Hey folks,
just made it to Diamond and I wanted to give you some insight/tips that helped me reach Diamond in Slayer. Go easy on me, this is my first post and english is not my native language:)
- Technical stuff:
For those who have been playing on a TV, look up the term input lag. It defines the lag between your controller input and the TV picture that is shown to you. Most of the modern TVs use picture enhancement to make your picture look better.
But this also causes a certain amount of input lag. Try to set your TV on Game/PC Mode. This will automatically cut off all the fancy stuff that your TV does to make the picture look better, thus minoring the input lag. The best way to play
FPS games is by using a monitor, because those have very low input lag as standard. By putting my LG TV to game mode, I had my shoot accuracy bump from average 30% to average 45%. You will feel the difference if you set up your TV/monitor this way (gaming feels smoother :)).
I also used an Elite Controller connected via USB cable. For the controller settings: I use the Bumper Jumper layout with two
extra paddles (one for thrust and one for action/reload). My inner and outer dead zones are set to 0/8% (you have to try out which fits you the best). Sensitivity was on 3 and acceleration on 3 also.
I think, that a standard controller is enough to climb CSR, but if you have some money left and it sure is worth upgrading (Scuf/Elite Controller). Controller settings is all personal preference, but it is an advantage if you can jump/melee while you can look around.
- Gun Fights/Movement:
When duelling 1v1 make sure to strafe. You can throw in some side steps into thrust or jump left and thrust right e.g. Strafing rises your chances of surviving longer in a gun fight. The other thing is obviously your aiming. Try to use your left stick
to aim primarily. E.g. line your first shots with your left stick and aim for the head with your right stick when the enemy shields are down. The more you play halo, the more your aim will improve.
Weapon range: The AR and the storm rifle (gooooood weapon :)) are very powerful upclose range, the sniper rifle very good on long range. But if you try the AR on mid-long range against an enemy with a pistol/BR, you will most likely lose the gun fight. Knowing the range of the guns and
how to use them is extremely crucial. You should also check up your pistol, it is your best friend in situations where you don’t have a BR or a better precision weapon yet. Also the pistol is an allround weapon that fits almost any weapon range and you have it at the start !
Sprinting is great for closing long distance but mind: if you engage an enemy upfront, you will lose the battle because you cannot shoot as he will shoot you first! You should only sprint in safe areas or when you think that this gives you the highest chance to retreat safely. Saving thrust for a gun fight is also
important. You don’t want to use it in order to close distance and to not have it in a gun fight.
Beware of throwing grenades in a 1v1 fight. Often times when an enemy shield was down and he hid, I went to threw a grenade. This let me open and the enemy would come out and shoot thus I lost the gun fight. Throwing grenades is great to save your retreat or bait your enenemy out, but you should know the timing in a gun fight and be cautious.
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Map Awereness:
For me this is even more important than your gun fighting skills. Knowing where the enemy will pop out or knowing where you can retreat in a gun fight gives you an advantage. Therefor you should learn some key positions on the maps and the radar.
You will see most people in Plat+ often crouch for this reason. The radar shows an enemy when he is using a spartan ability/walking normal - fast or firing a weapon. Having info about the enemy location and giving the enemy info about your location is crucial!
If some maps are new to you or if you are having problems knowing where the enemy is, pay attention to the yellow sign on your teammates (indicates shots fired/ damage taken) as well
as the red X sign (teammate dead). Chances are high that you will encounter an enemy close to where your teammate is/was.
In general: It is always good to stay on a higher level than your enemy. This way you choose when to engange him and when to retreat.
Another thing are Power Ups (Overshield, Camo…) and Power Weapons (rockets/sniper …). The timer on the power weapons is signaled to you when they are ready. Try to make a setup for those weapons with your team! If you lost a game where the enemy possessed all the rockets in Coliseum e.g., then you know why.
Power Ups: Often I would give them a higher rating than going for power weapons. Having an overshield enemy guy in Empire Team Arena is not much fun to play against. The spawn timer is not given to you, they spawn two minutes after the last usage. Even in Gold CSR many players do not pay attention to power up timers!
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Decision Making
You will learn this as you play halo and getting experience for several situations. First of: It is often times more important to stay alive than to try and go for a kill ! There were many situations that I faced and where I was thinking:
Should I chase that guy or let him go ? Should I go and try finish him off, knowing that his team is nearby ? … You will notice that by chasing, you give up your position to him as he will know where you will come from. Only chase when you know that you will get him without dying.
An important aspect is watching replays, I know it’s great to watch yourself stomp an enemy team. But look at the situations where you died or where an enemy team was able to capture a flag. Why did it go that way / did you die ?
Learn from the own mistakes is very important. When you climb the ranks, you will come to the point, where you face better enemies. It is frustrating to get stomped, but you should watch the replays. What did they do better than me? Adopt it and it will make you better
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Communication
I know most of the time you play halo solo. If so try to talk to the others, try to make calls to enemy positions/spawn timers and enemy spawn locations. Halo is a team based shooter and you wont get far alone. I would often rather have 8/11/7 games (where my mates scored a high KD) and win than having a 18/3/10 game and still lose.
If you have the chance : play with friends or a premade team. A premade team will often win through communication although the gun fighting skills are equal between all 8 players.
If you cant communicate at all, try to stay in range of your mates. If you see them in a gun fight, you should be able to finish the enemy off in case they didnt.
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Psyche
We know it all: Losing 891 games in a row because … Instead of tilting you could try and see it from the other side: could you have won a 3v4 game still ? Try and stay positive, playing on tilt results in making bad decisions.
I had a rule when playing halo: When losing 4 games in a row I would quit and do other stuff until I calmed down and was ready to play normally. You could throw some warzone games in as well to calm down and relax a bit.
Don’t forget the fun and why we love to play halo
That was the long wall of text :D. There are many things that I still have to learn and maybe I can climb even higher than diamond. But these are the things for now that helped me. Hopefully this will help you too!
You can always add me if you want to play with me
Cheeeers
After you said English is not your native language I expected a horribly written post. This is very well said and very well written, better than a lot of people whose first language is Englisht. The TV thing is good to know, the rest is kind of obvious but good stuff either way.
The TV thing is quite interesting to know, if I recall its a setting on the TV remote, not that tech savvy.
> 2533274902279440;2:
> After you said English is not your native language I expected a horribly written post. This is very well said and very well written, better than a lot of people whose first language is Englisht. The TV thing is good to know, the rest is kind of obvious but good stuff either way.
Thx mate! Yeah, most people forget about the TV settings. But these are important as hell…
Awesome post! It’s refreshing to see helpful tips in the midst of the complaining that often fills the forums. I’ll definitely be checking my TV settings as you suggest.
Your last seasons were at gold 
How dare you give silvers false hope.
That’s some solid advice. If I may add to 1) Technical stuff: make sure your TV can actually support 60 frames per second. It should have a refresh rate of 60Hz or higher. Otherwise your game isn’t going to run as smooth as everyone else’s and this can put you at a slight disadvantage. I noticed this immediately after switching from an old 30Hz TV to a brand new monitor.
Awesome post.
I had this awful 720p 32" TV with permanent one-inch overscan, which I no longer use this for gaming, given its lack of visual quality. Now, I use a 1920x1200 60Hz 24" Dell monitor with an HDMI/DVI converter cable, since the monitor doesn’t have an HDMI input. The difference when I switched was staggering.
Fantastic post. Excellent tips. Keep up the good work Spartan!!
Playing on tilt is the most important point in this thread. I can’t even begin to tell you how much my game improved when I finally convinced myself to stop freaking out in a close gun fight or after getting smashed by the enemy team. If you’re playing nice and loose, your shot is going to be a million times better. Your decision making is going to be a million times better and your confidence is going to skyrocket. Learning how to shrug it off is absolutely huge.
Analyze your gameplay and be critical of your mistakes so that you can correct them but above all else, relax and just play your game.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of playing on a gaming monitor.
Adding on to the OP
- It is extremely important to master the pistol. Relying on the BR or DMR to score precision kills will disadvantage you throughout the game because you won’t be used to the relatively low bullet magnetism of the pistol if you’re forced to use it if theres no BR/DMR. I recommend playing through a few matches of warzone firefight using nothing but the pistol against the AI as it will help you learn to consistently land shots on the AI as well as help you practice head shotting as well due to the high body health of the soldiers and crawlers. Once you get pretty good at using the pistol consistently always pick up BRs and DMRs you find on the map depending on whichever one you prefer. They’re pretty much objective upgrades to the pistol in terms of ttk, bullet mag, range, and aim assist but the rate of fire will take some getting used to.
- Unless you’re playing stealthy, always take every opportunity to land a shot on the enemy even if you know you won’t kill them, it’ll allow teammates to clean up easier and help you win the game. Remember that assists are a good thing
3.Never get into a 1v2 situation. You will loose. Stay with your teammates and protect the weaker ones. Going lone wolf and racking up a bunch of kills doesn’t mean squat if you loose cause your teammates all went negative.
- Don’t be reckless and always play to your strengths. It may seem obvious but its true. For example, I suck at sniping and scoped battles due to my high sensitivity and lack of practice with long range so I try not to get myself into situations where I have to conduct battles at long range and I try to get into close, where I can use my stronger cqc and mid range capabilities to my advantage. And don’t pursue fleeing enemies around corners unless you know where the rest of the enemy team is.
- Try to play with a fireteam of people who know what they’re doing. Getting to diamond is definitely possible based on individual skill alone. But progressing into the upper diamond levels can be difficult and onyx ridiculously so, without a fireteam
Thats pretty much it
P.S Sorry for hijacking the thread OP but I’ve wanted to say something like this for a while
Thanks to the OP for these tips, especially about the TV input. Gotta check on that.
> 2535452250728209;13:
> 1. It is extremely important to master the pistol. Relying on the BR or DMR to score precision kills will disadvantage you throughout the game because you won’t be used to the relatively low bullet magnetism of the pistol if you’re forced to use it. I recommend playing through a few matches of warzone firefight using nothing but the pistol against the AI as it will help you learn to consistently land shots on the AI as well as help you practice head shotting as well due to the high body health of the soldiers and crawlers. Once you get pretty good at using the pistol consistently always pick up BRs and DMRs you find on the map depending on whichever one you prefer. They’re pretty much objective upgrades to the pistol in terms of ttk, bullet mag, range, and aim assist but the rate of fire will take some getting used to.
+1 for using FF as weapons practice. When FF was first released, I found myself using the magnum A LOT since you were stuck with it for 1-2 rounds and faced huge swarms of AIs. Definitely helps in improving your shot with it.
> 2533274937580949;14:
> Thanks to the OP for these tips, especially about the TV input. Gotta check on that.
>
>
>
>
> > 2535452250728209;13:
> > 1. It is extremely important to master the pistol. Relying on the BR or DMR to score precision kills will disadvantage you throughout the game because you won’t be used to the relatively low bullet magnetism of the pistol if you’re forced to use it. I recommend playing through a few matches of warzone firefight using nothing but the pistol against the AI as it will help you learn to consistently land shots on the AI as well as help you practice head shotting as well due to the high body health of the soldiers and crawlers. Once you get pretty good at using the pistol consistently always pick up BRs and DMRs you find on the map depending on whichever one you prefer. They’re pretty much objective upgrades to the pistol in terms of ttk, bullet mag, range, and aim assist but the rate of fire will take some getting used to.
>
>
> +1 for using FF as weapons practice. When FF was first released, I found myself using the magnum A LOT since you were stuck with it for 1-2 rounds and faced huge swarms of AIs. Definitely helps in improving your shot with it.
I also practice on SWAT to improve my aim.
> 2533274937580949;14:
> Thanks to the OP for these tips, especially about the TV input. Gotta check on that.
>
>
>
>
> > 2535452250728209;13:
> > 1. It is extremely important to master the pistol. Relying on the BR or DMR to score precision kills will disadvantage you throughout the game because you won’t be used to the relatively low bullet magnetism of the pistol if you’re forced to use it. I recommend playing through a few matches of warzone firefight using nothing but the pistol against the AI as it will help you learn to consistently land shots on the AI as well as help you practice head shotting as well due to the high body health of the soldiers and crawlers. Once you get pretty good at using the pistol consistently always pick up BRs and DMRs you find on the map depending on whichever one you prefer. They’re pretty much objective upgrades to the pistol in terms of ttk, bullet mag, range, and aim assist but the rate of fire will take some getting used to.
>
>
> +1 for using FF as weapons practice. When FF was first released, I found myself using the magnum A LOT since you were stuck with it for 1-2 rounds and faced huge swarms of AIs. Definitely helps in improving your shot with it.
Yup, the fast and unpredictable/erratic movements of the AI coupled with the fact that the covenant and prometheans are only efficiently taken down by headshots basically forces you to git gud with the pistol lol
> 2535452250728209;13:
> Adding on to the OP
>
> 1. It is extremely important to master the pistol. Relying on the BR or DMR to score precision kills will disadvantage you throughout the game because you won’t be used to the relatively low bullet magnetism of the pistol if you’re forced to use it. I recommend playing through a few matches of warzone firefight using nothing but the pistol against the AI as it will help you learn to consistently land shots on the AI as well as help you practice head shotting as well due to the high body health of the soldiers and crawlers. Once you get pretty good at using the pistol consistently always pick up BRs and DMRs you find on the map depending on whichever one you prefer. They’re pretty much objective upgrades to the pistol in terms of ttk, bullet mag, range, and aim assist but the rate of fire will take some getting used to.
> 2. Unless you’re playing stealthy, always take every opportunity to land a shot on the enemy even if you know you won’t kill them, it’ll allow teammates to clean up easier and help you win the game. Remember that assists are a good thing
> 3.Never get into a 1v2 situation. You will loose. Stay with your teammates and protect the weaker ones. Going lone wolf and racking up a bunch of kills doesn’t mean squat if you loose cause your teammates all went negative.
> 4. Don’t be reckless and always play to your strengths. It may seem obvious but its true. For example, I suck at sniping and scoped battles due to my high sensitivity and lack of practice with long range so I try not to get myself into situations where I have to conduct battles at long range and I try to get into close, where I can use my stronger cqc and mid range capabilities to my advantage.
> 5. Try to play with a fireteam of people who know what they’re doing. Getting to diamond is definitely possible based on individual skill alone. But progressing into the upper diamond levels can be difficult and onyx ridiculously so, without a fireteam
> Thats pretty much it
>
> P.S Sorry for hijacking the thread OP but I’ve wanted to say something like this for a while
Great addition! Especially with point no.2. many ppl forget because they think that they cannot get the kill for theirselves…
np for hijacking! Always welcome
Excellent post, OP. I definitely going to try some of your tips. Thanks!