What is the point of the stalker rifle? Is there anything that it does better than other guns? Am I just using it wrong?
Also on BTB it seems to switch it out as if it is equal with the shock rifle but I don’t see how it is anywhere close to the shock rifle. The shock rifle can kill people with one pull of the trigger AND disable vehicles. What can the stalker rifle do compared to that, other than suck? How is it remotely balanced to start one side with a shock rifle and the other side with a stalker rifle?
Maybe I’m just using it wrong. If that’s the case please help me. I want it to be like previous games’ beam rifle but it just doesn’t seem to be up to the task.
The Stalker Rifle kind of fails to have a real niche, but it isn’t worthless. It’s just very hard to maximize.
Basically it’s the fastest TTK non-power precision weapon in the game (if you count the Shock Rifle as a power weapon, which I do and we probably should). It’s just also the hardest one to use, due to its extremely low aim assist and the fact that it fires a projectile with a travel time instead of hitscan.
But if you master it? It’s a beast through and through. It can kill in almost half the time of a BR, and significantly faster than the Mangler or Sidekick, and it’s maximum range makes them blush.
I still prefer the consistency of the BR over it, because my aim just isn’t that good and it’s AA is so low that you won’t even feel it at 30fps. But I can see it becoming a favorite of people who are already quite comfortable no-scoping with snipers at close range. And it’s definitely more viable when playing at 120fps or on KBM.
It’s being utilised a lot in HCS tournaments as the three shot kill is powerful at all ranges. I would say though that it feels unbalanced compared to the shock rifle in BTB.
Think of it as a DMR or Semi Auto Sniper with a three shot kill. Maybe it shouldn’t be swapped for the shock Rifle but that’s the reason why a lot of people don’t like the weapon swap feature of this game.
I’ve found it to be one of the hardest guns to use, but in theory it kills very quickly and would fill the marksman rifle role very well. I just wish it had any AA / magnetism at all because outside of the firing range it’s an absolute pain to use. Maybe that will improve with practice though.
I don’t know but I totally suck at using it myself but I’ve been at full health and have been killed by it halfway across the map with a single shot when it’s in the hands of someone who really knows how to use it.
Pretty much, yeah. I compare it the most to the Halo 5 version of the Light Rifle. In H5 the Light Rifle was a flat upgrade over other precision class weapons (mag,BR,car,DMR) except that unlike the Stalker it was also very easy to use. In Infinite the Stalker is a flat upgrade to the same class (side,comm,BR,Mangler) with the caveat that it’s significantly harder to use than any of them.
I typically go de-scoped(?). I treat it like the old Covenant carbine. It doesn’t have as good of a rate of fire as that, though. It’s much slower.
Best tip I can give ya is aim for the head lol.
I find it strange that the mangler is also being used in a similar class as the BR (for the exact opposite reason as the stalker rifle).
In my mind:
Stalker Rifle = Beam rifle
Mangler = Mauler
But the stalker rifle is more useful at a shorter range and the mangler is more useful at a longer range, which puts both of them in that mid range class.
I was actually really surprised at how long the range on the mangler is!
The Stalker Rifle is functionally a mini-Sniper rifle - the Mk14 to the regular Sniper’s Barrett .50 cal.
It kills faster than any non-Sniper Rifle or one-shot weapon, from extreme ranges. The downsides are it is a projectile (not a hitscan) weapon, and low aim assist even on controller, making it hard to use.
Yeah, the Mangler is nothing like the Mauler. I kind of think of the Mangler like the Boltok Pistol from Gears of War, but with a hard range cap. That said it does play the precision weapon role overall so it fits the archetype. It’s cool to see a Brute take on it.
Think of it as the new version of the Light Rifle. A middle ground in kill potential between most basic long range weapons and the long range power weapons. You can outshoot a lot of guns with it, but it’s not a one hit kill of course.
I personally love it. It’s great at picking people off or setting them up for a teammate to finish if they duck behind cover, and in a 1:1 fight you can wreck someone using the majority of the sandbox if you’re accurate.
It’s important to note that it does roughly the same shot for shot damage as the Mangler, you can teamshot with the weapons very effectively.
I do a Sort of meme-y thing about what weapons I do and don’t like And I recently did one for the stalker rifle
Also something I’ve not seen a lot of is discussion about Campaign balancing. The Stalker Rifle really feels like a middle ground between the Carbine/DMR and Sniper/Beam Rifle. It seems like something that was made to make Jackal snipers less infuriating/ insta-kill than Halo 2 without making them too easy like Reach.
The Stalker Rifle in PvP is a high-risk, high reward weapon. Sure it has a little bolt travel time and is not as forgiving as the old Carbine, BUT if you land a perfect 3 headshots you can down someone faster than nearly any other non-instakill weapon. It’s more forgiving than the Shock Rifle up close but not as useful at very long range or against vehicles.
I do agree that having it switch places with the Shock Rifle in the same wall pad is a bit odd though since both achieve quite different things. The whole weapon pad system in this game is kind of janky when 2 weapons that aren’t really equivalents share the same space.
The weapon pad thing is downright infuriating some games. What am I supposed to do with a needler and a ravager in btb? They got a sentinel beam and a hydra ffs
the Stalker Rifle.
