Because there’s way too many ‘Nerf AR’ or ‘Get Rid of AR Starts’ topics and not enough of the other, even though a large percentage of the replies to such topics - in my experience - are that the AR is fine or, at most, would allow a tiny nerf to the range. So let’s make a topic with that starter to a discussion.
The AR is fine to me. Its useful, its got good damage, but its not the best weapon. I’ve stated it before but this is how I believe shooters should be: as in, they give you a decent weapon that you then want to trade in for a better weapon. The AR is great at close range and even at further ranges with some more careful aim and firing in bursts you can do something. Even when dueling other AR-users the one who’s using bursts to the head may end up being the one to win against the other that’s just spraying and praying. It’ll still get crushed by ranged weapons like the Battle Rifle or the Stalker and at close range trying to go against a Hammer is a death sentence while going in close with someone with a Mangler may end up with you getting the old one-two punch before you can get through a burst from your mag while the Heatwave and Bulldog can also out perform it. Even the Sentinel Beam is rather formidable as well albeit if you can keep the beam on your target well. So when you start with the Assault Rifle, you still have all these options and other I haven’t listed that you’ll want to trade up but it and your Sidekick can let you put up a fight regardless.
More importantly, it coaxes people to get more into the fight. Playing objective games like Total Control or Stockpile or Strongholds or CTF and considering the weapons they have to start with, they’ll push in close to the fight where things get really fun.
I for one prefer this much more over how it used to be in the older games where everyone started with a BR and on big maps like Valhalla or Sandtrap where you would either play the center of the map on that big hill and shoot into the enemy base or you’re shooting at enemies on top of the big hill from your base, and you never have to switch out your weapon ever save for a Sniper Rifle or Spartan Laser. The BR in particular tends to be brought up with a lot of the commenters that I’ve seen essentially saying “I should be able to get my BR and not worry about getting killed by the AR”.
The BR remains a formidable weapon, you just need to play to its advantages. It’ll beat an AR-user easily at range and as long as you stick to ranges and situations that favor it, you’ll come out on top. For all the complaints that is being directed at the AR, I have to ask if that’s stopping you from picking up the BR if you see it. I’m going to assume, 9 out of 10, the answer is ‘no’ because of course you’re not going to walk by the BR if its there in front of you. Its still an upgrade. You just need to be mindful to play to its advantages.
If you’re playing on Streets, stick to the actual streets with the long sight lines or take up positions like on the various balconies. Live Fire, same thing: focus on those lanes. Bazaar? That map’s practically designed for BRs. And when you pick up a BR on Behemoth or any of the BTB maps, just try and tell me you don’t feel like your threat level just went up several magnitudes once you grabbed that BR and got those huge open areas in front of you.
In Arena, the smaller maps do skew a bit more to ARs but you can remain very effective with the BR. Turn it around to BTB with the bigger maps and now the BR is a lot more heavily favored with the AR remaining effective as long as you stick to situations that favor its strengths. When it comes to those two weapons in particular with how people like to match them up, they are both pretty competitive weapons that excel when used in their preferred situations - which, yes, it means that you may want to stow that BR and switch to the AR if you’re going close quarters.
Now, if there’s a particular element of the game that I think has led to people seeing the AR as too powerful its the very short range of the Motion Sensor. I do say that if you play to the BR’s strengths, even in the smaller Arena maps, you’ll do fine. Problem is…it is kind of hard to do and I think the Motion Sensor is a blame here.
Being a Halo veteran - and I’m sure a lot of people here are, too, obviously -, how used to it were you when fighting at targets at a distance with your BR, glancing periodically at your motion sensor, when you spot a threat on your motion sensor about to come around a corner to your flank, so you turn around, toss a nade, and wait to see if the guy decides to either rush you with his lowered shields which you then plink him right in the head, or he retreats and now you have to decide if you want to pursue or reposition?
Have you been doing that in Infinite?
Probably not because the motion sensor sucks.
More than likely, what happens nowadays is that you’re playing on a map like Streets, you’re firing at a team at the other end of the lane that you’re on, and then all of a sudden you’re getting lit up by an Assault Rifle well within its range right behind you and die. In that way, I do feel for BR users as I’ve experienced this plenty since the launching of the multiplayer. Rather than the AR being too powerful, I think the motion sensor contributes to this misconception because you do not have that warning and capability to fight back as you did in previous games.
If an enemy snuck up on you in one of the previous games and did that, odds are its because you focused too much on your scope and not enough on your motion sensor that you got flanked and died. In Infinite, it can be because the game is spawning enemies right behind you and you have no idea about it until you’re taking half a mag up your rear and by then its way too late to do anything.
Not just for detecting flanking enemies either. Say you enter the tram station on Streets, nothing on your motion sensor, so you go right in the middle of the ground floor and all of a sudden there’s a red dot on your sensor that has an enemy on the second level and you have nowhere to go before he’s on you and lighting you up from above. Even on BTB where the motion sensor is supposed to be “better”, if you play Fragmentation it won’t even cover a third of that central room in the middle of the map you’re about to walk in on, leaving you having no idea if there’s anyone in there until you’re inside and looking with your own eyes to see that guy waiting for you with a Bulldog or Heatwave because he’s bouncing around at the exact middle of the room, just out of range.
Play a few rounds of FFA and tell me that the motion sensor isn’t nigh-useless in this game. Everyone in this mode is an enemy yet your motion sensor will remain blank for most of the time unless they’re right on top of you and by then there’s really no point to it.
Having AR Starts as the normal at the same time we have such terrible motion sensor ranges, and I think there’s some misplaced blame being laid out on the AR itself. Rather than nerfing the AR, I think this is more evidence of how the motion sensor needs a buff instead and would like to see if other people agree as I’ve seen. I’d just like to see the opinions centralized on a topic favoring the AR rather than complaining about with a bunch of people - myself included - saying its fine.
And, lets face it, I think a vast percentage of the people complaining about the AR and want it nerfed are going to be the ones who are going to stick to BR-start playlists when we get them and never want to touch AR-starts again, leaving us with another Halo 5 situation where all you’ll see of your AR is the second it’ll take to switch to your pistol because its by far the better weapon now.
I’d also rather 343 actually buff the weapons that could use them and vary our weapon selection a bit more rather than nerf one that doesn’t need it and limit the weapon selection further.