Balancing Halo 5 My View: Prophets Bane

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

After being in the preview programme, and continuing my experience of halo 5 into the beta period, I have come to a series of conclusions after around 16 hours of play.
I have a KD of 1.2 and a WL of 50%, I state this to let those reading know I’m a competent player, capable of playing well, who has also played enough to be on the losing side of H5G’s mechanics and can see the respective pros and cons of each of them. Without further ado I’ll jump straight in:

i) The prophet’s bane.

This is a totally new addition to halo 5’s sandbox, acting as a regular energy sword would-albeit with an extended lunge, and as of now an unquantified speed boost. The issue with the prophet’s bane is that H5 has an already (in my and at least 50% of the vocal halo community’s opinions) excessive speed. Players holding a position can be eviscerated with little to know warning as players with unlimited sprint attack without prejudice. The radar is made redundant as a sprinting PB wielder is too fast for a player to make note of it and adjust accordingly. It offers lots of benefit to the wielder, but little to no risk.

Is this mechanic fun? Yes, undoubtabley. But is it balanced? I’d say not. From mid-range and closer, the average player has little to no chance of defeating a sword wielder even if he gets a first shot due to this previously mentioned speed/lunge boost, and also the thruster SA to boot-even if he gets the first shot.

My proposition is to actually carry 343’s ethos into the game: making the Mjolnir armour a weapon. Imagine if when sprinting with the PB in hand, a Spartans shield slowly but constantly drained. Imagine if the PB’s impressive power was FUELLED by the Spartan armour.

This would explain canonically WHY the PB is so powerful, and in the same stroke make it more balanced. Players wouldn’t abuse unlimited sprint, and would carry a risk/benefit approach into each encounter. Just like in every other halo we love, if the opponent is too far away to stab, the a player will have to decide whether he should risk going into a battle with 75% or less (just numbers thrown out there) shields.

This would allow players to have a fair chance of tackling this as of now OP weapon, and would add a skill gap, that while is present in H5, I’d argue isn’t as high as I’d like.

Please if you’ve read and have any thoughts let me and others know, we have to make H5 the best game we can! The next essay (lol) I’ll write will come soon but for now I thought I’d throw this out there.

Cheers.

2

This might not be much of a comment, but I’ll second that. Well stated, OP. :slight_smile:

3

Thanks man. I’m going to bump this all day, because people need to read it. Its a brilliant idea (if i do say so myself ho ho ho) and someone at 343 NEEDS to see it. Its just…RIGHT lol

4

I think this is a pretty good idea, but to balance it I think the PB shouldn’t run out of energy and it should only spawn one time on the map.

5

> 2533274811058305;4:
> I think this is a pretty good idea, but to balance it I think the PB shouldn’t run out of energy and it should only spawn one time on the map.

I like this idea, as the PB is in my mind (inherently unbalanced) but I doubt the rest of the community would.

i) If its a one time only spawn, then it would compromise the predictability of WHERE its going to be, and also WHEN its going to spawn. these two factors are of paramount importance to halo’s power weapon ethos.

ii) If it never runs out, we could be faced with the prospect of players holding it for the entirety of a match which would destabilise everything.

I may not be right so if you or anybody else has a counterargument to this please let us all know! :slight_smile:

6

Sounds like an interesting idea OP but I differ. With the PB I found myself to be killed as much as I could get kills with it. You can’t go rambo on the other team with the PB if they are either aware or outnumber you. At first I thought PB was op but then I realized how a good sword wielder would use the sword sparingly, and not to abuse it. If you just run around using it, you get the other teams attention. If you so much as kill an opponent, their team becomes aware of it and you get a big red target on your head. Before you know it, you’re already giving the other team the power weapon. And you’ve only come up with one or two kills with it.

I think the PB is fine as is when it comes to team based modes like team slayer. It should be used sparingly and more so for stealth and surprising your enemy. However, it might be a bit op for free-for-all matches. That’s my two cents on PB.