OP said that they only play Ranked basically, and there aren’t any bots active in Ranked.
Bots are okay for Social, but they still have some minor issues… for instance, bots aren’t that great at going for objectives or being able to communicate with the team through a mic or the Mark system. (If Bots could Mark… they would probably become more useful but I’m sure players would get annoyed that the bots were marking everything lol)
There is so much more 343 could do with 3v4 matches.
Don’t start a game if someone quits before the game starts!
Add in a rejoin option.
Make the game 3v3 on the field by rotating the 4th player off the bench with each kill.
Take away the power weapons and equipment to give the 3 team a chance.
Or even just swap the game to Slayer - where the 3 team at least has a chance.
Personally, when it happens to me and the game is out of my control, I concentrate hard on not letting my KPM or DPM blow out (remember it’s calibrated against the number of players in the game). Practice your map movement and 1v1. Set your self mini-goals to keep it interesting.
There was one game recently 3v4 and the three happened to be a squad of me and two friends. One player on the other side was being a bit obnoxious - so we spent the last bit of the match just going for them. Turned the 3v4 into a 3v1. Sadly there was only a couple of minutes left - it may have been better if we had ten minutes or more to make their life a misery.
Ah didn’t realize that. Thanks y’all. I guess I’ve just been playing social? lol.
I’m kinda the opposite… I shoot the air a lot to let enemies find me and try to speed up the process. I dont need to learn maps anymore. Just want even number on each team. If possible equalish skills as well
I wouldn’t say a 3v4 is grounds for giving up. Especially in Ranked. I recently played against a team of 3, and they held their own against my team of 4. It may be harder, but not impossible. You can definitely keep the game close.
Bots are nothing more then canon fodder. In slayer they can cost you the entire game.
Repeated self-destructions, AFK-ing, and betraying leads to an instant ban. If you’re in a game you don’t like or feel it’s pointless to stay, just quit. By far the simplest and least harmful way to handle that situation.
If you’re not having fun just quit the match. Assuming this is in Social you don’t owe anybody anything. If you’re in ranked just hang back, or better yet stick with your team and try your best. If neither is an option you can likely just find a hiding spot to make slight movements in and wait out the match.
For those who contributed with innovative and creative responses I appreciate that. For those who disagree I respect your opinion as well. Just sucks to be banned for dying on my own volition as opposed to letting the other team kill me at the same speed. Sometimes if it’s down to 2 on 4 the enemy has mercy. Hopefully I contributed in that respect atleast. Peace
Depending on the mode, Suicides subtract points, so even if being afk gives the enemy free kills, it’s at least not removing team score if your team is actually trying to win against the odds
I mean, the Chief could do it…
i take a 3v4 seriously.
The problem is,
Instead of innovating a way for match imbalance to be less frustrating,
343i instead chose to punish players for being on the losing end.
It is weirdly sadistic,
The people the system intends on punishing also happens to punish people being victimized by it.
The Devs want you to just sit there and be consumed as content by other players,
They don’t care if you’re going to lose, they don’t care if its going to ruin your experience with infinite.
Its Lazy,
It no wonder the game is failing.
343i cuts way too many corners and it really really shows.
Was this ranked or social play
Also in CTF they will always protect their flag carrier past a certain point so if your flag needs to be returned to score you’re out of luck, they’re hiding with you. (2v4 experience 
)
I feel like I’m banned from halopedia some nasty individual keeps deleting my edits!!!
For example…
Mythic difficulty should clearly be coined as Legendary with the Mythic skull on. The developers coined Legendary all skulls on as LASO back in the MCC. In this title LASO is clearly not the highest difficulty.
LASO can be skipped through in a number of hours an can benefit or improve the players overall talent. Equipment doesn’t need time to recharge Your granted unlimited ammo an grenades plus the chiefs shield dont recharge without melees.
This mode changes the gameplay enough to warrant a replay but Iron skull must be on to gain the achievement an extreme caution must be utilized to advance at all.
Thunder difficulty
If you want to replay the game an raise the difficulty as much as the fun or excitement factor! consider placing on the Thunder skull which forces you to play more tactile. This mode is clearly far more difficult yet still just as fun an more rewarding. Expect to encounter alot of Brutes now welding rocket launchers. Grunt ultras welding shields are now numerous aswell. The Elites are ranked up to Ultras an can all cloak now aswell. The skimmers are frequently found welding rocket launchers aswell. The Hunters are Ranked up to Officers an highly lethal.
!!How will you plan your way through 4 cloaked elites!! If its not hard enough or you want your marine companions to last longer place on the Mythic skull. … Maybe it’s the grammar errors an not my biases leading up to my exclusion.
Lol but they still lost didn’t they? People who try to win a 3v4 especially in obj are fools.
This sentence could have stopped here and still been 100% accurate.
These two make the most sense to me. Honestly I’d be surprised of the latter wasn’t standard.
Alternatively they could weight matches based on the amount of time they where imbalanced. i.e. A 3v4 from the basically the has a negligible effect on rating whereas a 3 v 4 where a player dipped at the last second effects the rating like it was a 4 v 4. This alone isn’t perfect but when combined with leave punishing then it probably comes pretty close to the mark of an okay system.
I mean don’t get me wrong I LOVE when I’m on the 4 team vs the 3 
Mythic was the unofficial term that was used before it was officially called laso
If you played og halo 3 you would’ve heard the mode as mythic during those days thats what people doing laso runs called it at the time heck one of the many get recon rumors was to complete halo 3 mythic without dying and sending the playthrough to bungie(which to be fair would’ve probably get you the armor as they used to give it to people they liked or did something that impressed them)
Edit to include a old reference that uses the mythic title just to show people who don’t know the history of the unofficial title
http://halo.bungie.org/gameplay/halo3_slaso/