I would like to see the functionality of close quarters weapons in Halo 5 improved beyond basically just one hit kill melees at a slightly longer range. In my opinion, Sword, Hammer, Scattershot, and Shotgun should be balanced in the following ways.
Sword- Possible the least powerful power weapon in Halo 4 at the moment. However, conceptually, it is probably the best. Effectively using the sword requires movement and stealth, the two most skillful and beneficial gameplay dynamics for a close range weapon. As such, I think Sword should be the most powerful, on par with sniper or rockets in effectiveness if used properly. Overall, the sword should emphasize speed. Basically, attacking with the sword never slows you down allowing you to continuously move and break setups. The melee reset time should be almost zero, like in halo 2. Switching to the sword should be almost instantaneous as well. Assuming sprint stays in; (Altered from its current form, of course) slashing should not take you out of sprint and slow you down. You should be able to lunge without looking at an enemy allowing faster traversal across gaps. Lunging into enemies would not stop your momentum allowing you to continue your spree. Lunging, however, would be limited by a stamina meter (that doesn’t deplete when slashing normally).
Hammer- It would probably best fill the role of current close quarter’s power weapons. Just make the explosive radius much larger and more powerful, able to take down light vehicles with a single blow.
Scattershot- The promethean shotgun is great in concept, but disappointingly inconsistent and weak. Instead of shooting several smaller balls that bounce randomly and ineffectively while also resulting in performance far too similar to a shotgun, the scattershot should fire a single ball the size of the reticle (expanding as the shot travels and decreasing in damage). This would result in a much more consistent performance when bouncing the shots off walls or shooting at range. It would also be interesting if you could hold the trigger to shoot a charged shot that doesn’t expand, increasing range but also requiring greater accuracy.
Shotgun- Probably the most boring weapon out of the four listed. It doesn’t seem to make sense that a human shotgun does as much damage as contained plasma. Instead of becoming another power weapon when there already are three, the shotgun should become support weapon with a greater presence on the map. One shot kills should only occur inside of melee range, but the pellets themselves should continue traveling in a tight spread past current shotgun range. There would be less one shot kills overall, but more burst damage over range. It’d be similar to the Halo 3 mauler in MLG, which wasn’t a power weapon but still had a purpose.