In Halo 3 and Reach I was able to use the AR pretty effectivly and it only because stronger in H4 . It was pretty good during the Halo 5 beta beack before 343i made the pistol the god. I dont see why alot of ppl are saying “the AR is finally viable” Either they didnt know how to use it or ive been lucky since 2007.
The Assault Rifle never had a headshot multiplier up until Halo 5: Guardians, not since Halo 3 as you have mentioned.
I think the headshot multiplier should be the least of players’ concerns of the AR in this game, since the high spread of the AR makes landing headshots come down to pure luck.
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AR stands no longer for Assist Rifle.
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I think the bulldog is deliberate design choice so that there’s room for the classic shotgun down the line. Haven’t really used the plasma pistol but 100% agree about the heatwave
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The AR in those previous games you mentioned [Halo 3 & Reach] had a significantly slower time to kill than in this game, and with that paired with its high spread made it borderline useless for a lot of players, especially skilled players [players who have high accuracy] who would of been much better off using headshot-capable weapons instead.
AH, thanks for the correction. I couldn’t remember when they added it.
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You’re 100% right regarding the Shotgun. Infection simply wouldn’t work with the bulldog and there’s no way that nobody brought that up when designing it. We’re probably going to get the Shotgun in 6 months and 343 is going to pretend they “listened to the community” when in reality it was always part of the plan.
True H5 pistol pretty much is all you needed until you found or chose to pick up a BR. I feel people expect the AR to be a weapon with a low skill floor and a low skill ceiling while the pistol was Medium - High skill floor with an extreme skill ceiling. I feel every weapon should have an ideal best-in-class range and use case vs. the end all be all that was the H5 pistol
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Well duh? 3v1 is one of those situations where you run. You can’t face 3 people head on. Lol.
There are plenty of weapons that outclass the AR.
Sidekick. BR. Commando. Mangler.
The AR is still an AR. Use precision weapons and don’t miss your shots to come out on top.
It’s not too strong.
Say this a million times, scream it from the rooftops.
The AR is so ridiculously OP it breaks the game. The AR can win against any weapon. I’ve stopped even trying to go for other rifles. AR beats Commando, BR, you name it, at both close and medium-long range. It’s a freaking bullet hose. It’s like everyone spawns with SAWs. Reduce range by 15-25% immediately, it’s a no-brainer.
It’s very possible that the majority of player & critical feedback about this game being very hard is simply because of the current AR.
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Why even pretend like headshots are important when I can smoke you with my AR from across the map?
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I’m an AR kid at heart, its really not strong enough and perfect for the engagements you can get in. BUT IT NEEDS TO STOP BEING A PICK UP WEAPON IN RANKED.
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What map are you playing? Ar loses accuracy and bullet mag outside rrr.
You really have to burst your shots to kill outside mid range engagements.
It’s less of a problem on BTB because draw distances are further and you have more teammates to cover your back. But arena is just an AR simulator. The entire map is a killbox. I’m not complaining about the damage, though it does a ton, but if you reduced range you’d encourage more tactical gameplay, I guarantee you.
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Reduced range? The AR is not as powerful as people make it out to be.
TTK is universally quick. On all weapons. Even the disrupter can kill pretty fast. And it has the one of the lowest ttks in the game.
If we are going for “high accuracy” then weapons like the BR, Pistol, Covanant Carbine, DMR, and so on should be your go to. But i’ve manage to clean up some kills and use the AR in 3-5 (well more durng 5 beta due to the pistol raining king) When i’ve played AR pistol starts in game modes the AR has always had success in close mid-range. Of course you want a Percision Weapon, but to say the AR was useless, I highly disagree.
Yea the plasma rifle is fickle but it is extremely deadly in the right hands - it will outshoot just about anything.
I said only the AR in Halo 3 and Reach, not including Halo 5.
The AR in Halo 5 was so strong [faster TTK compared to previous Halo game] and so easy to use [through its high spread, rate of fire, bullet magnetism, and low recoil] that it was just too good in too many hands and that is why that weapon got nerfed in one of its weapon balancing patches later on in that game. The pistol didn’t so much ‘rain king’ until the other loadout weapons like the BR, DMR, SMG, etc, got nerfed too.
What I really mean before Halo 5 though, was that weapon was fairly situational and most players could not really afford to use it outside of cleaning up soft targets who were already weakened by the use of their other weapons or teammates. A lot of times though, you didn’t even have to use the AR at all to clean up weakened opponents in Halo 3 or Halo Reach if you were good with your BR or DMR and kept it to a few enemies at a time.
TL;DR - The AR is borderline useless outside a specific niche.