Accuracy, not raw damage. The Halo 3 AR had it, if you were good at burst firing it you could reach some distance with it.
Now I like this gun overall, it sounds good, hits reasonably hard but HOLY HELL why did 343 have to use the accuracy of the Reach AR? Actually they didn’t, not entirely. The Reach AR’s bloom recovery (time it takes for crosshairs to reset after firing) was really damn fast (resetting completely almost as soon as you took your finger off the trigger). If a user was tapping the trigger to fire off single shots they could theoretically achieve DMR levels of precision. That was a GOOD thing for people who knew how to control their fire.
On the Halo 4 AR it gained a delay and/or a slower recovery time. Why this is I do not know, maybe some whiny “pro” got sad that their BR couldn’t win all the time?
I think the delay should be removed, the crosshairs should reset pretty much as soon as you stop shooting. More effective burst firing can be achieved that way. And it would further level the playing field against the arguably superior precision weapons and bring the Assault RIFLE closer to being a RIFLE.
Now think about this too, the SAW has faster bloom recovery than the AR. 0_o
TL;DR
Make the gun more accurate or allow it greater bloom recovery.