> From what I’ve noticed from reading the books and playing the games is that Spartan-II’s, if we use John as a baseline average (since we know that some Spartans are more adept, some are less adept in that role) for all the Spartans, A Spartan II is about equal to the strongest of Zealots, or Shipmasters in strength, size, endurance and and basic intelligence. What they excel in are fundamentals such as squad/fireteam tactics, battlefield awareness, and have the option to win by any means necessary.
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> Now, what we’re seeing a lot of Spartans killing in Spartan Ops are the Elite Minors. Sure, they’re much stronger than a normal human, but would be no match for a S-II. And even though S-IV’s don’t have as effective augmentations, they’re still somewhat close to a S-II – They both have Mjolnir armor to further augment their reflexes, speed, and so forth, they both have the option for AI pairing, and they both have the battlefield intelligence that I would assume surpasses most Elite Minors.
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> Now, as we saw with Gek, we can assume he’s around Zealot status, possibly higher. If the rest of Majestic hadn’t showed up, Gek would have won the fight. So really, 343 isn’t doing an awful job portraying the elites.
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> Nevertheless, I preferred when they spoke English like Halo 3. For me, and I understand others have different viewpoints on this (it’s opinion really), I don’t need that level of immersion. That, and Elites had awesome voices in H2 and H3.
This is true, Gek is a high ranking, and experienced, Zealot as well as a Assassin, who has killed multiple Spartans, and lost a eye presumably to one as well. He would of killed Thorne due to Thornes mistake near the end of their battle. Two powerful opponents fighting for their lives always leaves one to possibly make a mistake, similar to how Arbiter Ripa made a mistake fighting John Forge, he should of simply killed him instead of letting his pride take control.
Honestly OP seems to understand very little about Spartans and Elites, maybe he should do some research on them instead of throwing out nonsense.
A Zealot level Elite is capable of taking on a Spartan in hand to hand combat but that does not mean they are as powerful as Spartans and they definitely not as fast. When you add in the factor of range, weapons, the fact UNSC’s weapons are more efficient overall especially in the hands of a Spartan and how efficient Spartans are with weapons as well as hand to hand combat then the scale tips even more in the Spartans favor.
And I am sorry, if a Elite’s shields are down and he is shot in the face with a Plasma weapon… then he will die instantly, these weapons are like getting splashed in the face with lava and worse, while Spartans can take up to 2 or more direct hits from a Plasma weapon before their armor is breached. If you are complaining about Thorne killing 2 Elites with a burst from a Storm Rifle then you clearly know nothing about Halo or what these weapons are capable of, and you do not include the fact one Elites leg was broken by Thorne as well, no shields, no protection from Plasma or Projectile weapons.
The Covenant won most of their encounters due to air superiority and their advanced technology, which they do not have now compared to the UNSC in Halo 4, the Elites are not gods, they are able to be defeated even by a Marine with enough bullets to down their shields.
Spartans however will always win encounters even against a large group of Elites unless completely unprepared, they are simply more evolved and have enhancements that allow them to be much more formidable than any of the Covenant species. You have to add in the fact that Human technology is increasing in power, potential, in each way overtime and at a much faster rate than the Covenant, and will continue to do so, while the Covenant’s own technology will increase at a much slower rate, if at all.