I’m just gonna cut right to the chase here.
Make it more like firefight. In it’s Beta state, it’s more of a “Hunt and Exterminate” style game, whereas Firefight is about defending you’re position against enemies who are trying to hunt and exterminate the player. As for round timers, I feel as though they should be replaced by a collective pool of lives shared by the team, and that the revive system from Campaign should come back. If timers do remain, it should be to do things such as defending or securing comm stations, which can allow access to a greater REQ level cap (or lower the level cap, should you fail to keep it protected), or destroying Covenant/Promethean radar jammers (Which may be temporarily lowering max REQ level, or denying the ability to call them in completely, and upon destruction, return the players REQs to whatever level it was prior).
In short, make the game more about surviving, and less about making it to the next round. The way it is in Beta is certainly fun, but doesn’t feel like firefight (in my opinion, at least), and if 343 still feels the need to include legendary bosses, make something other than the Warden. I know myself and a fair amount of the community believe the Warden has grown stale a while ago, and someone / something new should be thrown into the mix, that way there’s an equal chance of getting one boss or the other. A few recommendations of mine are:
A pair (or more) of Sentinel Enforcers: Their shielding in front makes them a difficult target to engage head on. It has a variety of weapons, including it’s pulse rifles, which are primarily anti-infantry, it’s plasma missiles/mortars which are devastating to vehicles, a more powerful version of the Sentinel Beam which is better suited for longer ranges, and last but certainly not least, it’s four claws beneath it, allowing it to puck up and crush vehicles, especially Scorpions and Mantises (Mantisai? Mantisal? Whatever the plural of mantis is…). Either way, it’s adding more variety and fun into the game, I don’t think most of us fans will even mind if 343 just ports the model from H2A just to have it. Personally, this is the most interesting option, providing new gameplay tactics and an interesting dynamic of having two targets that back eachother u, similar to Hunters.
A team of Phantom Gunboats: Their large capacity of heavy weapons make them a nightmare for vehicles, and while it may be a bit of a bullet sponge, you can make it so it’s more mobile than the warden, making it so the player has to outmaneuver the Phantom, in which case 343 could give it only slightly higher levels of health than the standard Phantom Dropship.
A team of Soldiers in Mantises (Or whatever the plural is, I still don’t know.): The main issue with this one is that Mantisai are EMP-able, and when that happens, the soldiers sometimes get out. Don’t let them do that, and give them a little more health, and you’ll be good.
Now we get to the things that will take A LOT of work, but will be loved nonetheless.
Tarturus: You know why. His shields are extremely tough to crack, and recharge rapidly, and it’s make it easy for 343 to make the Fist of Rukt a REQ Card.
A Scarab: It should fit on a few of the maps, primarily Arc, Stormbreak, and even Apex. You know the pluses and minuses here. Plus- we have an up-to-date model of the scarab. Minus- 343 needs to model, texture, and script AI for an asset that is extremely large, and find a way make it play well with the spartan abilities. Basically, this is just a cool dream.
Something else I was thinking about was REQ that adds a team of Marines or ODST to follow you around. This could be a cool way to bring in ODST, and it would mean you can use the team commanding abilities from the campaign to lead them. Plus, just imagine coordinating with all of you’re teammates to call in an army of ODST and absolutely wreck the enemy’s -SelfImposedYoink!-, or assign them to guard one of the radio towers or defensive turrets while you do other things. There is so much possibility. Hell, you could even have all of them get in gungeese. Half of them would probably die from friendly fire, but that’s the fun of it.
For a last second inclusion to my thoughts and opinions, do more covenant stuff. Covenant are still awesome, and it seems as if they are being edged out by the Prometheans, and this was most noticeable when playing Warzone Firefight. I played a number of matches, and only 1 of them featured covenant as the main enemy group.