We agree on the issue. We just disagree on the solution.
When discussing Halo 5 you have to at least recognize that most of the issues in that sandbox revolve around other issues created by that sandbox. It’s not a super fair comparison, but you are 100% right that equipment implementation in Infinite seems half-baked. Halo 3’s equipment was by no means perfect, but the general tendency toward neutral effects, meaning that they affected both the attacker and defender evenly, is something that 3 did much better than Infinite’s user-only approach, but that is a completely different discussion.
I recognize that defensive play was not 100% removed from the game. It was just decreased.
This is the heart of my argument. This is unnecessary. The overall effectiveness of the AR does not scale correctly to the actual effectiveness of the movement mechanics and the side effects do not justify the means.
There are two primary benefits that Infinite has removed by placing the AR as the standard starting weapon over the Magnum/BR/DMR. First and foremost, it reduces the effectiveness of strafing. Timing a strafe to the pace of the fire-rate created an intricate “dance”. People just hold down the trigger now. You can technically “strafe”, but the effect is gone. Now fights more or less are people spamming ARs at each other. There is no fire-rate to strafe to, and the defensive effectiveness of strafing feels very reduced, resulting in a dulled down encounter. This is what I mean when I say that is just becomes who shot who first.
Secondly, (and I recognize that this seems counter to my other points, but hear me out) the effectiveness at range is reduced. BR starts allows for engagement at most ranges. You aren’t able to cross-map, but if someone with a sniper is scoping you, you can at least disengage the fight by descoping them. The AR can’t really do that. It’s that same issue that Halo has had since Halo: CE. In all regards, the AR is a niche weapon. It is effective in its intended role/range, and outside of that its effectiveness drops off drastically. This creates a rock-paper-scissors like sandbox, where fights are determined by the weapons that you bring to the party, and not how you use them.
The end result of Infinite’s current balance is that fights within the AR’s range feel dull. The AR dominates most fights up to ~mid-range, and then as soon as you get out of that range, it is completely useless. BR starts with the AR as an actually useful pick-up weapon would be ideal. 343i seem to think this as well based on the ranked settings. If the AR is going to remain the starting weapon no matter what, then it needs to be pulled back a little bit to make those close range fights more interesting. Right now they just aren’t at all.
I’m actually fine with the kill time, as long as the kill time is earned. I don’t want the AR to be as useless as it was in Reach. I think that a faster spreading/resetting bloom is ideal. At close range go all out on that trigger, but close mid - mid ranges should have that effectiveness scaled back and the Sidekick should shine a little bit more. I like the Sidekick, but think that the AR overshadows it most of the time and adding more spread to the AR would do that gun a lot of favors as well. I think that the Headshot modifier needs to be removed because it really only feels like it adds a level of RNG to the gun that is not rewarding feeling but also has a major impact on fights. It’s just inconsistent.
