Hello there.
Been a Halo fan since the Halo 2 days. Still remember the days when Xbox Live was full of people chatting about when party chats were not a thing.
I’ve recently decided to pick up Halo 5 again after leaving it alone for nearly half a year and it really is difficult to have as much fun as it was back in past Halos.
I think the main reason is the overabundance of people using the magnum. I’m sure you all had plenty of posts like mine where people find issue with it but hear
me out. I’ve played a couple matches in ranked and noticed how much of a preference there is in people using the magnum over more accurate weapons like
DMR, BR, and Light Rifle. It got me thinking as to why. Why has something like the magnum become relied upon so much that people would not pick up a
BR and would rather stick to the Magnum? is it preference? Is it because the magnum is more reliable?
At times I’ve gotten into battles where the BR feels less accurate then if I were to use the Magnum and I don’t know if it’s just me. I do miss the days when side arms
were more throw away weapons or ones you use in case nothing was useful nearby or just wanted to have fun. All other guns seem fine to me but magnum always
feels like it’s too reliable. I’ve read that 343i wanted to make the magnum this way to give people a fighting chance against those with power weapons but I couldn’t disagree more. It really is disheartening when a magnum user can out perform me with a rifle like the BR or DMR. Sure I can “just get better with the Magnum” but that’s kinda adding to the problem I have with it. Too much of an abundance of it. Sure it does make things hard if people have power weapons but that’s kinda the point. Personally I hope in Halo Infinite they don’t make the Magnum as good as it is in 5 so that we can return to rifle battles like the days of old. Agree or disagree? I’d like to hear from you all. Thanks for your time!
In one of the later updates to the game, a lot of the weapons were nerfed, but they ended up buffing the magnum because they said they wanted it to be the primary weapon for HCS or something. While the magnum was always good in H5, I think it’s this update more than anything else which is the cause of your frustration with the magnum. All I can really say is that you should get used to it as you use it more, and hopefully it won’t cause issues for you then when you go up against other players using it.
I would argue the magnum itself doesn’t ruin the game. It does take a lot of time to master, as it is a very versatile weapon. If you can’t have fun with magnums, there are playlists where it is irrelevant.
Also, the BR, DMR, and AR both have a faster time to kill, and the BR takes less shots (4 br shots vs 5 magnum shots)
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> In one of the later updates to the game, a lot of the weapons were nerfed, but they ended up buffing the magnum because they said they wanted it to be the primary weapon for HCS or something. While the magnum was always good in H5, I think it’s this update more than anything else which is the cause of your frustration with the magnum. All I can really say is that you should get used to it as you use it more, and hopefully it won’t cause issues for you then when you go up against other players using it.
It’s sad how the push for pro league gaming has caused such a change. 
I’m competitive myself but wouldn’t want to push it to league levels lol
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> I would argue the magnum itself doesn’t ruin the game. It does take a lot of time to master, as it is a very versatile weapon. If you can’t have fun with magnums, there are playlists where it is irrelevant.
>
> Also, the BR, DMR, and AR both have a faster time to kill, and the BR takes less shots (4 br shots vs 5 magnum shots)
I’ve heard how people state the rifles can kill faster yet still feels like Magnum is more on point then the others. It’s something difficult to put into words. Just feels like we are still on even terms if the person has a magnum vs me with my BR or DMR. Maybe i’m spoiled with how things were back in the past with you needing a rifle to have a chance.
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> I would argue the magnum itself doesn’t ruin the game. It does take a lot of time to master, as it is a very versatile weapon. If you can’t have fun with magnums, there are playlists where it is irrelevant.
>
> Also, the BR, DMR, and AR both have a faster time to kill, and the BR takes less shots (4 br shots vs 5 magnum shots)
I miss the days of the BR battles. Ive been picking up the H2Br on Bloc Pit these past 2 weeks & it has been a blast. Pistol fights just don’t feel as fun or exciting to me.
Also the TTK with those weapons you mentioned may be wrong. (although maybe I am wrong, someone can correct me). I think although the pistol is 5 shot, it fires a lot quicker then the DMR & Br I believe. Also the AR would be close in time, not sure. I know someone has the TTK stats somewhere, if they could post them that would be great.
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> I would argue the magnum itself doesn’t ruin the game. It does take a lot of time to master, as it is a very versatile weapon. If you can’t have fun with magnums, there are playlists where it is irrelevant.
>
> Also, the BR, DMR, and AR both have a faster time to kill, and the BR takes less shots (4 br shots vs 5 magnum shots)
Agreed. It takes a very long time to master the Magnum. If you’re not a fan, there are plenty of other playlists that don’t feature it like the Super Fiesta Playlist
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> > 2535453278998196;3:
> > I would argue the magnum itself doesn’t ruin the game. It does take a lot of time to master, as it is a very versatile weapon. If you can’t have fun with magnums, there are playlists where it is irrelevant.
> >
> > Also, the BR, DMR, and AR both have a faster time to kill, and the BR takes less shots (4 br shots vs 5 magnum shots)
>
> I miss the days of the BR battles. Ive been picking up the H2Br on Bloc Pit these past 2 weeks & it has been a blast. Pistol fights just don’t feel as fun or exciting to me.
Picked up H2BR and while some argue it isn’t as good as H5BR for me it feels a whole lot more reliable. Then again the time I sunk into H2 during my high school years stuck with me so prob second nature lol
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> > > 2535453278998196;3:
> > > I would argue the magnum itself doesn’t ruin the game. It does take a lot of time to master, as it is a very versatile weapon. If you can’t have fun with magnums, there are playlists where it is irrelevant.
> > >
> > > Also, the BR, DMR, and AR both have a faster time to kill, and the BR takes less shots (4 br shots vs 5 magnum shots)
> >
> > I miss the days of the BR battles. Ive been picking up the H2Br on Bloc Pit these past 2 weeks & it has been a blast. Pistol fights just don’t feel as fun or exciting to me.
>
> Picked up H2BR and while some argue it isn’t as good as H5BR for me it feels a whole lot more reliable. Then again the time I sunk into H2 during my high school years stuck with me so prob second nature lol
Yeah exactly. ill take the H2Br anyday over the current state of the H5Br, even if its just based off gun sounds alone.
I don’t see an issue with the magnum as a utility weapon. After all, that’s how it all started with CE. H5’s problem is it’s trying to cram multiple utility weapons into the sandbox and that’s not how Halo works. There’s only ever room for one utility weapon. If you try to add in more for the sake of variety like the BR/DMR/Carbine, then you’re just going to have redundancy and a bunch of weapons that fill the same role. The reason the magnum is constantly used is because it’s the starting weapon and it already fills that utility role.
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> I don’t see an issue with the magnum as a utility weapon. After all, that’s how it all started with CE. H5’s problem is it’s trying to cram multiple utility weapons into the sandbox and that’s not how Halo works. There’s only ever room for one utility weapon. If you try to add in more for the sake of variety like the BR/DMR/Carbine, then you’re just going to have redundancy and a bunch of weapons that fill the same role. The reason the magnum is constantly used is because it’s the starting weapon and it already fills that utility role.
While halo CE was great, I personally think making it a utility was a bad move. Fanservice yes it get it, but doesn’t feel right when it’s on par with rifles. But again prob me being old fashioned lol
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> I’ve recently decided to pick up Halo 5 again after leaving it alone for nearly half a year and it really is difficult to have as much fun as it was back in past Halos.
Why would the magnum make it less fun when previous Halos also used one primary weapon? Instead of using a BR, it’s now a magnum. Seems like your issue revolves more around that than anything, but there is also an issue with H5’s sandbox in general which was mentioned already.
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> In one of the later updates to the game, a lot of the weapons were nerfed, but they ended up buffing the magnum because they said they wanted it to be the primary weapon for HCS or something.
They didn’t touch the default magnum. They mentioned they were going to mess with it for HCS, but they never did and then they said they were done with the weapon updates. Now they might’ve inadvertently made the magnum more desirable due to the updates with the other weapons, but that’s about it.
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> > 2533274800081810;1:
> > I’ve recently decided to pick up Halo 5 again after leaving it alone for nearly half a year and it really is difficult to have as much fun as it was back in past Halos.
>
> Why would the magnum make it less fun when previous Halos also used one primary weapon? Instead of using a BR, it’s now a magnum. Seems like your issue revolves more around that than anything, but there is also an issue with H5’s sandbox in general which was mentioned already.
Like I said, old fashioned. I prefer rifles over a magnum. Always been that way with halo. The change feels so jarring and when I see people choosing to stick to Magnum over a BR, it really is telling. Just ain’t right is all 
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> > > 2533274800081810;1:
> > >
>
> Like I said, old fashioned. I prefer rifles over a magnum. Always been that way with halo. The change feels so jarring and when I see people choosing to stick to Magnum over a BR, it really is telling. Just ain’t right is all
The h5 BR sucks compared to the H2/3 and H4. I’d take any of the other BR’s over a magnum. If anything you should be ranting against the H5 BR, which I’d follow with.
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> > 2533274843634673;2:
> > In one of the later updates to the game, a lot of the weapons were nerfed, but they ended up buffing the magnum because they said they wanted it to be the primary weapon for HCS or something. While the magnum was always good in H5, I think it’s this update more than anything else which is the cause of your frustration with the magnum. All I can really say is that you should get used to it as you use it more, and hopefully it won’t cause issues for you then when you go up against other players using it.
>
> It’s sad how the push for pro league gaming has caused such a change. I’m competitive myself but wouldn’t want to push it to league levels lol.
Halo has been a competitive shooter since the original. Why would 343 change that instead of refining and expanding that quality like they’re doing?
Halo has always had a main “utility” weapon. In H5 it’s the magnum. Yeah it makes game play pretty stale but that is how most seem to like it. H5 weapon balance is still pretty solid compared to previous Halos as other weapons are actually still pretty useful. But one main reason it’s the magnum is because the majority of the maps cater to close quarters to mid range combat and that is pretty much where the magnum shines.
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> >
In my following comments, I’m excluding 1 Hit kill weapons (rockets, shotguns, etc) and variations (Hardlight SMG, Dying Star, etc).
Apparently in the update, the DMR TTK was raised (1.35 to 1.5) and is know less than the Magnum, but these are two different weapons (far vs short).
Of all the CQC/Mid range weapons, the magnum is generally the slowest, besides the boltshot and suppressor. The Magnum has a 1.3 TTK and the BR 1.4. However, it is much harder to land all 5 magnum shots required for a perfect, especially considering the BR can land a “sweep” headshot since it has 2 bullets to spare on the final shot. I also know from experience it is much easier to reverse someone with a BR to magnum than vice versa.
So the magnum does have one of the slowest TTK’s of any CQC/Mid weapons.
Here are the two sources (note one source has 4 sig figs and the other 2)
Updated WeaponsOriginal/Unchanged Weapons
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> >
> > Like I said, old fashioned. I prefer rifles over a magnum. Always been that way with halo. The change feels so jarring and when I see people choosing to stick to Magnum over a BR, it really is telling. Just ain’t right is all
>
> The h5 BR sucks compared to the H2/3 and H4. I’d take any of the other BR’s over a magnum. If anything you should be ranting against the H5 BR, which I’d follow with.
I’ve noticed that. Shots seem to not stay on point compared to H2BR.
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> > > 2533274843634673;2:
> > > In one of the later updates to the game, a lot of the weapons were nerfed, but they ended up buffing the magnum because they said they wanted it to be the primary weapon for HCS or something. While the magnum was always good in H5, I think it’s this update more than anything else which is the cause of your frustration with the magnum. All I can really say is that you should get used to it as you use it more, and hopefully it won’t cause issues for you then when you go up against other players using it.
> >
> > It’s sad how the push for pro league gaming has caused such a change. I’m competitive myself but wouldn’t want to push it to league levels lol.
>
> Halo has been a competitive shooter since the original. Why would 343 change that instead of refining and expanding that quality like they’re doing?
I like having a healthy mix of competitive and recreational. Something about H5 doesn’t feel the same as with Halo 2,3, Reach and i’ll even go as say 4. I’ll also throw this out there that Radar is pretty useless in Arena lol Miss when it used to be reliable and it helped with the battles becoming cautionary battles. Like you couldn’t just rush in as you do in this for fear of that little ping telling someone you’re coming
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> > > 2535453278998196;3:
> > > I would argue the magnum itself doesn’t ruin the game. It does take a lot of time to master, as it is a very versatile weapon. If you can’t have fun with magnums, there are playlists where it is irrelevant.
> > >
> > > Also, the BR, DMR, and AR both have a faster time to kill, and the BR takes less shots (4 br shots vs 5 magnum shots)
> >
> > I miss the days of the BR battles. Ive been picking up the H2Br on Bloc Pit these past 2 weeks & it has been a blast. Pistol fights just don’t feel as fun or exciting to me.
> >
> > Also the TTK with those weapons you mentioned may be wrong. (although maybe I am wrong, someone can correct me). I think although the pistol is 5 shot, it fires a lot quicker then the DMR & Br I believe. Also the AR would be close in time, not sure. I know someone has the TTK stats somewhere, if they could post them that would be great.
>
> In my following comments, I’m excluding 1 Hit kill weapons (rockets, shotguns, etc) and variations (Hardlight SMG, Dying Star, etc).
>
> Apparently in the update, the DMR TTK was raised (1.35 to 1.5) and is know less than the Magnum, but these are two different weapons (far vs short).
>
> Of all the CQC/Mid range weapons, the magnum is generally the slowest, besides the boltshot and suppressor. The Magnum has a 1.3 TTK and the BR 1.4. However, it is much harder to land all 5 magnum shots required for a perfect, especially considering the BR can land a “sweep” headshot since it has 2 bullets to spare on the final shot. I also know from experience it is much easier to reverse someone with a BR to magnum than vice versa.
>
> So the magnum does have one of the slowest TTK’s of any CQC/Mid weapons.
>
> Here are the two sources (note one source has 4 sig figs and the other 2, and when we’re talking in milliseconds these matter…thanks 343 for the clarity)
> Updated WeaponsOriginal/Unchanged Weapons
H2BR seems more reliable then say H5BR. Shots spread too much when fighting from what I could tell. I’m sure you prove me wrong statistically but it’s what I’m seeing. Saw someone mention something about Red Recital Range being lower then the Magnum on youtube. Not sure if there’s merit to any of it but it does help explain what I’m seeing. You can put a lot of data up but still doesn’t feel like it’s any less powerful or even compared to other accuracy rifles. Point is I feel it shouldn’t be able to compete at all like in past Halos. But game’s been out for a long while now so I’m probably just voicing something that doesn’t matter anymore.
The BR got nerfed and the pistol got buffed. That’s why people just stick with the pistol now.
Yeah, the magnum is one of the few weapons that didn’t get a nerf since this time last year. I really don’t like how everything else got worse overall since then, and yet you can still spawn with it. I think it should be a pick up weapon with superior stats like this, with the BR/AR being the standard spawning weapons.
