So I’ve only recently purchased Halo 5 after finally having enough free time from university to play, but I don’t really feel at home playing this game. I’ve been playing since just after Halo 3 was released, however I’ve put hundreds and hundreds of hours into Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 4 after that, not to mention the hilarious antics that keeps me playing Halo 3 to this day. Yet, my Xbox 360 grows old and is becoming a mere statue on my stand, so I’ve cracked over to the Xbox One with Master Chief Collection and Halo 5.
I just can’t adapt though. I’m not sure what it is about the playstyle, but I can’t seem to keep up. I tried my hand at Free-For-All, which I won my first match quite easily, so I thought I’d do just fine, but now, almost twelve matches later, I’m consistently falling seven deaths below my kill count. I’ve tried swapping different weapons, taking all sorts of paths, but I get outgunned every single time. I try an Assault Rifle in close quarters, I get shot up by the handgun. I try the handgun at mid-range to get murdered by a Battle Rifle. I try the Battle Rifle at mid-range and somehow get rushed by an Assault Rifle, and thus, the cycle continues. Trying to use the guns for their purposes is becoming a total wash and it feels like whoever is capping me first will 95% of the time come out on top (Sounds too familiar to me to a game series I’ve abandoned years ago…) My point is, I’m trying to use the guns where they are at home, but seem to get picked off by guns that aren’t in their specific areas of expertise. Do I need to drastically change my playstyle or has my time in the previous iterations of this series doomed me for this new chapter?
Mind you, I’ve enjoyed the game up until my frustrations with remaining competitive. It just feels embarrassing as someone who could regularly win Free-For-All matches in the previous games by fairly significant gaps to be unable to even escape the bottom two positions in the current game and I’m trying to understand if there’s something I’m missing in this game that isn’t a part of other games I’ve played in the past.
The Pistol is an expert’s weapon. It kills faster on paper than the AR and BR, but in practice you’ll be more successful with either of those weapons simply because they’re easier to use in their respective niche, and their niche extends farther. The DMR/LR are also essentially straight upgrades to the Pistol. Basically, unless you know what you’re doing, don’t even bother with it. Just swap it for one of the on-map rifles.
New Meta: Camp small rooms with the AR, spray at their chest until their shields pop, then spray in the general area of someone’s head (it has a headshot modifer now), and just destroy them before they can do anything. Then just kind of contemplate to yourself “Why…?”
Also, forget FFA. It’s currently plagued by bad spawns.
> The Pistol is an expert’s weapon. It kills faster on paper than the AR and BR, but in practice you’ll be more successful with either of those weapons simply because they’re easier to use in their respective niche, and their niche extends farther. The DMR/LR are also essentially straight upgrades to the Pistol. Basically, unless you know what you’re doing, don’t even bother with it. Just swap it for one of the on-map rifles.
It just seems that I’m getting outsmarted or straight-up outgunned by Pistol users consistently. There have been instances where I would be killed face-to-face before I could start my fourth burst with a Battle Rifle.
> New Meta: Camp small rooms with the AR, spray at their chest until their shields pop, then spray in the general area of someone’s head (it has a headshot modifer now), and just destroy them before they can do anything. Then just kind of contemplate to yourself “Why…?”
Ironically, I tried that once, just to see what would happen and they just started dancing around the room with the booster pack or jumping around before picking me off with a Pistol, again…
> Also, forget FFA. It’s currently plagued by bad spawns.
Yeah, I’m just about done with it for now. I need to bump my KDR back up, so I’ll be sticking to Warzone and Team Slayer.
First, don’t sprint. It doesn’t do anything in FFA other than slow down reaction time. Second, you want to use thrusters as a strafing tool (not escaping) for out BR’ing or just outshooting others in general. Third, always stay moving (in the same direction clockwise or counterclockwise around the map is my personal method) because in my experience switching directions is REALLY risky as you could get killed by several new spawners.
These general rules are usually what I follow mostly (there are exceptions based off how used to the game you get) and I tend to land in first place by up to 7 points in FFA.
I found out that being more aggressive than I was before helped me out. Even when someone would already have, say, 2 headshots with the Magnum on me by the time I start shooting back, as long as I was aggressive and didn’t back down, the enemy would often back down first. Obviously they wouldn’t do it if I was missing shots or was almost dead by the time I started shooting, but I did notice a difference when I played less passively
Also, unlike past Halo games, jumping while in a precision weapon/Magnum fight is pretty much begging the enemy to kill you, so replace jumping with crouching. Crouching at random times can make all the difference in fights
I also recommend not relying on radar as much as you did in past Halos and instead just pay more attention to your surroundings. There aren’t many times in this game where the radar helped me in any way
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> My point is, I’m trying to use the guns where they are at home, but seem to get picked off by guns that aren’t in their specific areas of expertise.
I still can’t figure out the weapons in this game. I’ve lost to the AR in both the SMG’s and the Storm Rifle’s effective ranges. I’m not saying that someone shouldn’t be able to win a fight with the weapons they have on them, but I feel like the weapons aren’t balanced very well if the AR has killed me faster than I could kill an enemy with an SMG from a few feet away. Just don’t try using the Magnum up close. It can kill faster than the AR up close but it’s harder to hit people up close with it, at least for me and my friends
I was in the same boat as you, OP. I worked for years to get my Halo skill to where it is and it felt like all that had been reversed with this game. But I tried doing things like messing with my sensitivity, being more aggressive, not using sprint as much, crouching while in a precision weapon fight, and they all helped. I’m pretty used to the game now, but I had to make some changes along the way to get to this point. Keep playing and you’ll eventually pick up on how you should tackle Halo 5
aiming got less aim assist, and is a lot more skill based now.
the fact you are getting outgunned by people despite using a more favourable weapon for the situation simply shows they are putting more shots on target than you.
It has more of a learning curve compared to previous entries. I recommend tuning your aim settings in a custom, I’m sure that will help the most. Then just practice, stick to it and you’ll adapt to the faster play style. It’s still halo, it’s just evolving a little.
Use the pistol Jd.
When I first obtained Halo I missed 90% of my shots with it.
Learning the pistol is the first step to becoming better at the game.
I worked on my accuracy, then the ability to outsmart people.
when I FFA, I usually do the slow roll approach. I will find an area with few positions of attack, to limit where my enemies come from. I will hover around that area, and try to bait kids.
Slow rolling really helps me get to 25 kills quickly.
when people spawn, they just sprint to their last death lol
Beast kids, and out maneuver them.
Being able to maneuver away, or to confuse your opponent is crucial in this Halo.
Clambering and evading are too important.
Just go into custom games, and see all what you can clamber onto. It helped me a lot.
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> I found out that being more aggressive than I was before helped me out. Even when someone would already have, say, 2 headshots with the Magnum on me by the time I start shooting back, as long as I was aggressive and didn’t back down, the enemy would often back down first. Obviously they wouldn’t do it if I was missing shots or was almost dead by the time I started shooting, but I did notice a difference when I played less passively
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> Also, unlike past Halo games, jumping while in a precision weapon/Magnum fight is pretty much begging the enemy to kill you, so replace jumping with crouching. Crouching at random times can make all the difference in fights
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> I also recommend not relying on radar as much as you did in past Halos and instead just pay more attention to your surroundings. There aren’t many times in this game where the radar helped me in any way
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> > My point is, I’m trying to use the guns where they are at home, but seem to get picked off by guns that aren’t in their specific areas of expertise.
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> I still can’t figure out the weapons in this game. I’ve lost to the AR in both the SMG’s and the Storm Rifle’s effective ranges. I’m not saying that someone shouldn’t be able to win a fight with the weapons they have on them, but I feel like the weapons aren’t balanced very well if the AR has killed me faster than I could kill an enemy with an SMG from a few feet away. Just don’t try using the Magnum up close. It can kill faster than the AR up close but it’s harder to hit people up close with it, at least for me and my friends
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> I was in the same boat as you, OP. I worked for years to get my Halo skill to where it is and it felt like all that had been reversed with this game. But I tried doing things like messing with my sensitivity, being more aggressive, not using sprint as much, crouching while in a precision weapon fight, and they all helped. I’m pretty used to the game now, but I had to make some changes along the way to get to this point. Keep playing and you’ll eventually pick up on how you should tackle Halo 5
Storm rifle is love. I went on a killing frenzy with one last night on Fathom to come back and win by two.
If you’re having trouble hitting things lower your sensitivity to 3, and put your acceleration to 4.
Halo 5 is a game with a very high skill ceiling, and if you’re good it’ll show. To start with you should focus more on not dying than getting a high K/D. Work on good movement first.
Another tip, you don’t have to be running toward someone while you’re shooting at them. I see this all the time, and its a terrible habit. Guys will just hold forward and every time they shoot at someone. Don’t. Don’t chase so much either. That guy you’re shooting is either shooting back at you, or running to safety; and he’s telling his team where you are. When he turns a corner his buddies could be back there waiting for you. Its totally fine to put a few shots into a guy and let him run off; call him out and maybe you’ll get an assist out of it.
If its very frustrating for you to play online, try campaign mode for a while, but focus on improving your game. For example, only headshots on grunts and jackals. It may seem silly, but if your pistol is really that bad then maybe this will help. Don’t rush it at the beginning, and just try to get one shots on everything you can. Then you can start speeding it up as your aim improves. Having a good pistol is a requirement for Halo 5, if you can’t get most of your kills in <6 shots then keep focusing on it. You WILL get better, you just need to keep working at it. The best way to improve your pistol is to just play with a mindset of getting better with it. Focus on lowering that kill time and eventually it’ll happen.
Movement is a HUGE part of the game. When you spawn you should NOT be randomly running right back into the fray. As you play, try to keep a mental image of where players are on the map; as you get better try to add in things like weapon timers, and powerup timers. This is game sense, and this is what separates the good, the bad, and the nasty -Yoink- that go 25-2. Instead, when you spawn you should be going to the place where you can best win the game. Find area’s on the map that are good to control, like Snipe3 near BR spawn on Coliseum. From a good vantage point you can rack up a few kills, but remember, camping in Halo 5 isn’t a great idea. This is an arena shooter, and to win you’ll need to control power weapons and powerups. Move with your teammates, and DON’T throw grenades at them! Look at your games in theater mode and just zoom out, if you see yourself constantly running alone into a group of 2 or 3 enemies you can learn a lot. If you see someone on your team doing well try to shadow them and watch their back. This doesn’t mean stand next to them and look in the same area’s they are, but instead look around where he isn’t so you can be an extra set of eyes. If you see him starting to shoot at someone put a few rounds out as well and see if you can get an assist. Don’t run around alone, and don’t keep going for crazy double kills. You’re more than likely just going to die again.