to warzone and having some fun. Warzone was a great innovation from 343 into the halo series that was turned on its head by communities and players trying to exploit it.