No love for the Assault Rifle.

Games Other Halo
1

I loved the Assault Rifle, but it was always outmatched by the Needle Rifle, the Magnum and the DMR. Now, with the title update, it is completely obsolete. It’s like the rolls have switched, with the pistol as the main weapon and the Assault Rifle as the useless backup.

So, let’s have a look at where the Assault Rifle is most useful (well, less useless.)

CQC: Pistol, DMR, Needle Rifle over Assault Rifle

Mid-Range: Pistol, DMR, Needle Rifle over Assault Rifle

Long-Range: Pistol, DMR, Needle Rifle over Assault Rifle

See the pattern? Where on earth is the Assault Rifle supposed to fit in!? It’s a little ridiculous, especially in terms of commendation-earning.

Also, in campaign and Firefight, it is totally worthless above normal difficulty. After that, a grunt will soak up almost a full mag, elites only just get their shields downed in a clip, and the brutes eat them like Skittles! That and you can’t burst on Heroic or else you’ll spend ages trying to down an enemy, but get too close and they still devour the bullets like a fat boy at McDonalds! Then you either get face-palmed by an Elite’s foot or smashed around the temple by a brutes fist. So, you can’t get too close or too far away, you have to get it just right, and even that doesn’t work!!!

And the reason people don’t like it is all above. It’s powerless, inaccurate and online, has one kill per clip, as apposed to the DMR, with 15 rounds per clip and 5 shot kills, giving it 3 kills per clip.

Please, this needs to be sorted out.

2

Yeah, that is bacause it is not as fun to use as any other weapon

3

It’s pretty good in invasion in the first tier.

4

In vanilla Reach, the assault rifle has a very tiny incredibly skillful, yes an automatic weapon in Halo takes skill (imo more skill than a precision weapon because it gets no headshot bonus, and headshots are not as hard to get as people think), niche of range that is barely outside melee and shotgun range. That being said, if an AR user can strafe in vanilla Reach, they will be able to win at its specific range, but if the other player gets the first shot off or gets lucky with bloom, they will beat the AR user every time. The AR is actually very accurate if burst fired, but its incredibly low damage per shot and low rate of fire mean that it has one of the longest kill times in the game.

In Anniversary, the AR is even more useless due to the pistol. In CE the AR actually could stand up to the pistol because of bullet travel time and extremely low amounts of aim assist and bullet magnetism, coupled with its massive rate of fire. Automatic weapons in Halo have generally been second rate in multiplayer, with the exception of the Halo 3 AR that could actually stand up to the BR, if the wielder could strafe like a god. I believe that if the pistol was returned to its CE god status, the AR should at least have gotten some sort of damage per shot or extreme accuracy bonus to give it a place, rather than the most useless gun in the playlist.

5

It would be nice to see a small increase in its damage output, so long as its magnetism and aim assist are also lessened slightly.

6

Agreed OP, the AR is being overshadowed by everything in the TU. Not fun whatsoever. 343 is basically making anything that isnt a precision weapon/power weapon obsolete.

7

people think that the AR is suseptible to “Spray and Pray”

but notice that in halo, you have energy sheilds and 2-ton armor, so it takes about 16 rounds to kill you, rather than the usual 2 or 3 rounds to the chest, and you’re down

this is Halo, not CoD

Spraying doesn’t get ANYWHERE

8

I agree the assualt rifle in halo reach is useless because there is no way to strafe in reach and the bullet damage is a tiny bit low but the thing about the assualt rifle in halo 3 is that it actually had use in cqb because of movement speed and the fact that ar vs. br at close range wouldn’t always lean to precission weapons

9

The roles have switched? This is how it was in CE - the pistol dominated.

It also makes me laugh to watch kids use the AR in the anniversary playlist.

10

> Yeah, that is bacause it is not as fun to use as any other weapon

So, your opinion is fact?

11

> It would be nice to see a small increase in its damage output, so long as its magnetism and aim assist are also lessened slightly.

This.

It really doesn’t have any good range. Boosting the damage but keeping bloom can put it back to that close-quarters option that it’s always been, rather than “less than average” at all ranges.

12

The MA37 assault rifle seems to be near useless in Halo: Reach campaign if playing on Heroic upwards. Elites laugh at its feeble firepower and they just jump out of the way. Even Grunts seem to absorb a fair amount of rounds before dropping to the deck as carcasses.

13

OP << Captain Obvious!

Yes i know they brought the Pistol of Doom back, I can cross map shoot someoe in the foot and get a headshot -.- funny though…

in the origional Reach mode though the AR has a little potential left but admititly not much… its like the CEA magnum is a new Heavy class weapon now and everyone spawns with it so it means Noobsville here come some more players :smiley: -.-

14

> Yeah, that is bacause it is not as fun to use as any other weapon

Completly wrong, sorry but how is getting Rocket spammed fun? or how is being sniped at close range constantly fun? They seriously need to get back the trilogy weapons layout, ditch the long range weapons. I’m sort of ok with sniper but they need to tame that down because so far all long just tend to wipe out all vehicles before they can even get in the air or drive anywhere. They pretty much ruined the ‘fun’ part since they need to sort there weapons, even ditch stuff like the plasma/grenade laucher, make the grenades more like the anniversary since that was ten times better than what Reach did.

All I think of after Reach is thank god the weapons on Reach were destroyed with them because I never want to see them in Halo 4!

15

I prefer DMRs, But Assault Rifles are not bad. As MonkOfWar4 said when your on Heroic or up its useless; It doesn’t have good range, and the bullets don’t deal much damage, accept for the rate of fire its an all-round terrible gun.
The reason I like DMRs is because the rate of fire is not too bad and each short deals a lot of damage, But nothing beats melee attacks.

One more thing I felt I could say, its not really related to the topic but is related to what I have just said.
The shields are good and bad in different. I’m usually on SWAT because there are no shields. For sniper pros on its different on Reach because its harder to get a one-shot-one-kill. Since the rate of fire is very low with sniper rifles I think they are terrible. But I’m not saying the shields are bad, and I would not like it as much if there was no shields. It makes Reach different to other games.

16

> The roles have switched? This is how it was in CE - the pistol dominated.

Yeah true, but plug in a guest and load up CE. The AR is a death machine.

17

Wow, lot’s of feedback. And I should of been more clear. When I said 'The roles have switched, with the Pistol as the main weapon and the Assault Rifle as a useless backup, I was referring to Halo 3. But thanks for the feedback!

18

The damage it deals out is proportional to the skill it requires. It’s fine.

19

I found that it can still be used in anniversary and default. Although I do not typically use it, it can save you in some situations. The assault rifle should not have a damage increase because it involves spraying. With a precision weapon, you typically have to aim shots. It is completely different from Halo 3, which is good. It gives us another weapon that can actually let you out gun somebody. With an AR, it is hard to kill them if they have the first shot because they can constantly hold down the trigger. The pistol lets you be precise and gives a more skilled player the upper hand.

20

> I loved the Assault Rifle, but it was always outmatched by the Needle Rifle, the Magnum and the DMR. Now, with the title update, it is completely obsolete. It’s like the rolls have switched, with the pistol as the main weapon and the Assault Rifle as the useless backup.
>
> So, let’s have a look at where the Assault Rifle is most useful (well, less useless.)
>
> CQC: Pistol, DMR, Needle Rifle over Assault Rifle
>
> Mid-Range: Pistol, DMR, Needle Rifle over Assault Rifle
>
> Long-Range: Pistol, DMR, Needle Rifle over Assault Rifle
>
> See the pattern? Where on earth is the Assault Rifle supposed to fit in!? It’s a little ridiculous, especially in terms of commendation-earning.
>
> Also, in campaign and Firefight, it is totally worthless above normal difficulty. After that, a grunt will soak up almost a full mag, elites only just get their shields downed in a clip, and the brutes eat them like Skittles! That and you can’t burst on Heroic or else you’ll spend ages trying to down an enemy, but get too close and they still devour the bullets like a fat boy at McDonalds! Then you either get face-palmed by an Elite’s foot or smashed around the temple by a brutes fist. So, you can’t get too close or too far away, you have to get it just right, and even that doesn’t work!!!
>
> And the reason people don’t like it is all above. It’s powerless, inaccurate and online, has one kill per clip, as apposed to the DMR, with 15 rounds per clip and 5 shot kills, giving it 3 kills per clip.
>
> Please, this needs to be sorted out.

I feel the same way. Now we all have to tell our baby brothers a fairy tale about the AR being useful rather than cutting out the story and owning noobs at Halo with him. I like Reach’s AR as you could burst fire (takes skill) or wait to get up close and attempt to be God (no skill in a good way aka not DMR).

I think that the AR should not have a damage increase but a rate of fire increase if you want that suggestion. 1 clip=1 kill is good since you don’t have to remember to reload after killing. It also keeps to the formula as usually people miss 3 shots with the Pistol and then get a kill(full clip). A rate of fire increase on the AR would lower the incentive to pick up other weapons though.

Which brings me to my alternative…

Personally, I want a ROF decrease on the DMR and NR and leave the AR unchanged. This would fix a lot of problems in other playlists (cough BTB). The Pistol beating the Assault Rifle is good in normal playlists because of the HUGE spread plus bloom (which makes you have to aim and takes skill) or else you have to reload and get killed my a more skilled player (who is aiming rather than spamming).

NOTE: This applies to normal playlists (Not Anniversary), nothing else!