Lucid, arguably the best Halo Infinite player on the planet currently, is just casually running around with every weapon on the map in the highest levels of ranked play.
You cannot honestly say AR starts encourages more variety when you have hard proof to the contrary https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5M93fsx9r9Q
In social they even have more weapons available in the BR starts gametype, and people use EVERYTHING.
What are people using more in AR starts than BR starts? Isn’t that the major argument for keeping AR starts as the most common format?
I don’t think most people who want AR starts know how the weapon sandbox works. I think the rest are just interested in farming people for an easy high kd
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In Social, I actually don’t mind if we have 50/50 starts with AR or BR. I think it changes things up and allows you to practice with the other weapon more often. Also allows other players to get the starting weapon they want as well.
In Ranked, or more “serious” matchmaking, I prefer a BR start. I don’t know why but it just feels right and official.
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Its just the same ignorant complaint that certain people have been parroting for decades now.
Whenever they are pressed on what weapon people don’t seem to be using they inevitably list a small subset of badly balanced/designed or redundant weapons and pretend that means the rest of the sandbox is just as bad.
It gets even worse when they start listing weapons we know for a fact can eat a BR’s lunch, but they still don’t believe it gets used. The fact that these weapons don’t get used enough in their opinion becomes proof that the BR is actually still too strong rather than proof that some players don’t use all the tools available to them.
Unique and compelling weapon design encourages variety more than any one starting weapon. But spawning players with a utility weapon like the BR means a fresh is free to experiment rather than rush for the nearest range capable weapon.
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In ranked i prefer the combo BR + Bulldog or BR + AR
The BR for mid/long range, Bulldog or AR in short range or close area like a room and so on.
I think that the halo infinite BR is so far the best BR setup for ranked.
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Not really proof, just a video of a good player having a good game, wouldn’t be much different from any other video in which someone can effectively use multiple guns in a match.
But you are right that BR starts probably encourage weapon variety, only if because players are given a solid, safe, weapon right off the get go and they don’t need to hunt down the BR/Commando spawn to begin with.
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It’s Lucid. It’s important because it’s a video of the best player in the whole world right now using more weapon variety at high tier onyx than plat 2 players who swear AR starts is the way to go would.
My goal is to fundamentally dismantle the “variety” argument.
Halo Infinite has the most widely usable weapon sandbox in the entire series. It’s a lot like Halo CE without the Pistol overwhelming everything.
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You make a good point (Lucid being the top player and using a lot of different guns in that match), but the wrong conclusion.
It’s because is the best player that he can just casually play in ranked matches, because 99% of the players he encounters are significally less skilled as he is. That’s why he can play casual in ranked matches and therefore can use other weapons and also practice with those weapons. It wouldn’t even surprise me that he uses matches like that to deliberately use other weapons so he keeps his skills with those weapons up to date.
You can see that he isn’t playing on his best, since he isn’t even communicating with his teammate(s), even though one of them is communicating with him. He practically solo’d that match and only used the ping system only in momentes he was surrounded by enemies and wouldn’t survive. He never used it for enemies he couldn’t kill off and were escaping.
And even then you see that he almost never drops the BR. In the entire match he dropped it only 3 times and only if he had the stalker rifle and a good 2nd CQ weapon (bulldog or sentinal beam). Yet his most used weapon was still by far the BR and often the other weapons where only used to aid the BR (1 or 2 shots in with the other weapons and finishing it off with the BR). The BR still played the central role in his gameplay.
What i also saw: every other player almost exclusively use the BR, only the bulldog (for CQ) and rockets where used by others (unless i missed something).
So Lucid is about the only player in that match that used a (real) variety of weapons, only because he was just better skilled then the rest and played casually.
The BR was by far the most used weapon in that match, the other weapons combined didn’t even come close to the usage of the BR.
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Why would you want to drop the BR? It’s the primary utility weapon? In AR starts you almost never drop the Sidekick right?
It’s the same principle, you want a headshot utility weapon at all times.
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This is gonna be a weekly thing huh?
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Of course the BR plays a central role in his gameplay, the BR plays a central role in the game period(as have other past utility weapons).
A versatile spawn weapon is always going to get the most use under the best of circumstances. The claim mista is refuting is that “BR starts discourage the use of other weapons” which is on full display here.
Niche weapons have niche uses, a weapon doesn’t need to get equal playtime to any given starting weapon to have value in the sandbox. If these weapons had no value whatsoever, someone at Lucid’s level wouldn’t need to picking some of them up outside of BM. The fact that other players couldn’t effectively use those other weapons or see the value in them is part of why they lost.
We also had a good demonstration as to why some weapons might get left behind when we watched his bulldog shots vanish into the ether on like 3 separate occasions.
If your only criteria for “variety” is weapon use statistics then I suggest you go play Fiesta given that’s the only scenario where you will see “equal” use of inherently unequal weapons. If I want to play a game where I am free to run around with virtually any weapon and succeed regardless of context I will go play any given loadout shooter.
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The discussion will continue until BR starts improves
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If it doesn’t matter… then why are people constantly peddling for BR starts.
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Yes i do drop it. I always switch the sidekick for a BR whenever i can, since that is just a better weapon. And since i like to two different kind of weapons i don’t want to carry a BR and SK and therefore rather prefere to have an BR/AR combo (unless ofcourse i find a better weapon to replace the AR with).
But with BR-starts i would never drop the BR if i don’t have to (obviously when its (almost) empty i will drop it, but otherwise i won’t).
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because it gives you a fair start instead of matches snowballing? what point are you even trying to make?
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People are content to just be campy with BRs. BRs don’t encourage much besides going for power weapons/equipment
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There’s a couple things to unpack there.
Firstly, people playing passively with the BR has more to do with it’s TTK being longer than the AR. As the AR can kill faster than the a perfect four shot with the BR, players using the BR are more likely to stick to power positions or longer range sections of maps in order to not put themselves in a situation they are much more likely to lose. This is exacerbated in Social modes where there is an abundance of ARs in use. In ranked modes, the AR might be a wall weapon, meaning there is at any time one, maybe two in circulation among players. The reduced presence of the AR in BR start modes means that players can more freely move around the map.
The AR actively discourages movement around the map because it’s one of the strongest and most consistent Close-mid range weapons in the game. Watch the killfeed in a social mode sometime. There’s little variety in kills from other map pickups (other than power weapons obviously) because the AR is so consistent that missing a shot with the Mangler or Bulldog will usually end in a death.
The sandbox actually gets to breathe when you remove AR starts. You can actually see players strafe and use grenades, move about the map in a more natural manner and play smarter. Currently, social modes devolve into players holding forward and spraying with the AR, and in the off-chance they dont score the kill with the AR, swap to the sidekick and clean up the kill immediately. It’s not a particularly engaging gameplay loop.
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Camping with a BR is very engaging, you’re right
People camp with the AR more. Or the issue with “camping” with the Br is in AR starts since it’s better to stay way out of the line of fire point of the AR/Sidekick.
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I’m the exact opposite. I ditch the AR for literally anything and keep the sidekick until I have a BR and want something like a power weapon or mid tier weapon instead of the sidekick. In BR starts I pick up anything, which is what people do.
So to reiterate, where is the “variety” that AR starts promotes?
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Can’t we have both? I mean both starts are pretty good in their own way.
I mean once the game gets in top shape we’ll have MCC’s gamemode filter and it won’t even matter by then.
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