Nope they didn’t say a thing. They stealth nerfed it.
And this was at launch. Aozolai made a video about it on Nov 19 of last year. So this was not recent.
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Indeed, but desynch is a thing and bursting the AR doesn’t alleviate a technical issue with the network and game programming. In the last two days of completing challenges, I’ve had five frags disappear on me, two rockets detonate in an enemy’s visor, only for them to come out of the smoke unharmed and two clean BR headshots on separate occasions were upon hearing the sound and seeing the hit-markers on unshielded opponents I turned away from them by reflex to do other things, only to discover them alive and well, killing me as we were in a firefight. Even yesterday I witnessed a friend of mine throw two grenades on a Zone in landgrab, first one detonated, other one just disappeared.
I’m certainly not the best shot there is but I do not feel like I’m improving at all, due to the weapons feeling extremely inconsistent. Sometimes my AR kills, others it barely registers. Too many occasions where I’ve fired on an opponent longer than they have on me, we trade melees and they make it out alive.
Burst firing is not the answer.
Weapon balancing and enemy resistances / immunities does not carry over from game to game.
The CE pistol being as good as it was in Multiplayer wasn’t even intended, and all it’s good for in Halo CE is headshotting grunts and killing flood, basically useless against Elites with shields.
The AR doesn’t compete at range with the BR. I don’t know how people get this misconception in their heads because its just a plain lie. If this is happening to you you are either very bad or connection issues are a problem but if the game is working as intended this doesn’t happen.
What it seems people want is a H3 AR, completely useless trash that has no range and no damage. Infinite’s AR is the first in the series (maybe minus the CE AR) to not just absolutely suck against the competition. Its the first AR to be able to outkill the BR at short range which is a good thing. The BR should not be this Ace of all Trades weapon that has no weakness outside a power weapon.
The fact that it became a “utility weapon” before still irritates me to this ay if i go back and play older Halos. Its just not fun to only care aboit the mid-to-long range precision starting weapon and then the rocket…sadly this is still how ranked is played but at least social playlists are not plagued by BR starts for the most part.
Huge issue with Halo 4. Everyone spawned with either a Battle Rifle, DMR or Lightrifle. It turned the entire game into a long-range chicken shoot instead of the frantic, close-range battles that made up a good chunk of Halo 3’s combat.
My issue with BR starts is that it encourages long-range plays which, in my opinion, are more boring.
I mean, the present AR is seriously powerful and borders on a power weapon. The thing about the Halo 3 AR is that it was never useless, it just depended on the skill of the wielder. The entire design philosophy of Halo 3 encouraged close-range, CQC based engagements where the AR was stronger than at the range people tried to use it at.
It was this way in Halo 2, Halo 4 and Halo 5, but was not this way in Halo 3. Halo 2, 4 and 5’s BR was absolutely insane, and was bordering on a laser beam (it’s like this in Halo Infinite as well, but the AR was given a boost in power).
My favorite BR in the series in Halo 3’s BR because it works within the sandbox. Halo 3’s BR encouraged players to move in and get in close, because only the first shot would assuredly land in the center of the crosshair (the Carbine was arguably stronger at range than the BR). The close-range combat of Halo 3 gave more opportunities for various weapons to shine, and if the AR got a small boost in power in Halo 3, it would have been perfect.
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I agree with almost all of this. I do love the Infinite AR and if i come upon a map weapon i am trading it every time which i feel is a good thing for a spawn weapon to feel like.
At closer ranges it loses to basically every close range map weapon minus a couple. And at longer ranges it can’t compete. I think it has a great window from the top of short range to the bottom of mid range where it shines and to me its finally the perfect AR, not too strong but also not useless.
Infinite to me has a near perfect sandbox. I would make a few changes but maybe thats a topic for another post.
Desync ruins it is my main point. Your AR will be a BB gun and theirs will be a SAW, 75% of the time.
Significant fun vampirism, and I can’t figure out why people enjoy that.
Yeah I understand weapons haven’t carried over exactly from CE. I’m just pointing out the weapons are used for different scenarios and they should not all be equal.
The current shotgun sucks, two close shots should kill you, but it’s closer to five in the game. Shotgun used to be considered a power weapon equivalent to the sword.
I like the sidekick but it would be better paired with the BR because it lacks range. Sidekick is practically full auto anyway.
I got an overkill with the bulldog just last night. I promise all the problems people have with all the weapons is directly related to the awful hit detection and desync in this game. When things work the way they’re supposed to all the weapons are strong feeling.
I feel like the AR Magnum combo is a problem because both weapons tend to be used by themselves. So I immediately switch to the pistol, every time, and a team of three people turn up with an AR and I spend my clip, maybe kill one person, then die whilst reloading.
If I switch to AR, I just want to find a better weapon.
So….maybe AR starts should be a thing. And by that I mean - only the AR. Same with the pistol.
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I feel like having the option is integral to AR starts being bearable for a lot of players.
AR duels usually come down more to who fired first, with a dash of RNG and very little, if any, positive effect for good bursting technique.
The Sidekick can, and often does circumvent this. RNG plays little to no factor because of how aim assist mechanics work (so long as you’re within aim assist ranges), and shooting first is less impactful because of how much more effective a good strafe is against the Sidekick vs the AR.
Most Halo games did follow the trend of having the beginner friendly AR paired with a more overall effective, but higher skill requirement secondary. What the Sidekick does that none of the other secondaries ever did though, is maintain about the exact same range of effectiveness the AR has, only being able to stretch out further with a ton of practice, and not effectively enough to compete with weapons meany for those ranges like the Commando or BR.
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I see what you’re getting at, but I think AR starts are much more palatable for casuals. BR starts can be very intimidating, and has a much higher skill ceiling. Consider the fact that 343i has a VERY competitive sbmm even in the social playlists, and I think you can see how BR starts is a much sweatier game of halo compared to AR starts. I think I would agree with you that AR starts really suck IF 343i loosened social match making. The way things are now, I’d much rather being playing highly skilled players with AR starts than in BR starts.
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an overkill on 4 fully shielded enemies? or did you have help from teammates?
Yeah, I had good nade placement on the first two and put them one shot before they could react, then two shot the other two. The speed and spammability would be overpowered if it was any stronger at all. It’s situationally broken
I’m honestly fine with AR starts, in general. It does feel to have just a little bit too much power at range though.
I don’t know if it is desync or something else, but the feedback that you are getting shot sometimes isn’t noticeable, and it can feel like you are just insta-killed by a single AR wielder.
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