Good morning Halo community,
In this thread I will be offering my review of the new ranking system, the Combat Ranking System (CSR). In so doing, I will also be offering tips and tricks to help other players obtain “dat fitty.”
I got a 50 last night and realized many players out there might need some advice in order to avoid some of the issues I ran into along the way to a 50 and I will post them first before the review because I know that is what people are more interested in.
First, the golden rule of ranking up in CSR… AVOID GAMES ALREADY IN PROGRESS AT ALL COSTS. If there was a better way to emphasize that more-so than caps lock I would have went with that. This is priority number one.
Unfortunately, the system does not discern a player who joined late and still compares your number of kills with those who were there from the beginning. So if you are a CSR 32 who joins late, gets 10 kills, but a CSR 4 got more than you, you are in trouble and will pay the price by going down 3 levels or so. I won’t post how to get out of a join-in-progress game because I am unsure if it is against the rules to post it, but it is not hard to look up.
Loadouts:
- Now, depending on which playlist you opt to chase a high rank in your loadout will vary. But I will say one thing that may disappoint certain players: If you want to get anything higher than a 40-45, selecting anything but the DMR as your primary will be difficult.
In smaller playlists you may be able to get away with using a BR but that is about it.
Forget automatic weapons exist unless you run into them on the ground and are in need of a weapon.
Similarly, some armor abilities are better than others. I have found that only three abilities are worth noting: Promethean vision, jetpack, and regeneration field.
Secondaries: Boltshot OR Plasma Pistol (BTB/Dominion only)
NOTE: If you use regeneration field it is imperative you also have a boltshot handy. The regeneration field acts as a magnet of sorts to enemies within a certain range. Use it to your advantage.
Grenades: Frags or stickies (BTB/Dominion only)
Tactical Package: I got my first 50 in BTB so I opted for wheelman. You never know when a free Banshee or Tank will spawn up. (Well, you SHOULD know but more on that later).
You can also get away with AA Efficiency, Requisition (Infinity rules only, obviously), and perhaps Mobility.
I see a lot of players selecting firepower. This is a mistake and I will tell you why. In Infinity rules you are given ordnance drops. Once you obtain this drop and swap out your secondary for your newer, better weapon, you have just effectively wasted your Tactical Package. Do NOT use Firepower.
Support Upgrade: This is where more useful perks come into play but I went for Ammo (as it is my favorite). Survival is the name of the game when it comes to CSR and Ammo will not only make running out of DMR ammo a rare occurrence but it will also give you extra ammo with your power weapons. That’s TWO extra rockets, 5 extra fuel rods, 2 extra Binary Rifle rounds, 150% Splaser charge, 120% Beam Rifle charge, etc.
Other useful Upgrades would be Dexterity, Ordnance Priority, Stability (BTB), and Explosives.
Tips and Tricks:
-
When searching in playlists that rank individual skill over team skill, it is important to be an extremely conservative player. In other words, don’t chase after Overskills if it is going to put you in a tough spot. Tempting as it may be.
-
Save your ordnance drops. Let’s say you are top-mid on Ragnarok with a sniper rifle and you earn yourself a nice ordnance drop. You see that you can select a Binary Rifle. Perfect! Do NOT call it in until your first sniper runs dry. I know this sounds dumb because, ideally, you want to call it in in order to start stacking up for your next drop, right?
Well what happens if you die? You run the risk of giving the other team TWO sniper rifles on top of losing your ordnance drop. Worse still; you are competing with your team in CSR and THEY may stumble upon your rifles and use them to outscore you.
-
Remain patient: Any level prior to 40 comes fast but once you hit 40 you need to know that there are very few players at that rank and as a result you will rank up much slower. Another downside to this is that you need to bring your A-game each time. If you place anything below 2nd place on your team you WILL go down. Even 2nd place dropped me once or twice.
-
Know the maps and respawn times of power items. When a map is voted for and you see what team you are on always know where you will be going and have a secondary plan in place someone else beats you to it. For example, on Exile, you should probably go for a sniper rifle. If you are on red side, help your team get the tank. Blue side, the Banshee. But I would not recommend going directly for the tank as tempting as it is.
The first tank tends to die fairly quickly as a result of both teams charging the -Yoink- out of it. Take note when it explodes, say, 14:20, and know it runs a respawn time of 180 seconds (3 minutes). 11:20 it will be back up. This way, you know when to move for the tank and you don’t have to be “that guy” who stands around waiting for it forever. You know when it will be up.
That concludes the tips for now until I think of more (I know there is more). For now I will move on to my review. Feel free to post questions!
Review:
I’ve played a ton of Halo over these 11 years. I ranked higher than a 40 in Halo 2, obtained 8 fifties in Halo 3, broke 40 in Halo Wars, and only placed Onyx numerous times in Halo: Reach. When a Halo game releases a ranking system I know I have to be near the top of the charts. It bugs me if I’m not. I’m a completionist and it will always be so.
Now, I must say that out of all the ranking systems offered in Halo games (TrueSkill…) I dislike CSR the most. For one, it reminds me of Season One Arena in Reach. You are to play as a selfish Spartan in individual ranking playlists. In team ones, you need a full team and most of my friends ditched Halo. That and I don’t really feel like using a mic these days.
The shortcomings of this system are numerous. Firstly, it is not visible in-game. I realize 343 said that is for technical reasons and I will choose to believe them when they say that.
Secondly, join-in-progress and ranking systems are like night and day. I don’t mind the IDEA behind JiP but in Halo it just doesn’t seem to work well. There doesn’t seem to be a limit for when you can join a game. Ideally, I’d say that those who JiP should not have their CSR’s affected in any way whatsoever.
Additionally, the system doesn’t seem to be consistent until level 40. Prior to that level, I was going down for going 23-4 (best in the game) and winning. It didn’t make a bit of sense to me. At least when I got to level 40 I knew why I went up or down.
Ranking up for losing. Self-explanatory.
Verdict: 5/10
I wouldn’t say it’s the best system there is but neither was Halo 3’s, which is highly acclaimed by veterans around here. I also do not feel it represents a very good examination of skill. At least not in comparison to the TrueSkills or 3 or Wars.
I do, however, want to applaud 343 for implementing it at all. Lately I haven’t been 343’s biggest fan, especially after GDC, but the Castle Maps are amazing and CSR was a nice gift.
