Jet Pack Buff Please

Games Other Halo
1

So I decided to spend a few points to unlock it now, expecting to have some fun in Spartan Ops with Jet Pack + AA Efficiency.

Nuh 'uh. The Jet Pack is garbage compared to how it was in Reach - You don’t get enough lift/energy drains too quickly. If you jumped and then used it in spurts, you could cover a good chunk of distance in Reach, which was especially handy on Caged.

In this game, it simply bleeds out so fast, and barely gives any lift that you are forced to use it all up in 1 go, because the moment you let go of the thrust you start to drop like sack of bricks - you simply can not generate enough thrust after letting go to counter gravity. This takes away a lot of the tactical advantages of the jet pack and I honestly don’t care for it.

Not only that, but the energy no longer recovers during use - Again in reach, the moment you let go it would start to recover, if only ever so slightly, which gave players a lot of mobility and options on certain maps. The jet pack energy in Halo 4 will not recharge at all until you touch ground. Imagine that this is because of the new AA Efficiency perk, which I can totally understand - you don’t want people flying indefinitely.

But the ability definitely requires some serious performance tweaking. I just don’t feel like it’s competitive at all, certainly not to the degree it was in Reach. No more shooting up like a rocket and raining down fire with the DMR :frowning:

Meanwhile, Active Camo is just straight up better than it was in Reach, which I love - so’s Hologram btw - so then why did this particular skill get hit so hard by the nerf bat?

EDIT: While I’m at it, Thruster Pack also feels horribly under powered. It’s saved me maybe a handful of times, and I do like the ability, but it’s not fast enough - the description is an absolute lie. I get that you wanted a new twist on the Evade ability, and as I said I think it’s a good concept - but the animation is simply far too slow.

If I’m quick enough on the draw, I can usually duck to the side to evade a grenade or similar threat, but as far as “closing the gap” goes to get in close - I’d say at least 90% of the time I’m better off just sprinting. Speed it up maybe 20~50% and I think it will see a lot more competitive use.

2

Uhh…no.

Jet pack is fine. Any “buff” and it would be the BEST AA hands down.

I agree about Active Camo…it should be slightly nerfed (increase the radar effect).

3

they did this for a good reason… And I think the majority of players are thankful for this.

4

The Jetpack is fine as it is…still one of the more useful AA’s if you ask me.

5

They did all that specifically to prevent what it caused in reach, using it to reach parts of the map faster is ok, but being able to hover over walls and shoot opponents breaks any map.

6

I personally never saw a problem with people flying overhead. 1 on 1 yes it can be frustrating, (for the record I ran with Sprint for the majority of my time playing Reach, except on certain maps like Uncaged) but in a team setting more often than not it’s a death sentence as you’re making yourself visible to the entire enemy team to just take pot shots at you.

It’s more for the ability to get around the map quicker for me, as I’m used to pulsing the thrusters in Reach to extend how long I’m in the air to get across chasms faster (or avoid firefights).

The Camo buff, much as I love it, really is a bit much. They basically removed the drawback to the user as you can now see where your enemies are just fine, and with AA efficiency you can practically spam it… it takes like 3 seconds to recharge it to full now instead of around 10 or 12 like it did in Reach if you fully drained it. I’m not sure how I feel about Promethean vision revealing cloaked players as well. It’s crazy enough that they basically added a wallhack to Halo, but seeing invisible players too?!

7

I like the jet pack. Sure, there’s one or two things I don’t like about it, but it’s still the one I use most.

Recharge - Leave it as is
Lift - Could do with a slight buff, but it’s workable as is
Duration - Slight buffing would be good, but if they choose not to then it won’t stop me using it

Honestly, I find it better if I think of it as a jump pack rather than a jet pack.

8

> I like the jet pack. Sure, there’s one or two things I don’t like about it, but it’s still the one I use most.
>
> Recharge - Leave it as is
> Lift - Could do with a slight buff, but it’s workable as is
> Duration - Slight buffing would be good, but if they choose not to then it won’t stop me using it
>
> Honestly, I find it better if I think of it as a jump pack rather than a jet pack.

then you have the broken reach aa do to aa mods.

9

> I personally never saw a problem with people flying overhead. 1 on 1 yes it can be frustrating, (for the record I ran with Sprint for the majority of my time playing Reach, except on certain maps like Uncaged) but in a team setting more often than not it’s a death sentence as you’re making yourself visible to the entire enemy team to just take pot shots at you.
>
> It’s more for the ability to get around the map quicker for me, as I’m used to pulsing the thrusters in Reach to extend how long I’m in the air to get across chasms faster (or avoid firefights).
>
>
> The Camo buff, much as I love it, really is a bit much. They basically removed the drawback to the user as you can now see where your enemies are just fine, and with AA efficiency you can practically spam it… it takes like 3 seconds to recharge it to full now instead of around 10 or 12 like it did in Reach if you fully drained it. I’m not sure how I feel about Promethean vision revealing cloaked players as well. It’s crazy enough that they basically added a wallhack to Halo, but seeing invisible players too?!

Playing against a team that doesn’t have the player rocketing as high as possible with it can make thing very annoying nullifying all cover and causing major distractions when use appropriately. And it wasn’t hard to do. Someone just ran behind cover? Just jet pack up pop em in the head then drop. Or just hover slightly above a wall and take pot shots at somebody who has no cover because no matter were they go your height advantage nullifies all available options. An AA should support combat not dictate map flow.

10

> > I like the jet pack. Sure, there’s one or two things I don’t like about it, but it’s still the one I use most.
> >
> > Recharge - Leave it as is
> > Lift - Could do with a slight buff, but it’s workable as is
> > Duration - Slight buffing would be good, but if they choose not to then it won’t stop me using it
> >
> > Honestly, I find it better if I think of it as a jump pack rather than a jet pack.
>
> then you have the broken reach aa do to aa mods.

The broken Reach AA? No, I’m talking about the H4 Jet Pack

11

The jet pack is fine. It completely broke maps in Reach. You shouldn’t be able to just fly where ever the hell you want. It’s only meant for that little extra.

12

I would be much more fine with them just taking it out of matchmaking rather than giving it a buff

13

Not only is the jetpack garbage, a lot of areas are - return to combat area or invis-wall as well.

You can´t jump onto the central rocks on Ragnarok which is already an open map, without the bot telling you to get off or die.

Love’ me Hardlight shield though.

14

Please no.

Infact take it out of matchmaking, along with camo.

15

…No. It was overpowered in Reach…They specifically made it so you can’t use it to leap across chasms and break map flow. The JP was one of the main reasons I stopped playing Reach.

16

> I personally never saw a problem with people flying overhead. 1 on 1 yes it can be frustrating, (for the record I ran with Sprint for the majority of my time playing Reach, except on certain maps like Uncaged) but in a team setting more often than not it’s a death sentence as you’re making yourself visible to the entire enemy team to just take pot shots at you.

It may not have been too much of an issue for you, but it was a serious when you got to even top 50% onyx in Arena. Here is a match against 2 1% onyx teams, both of whom usually have games that are won or lost + or - 10. Jetpack coupled with the horrible design of Reflection gives a clear indication of how broken the jetpack actually is in a very competitive environment. If you watch any high level gameplay for Reach, you will see the same thing.

At MLG Dallas (pre-release H4 tournament) every single player but a handful were using the Jetpack, and it was clearly the most useful AA at high-level play, even with the nerf it has received since Reach. If anything, the jetpack in MM needs a slight nerf IMO. In regards to spartan OPs, I personally don’t care either way, but if players who play it feel the need to buff the jetpack for that mode, then I see no problem with it.

In regards to thruster pack, I agree that it could use a 20% speed increase and a 20% distance increase, but if it doesn’t get changed it’s not that big of a deal. Remember, 343 doesn’t want AA’s and ordinance to dominate Halo play, they just want it to help expand the gameplay. Reach tried to change Halo and make it revolve around AA’s, but all it did was subtract from the far deeper skills that vanilla Halo provides (of which, most players aren’t even aware of).

17

Don’t you think that speaks a little more towards Reach’s map design though, rather than Jet Pack itself? Some of Reach’s maps were just awful compared to Halo 2 or 3.

And I’m advocating a small buff here, so that you can at least get in 2~3 extra bursts of thrust without falling. I agree that you could get an insane amount of Lift in Reach, and I’m not looking to return to that 100% - but the thing honestly feels like more of a novelty than an advantage right now. At least they seemed to have finally taking out the annoying ceiling that existed in Reach - but then that speaks volumes as well, if you can actually generate enough thrust that you can’t climb any higher and still stay in the air for a few seconds.

What I’d like to see is either have the energy recharge while you’re still in the air, or increase the strength of the thrust so that you can effectively tap it once you’re up to get a little extra mileage, not rocket above people like in Reach (which again, I personally never had much issue with but I will concede that many others did).

I stand by my other statements as well - Camo is slightly too good compared to Reach, and Thruster Pack needs to be faster to really be effective. The other abilities all seem to be just fine from what I’ve seen so far (I’m SR 31 btw and I had an 80 BPR in Reach - not top onyx material but still good).

EDIT: One more thing, while we’re discussing balance - does anyone else feel as though Ordinance Priority does next to nothing? I’ve run several games with it now and while my 1st drop comes in a little quicker, it seemingly does zip for my 2nd and 3rd drops. I’d much rather run Ammo and get more use out of each drop, or Dexterity (which as far as I’m concerned is borderline OP in the hands of a skilled player).

18

> Don’t you think that speaks a little more towards Reach’s map design though, rather than Jet Pack itself? Some of Reach’s maps were just awful compared to Halo 2 or 3.

I think it’s both. But even forged maps and whatever else, Reach’s Jetpack was game breaking in a competitive environment amongst players who know how to abuse it.

> And I’m advocating a small buff here, so that you can at least get in 2~3 extra bursts of thrust without falling. I agree that you could get an insane amount of Lift in Reach, and I’m not looking to return to that 100% - but the thing honestly feels like more of a novelty than an advantage right now. At least they seemed to have finally taking out the annoying ceiling that existed in Reach - but then that speaks volumes as well, if you can actually generate enough thrust that you can’t climb any higher and still stay in the air for a few seconds.

343 nerfed the jetpack on purpose, because floating around in the air the whole game defeats the purpose of map control, grenade and other explosives. 343 did much more testing than Bungie on AA’s and/or learned from many of Bungie’s mistakes. For the Halo community as a whole, buffing the jetpack would further imbalance the game and the AA’s.

> What I’d like to see is either have the energy recharge while you’re still in the air, or increase the strength of the thrust so that you can effectively tap it once you’re up to get a little extra mileage, not rocket above people like in Reach (which again, I personally never had much issue with but I will concede that many others did).

The jetpack was nerfed specifically to reduce the ability to “hover”, the jetpack has, rightfully IMO, become more of a vertical-mobility AA, to help you traverse maps vertically, not specifically to be used in battle.

> I stand by my other statements as well - Camo is slightly too good compared to Reach, and Thruster Pack needs to be faster to really be effective. The other abilities all seem to be just fine from what I’ve seen so far (I’m SR 31 btw and I had an 80 BPR in Reach - not top onyx material but still good).

Camo seems pretty balanced to me, as the radar blips are all blue, and the one that is actually the play will glow red every once in a while. All you have to do is track it once it turns blue again.

I will agree that the thruster could use a little but of a buff, but not too much.

In regards to skill, I have come to the conclusion that the minimum requirement for a player to truly have a decent understanding competitive Halo is 100 BPR/ Top 30% Onyx/50 in H3. Not to say that your opinion is not valid or that it should not be taken into account by 343, it very well should, but I find it to believe more than a handful of people understand the game THAT well and not meet these criteria.

> EDIT: One more thing, while we’re discussing balance - does anyone else feel as though Ordinance Priority does next to nothing? I’ve run several games with it now and while my 1st drop comes in a little quicker, it seemingly does zip for my 2nd and 3rd drops. I’d much rather run Ammo and get more use out of each drop, or Dexterity (which as far as I’m concerned is borderline OP in the hands of a skilled player).

Haven’t used it yet. I think regular is every 70 points you get ordinance, not sure what priority does. Also I use ammo or dexterity. Although I don’t see how dexterity is “OP” out side of multi kills. Skilled players don’t miss very much, and it would be rare that a player would actually win or lose a 1v1 because of their reload speed. IME it is not until a double or triple kill where I have expended my bullets yet need to keep firing, in which dexterity helps.

19

Jp buff eheh hell no.

20

Again, I really don’t see what’s so bad about being able to use the JP in short bursts to extend your air time - I’m not disagreeing with you guys about how it was in Reach - it really was nuts how long you can stay up in the air. However Halo 4 feels like a complete reversal - I’m just looking for a happy middle ground, as I like the Jet Pack to have a certain degree of skill reward to it - which is also how I view the AR, which while better than it’s been in ages, still seems a tad weak at times in CQB even when I burst fire it. I dunno, sometimes I demolish people with it and other times it’s like I’m spitting on them…

Anyways, the problem I have with Camo, apart from the ridiculously fast recharge time with AA Efficiency, is that unlike in Reach, when you use it now your own radar is no longer scrambled. It’s ridiculously easy to stalk people while invisible now, whereas in Reach you had to trade off full use of your motion tracker for it. Maybe they feel it’s fine now because of Promethean vision, but that’s not really a good way to balance it as it means everyone who’s NOT running that AA is at a disadvantage. And I say this as someone who’s always routinely gone after camo in the older days, and for a while used it almost exclusively in Reach (until I began to favor sprint more as I found using it purely for the radar scramble to be a bit of a scrub tactic).

As for Thruster Pack, has anyone here ever played Armored Core? In the more recent entries, they added a side-boost option where you very rapdily dash to either side - that’s basically what I had in mind. As is, I’d much rather have Evade back over TP because it’s simply too slow to be practical in combat.

Also is it just me or did they severely nerf the lunge range on the Sword?

To my last point, Ordinance Priority is supposed to speed up the rate at which your meter fills. But I really don’t find it makes all that much of a difference beyond the 1st drop, certainly not enough to warrant use over Ammo or Dexterity. Dex is frighteningly good, not just because it helps with multi-kills but the faster swapping of weapons can make-or-break a tight battle - e.g., I’m carrying shotty & snipe and someone gets very close to me, with Dex I can swap out to my shotty much faster and blow him away.