BR starts? AR starts? Lets break the mold.

Games Halo Infinite
1

Everyone has an opinion when it comes to the starting weapon of every match. there are several reasons people like AR starts, and several reasons people like BR starts, but I think everyone can agree both have drawbacks.
The AR start’s drawback is that once your opponents get power weapons, you’re powerless against them.
The BR start’s drawback is that the BR makes 90% of the weapons on the map utterly meaningless, due to its ability to hold its own at sometimes cross-map ranges and in CQC

Now there are also several Pros to both starts, but I’ll let the inevitable defense come to the aid of both starts. Ladies, Gentlemen and Other Identifying of the Grand Jury, I have come to you to preach my Blasphemy. I propose an idea so heinous, so outlandish that the mere thought may make the weak among us faint with horror. I propose… the Commando start.

Now, there are several problems with this. One: we have yet to actually… ya know… shoot the damn thing. but, i do believe that I don’t have to. examining the gameplay in which we’ve already seen the Commando, it seems honestly like a slight upgrade to the Assault Rifle. It has the ability to headshot exposed opponents, while still retaining a respectfully high fire rate to deal with CQC combatants.

“But tundra, that just makes it a BR clone!” Not quite! I predict that the automatic firing nature of this beast will keep it from reaching out to further ranges, preserving the Battle Rifle as another straight upgrade to the commando and all other loadout weapons for the soul reason of Reach, and you’d be wise to remember it.

All in all, Grand Jury, the reason I believe that the Commando will be the new favorite starting gun is because it’s a good halfway point between the AR and the BR. It still has the range to knock snipers out of their scope, making it harder for them to boop your soft, beautiful face, but doesn’t have enough range to really be a solid threat to them, so the sniper is still invaluable as a pickup to ALL players, not just the really skilled ones. furthermore, it gives the BR room to really be the workhorse that it is, turning it into more of a low tier power weapon that you CAN still fight against but like… you probably still need some backup.

Let me know why I’m wrong and stinky, I wanna hear the community’s thoughts on this!

2

I’m happy as long as we all start the same.

From my two starting weapons I wanted something close quarters and something mid-range. I don’t want to be useless off the rip but at the same time I don’t want to be strong enough to run around ignoring placed weapons.

Halo 5 got it right (except the magnum is a tad OP)… but I have no particular allegiance to any weapon.

I also don’t have a problem if the weapons were to change from map to map… or game to game. As long as we all start equal.

3

Ar starts is way healthier for the sandbox. If you can’t get a kill with an ar then you clearly need to get better considering the ar looks pretty competent this time around.

4

You yourself pointed it out, but we do indeed need to try out the Commando before making the judgement on whether it is good choice for a starting weapon. Honestly, the multiplayer gameplay we’ve seen with it so far is pretty minimal. It could very well be a absolute beast that shreds both BR and AR players at mid range and in that case it would be too OP for a starting weapon.

Honestly, the most important thing for a starting weapon, whether AR/BR/Commando is for the balance to be right. You made a great point by mentioning how BR starts in H2/H3 (I’d add DMR starts in Reach to that) pretty much invalidated 90% of the sandbox. Infinite’s starting weapon should be in the same class as the H5 Magnum at launch (the weapon tuning update messed things up big time): powerful, but not to the extent that it makes any non-power weapon trash.

5

It’s all about fine tuning whatever starting weapon we get. You want to have something able to shoot at medium long range. I mean by that, when you spawn you should be able to help your teammate without needing to go for a trip to get a “half power weapon” (carbine, BR, light rifle etc…) and start to play. I would describe that weapon as a jack of all trades, master of none.

I mean they did a very good job with H5, so they know what they need to do, and they have a team of former pro players working on that so I’m quite confident that whatever they pick the balance will be just right.

6

My God this is truly a heinous and outlandish and all those other words you used - prospect. I came in here thinking you were gonna suggest loadouts so honestly you could’ve said anything else besides that and I would’ve been more positive towards it.

If that is how the commando will perform, I wouldn’t mind it, at least for social. I’d like to try it.

7

I don’t think it should be one or the other, I have fun with both. But what’s really great is giving players a choice prior to searching for a match.

AR starts let you really branch out in the sandbox, BR starts put your skills to the test.

I really love how in the Match Composer of MCC you can turn off BR starts or AR starts if you want. I hope something similar comes to Halo Infinite.

8

I hope that the Commando Rifle is slightly more powerful than the BR, but only an on-map pickup. If the roles are reversed, people are still going to call for BR starts, and if the BR is balanced as a pick up weapon properly, then it won’t serve well as a spawn weapon.

9

The only problem I have with the evaluation that the Commando is just a better AR is that it makes the AR useless and the devs literally stated in one of their dev thingys that every weapon will have a purpose, so I doubt that the Commando will just be the better AR.

10

Yeah I’m leaning towards them toning down the magnum to lose to the AR at short range and be useful but not dominantly so at mid range and irrelevant at long range. This is based on people with equal skill btw. AR and magnum start with BR a map pickup.

11

> 2535469609708123;10:
> Yeah I’m leaning towards them toning down the magnum to lose to the AR at short range and be useful but not dominantly so at mid range and irrelevant at long range. This is based on people with equal skill btw. AR and magnum start with BR a map pickup.

if by tone down the magnum you mean “completely remove it from the game”. Then yes that’s what they’re doing. Our new secondary will be the sidekick, a weaker, faster firing, more traditional pistol.

So AR/sidekick starts with BRs and Commandos on the maps.

12

long as the game doesn’t devolve into literally only using the pistol like halo 5…

13

Needler Starts

14

> 2533274964189700;13:
> Needler Starts

Finally, THE greatest of all starts. Case closed!

15

If it’s anything like past Halo games it should be the BR start. No a BR doesn’t make any other weapon pointless. Just because it’s capable doesn’t mean it’s going to win in every situation. You want to sit here and tell me if you’re on one side of the map and the enemy is on the other side on Coagulation in H2 you’d rather have the BR or the sniper rifle? If someone is close range and above you, would you feel like it would be more advantageous for your enemy to have the rocket launcher or BR? People who want AR starts (if it’s anything like how Halo 2 SMG starts were) just essentially want to be able to steamroll people if they get the early advantage with power weapons. It’s way more fun to face someone who has a chance to come back or if you’re the one that’s down and have a chance to come back.

16

> 2533274794747517;15:
> If it’s anything like past Halo games it should be the BR start. No a BR doesn’t make any other weapon pointless. Just because it’s capable doesn’t mean it’s going to win in every situation. You want to sit here and tell me if you’re on one side of the map and the enemy is on the other side on Coagulation in H2 you’d rather have the BR or the sniper rifle? If someone is close range and above you, would you feel like it would be more advantageous for your enemy to have the rocket launcher or BR? People who want AR starts (if it’s anything like how Halo 2 SMG starts were) just essentially want to be able to steamroll people if they get the early advantage with power weapons. It’s way more fun to face someone who has a chance to come back or if you’re the one that’s down and have a chance to come back.

BR start makes every weapon that isn’t a power weapon either incredibly niche or useless. Of course a sniper is better, but it’s a power weapon. Same with rocket launcher. Those aren’t the weapons that the BR makes useless. It’s the AR, the plasma rifle, the needler, basically any lower or mid tier weapon.

It has nothing to do with one team steamrolling another. It’s just a desire to see more weapons in the sandbox be utilized. With AR starts (especially with a stronger AR like in 5) you see a lot more non-conventional picks you see players grabbing plasma rifles or SMGs. you see the carbine actually get used and sought after, you encourage players to actually pick up more weapons and learn spawns better. Hell you even see a fair mix between AR and pistol being used most of the time. With BR starts any weapon that isn’t a high tier power weapon might as well not be on the map. You aren’t even likely to sidegrade to a carbine or low-tier power weapon like the brute-shot because the BR will beat it in most scenarios thanks to it’s utility.

That why I’m all for AR starts, with a strong AR. Halo 5’s AR for instance. A beefy starting weapon with modest utility but is still outclassed but a lot of other basic non-power weapons in one way or another. Then have BRs and other precision weapons places in ample spots on the map.

17

> 2535451336993939;3:
> Ar starts is way healthier for the sandbox. If you can’t get a kill with an ar then you clearly need to get better considering the ar looks pretty competent this time around.

It’s better than the BR?

18

Most likely the starts for social will be AR and sidekick. Competitive may be BR and sidekick, or maybe just the sidekick. It’s hard to say what it is till we start getting flights.

19

Honestly, Commando Starts could become a thing, I want to see them experiment with it. Especially since if we get BR/AR as the starting duo, the Sidekick would be obsolete and BR/Sidekick doesn’t really strike me as the way to go. While with Commando starts, the Sidekick makes more sense than the AR as the secondary, meaning the AR can still have a place as a more powerful close range secondary option if you pick it up.

I very much support Commando/Sidekick for social, and BR/AR for ranked/BTB. Don’t even bother with AR starts. It only ever worked when the Magnum was a competent utility weapon, which the Sidekick won’t be. And at that point you might as well just consider it Magnum starts.

20

> 2533274816257608;12:
> long as the game doesn’t devolve into literally only using the pistol like halo 5…

AR outshines the magnum at closer ranges
if you had of started with br or Dmr you argued the same point as every halo has a dominate jack of all trades utility weapon it’s always been the halo way .
H2/H3 br the utility
Ce /h5 magnum utility
h4/reach ( dmr) both had load outs and specing into AAs .