You’re cool, I respect anyone that plays the right way.
It’s always annoying when you see that sword spawn icon vanish, and you just know you’re going to have to play cheap to win against cheap tactics.
The game is so much more fun when people don’t do stuff like that, it’s a reason to shake hands after no matter the outcome.
343 just needs to fix their game. This is Halo, I should be able to use the sword without being shamed by the ultra-competitive.
Is this a joke or am I misinterpreting? You consider using the sword a “cheap tactic”? And you have a “cheap tactic” that will nullify it? Then what are you even complaining about? That’s a net zero equation.
Why even complain about the sword in the first place? It’s how you’re supposed to play the game, it’s Halo.
I don’t think you can expect everyone in ranked to know what has been GA’d by pros or not.
I’m not a pro so have never been part of a GA either.
The sword in Infinite is overpowered and shouldn’t be in ranked. In the last 3 or so Halos it has had the ability to trade kills with enough damage and a melee, or to be blocked and parried by well timed melees and certain weapons.
In Infinite it has melee priority, so you just swing through and kill them with the sword no matter what. You add in all the mobility enhancements and it becomes overwhelming and impossible to deal with outside of a Repulsor and a lot of luck.
Add to that the fact it spawns every minute and a half in doubles, so it just shows up constantly throughout the match. If people are picking it up every time it winds up being the primary way people are getting kills. In Open it has a slower timer but it’s not a tier 2 weapon so there can still be multiple in play.
When the goal is fair competition and balance, it’s a big issue.
At high levels people tend to respect the GA. The problem comes from low and mid tier ranks where people use things as a crutch more.
The sword is the only weapon I respect the GA on in ranked. I use drop weapon and Mangler. The problem with the sword (aside from the trash melee priority that you pointed out) is that it spawns with repulsor close by. So you can’t usually use repulsor as a defense against it because the sword user usually has both.
It should have never been able to be traded with. It should always have melee priority, it’s the sword. It should never be traded or parried, except by another sword.
All your other points are extremely valid though.
Also, GA is not a common term, it does not need to be abbreviated. No one knows what you’re talking about except a few.
GAs have been hotly debated by both casual and competitive players these past few months. I would be very surprised if anyone who follows Halo (or eSports in general) closely did not know what GA stood for.
Well what is the fair counter for it? In prior Halos there was the shotgun at least, but now no weapon kills quickly at close range, and the ones that do come close aren’t on the maps where sword is featured in ranked.
I would tout that the OG shotgun should be brought back or that there are a number of different counters to the sword that could be more common in maps with swords, like the repulsor
But didn’t you already say you have your own “cheap tactic” for dealing with sword users? If you do, then what’s the problem? Like I said, that’s a net zero equation.
Yes, cheep tactics like awareness, positioning, and grenade placement.
No I mean the sword is the cheap tactic, people pick it up, and maybe a grapple hook, and then are unstoppable in room/corridor engagements. Your best bet is to get a lucky stick but the game has so much desync that grenades are just as likely to go through someone.
Swords also promote camping a lot more. Both the person with the sword and everyone trying to look out for the person with it play way slower if they want to win. It’s like a bottleneck that changes the flow of the game just by existing.
Rockets do a similar thing, but the rockets are fair enough in ranked since they only have two shots and respawn kind of slow.
I wasn’t aware GA ever existed in the broad ranked population. I’ve never seen teams ignore the sword in high diamond/low onyx lobbies although I haven’t played open in a while. You play to win the game.
Repulsor, plasma pistol, plasma grenades, good callouts, it’s not like it’s unbeatable. It’s imbalanced but not gamebreaking like when everybody on the map had a mangler. Even then, people still more or less universally used it outside tournaments.
I agree. The sword is the worst. It is the easiest and least skillfull weapon to use in halo. Especially on Catalyst where you can camp in the hallways with sword and grapple. Sword should be removed from all ranked playlists imo.
I get that pros have GA’s abs I understand why. It makes sense for them.
We’re not pros, and we’re not playing on LAN. With everyone whiffing sword swings everywhere because of lag or because we’re bad, you don’t need to worry about GAs.
I also think they snowball into making everything worse. The mangler has its balance issues, but it is also a soft counter to the sword that was easily available. So now since a main counter for the sword is gone, the sword is too powerful and it’s getting GA’d
I don’t necessarily think the average player knows what it is though. I had to look it up when all of the mangler stuff first started, and I’ve only really heard about it here.
I’ve been playing Halo since CE first released so I’m not new to the game.
I don’t follow esports much - I sort of kind of watch for the drops.
They just need to remove GA items from ranked. I mean they already have varied weapon adjustments specifically for ranked play. So why not?
GA = Gentleman’s Agreement
If you’re playing Matchmaking everything on the map is fair game. Why would one person not exploit the combat triangle to the best of their ability? If you’re playing customs or league matches than sure I get when there has been communication about GAing specific weapons.
The ranked playlists are open and how ever you want to play them is up to you.
Higher tier players tend to uphold the GA. Winning without debasing oneself is it’s own reward
Now that makes sense.
If you legitimately think you could compete as a pro, why wouldn’t you play the way the pros do.
There’s no part of me that could, would or wants to turn pro.