> 2533274821609239;1:
> So recently after speaking with a friend of mine he began to talk about the Halo 5 Magnum. In which case he says the gun is over powered, and ruins the balance of the game. I’ll attempt to explain the points he brought up and then add my own.
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> First he mentioned that the Magnum fighting against other accuracy based weapons, or automatic weapons shouldn’t be able to hold up to it in a fight. He has begun to think that there is no point in grabbing the other weapons as it doesn’t matter what you do, the magnum will win. “It takes as many shots as a DMR to get a kill” as stated by my friend. The game doesn’t adhere to his playstyle, which from what I hear is mostly automatic weapons rather than accuracy based, and he doesn’t enjoy that the game is forcing accuracy weapons upon him. Specifically the pistol.
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> Which I disagreed with him on all the points, even attempted to give him some ways to beat a pistol in Halo 5. The goal of the Magnum was to make it more like the CE pistol from the obvious Halo: CE. Which he continued with the same argument as mentioned above. Though after talking with him about it, and us both deciding to agree to disagree, I got curious if other people agree with him, or see it closer to how I do. Maybe not even similar in any aspects whatsoever. What does everyone think?
My opinion of Halo 5’s magnum(utility weapon) is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum of your friend’s opinion. I don’t think Halo 5’s magnum is “OP” but I also don’t agree with this forum’s consensus that Halo 5’s magnum is perfect, I think Halo 5’s magnum is too weak. I think Halo 5’s magnum needs a buff so it can become a more ideal utility weapon. I’m going to post two links that I highly recommend for you to click on so you can get the perspective of where I’m coming from.
> 2533274873580796;8:
> In terms of overall balance and gameplay purposes, this is the best Magnum we’ve ever had in Halo,
I take it that you never played Halo CE before? My biggest issue with Halo 5’s magnum is that it’s too weak in relation to how difficult it is to use, too weak in relation to how fast players can traverse the maps with the spartan abilities, and it’s too weak in relation to the rest of the weapon sandbox. I hate feeling weak as an individual player and I hate having to rely on team-shooting to be able to get kills. Halo 5’s magnum(utility weapon) should be powerful enough to empower skilled individual players to be able to get multiple kills on their own without having to rely on team-shooting but in it’s current form it doesn’t allow for this to happen.
> 2533274816788253;10:
> Weapon balance is the one thing 343 nailed in Halo. It’s the best it’s ever been. Every weapon is useable and fills a roll. Granted it did take me AWHILE to get used to it and I can seem that some are “OP” but it just takes getting used to. EVERY Halo brought changes to weapons and mechanics. Some just refuse to adapt to the game and then get all salty and blame the weapons.
Halo 5 gets the reputation of having a “balanced” weapon sandbox because it gives off the illusion of having weapon “variety”. Halo 5 has a lot of useful weapons but that doesn’t mean every weapon in Halo 5’s sandbox has an unique purpose. In actuality Halo 5’s sandbox is bloated with a ton of redundant weapons that share very similar overlapping roles. For example the magnum, BR, LR, DMR, and carbine all share very similar overlapping roles. Same goes with the automatic weapons such as the AR, SMG, storm rifle, and suppressor, they all share very similar overlapping roles. IMO 343 needs to make the weapons have more unique traits and function more uniquely so they can differentiate the weapons from each other.
To address your statement of weapons being balanced in Halo 5, please explain to me how the BR, DMR, and AR are balanced when they are all easier to use compared to the magnum but yet have a very similar TTK as the magnum? Also how are the SMG and storm rifle balanced when they have a faster TTK than the magnum but the magnum is harder to use than both those weapons? Please explain to me how the magnum in Halo 5 is balanced when it is weak in relation to how hard it is to use and is weak in relation to the rest of the weapons in the sandbox? How can the magnum(utility weapon) in Halo 5 help balance out the weapon sandbox when it’s weak?
What I consider to be the most important factor when it comes to balancing a weapon in Halo is making the power of said weapon reflect how difficult that weapon is to use or reflect how difficult that weapon is to obtain. I will be using Halo CE’s weapon sandbox as an example to demonstrate what I mean. Since Halo CE’s pistol is hard to use and is a projectile weapon the minimal TTK of the weapon is very fast but the average TTK is slower, this is okay because the difficulty to achieve the minimal TTK balances out it’s power.
Another example of this in Halo CE is the plasma rifle, since the plasma rifle spawns in convenient locations on the map and spawns very frequently it’s easy for players to obtain so the weapon isn’t as powerful when compared to the rockets. Just because the plasma rifle in Halo CE isn’t as powerful as the rockets doesn’t mean the weapon doesn’t have a purpose, the plasma rifle in Halo CE stun locks players and also melts shields very quickly so it’s a very effective flanking weapon and is a very effective weapon against a player that has an over-shield. What balances out the power of the plasma rifle in Halo CE is that players can crouch to get out of the stun lock and the HCE pistol gives players a chance to fight back against it and the fact that the plasma rifle is really only effective at close range due to it being a projectile weapon and having spread.
Another example of a weapon being balanced in Halo CE is the rocket launcher. The rocket launcher is balanced in Halo CE because it spawns every two minutes and is typically placed in a neutral location on the map and is on a static timer. This means in order to obtain the rocket launcher in Halo CE you have to contest your opponent for control of the weapon. The rocket launcher is balanced in Halo CE because of the difficulty to obtain the weapon balances out the power of the weapon. The rocket launcher in Halo CE has a slow rate of fire and takes a pretty long time to reload so that also balances out the power of the weapon.
