I’ll start off by saying I have nothing against the AR. I think of it as the classic Halo weapon, and I’m not afraid to use it, nor do thing it’s utter garbage. It works, but is really outclassed by most other guns.
Anyway, continuing, I spent today playing Arena. If you don’t know, that means DMR/AR spawns. Most of the maps have reasonably long sightlines, and, apart from right inside a couple of rooms, not much CQC, Swordbase being the major exception. Clearly, the DMR is the preferable weapon then. So why was it that every game, at least 2, if not more, people would switch to their AR’s immediately off spawn, and charge in blazing away. Most of these guys were smart players, picking up power-weapons and using them well, and positioning effectively, but they came off worse in every 1v1 situation because all they used was the AR, often against the DMR.
This makes no sense to me. Why would you willing put yourself at a disadvantage in just about every situation? Especially at range, when you have a ranged weapon in your back pocket? I’d understand if you just whipped out the AR briefly to spray at multiple enemies, or in CQC, but seriously, why are you spraying at someone half-way across the map? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
So, to all regular AR users, what justification do you have for willing giving yourself a handi-cap? Please explain.
AR feels good to me, but i almost never spray it. I only get satisfaction out of bursting it. I will only spray as a precursor to a melee or to slow down a double derper. I will try for a cheeky 3 round burst cross map kill with it sometimes, cos thats hilarious.
I would never use it as you describe though. It doesnt help that the TU wrecked the weapons sandbox, making it totally useless for anything other than a melee club in Arena.
Considering that the Arena has a current weekend jackpot, you’re going to get lower skilled players in the playlist that don’t run it as often. It could also be preference, as players may feel more comfortable with it than the DMR.
I didn’t play too much Halo 1, but from what I heard, that AR was better at close range than current incarnations, fired faster, and thus killed faster. The Reach AR does have good short burst accuracy though, so perhaps the next one should integrate the best of both.
I don’t enjoy Assault Rifle starts however I do see some logic behind choosing them. Many maps such as Countdown, Sword Base etc are commonly dominated using power weapons and certain ones such as sword and shotgun are difficult to kill if you get ambushed by them. With a DMR most people at least have a chance of surviving as it is much easier to land 5 shots with it compared to the 19 with an AR.
I’ve noticed this as well, I haven’t played much arena until recently, and then I remembered, super jackpot weekend DUH haha, so much lower skilled players are jumping in and running rampant with their ARs and usually getting team DMRd or 5 shot, which is fine by me, as long as they are on the other team
I use the AR to chase down one-shot sprinters. This happens a lot in Arena. The DMR isn’t good for taking down the guy you see right before he rounds a corner.
You would be surprised by the amount of people who assume the AR does more damage because it fires automatically. Halo 4 has to bring back the AR to at least Halo 3 in terms of effectiveness, but preferably Halo CE.
@ Fatal:
Do you still burst fire on a shieldless opponent? I always find it a waste of time to burst fire if they already have no shields.
> You would be surprised by the amount of people who assume the AR does more damage because it fires automatically. Halo 4 has to bring back the AR to at least Halo 3 in terms of effectiveness, but preferably Halo CE.
>
> @ Fatal:
> Do you still burst fire on a shieldless opponent? I always find it a waste of time to burst fire if they already have no shields.
The Reach is AR is far more effective than the H3AR against infantry, though considerably weaker against vehicles.
The spread is tighter and more controllable than H3’s. The crosshairs allow mid to long range peppering with decent precision that can kill shieldless enemies in a few very tight bursts.
Thanks to bloom, a cadence can be achieved in red reticle range that allows the AR to not miss barely at the expense of time.
> The Reach is AR is far more effective than the H3AR against infantry, though considerably weaker against vehicles.
>
> The spread is tighter and more controllable than H3’s. The crosshairs allow mid to long range peppering with decent precision that can kill shieldless enemies in a few very tight bursts.
> Thanks to bloom, a cadence can be achieved in red reticle range that allows the AR to not miss barely at the expense of time.
I find i can win just about every AR duel, because ive yet to come across anyone else who burst fires. People just do not understand the concept of pacing your shots. They will spray me while i burst, the end result being that im down to red health but now he is reloading while I have 2 bursts of bullets left. I win.
Bursting does less damage than spraying, but it greatly delays your reload by conserving bullets. They got the AR bloom just right IMO, and it even used to be useful against the semi autos before the TU.
> AR feels good to me, but i almost never spray it. I only get satisfaction out of bursting it. I will only spray as a precursor to a melee or to slow down a double derper. I will try for a cheeky 3 round burst cross map kill with it sometimes, cos thats hilarious.
>
> I would never use it as you describe though. It doesnt help that the TU wrecked the weapons sandbox, making it totally useless for anything other than a melee club in Arena.
the AR does nothing versus the double derp. i mean, are they 50 feet away when they start running at you? maybe if they are that distance you can actually pop shields then melee before you are dead. at 49 feet and closer, however, you might as well just beat them down then AR afterwards. its fine to shoot them till they are within melee range (be pro, teammates, and kill this noob!), but the vast majority of the time they will be too close to you for the AR then melee strategy to work by itself.
honestly, i really dont know why this gun is even featured in the ‘serious’ playlists (i use this term lightly because were talking about reach, and ‘serious’ is more like ‘gimmick-based’).
i mean, why give players the illusion that the gun they have is actually even mildly able to compete with the gun that everyone else is using?
“were gunna spawn you with this fresh mint AR. its stupid to use this against the gun that everyone else will be using, but HEY! YOU LIKE IT!”
hopefully the AR in halo 4 will serve a purpose, but be an even battle for the person with a utility weapon, so the person who shoots better will win the encounter (at close to close-medium range). past medium range, the utility weapon should win (assuming non-terrible accuracy, of course :D).
> The Reach is AR is far more effective than the H3AR against infantry, though considerably weaker against vehicles.
>
> The spread is tighter and more controllable than H3’s. The crosshairs allow mid to long range peppering with decent precision that can kill shieldless enemies in a few very tight bursts.
> Thanks to bloom, a cadence can be achieved in red reticle range that allows the AR to not miss barely at the expense of time.
while it may be better at strictly shooting, the AR in terms of its place in the sandbox, is absolutely worse because of no-bleed.
with bleedthru, this gun actually serves a purpose. without bleedthru, you might as well throw a punch first, then AR afterwards.
> > The Reach is AR is far more effective than the H3AR against infantry, though considerably weaker against vehicles.
> >
> > The spread is tighter and more controllable than H3’s. The crosshairs allow mid to long range peppering with decent precision that can kill shieldless enemies in a few very tight bursts.
> > Thanks to bloom, a cadence can be achieved in red reticle range that allows the AR to not miss barely at the expense of time.
>
> while it may be better at strictly shooting, the AR in terms of its place in the sandbox, is absolutely worse because of no-bleed.
>
> with bleedthru, this gun actually serves a purpose. without bleedthru, you might as well throw a punch first, then AR afterwards.
Depending on the range, correct.
But I find playing chicken against players who are sprinting or death-charge spraying all but eliminates the sprinting-double-pummel in the first place.
> I find i can win just about every AR duel, because ive yet to come across anyone else who burst fires. People just do not understand the concept of pacing your shots. They will spray me while i burst, the end result being that im down to red health but now he is reloading while I have 2 bursts of bullets left. I win.
Exactly opposite to how I win most AR duels. Assuming it’s in the closer range prefferred by the AR, all I have to do is jump and srafe around the place, keeping my high-bloom reticule close to the opponent. He can’t keep his aim straight, and I’ve killed him in about 3/4 of the clip. I’ve come up against a burst-fire user twice, and destoyed them both times, because they simply cannot get the damage out fast enough compared to me.
If the battle occurs at a longer range, then obviously bursting will be more efficient, but you’ll probably still have your pistol or DMR, assuming you’re smart, so not choosing to use on of those at greater range is borderline idiocy.
If you’re close enough that you can fullauto the AR and barely miss, the Pistol would have spammed and killed or allowed a melee-kill long before the AR offered either scenario itself.
It’s not about what the Pistol can do, it’s what the AR does do. And yes just outside of melee range an AR can fullauto spray and kill a bursting AR.
If your opponent missed while bursting their AR, they would have surely missed with a fullautoed AR as the latter has no magnetism when in full spray anyways.
However due to the blooming-spread of the AR, there is a distance at about where shotgun will barely kill in 2 shots, and this distance is where a fullautoed AR and a burst AR pretty much meet up in kill times, while anything closer is completely random on the part of the fullautoed AR. It could be shorter, it could be longer, it doesn’t know.
The difference being that the fullautoed AR doesn’t know how which bullets missed and the burst AR hit all of theirs.
