the sword has always been op across all halo games.
Not true. Read the thread.
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You’re leaving out the part where the trade only happens if both users have a sword and low health, melees should not EVER beat out a sword.
No, but I use it in gunfights plenty. Sorry this is a bad change no matter how you slice it.
Or why don’t players start using their brains and luring the swords out and then just gunning them down like it’s Order 66? Seriously why has this community gone from some of the best plays to some of the most basic plays? I remember during the 3 Reach and 4 days people never complained about stuff like this because they were able to work around it.
When is the last time you played Halo Infinite against another player? Maybe that’s influencing your perception of current/future balance.
No I’m not. In h3-5 you can trade with sword if you put enough damage in them.
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Anybody can check halotracker and see that youve barely played Infinite.
Its hilarious that you’re saying this when all this update will do is make sword users have to use their brains aswell.
People never complained about the sandbox for Halo 3/4 or Reach? You must be a comedian cause thats golden.
Well first off this update only makes it so that you melee trade when the sword user has no shields. Second, this has been exactly how all past titles have worked except for Reach because it had a clash mechanic if you had shields and timed the melee. Third, you can’t buff the bulldog without having to completely change the way the gun works. Trust me I’m not a huge fan of the bulldog and would like to have a viable counter for the sword, but making one gun into another isn’t the way to go about fixing this issue.
I complained about the over dominance of the sword when they nerfed melee across the board to specifically nerf the mangler. The mangler was one of the only semi reliable counters. Other weapons can do the same by firing once and then a quick melee will finish them. Heatwave, Hydra, Sniper and the Bulldog can all do this. Possibly the Cindershot too and the plasma pistol if you charge it. With this change it will make it so that you can more reliably trade kills. Currently players just run directly at you knowing that you can’t really stop them before they slice you. This will encourage more sneaky around the corner or hit and run tactics like how the sword has typically been used in past games. Infinite currently encourages super aggressive play and rewards you for just chasing down enemy players and constantly running around non stop.
For me the real answer is this update plus adding in a close quarters weapon capable of point blank one shoting someone with a sword so that it actually has a counter.
This was literally the sword player running directly at me in open space. Even with their extra speed and lunge distance - I had plenty of time to shoot them down to a tiny sliver of health.
I was actually holding my breath for a Bull True.
So I didn’t need to lure them out. They out lured themselves.
The fact they could then turn around and effortlessly win the next encounter before grabbing the flag kind of highlighted how powerful the sword made them.
Sure, my team mate should have just opened fire. That would have killed me and the sword player. And I was already as good as dead. But it doesn’t negate the fact that the sword is currently being given a licence to play recklessly.
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a’ight so what’s the counter to that weapon
and if that has a counter
why not use THAT on the sword now
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In their blog 343 mentioned that the sword was getting more kills than expected. Especially on tight maps.
It’s kind of obvious in retrospect - but they clearly have a metric for how much damage a power weapon should do.
I would love to know what that is.
What’s the benchmark for the likes of the sword, shottie (legacy), and rockets? How does that compare to newer ones like the cindershot.
And the Sniper?
Do mid-Tier weapons come under the same scrutiny? Like the Bulldog or Heat Wave. What about the needler. I’m sure they do.
That would make an awesome video if you had the sandbox people sitting on a couch and discussing how they go about balancing a map and/or game mode.
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I haven’t been back on Halo for ages, but here’s my complaint/moan/gripe (delete as appropriate) about the sword when I last played. For a one hit kill weapon, it could be used so many times before the energy is depleted.
How many kills can you get with a fully charged one now? If not already implemented, I think the energy should deplete for every swing, not just hit.
I’d be curious to know what they mean by this.
Also wouldn’t challenge severely affect this data? Like if everybody one week just randomly gets “Kill 10 Spartans with the Sword” of course the Sword is gonna see more action. Also Swaps play into this as well, xXKillahXx probably doesn’t like “Backsmack 10 enemies” so he swaps until he gets “10 Sword kills”.
tl;dr I wonder if their data takes challenges into consideration.
To be fair, it doesn’t help that the main maps the Sword appears on are small maps with tight corners (Recharge, Catalyst) and those maps have grapples (basically a sword lunge from across the room). And in general most maps are small anyways.
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Well, that little nuance used to be what separated the shotgun from the sword. You could whiff with a shotty and lose ammo. Not a problem with the sword.
The sword has always been the shotguns counter. A counter doesn’t automatically defeat the other weapon. A sword user and shotgun user both have a chance to win.
Especially if we’re talking the Halo 3 shotgun, not the OP shotguns of 4/5.
The movie, the Holy Grail, sums up the situation with people fighting against sword users pretty nicely lol. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHdDxKy2QW0
“We sit and stare at an enemy sword user running towards us from a mile away. After 5 minutes he gets close enough and kills me. Hey, that weapons OP!”
Guess we’ll have to see if it’s worth using if they change it, or, like the mangler, if it’s not worth picking up.
[quote="The_MetaChief, post:20, topic:551254,
Side note; Its because the sword was op regardless of any other weapon. Plus, the sword is on maps the bulldog isn’t.
This is a reasonable change.
[/quote]
Even with the bulldog it still wouldn’t be a good counter weapon to the sword with how small hallways and areas are on maps.
The classic shotgun has always been a counter to the sword. It’s not guaranteed to win the exchange every time and the shotgun can be beaten by basically any other gun at short to mid range. The classic shotgun has super limited range because of the severe damage drop off making it only deadly effective at point blank. It’s a power weapon that functions inside it’s specific area and not beyond. It’s not just a win button.
So what you’re saying is, it’s a counter to the sword because it has a longer range than the sword and is thus better - and when there are two on the map, you have a sword and a better sword.
EDIT: Actually, it sounds like you’re saying it’s literally ONLY GOOD at stopping the sword. That its range is SO BAD that it is only good at that job. So. You know.
By what you said it’s basically worse than the bulldog in every way, except that it can stop the sword.
But how often do you take on the sword with the bulldog?? There aren’t even any maps besides like… I don’t know, Catalyst, that spawns both? Or do y’all just LIVE on Fiesta or Infection in other games?