First of all, I don’t like the fact that there’s equipment in ranked at all. In social, it’s fine, very fun to use. But in ranked, since there’s no radar, it’ll be too powerful. How? Well the way that you can fly across half the map with a grapple or make a two story jump is concerning. You have no warning that someone has moved from one spot to another dramatically. It’s a big difference. If there’s equipment, maybe add radar like H5. Or remove equipment and have no radar. We’ll see how this plays out.
4 Likes
I think it will make for some pretty epic out-plays. I’m excited to see.
8 Likes
It’ll make some dope plays but it’s unbalanced
Ahhhh I don’t know about unbalanced. Anyone having a different weapon or equipment that you don’t have is “unbalanced”.
Part of what makes a good player great is asset control, denying your enemy of valuable weapons & equipment.
HCS players are good enough to form counters. In Ranked multiplayer you’ll be matched against people your skill level anyway - be better than them. Make the plays to control those assets and use it to win.
9 Likes
the good thing is that equipment unlike armor abilities in h5, can be edited and taken out if need be. i think that the games sandbox will evolve as it goes on and there definitely will be things taken out/changed in the first year
4 Likes
It doesn’t matter how good you are, Frosty even noted about this. A dramatic link of movement is not easily adjusted and could be too OP.
Right, you’re talking about the top 1% of players at that point.
Something that affects a tournament doesn’t necessarily reflect on the 95% of players who don’t play at that skill level.
From the many many hours I’ve played in both flights equipment wasn’t really that invasive to the gameplay. It flowed well.
I don’t see how a lack of radar is going to affect something like the grapple regardless.
That player is going to be moving at high speed anyway, your radar isn’t going to matter at that point.
Radar is more effective at pinpointing players directly near you rather than someone zipping by in a grapple.
I genuinely think you’re blowing this up into a bigger issue that it actually is. Let’s not forget that actual HCS pros helped to design the Ranked & HCS settings. This stuff would have been thought about already I assure you.
8 Likes
I agree with a lot of this, but not all comp players agree with the settings. I’m still somewhere on the fence. But watching the HCS reveal, there was a player where Mikwen boosted up a story to get to Stronghold B to where he killed an unsuspecting player with an energy sword. So either we gotta get rid of it or we gotta become more aware and use more communication. Idk we’ll see when we get to play it out
1 Like
I’m certainly not a top tier player, but equipment is limited use and pick-up only. I’m sure there will be further balancing, but I view it very similar to weapons on the map. Is a shotgun more powerful at close range than the commando? Does that doesn’t make it unbalanced?
2 Likes
The equipment will be very fun to watch in HCS games. I’m sure the grapple and Repulsor will make for some exciting plays.
It wasn’t in H3 MLG settings because the H3 equipment hindered competitive gameplay and slowed the game down or was ineffective. Aside from the power drainer which is OP as all hell.
New equipment will be an essential power item to control.
1 Like
I feel like 343i prioritising HCS over general fanbase is more concerning. I’m mixed on things like equipment but ranked/Halo is meant to be for casual and pro players, not just pro players. I’d rather see things like radar turned on in ranked. 
I just find it strange that all the ranked modes are seemingly only catering to HCS instead of giving people the choice between normal ranked playlists and HCS playlists.
2 Likes
You haven’t seen any competitive play, how can you say it’s unbalanced?
Worst case scenario they either nerf it (as in the pickup, so maybe instead of 3 repulses you get 1, for example) or they just place them in better spots so that they are in contention more often.
I just think its a bit overblown here, pro players will use a mix of communication and power positions to lower there overall impact, like yeah Mikwen pulled of that play but its also possible the guy could’ve been in a different position (far from the door, watching farther out) and punished him for that play.
1 Like
The Competitive Insights team at 343 is filled with former Halo pro players, some of the best Halo players ever in fact.
And I don’t take much notice of some random on a forum that’s never played it before who says ranked is unbalanced.
This ain’t competitive Melee where it’s No Items, Fox Only, Final Destination. Using items on the map to complete the objectives of the given game mode is a core facet of Halo. Equipment is gonna make for some amazing plays.
Gonna be honest. I want HCS to be fun to watch. I dont think Infinite would be AS fun without them. Could things be broken? Yes. But Id rather they try it and tweak it, then omit it entirely. Infinite has plenty of audio and visual queues, so even without radar, I would think it be pretty easy to tell where someone uses an ability.
1 Like
Tbh I’d rather see pros play with equipment live before I say things are “unbalanced”
1 Like
My guess is that Equipments will probably get a place in competitive. However, like every single game, the playstyle will be dependent on the circumstances and this do especially apply to multiplayer at a competitive level.
Something that would be more interesting to see how the opinions from the competitive community converges or diverges. Will the general opinion from the competitive community converge towards a single point or diverge towards diverse set of dominant opinions that are difficult to combine?
1 Like
Luckily if it doesn’t work out in comp it’ll be a lot easier to fix than H5’s mechanics. They can try it for a while and if it doesn’t work out, they can simply remove it.
I understand where you’re coming from, but it’s kind of the same energy as saying that power weapons and camo/OS are too unbalanced. The direct impact from equipment (we’ll pretend OS and camo isn’t equipment) is unclear right now, but I’d expect it’ll be less significant than that of power weapons.
If 343i does anything really well, it’s taking feedback and making adjustments to their sandbox. Issues with balancing for/metas forming around certain equipment you can count on it getting mixed up before long, seasonally at the latest.
1 Like