AR starts actually surprisingly works well

Games Other Halo
1

Halo 4 has definitely proven that in a couple of ways there are things that are better than past Halo games. Even Halo CE and 2.

The Assault Rifle with the Weapon Tuning is one of those few ways.

After playing Legendary Slayer, and using the AR fairly often. I’ve found that not only is it the most viable, and comparatively powerful, that it’s ever been in a Halo game. It is also surprisingly flexible, and has a very noticeable skill requirement.

This sets the commonly sidelined automatic at a much higher standard than past Halo games, where it has been almost instantly deemed “Nooby” and “Weak”.

In terms of raw damage, it is definitely the second strongest AR in the franchise, killing in 15 shots compared to CE’s 12. While in terms of accuracy it falls a little bit behind Halo 3’s due to it’s larger reticle, the size of the reticle limiting it somewhat without bursts. The fact that it doesn’t have to deal with the 3 shot hand cannon from CE, and doesn’t fire pebbles like Halo 3, elevates it to the status of a good gun.

What makes the Halo 4 AR unique compared to others in the franchise, is it’s extremely low aim assist and red reticle range. As well, controlled bursts at almost any range actually maximize your dps, while in other Halo’s spraying the weapon until the enemy is dead is the best solution. Even in CQC I find that firing in 3 5-6 round bursts kills enemies much faster than they can take me fully automatic. And that is plain fantastic. And since unlike Reach’s AR, the bloom on the reticle actually represents the placement of the shot, not just the spread (meaning that bullet magnetism won’t pull the shots to the edge of the reticle when firing bursts), the AR actually requires you to aim the center of the reticle at the enemy. Making the active size of the reticle similar to that of a precision weapon when using the AR correctly.

The AR in Halo 4 is a piece of art. Finally an automatic weapon in Halo that takes skill. Finally an automatic weapon in Halo that is flexible enough to do decent damage even at ranges as long as across Solace. 343i please, DO NOT change the AR in future Halo games. You have finally perfected the weapon that has been unfortunately poorly balanced for over 10 years.

However, be this as it may. I am still severely disappointed by the Storm Rifle. I’m not disappointed because I think it sucks or anything, I think it is a powerful weapon and a very viable sidearm with Firepower. But it is NOT unique, it is simply a projectile based AR that overheats. The Halo CE Plasma Rifle was set completely apart from the AR. Accuracy, damage ratios, stun, headshot damage. These are all things that need to be incorporated into the next Halo Covenant automatic. If two guns are too similar please do NOT incorporate both of them into the game ever again. From now on when you are making a new gun, please make a NEW gun, not one that behaves the same as something already in the game, or something that behaves the same as something you have no reason to remove and replace it with.

Now if only 343i would wisen up and reduce the aim assist on the BR and DMR… They have far too much. They actually require less skill than an AR simply because of it, and that’s just silly.

2

Agreed. The AR surprisingly has a nice skill gap, and isn’t very forgiving. It kills in 14 shots post update, by the way.

3

> Agreed. The AR surprisingly has a nice skill gap, and isn’t very forgiving. It kills in 14 shots post update, by the way.

Isn’t it the Storm Rifle that kills in 14? Each automatic got exactly a 3 shot buff. I was under the impression the pre-patch AR killed in 18, while the pre-patch SR killed in 17.

4

Don’t be talking crap about my beloved Storm Rifle! But in all seriousness, it was a missed opportunity. I will always be left wondering what it would’ve been like if 343 gave the SR a scope along with slower plasma bolts. Now that would be a truly powerful, yet skillful, automatic

5

precision rifle starts would vastly improve the playlist and make it near perfect

6

> precision rifle starts would vastly improve the playlist and make it near perfect

A gametype for Legendary Rifles, yes. But I’d never suggest completely replacing current Legendary Slayer.

I know it sounds blasphemous of me to say, but Halo 4’s AR takes more skill than Halo 4’s BR OR DMR. It has less Bullet Magnetism than either weapon, and less sticky reticle than the BR. And on top of that, controlling your rate of fire is a huge deal. It’s effective range is also grossly underestimated. With burst fire i’ve downed people all the way across Solace in a matter of seconds with no friendly assistance. And I’m sorry, but the bullet magnetism gets the headshot for you nowadays. Headshotting isn’t a skill anymore so much as it’s a given.

Needless to say, I feel both these weapons need their aim assist nerfed quite a bit. It would make every aspect of Halo 4 better if they did.

> Don’t be talking crap about my beloved Storm Rifle! But in all seriousness, it was a missed opportunity. I will always be left wondering what it would’ve been like if 343 gave the SR a scope along with slower plasma bolts. Now that would be a truly powerful, yet skillful, automatic

Yes, it was definitely a missed opportunity. Instead we got a Plasma Repeater that overheats automatically instead of manually… I fail to see the point of making a whole new weapon just to make it slightly more like the AR than the Plasma Repeater already was.

7

I just played my first game of Legendary Slayer and it’s great. I like AR starts. There are plenty of carbines and battle rifles laying around anyway.

Sprint doesn’t worry me too much either. If there is a great demand for BR starts just make another version but leave the AR starts. Really fun playlist :slight_smile:

8

> I just played my first game of Legendary Slayer and it’s great. I like AR starts. There are plenty of carbines and battle rifles laying around anyway.
>
> Sprint doesn’t worry me too much either. If there is a great demand for BR starts just make another version but leave the AR starts. Really fun playlist :slight_smile:

While I’d like Sprint gone if they ever do a Legendary Rifles gametype… I want them to keep it in Legendary ARs.

Sprint helps you get in close enough to take on players with precision weapons. To be honest, if Halo was based more on AR starts, Sprint would be a blessing. It’s the precision game that Halo is best known for that doesn’t work with it.

9

It’s a freakin’ pain to try to take out enemies who have an Energy Sword or Rocket Launcher when all I have is an AR.

I like it a lot more than Infinity Slayer, but as others have said and I found out for myself last night, most games tend to go like this:

Both teams fight over power weapons and map.
The team that gets the power weapons camps in one spot together.
The other team gets decimated by the team with power weapons, losing any advantageous weapons themselves (BR, Carbine, etc.)
Game becomes 3 ARs + 1 BR vs. 2 BRs + 1 RL + 1 Sniper Rifle

Again, much more fun than Infinity Slayer, and ARs are great, but it still needs adjusting. I don’t think secondary Magnums would help because they still aren’t much more capable of taking out someone with a Rocket Launcher than an AR. I think either one of two things needs to be done:

  1. Start with BRs. This would at least give the team that doesn’t control the power weapons something to work with.
  2. Fewer power weapons or less ammo for those power weapons. Let’s face it: in Legendary Slayer, a 4-shot power weapon basically gives you 4 free kills, and a 12-shot power weapon basically gives you 12 free kills because you’re fighting an enemy that can’t really fight back.
10

The AR in Halo 4 is a great weapon. (Post Turbo). The problem with the AR in the past was that they were spray and pray auto aim machines. This is not the case in Halo 4. AR aim assist is fairly close to that of the Carbine in Halo 4. It provides a significant close range advantage without being overpowered or too ‘nooby’. The bloom visuals allow for a very intuitive bust firing mechanic. It is preforming its role perfectly.

But there are a number of problems with it being the sole starting weapon in Legendary Slayer or indeed any Halo game. Since it is a specialist niche close range weapon it has a very limited ability to combat power weapons or contest power weapon spawns and power positions. And this is a problem because it tips the whole power weapon control dynamic of Halo in to being a game breaking unbalanced feature.

Power weapons need counters so that they do not become overpowered and reward effective free kills. The Rocket launcher, shotgun, sword etc are all close range niche power weapons and as such can not be effectively countered by an AR. It is important to have a longer ranged spawning weapon such that you can punish players using these weapons outside there intended ranges. An AR can too easily be pinned down by a sniper because an AR can’t really even shoot a sniper back outside a very short range, meaning snipers can easily pick people off without in any real danger of being countered. As a spawning player you can’t really have any impact on the game until you pick up another weapon which in turn forces players to camp around weapon spawns before they re-join the action because if they don’t they will be at a massive disadvantage.

It is important that the power weapon system be balanced such that you don’t create unfair run away victories situations where the losing team has no chance of fighting back and turning the game around. Power weapon balance is all about risk vs reward. ARs can not really effective defend power weapon spawns because you can’t contest them unless you are really close. Meaning picking up a weapon placed in no mans land isn’t that risky. That’s not balanced. players should spawn with a jack of all trades weapon capable of making pushes with against power positions, contesting power weapon spawns and killing power weapon users who fail to use them skilfully.

AR starts leads to a lot of spawn killing, kill farming, camping and uncompetitive matches. Something that can be fixed to an extent just with a simple addition of a Magnum secondary.

11

I’ve been saying this since day 1 (CE), but a lot of people would prefer the easy way out with the BR or Magnum. I had more pleasure in beating someone at midrange with the AR in Reach then I did spamming any precision weapon. With Halo 4 however, the aim assist made it to easy to spray and pray. I am not sure how the update changed this, since I haven’t played the game since November.

12

My preffered starting setup for Legendary would be AR/Magnum. The AR is indeed good in Halo 4 but the Magnum is still needed for ranged encounters and is still very balanced against pickups with its shallow clip and bloom.

13

> Now if only 343i would wisen up and reduce the aim assist on the BR and DMR… They have far too much. They actually require less skill than an AR simply because of it, and that’s just silly.

This I do agree with. I personally think a 20% aim assist angle reduction is in order. The strafing dynamic that utility weapon skill gap was based upon is fairly mute in Halo4.

14

I agree with you, OP. However, the SR is set apart from the AR, it’s “shots” scatter faster, are much larger, and move tremendously slower, so it’s definitely set apart.

15

Side stepping the guy with the sword while gunning him down with my AR was soooooo satisfying.

16

> I agree with you, OP. However, the SR is set apart from the AR, it’s “shots” scatter faster, are much larger, and move tremendously slower, so it’s definitely set apart.

It’s nowhere near enough. The simple act of firing and and using the weapon is exactly the same. Sure you might have to lead your shots if the enemy is far enough away, but that’s literally the only difference between these two weapons. Which is a problem.

Halo always tried to pride itself on having Alien weapons actually feel Alien and strange compared to UNSC weapons. As well as trying to give each weapon a unique purpose, or at least a unique functionality.

The SR is a weapon that both feels absolutely no different from an AR when you use it, but also fills the exact same purpose, in the exact same way. That’s absolutely terrible.

Another example of this would be the Beam Rifle as it compares to the Sniper, or the Hammer as it compares to the Sword. They need to stop having weapons that are nearly exactly the same as one another, and bring back weapons that actually stood out from the crowd. Such as the Focus Rifle, Plasma Rifle, and Plasma Launcher.

@^ - Halo 4’s AR has FAR more accuracy with considerable damage when fired in bursts than it has in any Halo game prior to 4. And I seriously feel like Halo 1, 3, and Reach have stained people’s predisposition of the weapon. It’s simple, you don’t use it in your custom loadouts, so you have no idea how to actually use it in 4. I have successfully cross-mapped enemies on Solace in a matter of seconds just because I was very steady with my aim, took the fact that I had no aim assist into account, and fired in 5 3-shot bursts (which I could do with a higher rate of fire than the BR, and actually roughly matched the DMR’s).

I’m not sure if you’ve TRIED learning how to burst the AR, but it has incredible range in Halo 4, and it doesn’t lose it’s killing power if aim and spread is properly managed by the player.

I’ve had absolutely no trouble out-playing Rocket Launcher, Sniper Rifles, and Energy Swords on several occasions. And no matter what map you play, there are ALWAYS at least 3 precision weapons in or around your spawn. Solace has a BR and two Carbines in each base, and Haven has 2 BRs, 2 Magnums, and a Carbine on each side of the map.

Because of Halo 4’s spawning system, you can’t get “locked down” so badly that you are incapable of reaching the nearest precision weapon off spawn without revealing yourself and getting shot. Especially since precision weapons spawn every 10 seconds.

So not only have I had ZERO problem using the AR at mid range to handle power weapons and precision weapons, but if you can’t do that. You are ALWAYS just a couple of feet away from the BR or Carbine you need.

Halo 4’s AR has a steep learning curve that I’ve observed VERY few people I’ve played with and against in Legendary Slayer actually acknowledge. I almost always see people just hold the trigger like it’s Halo 3. Or charge you in a straight line and try to Melee. But the gun has depths that you should actually consider practicing towards and mastering before you go saying the AR can’t take on a precision weapon lockdown, or that it is too ineffective to deal with Rockets and Sword. Chances are it’s actually YOU that’s too ineffective at using the AR, and not the AR itself that’s the problem.

And I have to admit, purely, that if you think BR spawns are necessary because they make it so you don’t have to practice, and train with the learning curve of the weapon in order to use it effectively. Than you are literally saying you think Halo should take less skill.

Summarizing all of this: The AR is actually just as effective as the BR is at mid range, the only difference is that you have to learn how to use it and master it for it to work. If anything, that’s BETTER than BR starts, where everyone in the game can 4 shot at any range regardless of skill.

17

Very well thought out, constructed, and executed post, OP.

Major thanks and;
+1

18

I thought plasma pistol spawns was the most legendary of all.

19

> I thought plasma pistol spawns was the most legendary of all.

PP starts would probably belong to Action Sack lol :wink:

But Plasma Pistol spawns are so much fun!

20

> > I thought plasma pistol spawns was the most legendary of all.
>
> PP starts would probably belong to Action Sack lol :wink:
>
> But Plasma Pistol spawns are so much fun!

Especially in CE, No shield PP starts, CTF, it’s great