Armor Lock: the ultimate defense

Games Other Halo
1

This thread is intended to be the definitive defense of armor lock (AL) as a balanced armor ability (AA) that actually enhances gameplay. Criticisms of AL tend to come in 5 varieties 1) AL is overpowered in close quarters combat (CQC), 2) AL is overpowered in vehicle combat, 3) AL is overpowered when used by a team, 4) AL slows down the pace of the game and therefore is bad for gameplay, 5) last, but definitely least, AL doesn’t have a “counter” and therefore is overpowered. I will address all these in the following:

  1. “AL is overpowered in close quarters combat”
    Bungie intended AL to be a CQC neutralizer. In one of the podcasts before Reach was released, they were very up front about how it was being used in CQC in their early testing. The truth is, it balances the sprint + double melee (or melee power weapon) tactic which everyone complains about. The fear of being locked and popped should be a deterrent for smart players to avoid melee exchanges all together. Instead of rushing in for a melee once you see a player’s shields pop, a smart veteran player (someone who has adapted) will keep their distance and continue shooting, preferably with a precision weapon (which improves gameplay).

  2. “AL is overpowered in vehicle combat”
    Vehicle combat is fun, but Halo is a FPS, this is not GTA. If a ghost user doesn’t want to be blown up, use the guns. If you notice, only the vehicles with driver controlled offensive capabilities are insta-killed when attempting to splatter an ALed player (technically, the scorpion should too, but who would be stupid enough to try driving over someone in a tank, or stupid enough to try ALing when you could just as easily hijack it). Again, this is by design, it balances infantry/vehicle combat and is in the best interest of gameplay.

  3. “AL is overpowered when used by a team”
    This criticism actually takes 2 more distinct forms, but both basically involve the use of AL in the context of teamwork. Situation (A), one of the two players engaged in a 1v1 battle goes into AL once they decide their chances of winning the interaction are low. Shortly after, a teammate of the ALed player swoops in and finishes off the weakened player waiting out the ALer. First of all, while this might be slightly “cheap” teamwork, it is teamwork none the less, and teamwork is always good for gameplay. 2v1 should be a win most of the time, AL doesn’t change this. Second, If the weakened player doesn’t want to get killed by a teammate arriving late, they should call for their own back-up (or better yet, don’t get off on their own in the first place). Situation (B), a whole team of 4 is using AL, so as soon as the other team starts shooing at any one player, that player ALs and the rest of the team supports them. This critique doesn’t really make sense when you actually think about and tease apart the interaction (but even if it did, again, AL is promoting teamwork, which is good for gameplay). When you really think about it, if a team of 4 using, lets say, sprint, crosses a team of 4 with AL, the AL team should lose every time if they use the tactic described above because they will ALWAYS have fewer shooters shooting at the vulnerable players than the non-AL team. If the 4 non-ALers concentrate their fire on one player, while the ALing team does the same, once the player being shot at on the ALing team gets close to death, they will AL, now there are only 3 ALers firing at the non-ALers, who will switch to a new target. Now one of the non-ALers will die shortly, but not before landing some damage on the 2nd ALing target, which opens up a gap in the total damage dealt by each team. Even in this extreme case, eventually, the non-ALers are getting ahead because there is always one less player involved in the interaction on the ALing team. A more likely scenario, more than one ALer will take damage and enter AL at the same time, further shifting the advantage to the non-ALing team.

  4. “AL slows down the pace of the game and therefore is bad for gameplay”
    This, in my opinion, is the most serious attack on AL. However, first of all, this assumes that faster paced gameplay is better. Personally, I tend to prefer more methodical, strategic gameplay to frantic random gameplay, but that’s just personal preference. Some of my most memorable moments in Halo are playing 2v2 split-screen with friends and trying to break epic standoffs with an incredible maneuver, but to each his own, so if you like frantic fast paced gameplay, you’re entitled. That said, AL does not extend kill times more than sprint, and doesn’t slow gameplay down as much as camo or drop shield. So if that is your problem with AL, basically, the only AAs you should like are Hologram and Jet Pack (or maybe you don’t want any AAs, which is a completely different discussion). AL has its uses (though I VERY rarely use it), I don’t find it slows gameplay down much myself (I would LOVE to see some data on this, and I KNOW Bungie has collected it. It would be great to see an analysis of variance on game length using frequency of AL usage as a predictor). It has been my observation that AL actually tends to speed up gameplay if used with proper teamwork. Assuming players call for help when in AL, and call for back-up when an opponent ALs, AL would actually effectively concentrate the players on the map by turning a 1v1 interaction into a 2v2, interaction, which, if at least one of those new players have AL, should turn into a 3v3 interaction and so on. If someone goes into AL, and the teams are communicating (if not, then the problem is lack of communication and team work, not AL), everyone will soon be fighting near the original ALer, it actually works to intensify the battles by getting more players involved than there otherwise would be.

  5. “AL doesn’t have a “counter” and therefore is overpowered”
    This argument has been largely put to bed with sound logic, but it still pops up from time to time, so I decided to tack it on the end here just to be thorough. The problem with this argument tends to be how the people using it define what a “counter” is. They tend to use a circular argument by defining a “counter” as exactly the function of AL. “For something to be ‘countered’ it must have a vulnerability, AL makes a person invulnerable, therefore AL has no ‘counter’ and is overpowered.” The unsoundness of the argument aside, this assumes that for a game element to be balanced, it must have a “counter”, which is pretty obviously not true when you consider things like assassinations or sniper headshots. The fact of the matter is, if you’re honest about the definition of what a “counter” is, then actions like, waiting, calling in teammates and waiting, or using AL yourself are all legitimate “counters”.

tl;dr
AL isn’t overpowered or bad for gameplay if you actually think about it logically.

2

Your defense also has many counters. In fact, I can’t believe you did not see these counters. If you don’t want to figure them out on your own, reply back and I will gladly tell you provided I’m still on the forums.

3

Armor lock is for P**sys. they need to change it so wen u stick sumone u cant jus use ur AL and remove the sticky

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Dr D04K, I hope you realize that the majority of this message board loathes Armor Lock.

5

I don’t wanna sound immature, but armor lock can be compared with tampons.

In other news… I’m against AL and nothing you wrote will make me stop hating it.

Halo 4 won’t feature such a noobish ability, instead it will (hopefully) go back to the old good Overshield.

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> Dr D0AK, I hope you realize that the majority of this message board loathes Armor Lock.

I hope you realize that the majority of the Reach community likes AL (just look at the playlist population numbers, TS vs SS for example). Yes, I realize most complainers don’t like it, that’s why I wrote a well reasoned defense of it. I contend that most people who don’t like it only don’t like it because its “cool” to dislike it, or because the “competitive” crowd doesn’t like it. They haven’t actually thought about why they believe what they believe, I want to challenge that.

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> > Dr D0AK, I hope you realize that the majority of this message board loathes Armor Lock.
>
> I hope you realize that the majority of the Reach community likes AL (just look at the playlist population numbers, TS vs SS for example)

I don’t think that is a fair thing to say. What percentage of those people who go into Team Slayer actually use Armor Lock? Those are the player who actually “like” it.

Team Slayer is pretty much the most basic gametype for Halo, has been that way since CE, so of course that will have the most population. It goes to 50 kills and is a basic 4 v 4 set up. Just because that playlist has the highest population doesn’t mean everyone that plays it enjoys Armor Lock.

8

Are you kidding me man???

AL is an abomination to gameplay, and anyone that likes it must suck at the other halos to like such a action sack gameplay every game.

I almost broke a controller with this game I had: Rumble pit + Slayer + Countdown + 6 players/guests using armor lock = friggin’ annoying, felt like i was playing the most noob friendly and most slow game ever.

I eventually won, even when I was away looking for the control battery that flew out of my room.

How can one game element cause such a rage on some people?

You’ll tell me to play TC or SS and that’s what I do nowdays.

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::: Looks at Petition thread against AA’s - 66 pages strong :::

::: Looks at ultimate defense thread - 1 page, everyone disagrees :::

AL is bad and not necessary

good day =)

10

Armor Lock is for pu**ies… oh wait…

> …armor lock can be compared with tampons.

Now I get the joke lol.

> Are you kidding me man???
>
>
> I almost broke a controller with this game I had: Rumble pit + Slayer + Countdown + 6 players/guests using armor lock = friggin’ annoying, felt like i was playing the most noob friendly and most slow game ever.
>
> I eventually won, even when I was away looking for the control battery that flew out of my room.
>
> How can one game element cause such a rage on some people?
>
> You’ll tell me to play TC or SS and that’s what I do nowdays.

I lol’d at this too!

11

Dude that was a great read. I agree, people who hate AL simply don’t realize it isn’t over powered. Here’s my argument why armor lock is no better than the other Armor Abilities.

I will begin by asking you a simple question: Have you ever played BTB on Paradiso? If you have, then you are probably aware that the only people who ever get the tank are those who choose sprint as their Armor Ability. Hence we could say that sprint has given a player a tank. Now consider the map Powerhouse, has anyone gotton the rockets without sprint. Or what about Hemmorage, does anyone get the sniper without using sprint. No, they do not, therefore we could say sprint has given a player a very powerful weapon or vehicle. Does this make sprint overpowered? Yes it does. The point is you could fight someone who is using a rocket laucher and lose. If this happens you’ll say you died because the rocket laucher is too powerful, you would not think your team would have gotten it, had the other player not used sprint to get it first, because this is not obvious reasoning, but it is the truth, every single armor ability is overpowering in certain situations, it’s how the game works. Now I’d say if a player uses Al adainst me, I still kill them 75% of the time, that is a significantly smaller impact than most other AA. I mean if I have a DMR and I’m fighting a guy with rockets I’ll lose 90% of the time, not 25% of the time. The fact is no AA is overpowered or broken in Reach, it’s just that their effects are not always obvious. The other thing is while sprint or jetpack can be used in combat and non-combat situations, armor lock can only be used in combat situations, which means it is used in combat situations more than any other AA because that is its purpose, thus because people see it used in combat situations more often than other AA they come to the incorrect assumption that it is the most powerful/broken gameplay element in the game, when in reality it is a fair gameplay element, and is simply misunderstood because its effects on gameplay are the most obvious, are notcied the most, and are thus found to be the most annoying.

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I hope you don’t mined i have actually just reposted this into bungie.net and credited you since i liked your arguments so much, well bone

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1. There is a difference between “neutralizing” and “breaking”. Armor Lock is a counter to melees. That fact, in and of itself, is not a problem. The problems arise from the fact that it doesn’t take skill or effort to counter melees with Armor Lock. Tap, release, punch. Two button presses. Instant kill.

2. Infantry/vehicle combat was just fine before the crutch was added. Bases had anti-vehicle weapons, and stickies were in comparatively abundant supply. (Oh, yes, stickies. Another thing that Armor Lock made worthless.) Map design and weapon placement can balance vehicles and infantry just as well as Armor Lock can, but without mangling numerous other gameplay elements in the process.

3. Teamwork is not the only kind of skill that should be rewarded; individual skill should also have benefits. In past Halo games, it did; you’d die thanks to the enemy’s teamwork, but at least you’d take one of them down first. In Reach, on the other hand, the player with more individual skill – the one who outplayed the Locker – loses to the Locker’s team. The player with more individual skill is punished (no contribution to friendly score + contribution to enemy score) because their target had the minimal brain functioning required to press and hold a button for a few seconds.

Teamwork is good for gameplay, but it should not invalidate the rewards of individual skill.

3B. Paragraph breaks. Use them.

4.

> This, in my opinion, is the most serious attack on AL. However, first of all, this assumes that faster paced gameplay is better. Personally, I tend to prefer more methodical, strategic gameplay to frantic random gameplay, but that’s just personal preference.

Being able to pause gameplay and get six seconds of free invincibility plus a full second’s worth of frosting with no effort or skill is not tactical or strategic in any way.

Furthermore, comparisons to Sprint and Camo are entirely unwarranted. Sprint and Camo have no direct offensive abilities. Half of Armor Lock’s traits are clearly and obviously intended to turn it into a weapon.

5. The problem with AL is not that it is uncounterable, but rather that it counters too many other things, and without requiring even the slightest amount of skill on the part of its user.

TL;DR: Armor Lock is a crutch. Stop derping and accept it.

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Dave pretty much said everything I was thinking; but I would like to add something: Armour lock is a overpowered counter to the sword.

Regardless of how the sword is used, a competent armour-locker can beat a sword-wielder every time.

That is overpowered.

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> 1. There is a difference between “neutralizing” and “breaking”. Armor Lock is a counter to melees. That fact, in and of itself, is not a problem. The problems arise from the fact that it doesn’t take skill or effort to counter melees with Armor Lock. Tap, release, punch. Two button presses. Instant kill.
>
> 2. Infantry/vehicle combat was just fine before the crutch was added. Bases had anti-vehicle weapons, and stickies were in comparatively abundant supply. (Oh, yes, stickies. Another thing that Armor Lock made worthless.) Map design and weapon placement can balance vehicles and infantry just as well as Armor Lock can, but without mangling numerous other gameplay elements in the process.
>
> 3. Teamwork is not the only kind of skill that should be rewarded; individual skill should also have benefits. In past Halo games, it did; you’d die thanks to the enemy’s teamwork, but at least you’d take one of them down first. In Reach, on the other hand, the player with more individual skill – the one who outplayed the Locker – loses to the Locker’s team. The player with more individual skill is punished (no contribution to friendly score + contribution to enemy score) because their target had the minimal brain functioning required to press and hold a button for a few seconds.
>
> Teamwork is good for gameplay, but it should not invalidate the rewards of individual skill.
>
> 3B. Paragraph breaks. Use them.
>
> 4.
>
>
> > This, in my opinion, is the most serious attack on AL. However, first of all, this assumes that faster paced gameplay is better. Personally, I tend to prefer more methodical, strategic gameplay to frantic random gameplay, but that’s just personal preference.
>
> Being able to pause gameplay and get six seconds of free invincibility plus a full second’s worth of frosting with no effort or skill is not tactical or strategic in any way.
>
> Furthermore, comparisons to Sprint and Camo are entirely unwarranted. Sprint and Camo have no direct offensive abilities. Half of Armor Lock’s traits are clearly and obviously intended to turn it into a weapon.
>
> 5. The problem with AL is not that it is uncounterable, but rather that it counters too many other things, and without requiring even the slightest amount of skill on the part of its user.
>
> TL;DR: Armor Lock is a crutch. Stop derping and accept it.

  1. It actually takes considerably more skill and timing to lock 'n pop for an instant kill than it does to double melee, that is just a fact. So if your concern is the degradation of skill, AL in no way does that in melee combat.

  2. Vehicle combat is fine with AL, it just involves more careful driving. The bigger problem vehicles have is the OP sniper rifle. But back on topic, you claim AL mangles “numerous other gameplay elements”, but you have yet to define exactly what those are, until then, the point is irrelevant (not even I can defend sticky shedding, or frosting for that matter, but neither are so prevalent that they are game breaking).

  3. You clearly either didn’t read my point about team work or didn’t understand it. I agree, Reach rewards team work over individual skill more than any of the previous Halos, maybe that’s bad, maybe not, I suppose its a matter of opinion and preferred play style. That fact doesn’t change with or without AL.

3b. I take it you don’t do much reading outside of online forums if those paragraphs are too long for you…

  1. Sprint and camo both have offensive abilities, sure not directly, but in combination with melee, just the same as AL, which (aside from vehicle destruction, which is really the driver’s fault) isn’t effective as an offensive tool without at least melee.

  2. In your opinion, which you’re entitled to.

tl:dr It is actually VERY difficult to define “crutch” in such a way that it doesn’t include game elements like the DMR, and ironically, the “crutch” argument is a “crutch” for players who can’t defend their position with reasoned arguments.

I’m not derping, I don’t personally use AL, but I understand why it was included and see how it is balanced, I find it annoying to fight against, but that doesn’t mean its overpowered.

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  1. I don’t have a problem with this as I don’t get fooled by it. However, the problem remains, if you end up CQ, if you don’t start meleeing, you’re dead, meaning the AL’er can stun and kill you. If you have a CQ weapon like a sword or hammer, and hit someone with it, they can stun you, punch you, AL again as you lunge again, then kill you with another melee. Why should something you spawn with be able to shrug off a weapon that’s mean to be fought for on a map because it should be really effective? If you are far off and pop their shields, they can AL and stay in the entire time to get half shields back, meaning wasted ammo and more time spent killing the guy who should have been dead quite a few seconds before. It either breaks the melee system, power weapons, or slows kill times. You shouldn’t have an ability like that, especially off of spawn.
  2. Actually, it isn’t in the best interest of gameplay. Vehicles are already made of cardboard. Practically anything can take them out. AL just adding to that long list is just stupid. And the reason people splatter is because the main weapon isn’t that effective. If some guy is standing there doing nothing, why would you sit there in, say, a ghost and shoot him when you could quickly splatter him and be on your way. If some guy will simply AL and destroy your vehicle, there is literally no point of even allowing splatters to kill people. An ability you spawn with shouldn’t break a basic mechanic in a game, and shouldn’t exist at all.
  3. Situation A: Teamwork is good yes, but had the weakend player killed the AL’er had he not AL’ed, he could have moved on, gotten more health and shields, found teammates, etc. that could have helped him out as he moved on to the next enemy. And why should the weakened player not go out alone, the AL’er did?
    Situatuon B: Your argument of teamwork can be used for any team using only that AA, so it shouldn’t be a main argument for it alone. Now here’s the thing. Bloom makes shooting rather random when spammed, but spammers usually win. Taking this into account, if they are all spamming, there is truly no telling who will win. I’m almost imagining the AL guys since as the guys with sprint are being shot at constantly, while the guys with AL can simply AL, ignore everything, and recharge half a shield worth, while also having 1 second of invincibility when they come out to keep firing at the guys with sprint. The guys with sprint can’t sprint away as the guys with AL will simply all pop out and start firing, so they’re forced to take cover while the AL’ers just push forward after them.
  4. Oddly enough, previous halo games have been fast paced, frantic, but also strategic, while Reach seems slow yet really random. The only AA I like is Sprint, as it does sort of slow gameplay at times, but more often than not it speeds it up, as sprint to someone with a CQ weapon allows a quicker kill, and running into battles allows more deaths and kills, as well as double melee. I don’t really like these, but I know it speeds up gameplay. Hologram is useless and doesn’t affect gameplay, camo encourages camping but you can usually find them easily still, jetpack breaks map control but keeps gameplay the same speed, drop shield can be broken early, and you can go inside of it to kill. AL just entirely shrugs off everything, makes people have to wait for kills they should have gotten seconds before, and sometimes even makes you have to deal 1 1/2 the usual damage to one guy just to kill him. Even if you use proper teamwork, all that does is keep gameplay roughly the same. Without it, you are slowing it down. AL slows gameplay, like it or not.
  5. The argument you claimed unsound mentioned nothing about balance, and is actually quite sound. A counter is stopping something as or before it happens. You can’t stop AL before it happens if someone AL’s before you have the chance to kill them, and you can’t stop it as it’s happening, all you are doing is preparing to counter the person in it after they come out, rather than AL itself.

The main reasons I hate AL though is because it blocks things that it shouldn’t, breaks game mechanics, and essentially gives a second chance to those that don’t deserve it. It makes sense if you think about it logically.

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1. Which would be fine and good if double-melees were the only situation you would ever use a melee.

It takes more skill for a team to control the Sword/Hammer than it does for a Locker to AL+Melee – yet AL+Melee stills wins over a Sword/Hammer swing. And there are endless situations in which draining someone’s shields while approaching, and then following up with a melee, would take more skill than a simple AL+Melee – yet AL+Melee wins there as well.

AL+Melee doesn’t just break double-melees. It breaks all melees, and by extension it breaks virtually any situation in which a melee could or would be used.

2. It mangles melees, stickies, CQC, and by screwing over individual skill it has more subtle detrimental effects on the entire game.

And Ghost combat is most certainly not fine with AL. The Ghost’s guns are relatively weak and inaccurate; its only reliable kill method was splatters.

3. I did read your point. You did not read mine. With or without AL, two Reds (one already in combat and one reinforcement) versus a more-skilled Blue ends in the death of the Blue. Without AL, however, one of the Reds will fall – meaning that the Blue gets a reward for having more individual skill.

3B. The problem isn’t with my reading comprehension, it’s with your inability to effectively format a post. Paragraph breaks aid the eye and improve readability.

4. Do Sprint and Camo drain shields, stun attackers, or deflect nearly all projectiles directly back at attackers? Even when AL isn’t followed by a melee, it does all three all by itself.

5. You’re overlooking the fact that opinions can be based on facts and logic.

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Every AA is overpowered and abused, one way or another.

I used to use AL a lot. Grenades have been an annoyance for me from the very beginning. I don’t see why everyone should have the ability to spawn with 2 mini nukes. So, I used AL all the time to protect myself from the terrible grenade spamming you get in Halo Reach. You can’t really jump over grenades or move quickly enough to get away from the blast radius like you could in Halo 3. Plus, you could be half shield in Halo 3 and get hit by a grenade and still survive.

You can get shot once or twice in Reach and have no chance of survival if a grenade goes off near you.

It’s just ridiculous.

I used to use Sprint every now and then as well. It almost always depended on the map for me. I always used Sprint on big maps, AL on small maps.

Let me just say… Sprint and sword? Haha. Worse than AL when it comes to being overpowered. And yes, I abuse it to hell. If I can get the sword when I’ve got Sprint, I’ll definitely go for it.

I tend to use Sprint and Evade now, all the time. Mostly because I’ve realised they’re actually better than AL. With AL I was at the mercy of what was going on around me in a bad situation. I was stuck in one place, invincible yes, but for a limited amount of time. And it was always more than easy for people to grenade me as I was coming out of AL, or shoot me the moment I came out to stop my shields from regenerating.

It just isn’t practical enough and I don’t understand why people even complain about it. I really don’t mind when I see someone go into AL. It gives me time to reload (especially if they’re the kind of idiot who will stay in AL for the whole 5 seconds and actually let me reload, lol), I can line myself up and get ready to throw a grenade. If I have a sticky, even better. There’s nothing they can do if they’ve just come out of AL and get stuck.

Honestly… people who AL are giving the better players easy kills.

Stop crying and get better at the game people. It’s honestly not difficult to counter someone who isn’t moving, and you know exactly how long AL will last.

Oh, and if you’re the kind of person who hates AL because of how it emp’s your shields… stop running in for the beatdown! Noob. ;D

19

> This thread is intended to be the definitive defense of armor lock (AL) as a balanced armor ability (AA) that actually enhances gameplay. Criticisms of AL tend to come in 5 varieties 1) AL is overpowered in close quarters combat (CQC), 2) AL is overpowered in vehicle combat, 3) AL is overpowered when used by a team, 4) AL slows down the pace of the game and therefore is bad for gameplay, 5) last, but definitely least, AL doesn’t have a “counter” and therefore is overpowered. I will address all these in the following:
>
> 1. “AL is overpowered in close quarters combat”

armor lock is a terrible fix for the spint+melee combo because it should not exist in the first place. and do to armor locks CQC ability’s players are easily able to get kills by forcing people into CQC via a hiding around a corner or at the top of a lift. killing people who are hiding like this requiers much more work then killing others.

> 2. “AL is overpowered in vehicle combat”

vehicles who’s main offensive capability’s were splattering are now extremely weak as they are now limited to their weak cannons. especially the revenant with its 4 hit kill small radius plasma cannon. armor lock, and item we can spawn with can also one hit ko a boosting wraith. one of the strongest power weapons in the game, affectively making splattering people a gamble. this is especially bad considering its plasma cannon is self damaging at close range.

> 3. “AL is overpowered when used by a team”

the word teamwork imply’s that two are more people are working together. so why are you trying to tell me that if i out shoot some one and he armor locks, then his much better team mate comes and saves his -Yoink- because he was too incompetent to fight on his own? if you got your self stuck in jail and i had to come pay to bail you out i sure wouldn’t call that team work.

the truth is armor lock is a huge crutch for bad players, get out played? boom armor lock! you win anyway through the power of basic team work! in fact you slaughtered them because they could hardly kill you a few times. the best part? it was so easy to do! pulling off this incredibly affective strategy only requires a team smart anough to use the basic strategy of sticking together and armor locking before you die.
eventually you will have either one by at least 30 points or the other team will have quit out of the fury team armor lockers can cause.

now that is bad game play.

> 4. “AL slows down the pace of the game and therefore is bad for gameplay”

some people prefer fast think on your feet gameplay, and for a games series still trying to be like that armor lock is a horrible thing to have.

lets take a basic fight against the average armor locker: Two players of roughly equal skill start to fight each other. One is an armor locker. Both drop the others shields at roughly the same time, rather than ending the fight with a well placed headshot or clever strategy (i.e.; skill) the armor locker pushes one button and suddenly the fight is stalled. And the non-armor locker is left out in the open while the game is delayed. Normally this fight would be finished in 3-4 seconds. Instead it takes much longer than that, the position of other players change allowing either the AL’s teammates to stumble upon him or the non-AL’s teammates. Either way the AL’s team has gained the advantage. Either by allowing for a double team against the non-AL by the AL and his arrived teammate or the loss of momentum on behalf of the non-AL team. 1 or more players have to wait for the AL to release, time they would have spent gaining control of the battle in other fights, finding weapons or getting to better positions. So even if the AL is killed, he hasn’t crippled the other team of course, but if this happens multiple times during the course of a game, it begins to add up; allowing a single button to cause lots of havoc on the other team.

And besides that, Halo is a fast paced game. If you want slow strategy go play Battlefield or Risk.

> 5. “AL doesn’t have a “counter” and therefore is overpowered”

technically waiting then chucking a grenade is a counter, so I’m indifferent on this subject. not that i ever thought things needed a counter to be balanced in the first place.

anyway, in short, armor lock is the spawn of bungie trying to put out the fire by pouring gasoline on it.
sorry for deleting part of the OP, i went over the character limit.

20

you cant justify AL. Its going to get nerfed.