Yeah so, 343i? Not happy about this. The radar thing I expected, but the AR’s strength absolutely needs to be addressed. Like, excuse me, but if there was any single bit of feedback you got more than anything else, it’s that the AR was WAY too good.
What’s the deal, 343i? There’s what looks like a ton of fabricated feedback and addressing NOTHING for the AR just reeks of manufactured approval for this unbalanced monster you’ve created.
Yes, I’m steamed.
Probably because if you played BTB AR was almost useless, whereas in 4v4 it was OP (for the low skill required to use it)
I expect it to get a nerf at some point, though what nerf they’ll give it is more important.
Who knows, there was a lot of feedback where the response was “it is working as intended”, essentially “get used to it”. That is a pretty pessimistic outlook, however I agree that there are plenty of things that are a little jarring that will take some getting used to, but may end up being better.
Higher damage, no headshot, lower magazine capacity, lower rate of fire, are all what I’d do. Slightly higher recoil.
I am an advocate for devs doing small changes over big ones. Because often a small stat change has a much larger impact on things than one might assume. The AR probably doesn’t need 5 different changes or whatever to be well balanced… Probably just reducing its headshot multiplier or the effective range alone would make it more in line with what we’ve seen in Halos prior.
Edit: its dangerous to do too many things at once because it risks balance swinging too far in either direction which could be far worse than what was there before. The nerf to the Commando is extremely simple… 1 more bullet to kill which effectively reduces its TTK, imagine if instead of just that they were to increase/decrease bloom, mag size, spawn rates, etc. and it starts to become sort of clear why that is such a precarious situation.
Here’s the thing though; using the AR well is harder than using a precision gun well. Precision weapons should have more range, that’s in itself their advantage. The AR should do more damage than guns that, ya know, shoot less bullets. It’s realistic and it works really well. It means that the BR or pistol don’t just beat the AR if you’re evenly skilled; you have to be creative and actually utilize the weapon’s advantages.
I seriously doubt they got a lot of that feedback; I for one said I loved the AR in this game. Finally, the gun with a shorter range does more damage. That makes precision weapons actually take some skill to make them be better, instead of just being definitively better than the AR. The range itself is more than enough advantage, it just makes you have to be smart, creative, and strategic, which is what Halo should be all about; not just who’s better at landing a couple headshots or who happens to get a BR.
Yeah it’s pretty unfortunate, the community was going crazy over it.
I ultimately think it comes down to giving new players a chance who are used to games where mid-long ranged automatic weapons is the standard. I personally think this is the wrong direction but I see how they’re thinking.
If they’re not gonna fix this issue I just hope there are gamemodes that don’t include the AR.
I’d like a decent amount of BR gamemodes which aren’t necessarily competitive.
The AR was not really useless in BTB, it’s such a strong close-mid range weapon. It was really effective in BTB too. And yes in 4vs4 it was too strong imho. I never changed the AR for another weapon in Arena, because it was so strong (maybe i changed only for testing other weapons if the match was already decided)
I don’t want the AR get too much nerfed, but a little nerf would be great. Either the suggestion from KCDODGER (Higher damage, no headshot, lower magazine capacity, lower rate of fire, Slightly higher recoil.) Or more spread.
That’s the worst take I’ve ever read about auto VS. precision on this entire website. I don’t think you fully grasp why the AR being powerful is bad for the game.
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A better question is why is there so many furries in the Halo community? I kid but I’ve seriously noticed it since the update.
And yea I agree, his take was awful. The AR by no means should be an equal to a precision weapon as its straight up so much easier to use.
All the AR needs is its range dropped by like 15%.
i think its wanted.
Halo is free to play and they need a big player pool at the beginning.
Most of them casuals (many that never played halo).
If they rely on precision guns, the will get frustrated fast and probably leave the game.
Consequently 343 buffed up the casuals main gun so they can hold their own a bit better.
Not addressing it at least wreaks of selective listening. It may be intended, but few like it’s current role.
Comp has a 1.5 TTK precision starting weapon and Social has something that takes half the time auto. It’s silly.
Wow, a starter weapon that’s actually useful! Yeah, we can’t be having that now can we? The precision weapon meta is over, as it should have ended years ago. This change is something I personally endorse.
Enjoy the best starting weapon being a niche gun that’s only good at one range, I guess.
if everyone jumps around with ar the game would be dead in a week
At least we’ll be able to have precision starts in the HCS playlist at launch. I do think that ARs significantly reduce the depth of a gunfight due to making strafe almost useless. Never really felt like I fooled an opponent through strafing during the flights (or maybe I’m just bad!)
I think the only tuning the AR needs is it’s accuracy. Maybe a tiny bit less base accuracy (like seriously only 5% less) and maybe a bit faster bloom so it becomes inaccurate a little bit earlier than halfway through the mag rather than now where it’s pretty accurate until 2/3rds through the mag. Don’t change the final accuracy at all though, just the rate at which it gets to it.
I don’t think anything like damage, RoF, recoil, TTK, etc need to be changed at all. The recoil is pretty strong already (try tap firing the AR and you’ll see) and it’s TTK at close range is fine since it’s not competing with an SMG or anything similar.
I agree with this.
Thank you. I’m really sick of the BR being the only viable weapon. So I like the AR being more powerful.
Wow, I said something positive about a change 343 made. <_<
Does it really need a nerf though? It’s a versatile weapon but it didn’t really dominate any particular role. Felt like it was in a good spot as a spawning weapon, and it was more reliable than the sidearm, while more accessible than something like Halo 5’s magnum. To even things out more, we probably won’t see it in Competitive at all. In contrast, a casual setting would allow the pace of the game to flow well while still having a reason to go after Rack weapons.
It is certainly viable at a range longer than we’re used to seeing with Halo’s AR and that seems to be challenging people’s perspectives of what that gun can or should bring to the table.