Welcome! This is a thread about a solution to the AR/BR/DMR/ and Pistol balancing. I believe I have some rock solid ideas about it, and I’d love to share them with you, the community.
Actually, since about 2010, there’s been a longstanding debate in the community. “Battle Rifle or Designated Marksman Rifle?”- a question Bungie themselves answered when they removed it from the sandbox with ODST, Reach following. They decided they didn’t enjoy how the game impacted their sandbox, and how various MLG sects would use the BR and nothing but, claiming it was the game’s most balanced weapon. Indeed it was easy to use and had an extremely fast TTK (Time to kill) but that’s precisely what Bungie didn’t like about it. To say it is a bad weapon is patently false. It’s a great weapon. Greater than most, and that’s exactly the problem.
The DMR however, did not have this problem. The DMR was very good, but it was also quite balanced. Yes, capable hands could rip people apart with this bad boy, but it would often lose to much closer range weapons. Granted, I believed it far too useful against the likes of vehicles, concentrated fire that was capable of tearing apart absolutely everything a team aimed on. A problem that the Assault Rifle of the game never had, making the DMR clearly more useful. So the weapon was not perfect, but it was a sandbox improvement overall in terms of balance.
Enter Halo 4.
343i tried very hard to tell us, the fans, “We love you.” and thus, gave us the Battle Rifle back. I admit I was dismayed, but open to see how it went. Then I saw how it performed in Halo 4’s multiplayer and I was dismayed once more. What had once brought imbalance was back in full force, made this bad not by its performance but rather… The fact you could start almost every single mode with it. Loadouts were the bane of Halo 4 alongside specializations and equipment, nobody can deny this I don’t think. 5/7 (Before the meme, even!) rifles you could pick were headshot capable, and yea the angels of balance did weep.
Current Year.
Halo is in a good state in terms of balance, but there are some issues still. I believe various weapons still need work to become truly useful, like the Suppressor could seriously stand to lose its ridiculous wind up time, and the Plasma Pistol’s ROF could certainly be increased. Past that, uh, most of the weapons are just fine if you ask me.
But we constantly must deal with the all-too-accurate Battle Rifle of Warzone. The weapon that constantly and consistently suppresses those poor men who’ve not yet reached Req level three, those sad men who’ve gotten past it and still have no BR, and even sadder are the men who simply do not like the Battle Rifle but must use it to compete, solemnly laying down their beloved MA5Ds for a clearly superior weapon, clutching their assault rifles like a weeping Norman Reedus
What I propose.
With Warzone there is a clear and cut problem. The BR is too effective, and the DMR never comes into play until its too late- BR players never seeing the need to switch- even I am guilty of this, and why should I switch? If I hit the torso of my foe with the DMR after his shields are gone, there is no room for my grievous error to exist. I am already dead, but would likely have not been had I used the Battle Rifle.
So what do we do?
We consolidate the Battle Rifle and Designated Marksman Rifle.
No, really. Hear me out. I am not saying we should make them as individuals better, but these weapons have a unique relationship. They perform roughly the same role, but have completely different fanbases- both of which 343i are absolutely terrified to anger, and rightly so. But 343i should anger us, and introduce us to an old, forgotten fire in our hearts that Bungie introduced so many years ago, but found they too, did not want. Something 343i has flirted with, and introduced its not-quite-as-attractive brother to us as the Halo 4 iteration of the Light Rifle.
The Original Battle Rifle.
The one where when unscoped, you fired burst and when scoped, you fired semi-automatic. But we’ve learned oh so much since then, and we know that a simple fire-rate change would not solve the issue at large. I propose that the BR/DMR are removed, but come back as one. Something more menacing, but not at close range.
Two round burst unscoped, headshot multiplier. Semi-Automatic scoped, headshot capable. This weapon has a tight enough spread and emphasizes precision and marksmanship, rewarding these traits. It cannot be used effectively at close range, and when faced with a CQC type situation, you should switch to your sidearm or other higher-spread, higher rate of fire weapon.
I do not believe in the unscoped headshot. I believe in rewarding skill, and a one-pull-three-possible-headshot-kills weapon that you can achieve this in theory, 12 times with sans reloading, does not reward skill. It rewards reaction time and poor enemy movement. It does punish your foe, but not in any way they are capable of doing anything about, which is not what Halo is all about.
Halo is about Counterplay.
Counterplay is when something is not only fun and rewarding to use, but to go up against. There is absolutely nothing fun about being suppressed at far-too-long distances from a Battle rifle, or row of them. A horde of DMRs is another story however, because you know that many different guns were trained on you that they weren’t looking elsewhere, and all who killed you had most-true aim.
If we introduce a weapon with a two-round burst with a reasonable cyclic rate, and a reasonably high-speed, yet slower-per-pull semi-auto fire, we introduce a weapon that cannot be reliably used at close range in the way the Battle Rifle can, but is absolutely menacing in mid-to-long-range engagements. Not quite a sniper rifle, but not quite an assault rifle. We absolutely need such a balance alteration if we wish to emphasize bigger and better modes like Warzone. Long range and strangely realistic ranges are increasingly common. We cannot ignore this.
I may even entertain slightly increasing the damage and reducing the magazine size to roughly 24-26. The new weapon should have a 5PK (5 pull kill, not five shot kill). hip, and a 4S/PK scope. Leaving the 3SK scope to our increasingly beloved Light Rifle, of which I quite enjoy using. It is an extremely potent power weapon.
The Assault Rifle.
This weapon has undergone a change in every single game it was present in, and has been through the most conflicts in our beloved franchise. Many games did the weapon well, but Halo 5’s Assault Rifle is extremely well balanced. There is a problem, however. The headshot multiplier.
Now I quite believe this multiplier to be a wonderful equalizing force! But there is a problem, and that’s its accuracy in smart scope coupled with headshot-capable automatic fire. It is a wonderful weapon to use, but perhaps too wonderful. There are not many changes I would make to our current beloved, but there is at least one.
Make the Smart Scope fire the weapon in a tighter, three round burst.
No seriously. It does NOT get a headshot capable burst, but it absolutely should receive a select-fire utility activated via smart scope. Burst is more accurate than automatic in Halo, and should be treated as such. Automatic does not get this bonus, so you cannot spray and get a lucky headshot. Burst absolutely does allow for such a damage increase.
CONTINUED IN PART 2.
