The AR is a little nuts right now. A lot of people are really enjoying it’s effectiveness, and while I do really love it’s current time to kill, it’s pretty strong at range. As it currently stands, it’s not really worth going for the Commando because the AR doesn’t have descope, has a forgiving magazine size, and has much more consistent bloom and recoil. I’d go as far to say the AR is just outright more consistent than a map pickup. I’m not sure that’s really where it should be.
I know some are going to come into this thread saying that it’s good the AR is so good at all these ranges, but it ends up being barely worth going for any kind of precision weapon when the AR is so lethal. In Infinite’s current sandbox, the BR is far from the go-to weapon for every engagement, and I really am happy to see the breath of fresh air the sandbox gets from not having such a dominant weapon. But the AR is kinda feeling like it’s just the BR of close-mid range engagments, completely overshadowing the Commando and Pulse Carbine entirely.
I think it’d be nice to see the range of the AR reigned in some while keeping the faster TTK, that way it is still a great option up close, but in order to really take control of power positions in maps you’re going to have to upgrade to a Commando, or if it’s a longer range map like Behemoth, the BR. Possibly giving the AR some innate spread to stop it from peppering people across large spaces would be sufficient enough to keep it from dominating. It’ll be interesting to see how the sandbox behaves in BTB, as it’s a whole different ball park with the engagement ranges.
I’m really enjoying the sandbox of infinite, it’s a solid game and aside from the dominance of the starting weapon, it’s very robust and many of the weapons are incredibly unique and fun to use. I’m not sure I’m too sold on the Commando having bloom and recoil, as it’s not exactly worth picking up over the AR right now given how many drawbacks it has for a scope.
I’m excited to see how the flight goes this weekend! I’d love to hear people’s thoughts on the sandbox, and please, lets try and keep and justifications of lore or how rifles behave IRL out of the conversation, I don’t care what kind of bullet the MA40 Fires or it’s proper velocity IRL, it’s a videogame, with balancing meant to make the videogame fun c:
I’m a very competitive player and was mainly using the Sidekick and staying closer to be outside of the AR kill range, but I have to say it was quite tasty being able to finish a kill half way across the map with an AR.
I feel like the range does need some slight adjustments or players need to be more informed. I was able to hit and descope a sniper from one side of Behemoth to the other with the AR. It was actually more useful than the Sidekick. That’s fine, I think weapon drills should just help the players realise that the Sidekick is optimal at close range and the AR is optimal at midrange.
Definitely agree.
I like using the current AR but the range does seem a bit much. Tone the range down slightly and it will feel a bit more balanced in the sandbox.
Yes, if they nerf it then the nerf should be it’s range, Not it’s damage. Reduce it’s red redicle range and increase damage falloff after it.
As is I feel it’s just a little too good and beating BRs and commandos at the range where those weapons should excell. The fact that you can zoom in with the AR and not be descoped also contributes to this I feel.
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> The AR is actually useful now. In the past few games it was severely nerfed and useless. Hopefully it stays good.
>
> And it can stay good. Because it has plenty of counters. Like the Commando and Battle Rifle. Every weapon seems useful now. Perfect balance.
Frankly, the AR was actually incredibly useful in Halo CE, 2A, 4, and 5. It’s role has always been a close range monster than can still have some viability at mid range. It’s been useful before without entirely dominating the non-power weapon sandbox. As it currently stands, there’s not much of a reason to actually go for the commando or BR as the AR is entirely effective at the ranges those weapons should probably be excelling in. In fact, the term “useful” is vague because it usually ends up translating to “lethal”. The Plasma Pistol is useful, but it’s not lethal, for instance.
I’m not saying the AR needs to turn into a pea shooter, as I said, the TTK is great on it, I’d even take a faster ttk if the gun’s headshot multiplier was removed and it was given spread to reign in it’s range. Currently, the AR Optimal TTK is 1.15s and it’s Body Shot TTK is 1.40s. If the AR had more innate spread to make it more of a close range killer, with a flat TTK of, say ~1.25s-1.30s combined with some bloom to promote bursts, the weapon will fit more in line with the overall sandbox IMO. The commando and AR have the exact same bodyshot TTK and the Commando is much less forgiving of a weapon to use considering it receives descope while the AR does not, and missing a shot hurts a lot more on the Commando than the AR. Missing shots on the Commando is much more common as well given it’s combination of severe recoil and bloom.
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> > 2533274925473364;2:
> > As it currently stands, there’s not much of a reason to actually go for the commando or BR as the AR is entirely effective at the ranges those weapons should probably be excelling in.
The BR and Commando are both better than AR at mid range. Even if an AR can compete with them, they are both significantly more consistent at those ranges.
yeah, the range is blatantly overtuned in this game. even comparing it to a good assault rifle like the H4 AR, this thing is a beast. high damage, narrower spread, instant bloom reset when you stop firing, slower bloom ramp-up, 1.4x zoom, headshot multiplier, 0 spread if you feather.
people keep countering with “its actually good now” as if a weapon should be busted to compensate for it being bad in the past?
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> > 2533274923428997;6:
> > > 2533274925473364;2:
> > > As it currently stands, there’s not much of a reason to actually go for the commando or BR as the AR is entirely effective at the ranges those weapons should probably be excelling in.
>
> The BR and Commando are both better than AR at mid range. Even if an AR can compete with them, they are both significantly more consistent at those ranges.
They’re certainly better at long range, but to say the Commando is more consistent at mid-range is a hard sell for me. The combination of recoil and bloom on the commando make it incredibly punishing, while the AR can afford to miss a few shots here and there. Either way, I’m sure 343 has plenty of data on what weapons are used the most and and what ranges and will address the sandbox accordingly. I’m wondering how the weapons will behave in a larger scenario like BTB. I’m sure thats where the commando and BR have range to out-perform the AR, but from a 4v4 perspective, it’s pretty dominant
Finally, a topic talking about the AR that does not consist of arguing that it must be nerfed until it is useless, or that the BR must be the predonimating weapon.
I support the idea of reducing the range of the AR a bit, so that weapons designed for long distances have their space.
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> > 2533274923428997;6:
> > > 2533274925473364;2:
> > > As it currently stands, there’s not much of a reason to actually go for the commando or BR as the AR is entirely effective at the ranges those weapons should probably be excelling in.
>
> The BR and Commando are both better than AR at mid range. Even if an AR can compete with them, they are both significantly more consistent at those ranges.
I don’t know what you consider mid-range but anything longer than the Sniper/Skewer corridor on live fire is the line between mid and long range.
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> Finally, a topic talking about the AR that does not consist of arguing that it must be nerfed until it is useless, or that the BR must be the predonimating weapon.
>
> I support the idea of reducing the range of the AR a bit, so that weapons designed for long distances have their space.
Yeah, Im pretty fine with this, especially since right now it seems we dont have an SMG in the game, so AR can fill that gap.
> 2533274842428280;10:
> Finally, a topic talking about the AR that does not consist of arguing that it must be nerfed until it is useless, or that the BR must be the predonimating weapon.
>
> I support the idea of reducing the range of the AR a bit, so that weapons designed for long distances have their space.
Exactly! The commando fills the gap between the AR and BR giving an option to combat the BR so it’s not the same BR dominant meta from past halos, but in it’s current state, the AR is pushing the niche of the Commando too much. Functionally the weapons are incredibly similar. I think removing the headshot bonus on the AR but buffing body shot TTK and limiting it’s effectiveness at range is the best way to balance the AR in infinite. That way the Commando is the only true precision automatic and the AR can fully fill the bullet hose role