I have a strong hatred for Armor Lock and have lobbied for its removal from Matchmaking for a long time. I find that it detracts from the steady flow of the gameplay, provides a cheap life-saver and has caused overall, mass frustration since Reach’s launch that, I think it not too ridiculous to suggest, even played a role in many people being turned off by Reach compared to previous Halos. I know there are some people who love it, see it as a worthy asset of the game and couldn’t stand to see it removed. Those people, I want them to make the case for Armor Lock to me. Convince me why it’s a good part of Reach. Please adress the instances in Team Slayer when the entire other team is spamming it at every turn, creating a match devoid of fun.
There is not 1 legit reason for Armour Lock to be in Matchmaking. Was cool in the campaign, and definitely looks bad@$$, but is unfair online.
It is a direct balance to jetpack’s dominance in any map and provides a counter to the mobil supiority provided by sprint, evade and jetpack.
Removing it from Arena has allowed jetpackers to become the dominant AA, if jetpack was removed inevitably another AA would rise to the top of the food chain, creating a new group of players that can make a reasonable and well articulated argument for why the new OP AA should be nerfed or removed.
This is basicly a slippery slope type scenerio, where the end result, assuming 343 will act on the communities current problem de jur, is a stripping away of the very mechanic that seperates Reach from every other Halo.
Reach and its mechanics and the people that enjoy them, should be allowed to enjoy the full spectrum of what AA have to offer to gameplay. I understand that some dont like it, this is why I think the MLG playlist needs to have a few crucial additions (rank) to make it the most attractive to the players that have no desire to play with AAs.
As a sidenote where the hell did bubble sheild go?
I actually dislike JP more than AL. The only good thing about AL is that it greatly helps stop people from just flying around in a ghost trying to splatter people. It’s fun to see them so confident and then all of a sudden just get completely wrecked by AL.
I still hate AL overall, but that is one reason why I found it somewhat useful in BTB.
Why bother asking someone to “sell you” when you already made up your mind about it.
Ever played Custom Games using Armour Lock?
Armour Lock works really well in some of them. The fact that the player becomes a sort of physical object means that you can make maze-gametypes with the Infected using Armour Lock to block and box in the Survivors into a pen of sorts so that the Alpha can kill them. -Yoink- Blawkin I think its called.
Armour Lock is also a troll/anti-troll of sorts. You will have the one Ghost Driver on Hemmorrhage who thinks its fun to splatter the other team. Show that boy who’s the boss. You troll him by laughing at his confusion and you prevent him from trolling you. You pretty much save yourself from a death almost as embarassing as the Halo 3 Traffic Cones on The Pit.
Armour Lock also works in Custom Gametypes where Rockets are vast in number. Its either fly-high in the sky with Rockets or use Armour Lock to deflect all incoming fire.
Armour Lock is also brilliant in scenes in such Machinima Videos. Like Assassinations, the inclusion of a Customised Animation can really impact how the user relates themselves to the character’s of the Machinima. We start to see them as being much more human of sorts (even though massive shields that surround the player are strange) because of the animations.
Finally, Armour Lock is a cool little feature on its own. It may be sinful in terms of Pure Matchmaking Scales of things but that cute little Armour Ability really gives me a smile whether its used in a way I never thought of before in Custom Games or whether I use it to deflect an enemy rocket in Matchmaking.
> I have a strong hatred for Armor Lock and have lobbied for its removal from Matchmaking for a long time. I find that it detracts from the steady flow of the gameplay, provides a cheap life-saver and has caused overall, mass frustration since Reach’s launch that, I think it not too ridiculous to suggest, even played a role in many people being turned off by Reach compared to previous Halos. I know there are some people who love it, see it as a worthy asset of the game and couldn’t stand to see it removed. Those people, I want them to make the case for Armor Lock to me. Convince me why it’s a good part of Reach. Please adress the instances in Team Slayer when the entire other team is spamming it at every turn, creating a match devoid of fun.
Well, when you address AL you need to look at the big picture. Reach is a Halo title but it is not a main title. It belongs in the same category as ODST and, technically, Wars. When you played ODST (if you did play ODST)the game was slightly different. Your character is slower and weaker than the Master Chief character you were used to. This was because you were a normal human. The weapons were similar because the game takes place during the trilogy. No one seemed to mind the differences.
With Reach you are playing an augmented soldier on a planet larger than Earth with weapons that are supposed to be inferior to what you are used to because everything takes place before the trilogy started. All the neat things you get to use are experimental. In short, Reach is a Halo title that was not intended to play like the trilogy. All the complaints about Reach have to do with everything that is different from the trilogy, even though Bungie made it clear that the game was not going to play like the trilogy.
As to AL itself, the hate seems to stem from the fact that when someone activates AL you can’t kill them, no matter how hard you try. It’s clear that Bungie analyzed the tactics of players that had high K/D and determined that grenades, power weapons and vehicles played a significant role in keeping that ratio high. They asked themselves,“What if there was an AA that stopped those kinds of kills? How would players handle that?” The answer, for some players, is not very well.
I compare the AL player to the knight in chess. All the pieces in chess move in a straight line, and if you want to block a piece you only need to put one of your pieces somewhere on that line. The only way to block a knight is to put a piece where the knight will land. The mark of a good chess player is how well they use and defend against knights. Each player only has two knights. You can win without them but you ignore them at your peril.
Armor Lock fits the Halo game called Reach. Even if Bungie had thought of it during the Trilogy they wouldn’t have put it in because it wouldn’t have worked. It works in Reach because it is balanced by five other AA’s. It works because it makes H3 players think (or quit). The main thing is, by and large most people accept it and just play. Only the hardcore object. Those players still think they’re playing H3. It’s not H3. It’s Reach. Whether you like it or not it belongs in the game because that’s how the game was intended to be played. Changing it and/or removing it just makes other things unbalanced.
I’m not going to simply tell you to adapt or play H3 or CEA. I’ll just simply sat that if your playstyle is not flexible enough to accomodate Armor Lock then Reach may just be above your skill level.
> Why bother asking someone to “sell you” when you already made up your mind about it.
Think of it as selling ice to an eskimo, hard yes, impossible no 
Ever been Rush Pummeled?
When Armor Lock was in, I never was. I would lock as they came in to pummel, emp/stun them and finish them off with a pummel.
Ever get tired of grenade spammers?
I know I did, guess what I got every time I had a grenade thrown at me? Instead of dying I got an awesome Rejection medal and 8 Credits. People would stick/pummel combo and AL would take care of that no problem.
Ever get tired of people spawn killing?
Oh hey, with Armor Lock used as an “Anti-Splatter” or “Vehicle Destroyer”, you draw attention so your Team can get to cover or take an objective. Better yet you get a kill or two by taking out a Revenant or a Ghost.
Sure, I’ll admit a lot of kids just take damage and hold the button without thinking twice. It’s rather annoying; but if you have met someone that uses it the way I have it’s amazing. It turn’s it into a TEAM ability. “Go out there and draw the fire so I can snipe them”, “Hey go pull the Aggro from the Tank/Wraith/Banshee so I can Laser it”, “Hey you block this lift after I bring the flag up”, etc, etc, etc.
In short; Don’t hate the Devs, hate the players. They’re the ones that twist and contort it into something terrible.
I would but pharmacists do not sell snake oil.
> As a sidenote where the hell did bubble sheild go?
With bubble shield. medium and long range battles ceased to exist
> There is not 1 legit reason for Armour Lock to be in Matchmaking. Was cool in the campaign, and definitely looks bad@$$, but is unfair online.
I’ll give you 2 legit reasons for it to be in matchmaking.
The achievements “Poppin’ and Lockin’” and “Paper Beats Rock”.
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> > As a sidenote where the hell did bubble sheild go?
>
> With bubble shield. medium and long range battles ceased to exist
Bummer, I had fun with the multi-shield flag captures 
> I have a strong hatred for Armor Lock and have lobbied for its removal from Matchmaking for a long time. I find that it detracts from the steady flow of the gameplay, provides a cheap life-saver and has caused overall, mass frustration since Reach’s launch that, I think it not too ridiculous to suggest, even played a role in many people being turned off by Reach compared to previous Halos. I know there are some people who love it, see it as a worthy asset of the game and couldn’t stand to see it removed. Those people, I want them to make the case for Armor Lock to me. Convince me why it’s a good part of Reach. Please adress the instances in Team Slayer when the entire other team is spamming it at every turn, creating a match devoid of fun.
As much as we agree about a lot of what you posted, you have fallen into the same trap as most about Armor Lock.
Armor Lock does have its place, outside of the Campaign, and can be a very effective AA to have as an option in Loadout, IF you use it correctly and wisely.
I for one, have used in a many of BTB games and taken out a wild Ghost Driver, or Warthog, and have used it more than once to shed off that ‘stick’ that would have sent me flying into the wind, or send back a wrongfully delivered Rocket.
Do I use it as a game stopper, as most do, NO. When someone is in Armor Lock, do I stand there with my thumb in my rear looking at the shinny white glow, like so many do…NO. I almost always take out there approaching buddies and teammates, like you should be doing.
I will never be able to convince you that it’s perfect, no, and I’ll be the first in line to say that there is some flaw to its overall design and usage, but I will always say, that it has it’s place when use properly.
> It is a direct balance to jetpack’s dominance in any map and provides a counter to the mobil supiority provided by sprint, evade and jetpack.
>
> Removing it from Arena has allowed jetpackers to become the dominant AA, if jetpack was removed inevitably another AA would rise to the top of the food chain, creating a new group of players that can make a reasonable and well articulated argument for why the new OP AA should be nerfed or removed.
>
> This is basicly a slippery slope type scenerio, where the end result, assuming 343 will act on the communities current problem de jur, is a stripping away of the very mechanic that seperates Reach from every other Halo.
>
> Reach and its mechanics and the people that enjoy them, should be allowed to enjoy the full spectrum of what AA have to offer to gameplay. I understand that some dont like it, this is why I think the MLG playlist needs to have a few crucial additions (rank) to make it the most attractive to the players that have no desire to play with AAs.
>
> As a sidenote where the hell did bubble sheild go?
This right here folks. The abilities were all designed to interlock and counter each other, take one out and you throw the rest out of balance. THIS RIGHT HERE is why you can pick a new ability on the respawn screen, to counter someone who is derping around with their favourite ability.
The same goes for the guns too actually, its called a sandbox, and if you tinker with one too much it throws all the rest out of whack. This is what started MLG down the road of stripping the game back to 2 guns at most (DMR and sniper) with almost no abilities except for evade apparantly which doesnt really have a counter now. They started removing things very soon after the game came out, and they havent stopped since, and theyre still not happy. This is just an example, MLG can do what they want but 343i shouldnt butcher the rest of the game too. Its basically like trying to stabilize the jenga tower by pulling more blocks out. It was most stable when it had all of them!
hacks your armor and permanently locks in in Armor lock takes your immobile body to a store and sells you to the highest bidder
there ya go! i sold you on armor lock xD
in all seriousness i dont really like it either. im fine with it when used appropriately and sparingly, but not when its spammed by every bad kid and they think they are good cuz they win with the entire team using armor lock.
> This right here folks. The abilities were all designed to interlock and counter each other, take one out and you throw the rest out of balance. THIS RIGHT HERE is why you can pick a new ability on the respawn screen, to counter someone who is derping around with their favourite ability.
If AL is a counter to everything else how do i counter AL then?
> > This right here folks. The abilities were all designed to interlock and counter each other, take one out and you throw the rest out of balance. THIS RIGHT HERE is why you can pick a new ability on the respawn screen, to counter someone who is derping around with their favourite ability.
>
> If AL is a counter to everything else how do i counter AL then?
Mobil supiority is the counter to AL, ie: jetpack hovers over AL, sprinter repositions for AL exit and when you are flying around or running like a cheeta through maps, pickup some of those power weapons that sprint and jetpack can get to first before an ALer can, every single time from the start.