Armour Lock: If Heavily Nerfed...

Games Halo 5: Guardians
#1

Disclaimer: I, in no way enjoy the blight that is Halo Reach’s Armour Lock. That said, I did feel it could have a place, if properly balanced.

Here is my list of my AL nerfs.

<mark>Addition by Swift</mark>: Plasma Grenades do not slide of you when activate AL, if get stuck, you are dying
Reason: Balancing Issue

No Player EMP effect
Reason: Was part of the Enter, Exit, Pummel problem

No stun on Melee attacks
Reason: Was part of the Enter, Exit, Pummel problem

No recharging shields within the AL
Reason: Slowed Kill Times

Continuous, Unrelenting and Heavy damage shortens it’s duration
Reason: Lowers the Kill Time extension it creates

Damages, but does not destroy a vehicle
Reason: Makes it less of a Personal Gain AA

Pulse Grenade would be very useful on it, as it would be a steady stream of damage, eating at that duration
Reason: Give Pulse Grenades a Nice niche, to balance the AA

Makes alot of noise and light, giving away your position
Reason: Balancing in general

45 second before re-use, and cannot be activated while recharging
Reason: Prevent spamming and Noob Use, promotes tactical decision if it’s your best option

You exit the direction you were facing
Reason: Part of the Enter, Exit, Pummel problem

You are stuck in it until it ends, no early exits
Reason: So you cannot kill the player who was killing you while he is distracted killing others

If you are not damaged, it lasts only 5 seconds, and the chances of not getting hit in that time are slim, so it will be usually less that 5 seconds
Reason: Prevent spamming and Noob Use, promotes tactical decision if it’s your best option

exiting leaves you stunned, as if you just got hi-jacked, for 2 seconds
Reason: Part of the Enter, Exit, Pummel problem

Now, I will say, personally, it shouldn’t return, but if it were to, I would say this is how it should be done, your only way of surviving your predicament is teammate aid, and not you directly attacking after the lock ends. I am also an advocate of on map pick ups only AAs with limited uses, and this can actually fit in as a form of flanking distraction as opposed direct assaults.

Good reasons to return in this manner:

Promotes teamwork in a new way, as opposed to direct personal gain
No longer Get out of jail free card, best served as a distraction
No longer lowers kill times to absurdity
Cannot be spammed
Cannot “swivel pummel”
fans of it, not users of the OP ability from hell get their cool but poorly implemented AA back

Bad reasons:

While not as badly, it does still lower kill times
Backflak on 343I may occur
Old fans may dislike it’s new niche, regarding it as to weak
You have to waste some ammo or grenades to lower the duration
Any the community can, and will, find :stuck_out_tongue:

Fun reasons:
Machinimas
If we get a return of reaches customization system, we could unlock funny stances for when your using the ability, such as Michelangelo’s “the thinker” or “Hulk Mad!”
Custom Games

I expect there will be ALOT of comments on this, and I state again, I dislike AL, but I feel those who enjoyed the CONCEPT shouldn’t have lost it without without having ago of balancing it, which had we had a beta, we could have.

#2

Nerfed to the point of uselessness.

#3

> Nerfed to the point of uselessness.

Not really, it can be used as it was intended like many did in reach, but there is no option to be a yoink with it this way.

#4

I fail to see how, as I said, it’s advertised function is no longer “Survive all the Nade spams!” it is now, Teamwork based distraction, it’s not about surviving, its about prolonging the distraction your causing, helping your teammates flank, promoting teamwork, as opposed to Enter, Exit, Pummel or such.

#5

What I would like to add to your balance list is that when you get stucked by a Sticky you should be stucked and should not be able to throw it off by simply activating Armor Lock. That was probably one of the major things that annoyed me about that AA in Reach.
But to make Armor Lock work it seems to me as if you have to nerf it so drastically that in the end you have to give up more then you actually achieve through its use.

However, I think the Hardlight Shield is a much better alternative, since it offers the same ability (temporary protection from damage) but in a much better way.

#6

> What I would like to add to your balance list is that when you get stucked by a Sticky you should be stucked and should not be able to throw it off by simply activating Armor Lock. That was probably one of the major things that annoyed me about that AA in Reach.
> But to make Armor Lock work it seems to me as if you have to nerf it so drastically that in the end you have to give up more then you actually achieve through its use.
>
> However, I think the Hardlight Shield is a much better alternative, since it offers the same ability (temporary protection from damage) but in a much better way.

I added the thing on Stickies to the list.

I again point out, that it is meant to be fairly useless as a form of survival, it is no longer for that, it can help in a very situational manner such as a player jumps from a ledge and fires a rocket, you pop in and he cannot get a second rocket, hence you survive the encounter.

It now focuses on Teamwork, it is to be used in a manner that distracts the opposing team while teammates flank

I personally find Hardlight pathetically useless in CQC. players tend to through it up when their shields pop, and you can sprint, jump and pummel their head, no problem.

#7

I don’t see why we can’t just go back to Reach and balance it without a TU. Actually use Loadouts as intended instead of a simple AA selection window. The Armour Lock loadout doesn’t have a secondary weapon, has no grenades, and the primary weapon is the Plasma Repeater or Plasma Rifle. You’re sacrificing offense for defense.

Also if you come across someone using a PR you can take a good guess that he has AL and will know how you can handle it. Advanced players can take a Yomi page from Street Fighter and pickup a PR to fool other people into thinking he has AL and make them freak out.

#8

> I added the thing on Stickies to the list.

Ok and thanks for the credits. :slight_smile:

> I again point out, that it is meant to be fairly useless as a form of survival, it is no longer for that, it can help in a very situational manner such as a player jumps from a ledge and fires a rocket, you pop in and he cannot get a second rocket, hence you survive the encounter.
> It now focuses on Teamwork, it is to be used in a manner that distracts the opposing team while teammates flank

Well, I am a little bit confused now because of your first example of how to survive with it even though it should be fairly useless for that purpose.
However, when I got it right (otherwise don’t hesitate to correct me), when I am equipped with your suggested Armor Lock my role would be to attract the enemy attention and fire on me. I activate Armor Lock to potentially survive and allow my team to catch them off guard.

> You are stuck in it until it ends, no early exits
> Reason: So you cannot kill the player who was killing you while he is distracted killing others
>
> exiting leaves you stunned, as if you just got hi-jacked, for 2 seconds
> Reason: Part of the Enter, Exit, Pummel problem

Those are the only things that quite bother me in your list. I fully understand the reasons and they make sense though once you activate AL it will mean you will no longer have any control over it nor can you influence the game from then, what would create an ability that takes more from you than it offers you.
The time window you could potentially open up for your team to successfully flank would solely depend on the enemy’s fire power and competence and could not be really controlled by you.

> I personally find Hardlight pathetically useless in CQC. players tend to through it up when their shields pop, and you can sprint, jump and pummel their head, no problem.

Though that’s of course not its purpose. It’s a shield. It gives you the ability to counter (critical) hits when properly timed. Hiding behind it in CQC is of course ineffective, except you create a phalanx with your team mates.

#9

Would become quite situational and would have questionable effects on the game regardless.

Why can’t people just let armor lock die?

> The Armour Lock loadout doesn’t have a secondary weapon, has no grenades, and the primary weapon is the Plasma Repeater or Plasma Rifle. You’re sacrificing offense for defense.

By this point we are making full-fledged classes, which in my opinion would require a ton more thought and a massive alteration to the sandbox as we know it than the things I constantly see proposed.

For example, the removal of map pickups. What if one class is godmode with a sniper rifle but the other is useless with it? Obviously it wouldn’t be fair to keep the current sniper on the map. Or just using your example, what if that defensive class picks up an overshield and picks up a BR off a dead enemy? Now he is offensive, with overshield AND armorlock, essentially invincible.

Making a class based shooter is like making any other asymmetric thing. It can easily become imbalanced if you don’t pour a ton of thought and effort into it. And when you try to incorporate map pickups and powerups into that mix, it becomes much more difficult to make a balanced game.

And what is the end result? A shooter that Halo fans might not enjoy that also potentially fails to attract anyone else.

TL:DR I don’t believe a middle ground between Arena and Class will work for the above reasons. You either go entirely one way, or entirely the other.

#10

> its about prolonging the distraction your causing, helping your teammates flank, promoting teamwork, as opposed to Enter, Exit, Pummel or such.

But keep in mind that AL can be a “distraction” only by providing an ability which unilaterally affects gameplay.

“Ha ha, you can’t do anything against my turtle. Pay attention to me or I might just come out and stab you in the back.”

There’s no mutual back and forth, no flow, simply one person hitting a button and deciding thereby how the next few seconds of gameplay will turn out. AL in any sort of recognizable form quite simply CANNOT WORK for an FPS. You can try to balance it, find work arounds, impose restrictions, but it’s the ability’s core function which is the problem.

If you want a team-building distraction device, try something else. Don’t revisit AL.