I don’t mind full autos, but when you have one that’s designed to reach mid ranges, have headshot bonus damage, a 36 round magazine, a scope, and a spread pattern that encourages burst firing, what you basically have is not very far off from a BR to begin with.
So I guess my question is, what is the purpose of this iteration of the AR existing when, functionally, it’s practically a burst fire mode away from being a BR?
That question could be posed the other way too, why even have a BR playlist? And the bloom on the AR nerfs it’s ranged capability but allows you to try. The BR on the other hand let’s you just burst someone down the second they leave cover even at range. I think the AR also has projectiles instead of being hitscan so that’s another thing.
That’s because the AR & BR have bad balance and always have. The AR needs to be projectile based to nerf it at long range, but let it shred in CQC. The BR has too much margin of error. It’s a “precision” gun, but it essentially lets you miss you shot up to 8 times and you can still get an optimal 4SK. In other words it’s a starting weapon that allows up to 3 kills before needing to reload.
The starting weapon should be somewhat weak to encourage scavenging. For the AR, either raise the ttk and keep it hitscan (if we want it as the starting weapon), or lower the ttk and make it projectile-based (if we want it as a map pick up). For the BR, lower it mag size/capacity (as a starting weapon), or keep it as is (for a tier-2 weapon).
The Halo community SERIOUSLY needs to decide what they want the starting weapon to be. It can’t be both (or at least they can’t coexist in the same maps).
The Halo 4 AR and pre-patch Halo 5 BR were both legitimately good weapons, the problem was that there were 3 other weapons performing the exact same role. The CE AR also had its place, but thanks for admitting its the Halo 3 AR that was the problem.
I don’t like hitscan, but alone hitscan is not enough to justify spawning with limited weapons. And bloom is a garbage way to try and “balance” a weapon based around precision. I don’t care about the BR because its a BR, it just happens to be the only weapon in this game that can qualify as a utility weapon in this particular instance. Its literally one of the worst BRs and you are making it out to be this sandbox destoryer, its nonsense. Make the BR projectile, lower aim assist and magnetism, that’s cool
You want a list of weapons that are useful even with Utility starts? Okay:
The majority of ARs, CE Plasma Rifle, Plasma Pistol, certain Needlers, Brute Shot, Some Carbines(though it is redundant), Mauler, Beam Rifle, Focus Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Concussion Rifle, Fuel Rod, Plasma Launcher, Laser, H4 Boltshot, H4 Light Rifle, H4 Suppressor, Scattershot, Incinerator Cannon, Binary Rifle, Storm Rifle, SAW, Plasma Caster, H5 SMG, and I’m sure a few I missed but sure “I just want to reduce the sandbox” get real. “but Some OF those aRE pOWeR WEaponS” as if that actually matters, there shouldn’t be that drastic of a gap between “normal” and “power” weapons to being with.
All you’ve done is demonstrate your own inability to make use of various weapons across Halo history or imagine that certain underpowered one’s could be tweaked to make them interesting and useful. I’ve never said anything about the AR being “boring”, its simply shallow. Shallow weapons can be fun, but that doesn’t give them competitive merit.
What are you even talking about with Blood Gulch? It plays as well as it ever did whether its a BR or an even more powerful CE Pistol. The map itself is far more flawed than the BR
People play more social because its social and people have been enjoying social BR, CE Pistol, DMR, and H5 Magnum starts throughout the entirety of the series. I’m almost exclusively a social player, I just don’t care for shooting fish in a barrel or wasting everyone’s time with “competitive” training wheels Halo.
Your only issue with the BR is that its called the BR. You’ve given it some mythical status in your head regardless of how powerful it actually was in any given game.
And I guess we are not even going to talk about the Commando which even with the nerf will be completely superior to both starting weapons in terms of TTK, capacity, and range in spite of its bloom. But don’t worry its not called a BR so I guess that’s fine as long as more battles are decided by RNG and not player skill.
I’d personally rather not split the comp population up more than it already is by 3 input selections, but by all means lobby for it if you want it, everyone has a say. Having no secondary makes pick ups very important still.