BR Dominance. Yay or Nay?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

The Battle Rifle has long been a part of Halo, ever since Halo 2. Loved by many for it’s versatile and reliable nature. It is the perfect clean up weapon, as killing an enemy player with no shields only takes 1 headshot. It performs consistently well across all ranges. All it takes is 4 bursts to the head and you’re done, or 2 bursts and a melee. It’s no surprise when you stack the Battle Rifle against all the other starting weapons that it’s every player’s weapon of choice.

Hell, it’s so reliable that you just can’t go wrong by having one in your hands at all times.

BR starts is very balanced and competitive in the Halo community. In fact, you could even go as far as saying that the Battle Rifle is sacred for being such a revered weapon amongst players.

Why though? Because every other gun sucks.

Lets take a look at Halo 2, the game considered by many to be the best Halo multiplayer experience. The SMG is a close range weapon. Its damage is practically zero when you fire at any target that’s farther than 10 feet. Since maps in Halo aren’t the size of a bouncy castle, the SMG’s use is very limited and you are in dire need of finding a weapon that can do one thing. Kill players that are at medium range.

“But ZoomGears you silly -Yoink-! The SMG is only supposed to work well in it’s intended role; close range!” You’re right on that one. So then why do we start with it? It’s no wonder the Battle Rifle became the new starting weapon. When you have an SMG and the other team has BRs, you don’t stand a chance.

But what if we had a gun that bridged the gap between an SMG and a Battle Rifle? A gun that everyone started with. It wouldn’t be as dominant or reliable, but it would give players a chance to fight back. You all know what I’m talking about. The Assault Rifle. The AR is a very reliable weapon to start with. Capable of easily killing players at medium range but still not as effectively as the Battle Rifle. But it’s also arguably better at killing in close range than the Battle Rifle. It’s trade-off includes: Reduced accuracy, less kills per reload, slower at finishing off unshielded targets.

Finally, we have a gun besides the Battle Rifle that can stand on it’s own! “Why even bother? You could have gotten the same results if you just stuck with BR starts and it wouldn’t have risked changing the game too much!” Well here’s my response to that.

When everyone starts with an Assault Rifle, the match plays out much differently. There’s a lot more breathing room in maps and fights start happening in areas of the map that would otherwise be dead zones with BR starts. Grabbing pickup weapons such as a BR or DMR is a smart choice as they allow you to kill players from a further distance, limiting your exposure to the enemy team. AR starts also gives the Pistol a reason to exist: The Pistol is a precision weapon that’s capable of quickly finishing off weak targets, although it will never outperform any true precision weapons as it is merely a sidearm to help compliment the Assault Rifle and SMG.

Also, when everyone starts with a BR, what’s the point of switching it out? The only time you won’t have a BR is if you somehow got lucky enough to hog 2 power weapons at once. There is no room for experimentation. Why pick up that Needler? “You think I’m getting out of position to attempt a Needler kill? Yeah right.”

“Hey look! An Assault Rifle! I guess that will come in handy if I run out of ammo.” These are the things you tell yourself when you see other weapons laying around.

With AR starts, there is room to experiment and take risks. Your starting weapon is good, but it’s not going to win you the match. The game is encouraging your team to find a precision weapon and more importantly: To fight for Power Weapons. A Sword is going to be extremely helpful when everyone else has AR’s and can’t just lock you down for taking a step outside.

For the hardcore fans, there should always be a BR playlist. But default Halo multiplayer should be AR starts. This is clearly all just an opinion but I don’t think people want to play a one gun game. There’s fun to be had in diversity!

As I sit here in nothing but my underwear at 6 AM typing this all up, I hope that some of you will agree with me. But even if that’s not the case, thanks for reading.

Sexy Master Chief reward for reading all the way through…

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> 2533274833600810;1:
> When everyone starts with an Assault Rifle, the match plays out much differently.

This is true. But not in a good way.

With AR starts, the game is over in the first minute. The rest is a formality. Once the BRs and power weapons are taken by a team you will never win with ARs. If that’s fun for you, then by all means be a statters pincushion for 12 minutes. But I prefer a fair game.

3

> 2533274913936758;2:
> > 2533274833600810;1:
> > When everyone starts with an Assault Rifle, the match plays out much differently.
>
>
> This is true. But not in a good way.
>
> With AR starts, the game is over in the first minute. The rest is a formality. Once the BRs and power weapons are taken by a team you will never win with ARs. If that’s fun for you, then by all means be a statters pincushion for 12 minutes. But I prefer a fair game.

i disagree with you, i too love the BR and DMR as much as the next (actually favor the DMR) , but after playing all 3 weeks of the bata i found, at least in my experience, that the game played beta with AR and Magnum starts. The flow of the game changed for the worst during the second week of the beta when it was BR and AR starts. the BR and DMR are power weapons. And now with the newly upgraded AR you can take someone if they have the BR or DMR at respectful ranges, and then the magnum completes the starting sandbox for those midrange precision kills. I can personally say that the magnum can go toe to toe with DMR and BR, as long as you arent engaged in a cross-map duel.

4

Why do people say things like “every other gun sucks” when it has only been a clear minority of weapons that have “sucked”? You only mention the SMG, which is just as well since most of the other problem weapons have been ‘smgs’. There is the blue SMG(H2/H3 plasma rifle), the red SMG(Brute BR), the sharp SMG(spiker), blue smg 2(Repeater), and big smg(H3/HR AR). On top of the crap H2/H3/H4 pistols and the CE/H2 Needlers, that is the extent of ‘bad’ weapons in the Halo series. This seems like a large number of weapons at first, until you realize this makes up only a small portion of Halo’s total sandbox over the years.

The vast majority of them were likely crippled as a result of dual wielding and general padding of the sandbox. They are bad weapons all on their own not just compared to the BR, but to the rest of the sandbox. They were terrible within their own niche.

Something I do give 343 credit for is that they finally made some of these weapons useful within their own niche again in H4/H5, there are still a bunch of functional clones, but weapons like the SMG and AR are finally doing their job while the precision weapon like the BR remained virtually the same. Indicated that certain weapons were the issue.

Honestly, the BR itself is not important, its the role it plays. Like it or not, Halo players want versatility off spawn. Whether it is the CE pistol, the BR, or the DMR or any similar precision weapons. It happens every single installment. Using default plasma pistol starts in CE is basically unheard of. After launching with SMG starts in Halo 2, players begged for BR starts. Same thing in Halo 3 and the AR. In Reach the DMR starts were still more common. Even in Halo 4 where players were given a choice, most player still chose a versatile precision weapon.

The only thing SMG/AR starts have done over the years is create a minor delay between players picking up a ranged or otherwise powerful weapon or the players die trying. It revisionist nonsense to try and claim that AR starts somehow encourage ‘variety’. Players don’t scorn other weapon simply because they are able to spawn a versatile one, they ignore them because they either A.) are bad weapons, or B.) Simply are not appropriate for the situation.

I want variety as much as the next person, I just also want to be protected off spawn and AR/Pistol starts just do not work in Halo 5. Maybe they might have worked if we were talking about maps the size of the original games, but the huge maps in Halo 5 make them unfit for the job. BR starts, particularly BR/AR starts, work very well in Halo 5. And guess what? There is still a ton of variety because the sandbox was actually fairly well balanced this time around. In addition to power weapons, I find myself picking up SMGs and ARs because I actually want to, I often go out of my way to do so. Why? Because this time they actually give you a tangible advantage at close range.

Imagine that? Players are willing to pick up weapons that give them a real advantage when used correctly. I got plenty of use out of the Light rifle and DMR as well due to their ability to totally melt players at range and are far more reliable than the BR at doing so. The only weapon I felt was underwhelming was the pistol as the SMG/AR were more reliable close range weapons and the precision weapons were far more reliable at mid-long. Though some balancing tweaks could easily turn it into a close-mid hand cannon.

On that note, the concept of a ‘sidearm’ in Halo is ridiculous. No weapon should ever be designed to be tossed away or relegated only to ‘backup’. The status of a weapon as a ‘primary’ or ‘secondary’ should be based on the situation not the design. Leave the ‘sidearms’ for the class based shooters.

TL;DR Halo players want to be protected off spawn so they tend towards versatility. I personally don’t care what form that weapon takes, be it CE Pistol, BR, Carbine, etc. If you want to encourage true variety, make weapons worth using.

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> 2533274802469862;3:
> > 2533274913936758;2:
> > > 2533274833600810;1:
> > > When everyone starts with an Assault Rifle, the match plays out much differently.
> >
> >
> >
> > This is true. But not in a good way.
> >
> > With AR starts, the game is over in the first minute. The rest is a formality. Once the BRs and power weapons are taken by a team you will never win with ARs. If that’s fun for you, then by all means be a statters pincushion for 12 minutes. But I prefer a fair game.
>
>
> i disagree with you, i too love the BR and DMR as much as the next (actually favor the DMR) , but after playing all 3 weeks of the bata i found, at least in my experience, that the game played beta with AR and Magnum starts. The flow of the game changed for the worst during the second week of the beta when it was BR and AR starts. the BR and DMR are power weapons. And now with the newly upgraded AR you can take someone if they have the BR or DMR at respectful ranges, and then the magnum completes the starting sandbox for those midrange precision kills. I can personally say that the magnum can go toe to toe with DMR and BR, as long as you arent engaged in a cross-map duel.

di could not disagree more Seriously It played terribly the first and last bit of the third week. I do not how ever agree that the BR should have dominance. I think that what they have done with the AR is fantastic. ANd i think 343 is doing a great job balancing all the weapon and making them viable again

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> 2533274819446242;4:
> Why do people say things like “every other gun sucks” when it has only been a clear minority of weapons that have “sucked”? You only mention the SMG, which is just as well since most of the other problem weapons have been ‘smgs’. There is the blue SMG(H2/H3 plasma rifle), the red SMG(Brute BR), the sharp SMG(spiker), blue smg 2(Repeater), and big smg(H3/HR AR).

Haha I love this.

7

I also enjoy AR starts more personally. It forces players to pick up precision weapons which are generously strewn about the course. I just like the way the games tend to play out that way I suppose.

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OP Can’t tell if sarcasm. You realize we’ve always had AR starts, right?

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> 2533274803493024;7:
> I also enjoy AR starts more personally. It forces players to pick up precision weapons which are generously strewn about the course. I just like the way the games tend to play out that way I suppose.

Yeah but the problem is that when a player gets a rifle, the player with an auto can’t fight back. The br isn’t a power weapon, giving it to everybody enhances movement because the player can defend themselves at all ranges if they’re good, ar starts don’t really enhance movement because they’re only good at close range, it’s a niche weapon, staying in select areas is a better strategy. Also keep in mind that even if players spawn with a rifle, you still want to pick up the sniper or rocket launcher because the br can’t compete in there respective ranges, it may be viable at any range, but it’s certainly not the best in any of them.

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> 2533274913936758;2:
> > 2533274833600810;1:
> > When everyone starts with an Assault Rifle, the match plays out much differently.
>
>
> This is true. But not in a good way.
>
> With AR starts, the game is over in the first minute. The rest is a formality. Once the BRs and power weapons are taken by a team you will never win with ARs. If that’s fun for you, then by all means be a statters pincushion for 12 minutes. But I prefer a fair game.

In the previous Halo’s this would be true, however now the AR and SMG are powerful (a tiny bit to much for my liking but meh) so they are now a viable weapon, and I liked Halo 2 BR starts but with Halo 5, AR and Magnum starts are better in my opinion.