Some weapons need serious work

Games Halo Infinite
#1

So this post will list some of the most notable issues with weapon balancing and how some of them might be fixed. In my personal opinion, the MA40 AR and Sidekick are in a good spot and other weapons should be brought up to their level, not the other way around.

  • Plasma Pistol: Because we have Dynamo grenades and other shock damage, I don’t think the vehicle stun needs to be part of the charged shot. Currently, it takes too many uncharged shots to break a shield compared to the sidekick (I think they’re identical at 6 or 7 shots) but lacks the one-shot headshot power of the Sidekick. For a weapon that needs to be picked up rather than given on spawn, I think the number of uncharged shots to break a shield should be reduced to 4 or 5 to make it primarily a shield-breaking weapon as opposed to a killing weapon. - Pulse Carbine: In the game’s current state, the pulse carbine is next to useless. This is because strafing is currently so fast that the projectiles can’t track left to right and the aiming system is still a bit too clunky to keep on target the entire length of each burst. In my opinion, one of the following needs to happen: A) Projectile tracking from side to side needs a hefty increase (as long as the cursor remains on target to still track in the first place) or B) The projectile SPEED needs to be upped to compensate for its lack of tracking. Either way, the more pellets per burst that hit an opponent despite quick movement/strafing will make this weapon worth actually picking up. - Ravager: Regular fire felt fine to me, but the charged fire felt underwhelming. You instantly overheat the gun and the projectile does barely any extra damage unless you directly hit someone. The damage over time was mediocre as well, but the ability to bounce the charged shot off of walls is a nice touch. In my opinion, Either the projectile damage or bullet arc needs to be adjusted to make it worth using over the regular uncharged shots. - Heatwave: Sometimes felt great, sometimes felt really underwhelming. The projectile speed is great, but each pellet of the shot doesn’t do enough damage. In its current state, you’re forced to use the vertical fire mode to have any success and aiming it is extremely hard (especially because people can strafe so quickly). I recommend increasing the power of each pellet to the point where a FULL BURST of all pellets hitting someone at once is a kill. It’s extremely rare to land all the pellets in one shot, and allowing us to use the horizontal fire mode and actually deal moderately reliable damage is a must for this to be used much. - Bulldog(shotgun): Damage feels horribly inconsistent. You’re given 7 shots per magazine but more often than not, you wind up needing at least 3 to kill unless you’re an inch away from your target. I think the overall damage range needs a bit of a buff to make it more reliable against the AR in close quarters. - Needler: Honestly didn’t think much was wrong with it. The projectile speed is low, but the tracking is much better than the pulse carbine and kills at a decent number of shots. I never felt cheated out of a 1v1 battle while using it, but you do wind up trading kills a lot. - BR and Commando: In their current state, the BR almost always outclasses the commando at any range because of its lack of weapon bloom and similar TTK. The commando takes the exact same number of shots as a Sidekick to break shields and still retains the headshot one-shot potential. In my opinion, the Commando’s weapon identity should be a more close-mid range AR while the BR is a mid-long range AR. To do this, I recommend slightly increasing the bloom on full-auto fire for the commando while decreasing the number of shots to break shields by 1 or 2 (probably just 1). This gives it better kill potential at closer ranges compared to the BR while retaining the BR’s dominant long range gameplay. - Sniper: Some people mentioned some awkwardness with using the sniper but I didn’t feel much of it at all. My opinion is skewed because this is the first halo game I’ve played on a mouse and keyboard, so maybe I didn’t notice the difference because of that. - Rockets: Felt good. - Skewer: Felt good.
#2

Definitely feel like the sidekick is too strong when it can outclass a power weapon on the regular. I feel like it should act as it’s name implies and be relied on as a secondary to finish off damaged enemies, not to melt someone at full health. I do agree with your stance on the plasma pistol, pulse carbine, bulldog and ravager though. The plasma pistol and pulse carbine seem almost pointless to utilize when other weapons can do what they do but far better and the Ravagers alt fire mode should do more damage, especially with how vulnerable you become after using it.

#3

If the pulse carbine had more velocity it would make it actually worthwhile, I find rockets do less damage in some situations as they should and the commando should have one less bullet to knock out shields overall. Sidekick shouldn’t be able to kill someone in a single second and the bulldog should be more consistent.
plasma pistol is weird because they made all the guns kill faster or act differently yet our plasma pistol is the same as it was from reach without any extra ttk boost or anything. Maybe give the plasma pistol a speed boost when switching to a precision weapon.
gravity hammer is good but rip the gravity knockback,
other than that I like everything.

#4

The sniper felt way off most awkward version of the sniper I have felt of any halo. The BR felt Ok no major complaints maybe tune something of it if they plan to have it as a starter weapon (Hopefully they do). AR melts way too hard and maybe tune down the damage of it. The pistol seems fine. Skewer seems ok I can even see it being a power weapon over the sniper in competitive on some maps. I know your talking about weapons but ill add that shock grenade seems too strong against vehicles. I trust they will fix some stuff before launch and keep a close eye during the first months of the game.

#5

> Pulse Carbine: In the game’s current state, the pulse carbine is next to useless. This is because strafing is currently so fast that the projectiles can’t track left to right

I don’t agree. When using it you don’t aim at the person, but you aim where the person is going to be and it’s best used at medium to longer range. I think if the tracking were to be buffed it would become OP.

#6

The Commando and BR do not have that similar of ttk. The optimal kill time on the commando is like 2/3rds that if the BR.

I think the BR could kill faster and still be balanced, though I’d like it to be more difficult. It is certainly easier than the Commando. So it wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep the BRs average ttk longer.

#7

The sniper was basically unusable for controller players. If a target wasn’t basically stationary standing there you weren’t going to hit anything due to the obvious aiming system issue.