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It’s actually fun to use now! The BR and DMR people are just butthurt that now they have to actually be skilled to pull off quick kills.
Don’t you get it? The DMR and BR are still the better weapons, it’s just now when you spawn you’ll have a solid way to fight back. Can you stand head-to-head with the BR? No way! But, you can catch people off guard, and even better, you can work with your team with the spawning weapons and be a decent team mate. The AR/Pistol spawn was clearly designed to work with all new movement abilities.
I definitely agree. Its more powerful than before, but BR and DMR still win most of the time as long as you can shoor accurately. This helps non-BR starts from being too one sided. In BR start matches very few will use the AR, so it won’t matter.
I think it should be nerfed a little when your winning fight against BRs while being almost on the other side of the Map. We might end up talk about the Halo 5 AR the way we talk about the Halo CE Magnum.
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> I think it should be nerfed a little when your winning fight against BRs while being almost on the other side of the Map. We might end up talk about the Halo 5 AR the way we talk about the Halo CE Magnum.
No Way, the BR is clearly the better weapon, the AR is just finally a decent weapon. I think the (current) sandbox works in tiers like so:
Spawning Weapons:
Close Range: AR
Long Range: Pistol
Mid-tier Weapons:
Close Range: SMG
Long Range: DMR/BR
Power Weapons:
Close Range: Prophet’s Bane
Long Range: Sniper
Spawning weapons are lethal in their own right, but can be out-classed by just about anything you pick up. Mid-Tier Weapons offer an improvement to what the Spawning Weapons give you when in the hands of all but the most inexperienced of players. Power Weapons are the best of both, offering an ease of use while allowing skilled players to truly dominate the map.
I’m about 4 hours into multiplayer (That’s time played, not time spent waiting in lobbies), and nearly every time I lost to a tier of weapons below me, It was because I played with less skill than my opponent and every time I’ve claimed a power weapon using Mid or Spawning weapons, it has been because I used my wits, skills, and tactics to out class my enemy.
Everything in this game’s sandbox fits together very nicely, and it feels FANTASTIC.
I think the AR works beautifully now more than it has ever and you want to know why?
The dreaded Smart Scope. Using it’s smart scope, the AR has moved into a more versatile role and can be used to kill in close range/medium range and effectively Harass enemies at long range. Hell, you can even score kills if you keep that hand steady.
The best part though? the DMR and BR are still superior weapons, ones that I immediately seek out. Unlike Halo 3’s outrageously good (imo) AR or Halo 4’s hilariously useless one, this AR feels like a great stepping stone. Instead of spawning and thinking “Oh my god, here we effin go, I’m going to get slaughtered” I feel confident I’ll be able to defend myself, but never lose that drive for the better weapons on the map.
I played a match where my whole team dropped out leaving me to fend for myself. I had literally no opportunities to find better weapons, but I never felt like I was getting violently destroyed. Instead of a four man group slaughtering me over and over, I could easily defend myself before expiring, taking 1-2 enemies with me before hand. It’s a weapon that will reward you for playing to it’s strengths while always reminding you that you need to find better weapons.
Just to note, I put the SMG in the same category as this one. It’s not as versatile, but it is a close range monster.
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> I think the AR works beautifully now more than it has ever and you want to know why?
>
> The dreaded Smart Scope. Using it’s smart scope, the AR has moved into a more versatile role and can be used to kill in close range/medium range and effectively Harass enemies at long range. Hell, you can even score kills if you keep that hand steady.
>
> The best part though? the DMR and BR are still superior weapons, ones that I immediately seek out. Unlike Halo 3’s outrageously good (imo) AR or Halo 4’s hilariously useless one, this AR feels like a great stepping stone. Instead of spawning and thinking “Oh my god, here we effin go, I’m going to get slaughtered” I feel confident I’ll be able to defend myself, but never lose that drive for the better weapons on the map.
>
> I played a match where my whole team dropped out leaving me to fend for myself. I had literally no opportunities to find better weapons, but I never felt like I was getting violently destroyed. Instead of a four man group slaughtering me over and over, I could easily defend myself before expiring, taking 1-2 enemies with me before hand. It’s a weapon that will reward you for playing to it’s strengths while always reminding you that you need to find better weapons.
>
> Just to note, I put the SMG in the same category as this one. It’s not as versatile, but it is a close range monster.
I always put the ARs from 3 and 4 in the opposite categories. 
Anyway, yes. AR looks well-balanced.
If it’s more powerful than halo 4’s assault rifle, then I think I’ll be crying myself to sleep
I’ve never liked Halo 4’s AR. Thanks to the precision starts on EVERY map, the range most encounters occurred in always felt too long distance to effectively use an AR. It felt like running out into a gun fight with a knife; all you were was a free kill for someone. In Halo 3, the player’s individual movement speed was slower, kill times much longer and the distances relatively shorter. These things, coupled with the BR getting “nerfed” by having actual projectiles versus being hitscan made it easy for the AR users to close in on players and decimate them.
Obviously people eventually overcame the BR’s odd mechanisms and the AR was knocked down a peg, but someone coming at you any closer than down range was a huge threat, almost annoyingly so. It got so bad that I routinely made maps in Forge that had absolutely no AR’s in it whatsoever. lol
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> I’ve never liked Halo 4’s AR. Thanks to the precision starts on EVERY map, the range most encounters occurred in always felt too long distance to effectively use an AR. It felt like running out into a gun fight with a knife; all you were was a free kill for someone. In Halo 3, the player’s individual movement speed was slower, kill times much longer and the distances relatively shorter. These things, coupled with the BR getting “nerfed” by having actual projectiles versus being hitscan made it easy for the AR users to close in on players and decimate them.
>
> Obviously people eventually overcame the BR’s odd mechanisms and the AR was knocked down a peg, but someone coming at you any closer than down range was a huge threat, almost annoyingly so. It got so bad that I routinely made maps in Forge that had absolutely no AR’s in it whatsoever. lol
Burst fired, the AR in 4 can outshoot a BR/DMR an alarming amount of the time. And what you said about 3 is probably right. I joined in late, so everybody had probably figured it out by then.
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> > 2533274793231949;9:
> > I’ve never liked Halo 4’s AR. Thanks to the precision starts on EVERY map, the range most encounters occurred in always felt too long distance to effectively use an AR. It felt like running out into a gun fight with a knife; all you were was a free kill for someone. In Halo 3, the player’s individual movement speed was slower, kill times much longer and the distances relatively shorter. These things, coupled with the BR getting “nerfed” by having actual projectiles versus being hitscan made it easy for the AR users to close in on players and decimate them.
> >
> > Obviously people eventually overcame the BR’s odd mechanisms and the AR was knocked down a peg, but someone coming at you any closer than down range was a huge threat, almost annoyingly so. It got so bad that I routinely made maps in Forge that had absolutely no AR’s in it whatsoever. lol
>
>
> Burst fired, the AR in 4 can outshoot a BR/DMR an alarming amount of the time. And what you said about 3 is probably right. I joined in late, so everybody had probably figured it out by then.
Yeah, I’ve been on top of every Halo release so far and like to pay attention to how people do with weapons that some cry are “OP” or guns that are just impossible to use effectively. For a while at launch, using AR and going for the Melee lunge proved to be lucratively effective at killing almost anything you saw. Now, some of this had to do with the Melee system implemented, which rewarded the player who had the most health left. One thing that helped stem that approach off was a reworking of the Melee system into what we see today; The player with significantly more health than the other wins the Melee face-off. If both players have similar health, but are still within the threshold of dying from a direct melee, then both parties will be killed.
This fix was implemented because the Melee system, implemented because of Halo 2’s infamous Host melee, had a massive flaw; the system actually favored the player who melee’d last. Scenario: Player A and Player B see each other, begin firing AR’s. Player A sees opportunity and goes in for the Melee. Player B fires a pinch longer, doing more damage to Player A than Player A did to B. He then proceeds to go for the melee. Now, even though Player A melee’d first, his overall health is lower than Player B’s now. So, Player B takes the kill. Even in split screen matches, where latency doesn’t factor in as much, an AR engagement would still play out this way. It would be a bit more of a photo finish on who did what first, but it still did. (There’s a video rundown of it on youtube somewhere… not sure where though.) So, it was fixed to what we see today.
Mind you, they’ve gotten lenient with latency and thus a lot more simul-deaths occur in recent Halo’s than in Halo 3.
The AR is fine, ive tasken out AR users plent times with DMR’s/BR at close, mid and long range. The game has a skill gap.
My most used weapon atm is the pistol, which ive also won many pistol vs AR battles with.
alot of people are forgetting that, alot of people they may be killing long range have probably just come from sprinting, with low shields due to no recharginf while in sprint, therefor, killing them quickly
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> Unlike Halo 3’s outrageously good (imo) AR or Halo 4’s hilariously useless one,…
???
Is this real life??
The Assault Rifle is a niche weapon, like all weapons in Halo should be. Although I do not have an XBOX right now (when guardians comes out I’m so pre-ordering!!!), the footage I’m seeing shows that AR dominates the mid-range weapons (BR, DMR) at close range, and that makes me happy. It should be that way. The SMG and AR are the close range weapons, with AR having slower fire but greater accuracy. The BR and the DMR should dominate at mid range, and should be okay/ineffective at sniper and accuracy ranges.
So far, this beta is suggesting that this is the case. It makes me especially happy that the strategy of having weapons for each situation, as well as having a good weapon balance, seems to exist in this game. It also makes me happy that the “pro-team/Halo 2 emulation squad” is not having too much of an effect on the balance, as they would simply want a repeat of Halo 2… Power Weapons >BR > everything. That makes for stale, unbalanced and uninteresting gameplay.
Although balance tweaks are most certainly needed, the overall balance is excellent, and I’m really sad I cannot play it right now. Come 2015, I’m buying it!
I’ll be angry if they nerf anything before the rest of us gets to try it. This is primarily a technical test and I doubt they’ll make any gameplay changes until the full beta
At the moment and especially with the netcode as is, the fullautos are a bit too forgiving up to medium range while in fullauto. Where the M6 has been variable in feeling, the AR has just consistently shredded in fullauto, within a mag, at 15-20m. Yes a good grenade and headshot can easily down an open AR user in that time, even a covered one, but I find that using the AR doesn’t really ask me to use the same finesse as the Reach or H4 variants. It’s nice I have the H4-like damage but it feels a bit like the SAW with Famine on.
Definitely down for feeling empowered but with netcode being what it is, the AR is feeling a bit too useful. And I have barely used or had its smart-linked range used against me (AR vs AR smart-link fights are hard to maintain 
The DMR and SMG are also very consistent but they don’t feel like the cross ranges like the AR does.
The M6 at times seems to be on par or better than an AR in the short ranges but it does indeed loose out at range where the AR doesn’t seem to have as much penalty for using. You use it at first and see if you’re shooting explosive or rubber rounds.
The BR is inconsistent like the M6 but it either seems to fit in or be underpowered, so netcode and 3-bullet shot mechanics on this one.
And of course, this is all based on the Beta to the Beta. An inconsistent and nearly unmeasurable sandbox so it’s all on feeling.
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> > 2533274793231949;6:
> > Unlike Halo 3’s outrageously good (imo) AR or Halo 4’s hilariously useless one,…
>
>
> ???
>
> Is this real life??
Yes, and there’s a portion in another one of my replies that explains why I feel that way.
Now, I’m comparing these weapons to the sandbox available at the time. AR versus AR? 4’s is probably leagues better. But in Halo 4’s sandbox, I don’t remotely see a reason to use the AR. Visa Versa in Halo 3, where the BR was hilariously nerfed (Bullet spread and projectile) and the shotgun was broken enough to not always score a one hit kill in close range (A problem that still exists in the MCC version.). The AR could find ways to work against weapons that should have beaten it in their respective ranges.
Also note that I put “imo” in parenthesis because it is my opinion. I’m not claiming my opinion is fact. If you could work the Halo 4 AR to your liking and think 3’s is vastly inferior, then you’re not wrong. I’m going off of my experience.
The AR is what takes no skill, OP.
BRing is what takes skill and what makes Halo.
It’s nice to see people pleasantly fighting over the gameplay for once
AR users can not stand up against a skilled BR user. ARs are for people when you push for more powerful weapons (Like the BR and the sniper). Sticking with the AR as you primary weapon throughout the entire match is stupid.