Storm Rifle & Plasma Rifle

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

In its current form, the Storm Rifle (SR) is little more than a Covenant ‘reskin’ of the Assault Rifle. It does have its differences, but none that truly distinguish and justify its inclusion. I don’t think that placing it on-map and giving it a damage buff would be the best way to give the SR purpose, however. I’d much rather keep the SR as a Loadout Primary option, all the while giving it a ‘stun’ effect/headshot bonus (like the CE Plasma Rifle) and adjusting the rate-of-fire, damage-per-shot. and accuracy to balance it.

Speaking of the Plasma Rifle (PR), I’d like to see it make a return in the form of an automatic Loadout Secondary option. Functioning like it did in Halo 2/3 (but balanced to be useful without the inclusion of dual-wielding), and with the SMG added as well.

In general, I’d like to see Personal Loadouts return in a more limited way:
Primary- Assault Rifle- Battle Rifle- Storm Rifle- Covenant CarbineSecondary- Magnum- SMG- Needle Pistol- Plasma RifleNo Equipment/AAs/Perks at-spawn.

However, It may be somewhat difficult to balance the Magnum and Needle Pistol or the SMG and Plasma Rifle (respectively) without them being too similar to both be relevant. If that obstacle proves to be too challenging, I’d suffice for the Loadout Secondaries to consist of only the Magnum and either the SMG or Plasma Rifle (not both). That way, we could still have either a precision or automatic sidearm without problematically cluttering the weapon sandbox with “reskins”. Again, that’s if 343i couldn’t differentiate each secondary from its ‘counterpart’ in a balanced way (which I do think is possible).

2

> In its current form, the Storm Rifle (SR) is little more than a Covenant ‘reskin’ of the Assault Rifle. It does have its differences, but none that truly distinguish and justify its inclusion. I don’t think that placing it on-map and giving it a damage buff would be the best way to give the SR purpose, however. I’d much rather keep the SR as a Loadout Primary option, all the while giving it a ‘stun’ effect/headshot bonus (like the CE Plasma Rifle) and adjusting the rate-of-fire, damage-per-shot. and accuracy to balance it.
>
> Speaking of the Plasma Rifle (PR), I’d like to see it make a return in the form of an automatic Loadout Secondary option. Functioning like it did in Halo 2/3 (but balanced to be useful without the inclusion of dual-wielding), and with the SMG added as well.
>
> In general, I’d like to see Personal Loadouts return in a more limited way:
> Primary- Assault Rifle- Battle Rifle- Storm Rifle- Covenant CarbineSecondary- Magnum- SMG- Needle Pistol- Plasma RifleNo Equipment/AAs/Perks at-spawn.
>
> However, It may be somewhat difficult to balance the Magnum and Needle Pistol or the SMG and Plasma Rifle (respectively) without them being too similar to both be relevant. If that obstacle proves to be too challenging, I’d suffice for the Loadout Secondaries to consist of only the Magnum and either the SMG or Plasma Rifle (not both). That way, we could still have either a precision or automatic sidearm without problematically cluttering the weapon sandbox with “reskins”. Again, that’s if 343i couldn’t differentiate each secondary from its ‘counterpart’ in a balanced way (which I do think is possible).

Magnum: Stay as it is in Halo 4, the most balanced sidearm.
Needle Pistol: I would make this have very similar traits as Reaches needle Rifle, if even to the point of an exact reskin. I think all current Halo 4 loadout precision rifles would outclass the needle rifle were they put into the same game at the same time, its only benefit being it having a the largest effective magazine.
If you give the Needle pistol these specs:
6 shots break shields, 1 headshot, 3 super combine with no shields
12 magazine 1 kill with error margin of 5 shots as apposed to the 3 of a magnum. slight magnetism, faster fire rate and more accurate, but with no zoom and a slower reload.

The bold underlined are the features that I believe are the ones you would want to tweak with to balance effectively, the Dam/Ammo capacity i think is fair.

as for Automatics:

Plasma Rifle: In the halo 4 description of the storm rifle it says it is the successor of the plasma rifle, lets let it reflect that ingame, implement your SR stun and headshot bonus on BOTH weapons, but to a weaker extent on the PR and it overheats faster, but has faster fire rate, but is over all weaker.

SMG: this is however harder to balance. Because you cant make it to much like the AR or the suppressor.
I would give it 60 in a mag, like Halo 2/3, have it have have a High roughly the same Dam/per second as the AR but with the short range accuracy of the Suppressor and the continuous upwards jumping from Halo 3, to compensate its power, meaning it HAS to be used very close range,

3

I think to answer that question you firstly have to ask yourself what are the current major differences between the AR and the SR since both are close to mid-range weapons.

AR:
-effective against shieldless opponents
-has to be reloaded
-hitscan

SR:
-effective against shields
-hasn’t to be reloaded (theoretical allows constant fire)
-projectile

The AR is the overall better clean up weapon and is more precisely especially at mid range because of hitscan.
The SR suites you better when you want to take down shields fast and effectively and theoretical allows constant fire without reloading, though you can risk an overheat as well.
In my opionion both encourage a different way to operate in CQC in their current state just like the BR and Carbine do in mid-range why I think they can actually stay as they are.
In addition, in case all weapons would be turned into projectile weapons in the next title then the AR’s bullets could travel significantly faster than the SR’s.

Now to the secondary weapons.
Secondaries should be able to even out the weak point of your primary weapon but have to be weaker than their primary weapon counterparts.
With that in mind, the SMG and Plasma Rifle would actually be weakened versions of the AR and SR but still have to be effective against precision rifles at point-blank/close range.

That would mean:

SMG:
-effective against shieldless opponents
-has to be reloaded
-hitscan

Plasma Rifle:
-effective against shields
-hasn’t to be reloaded (theoretical allows constant fire)
-projectile

Both would be giving significant recoil and spread to make them solely effective for point-blank/close range and of course they would do less damage then their big siblings (AR & SR) but should do still enough damage to be able to beat/effectively fight an loadout precision rifle in their effective range (point-blank/close range).

4

Primaries

Needle Rifle
Long-Range Precision Rifle
3x Scope
Very fast projectile speed.
Exceedingly slow killtime.

Storm Rifle
Medium Range Automatic/Precision Hybrid
Single-Shot: Extremely accurate, fast projectile speed, negligible stun.
Prolonged Firing: Stun effect increases, projectile speed decreases, firing rate ramps up slightly.
Full-auto killtime exceeding Battle Rifle, less than Assault Rifle.
100% Headshot killtime slightly exceeding Battle Rifle.

Basically merges the Carbine and Storm Rifle into one. What? You don’t want the Carbine removed? I guess you guys just hate change.

Battle Rifle
Medium-Long Range Precision Rifle
2.5x Scope
Very fast projectile speed.
Perfectly accurate bursts.
Only requires the last shot to be a headshot for maximum killtime.

Easier to use at medium range than the Storm Rifle, and far superior at longer ranges due to increased speed, magnification, and accuracy.

Assault Rifle
Close-Range Powerhouse
Has the most DPS of any loadout weapon.
Very fast projectile speed.
Very poor accuracy when fired full-auto.
Moderate accuracy when burst fired, but inferior DPS.

Secondaries

EMP Launcher
Ground-Vehicle Boarding Weapon
Slow projectile speed.
Launches a draining device that attaches to vehicles and slows down their movement/weapon systems (does not disable vehicle).
Device can be shot off the vehicle.
Device will slowly drain shields when used against infantry, then will fry itself.

Magnum
Handcannon
Killtime similar to AR when spammed.
Extreme Bloom.

5

The Plasma Repeater was a much more unique weapon than the Storm Rifle.
However, it was painfully inferior to the Assault Rifle, which was painfully inferior to everything else.
Therefore, it would need a heavy rebalance.

You made two suggestions for the Storm Rifle.

Stun Effect; having a stun-based weapon available off-spawn would aggravate many.

Headshot Damage Multiplier; I would rather the Plasma Rifle get this feature.

6

[deleted]

7

> Primaries
>
> Needle Rifle
> Long-Range Precision Rifle
> 3x Scope
> Very fast projectile speed.
> Exceedingly slow killtime.
>
> Storm Rifle
> Medium Range Automatic/Precision Hybrid
> Single-Shot: Extremely accurate, fast projectile speed, negligible stun.
> Prolonged Firing: Stun effect increases, projectile speed decreases, firing rate ramps up slightly.
> Full-auto killtime exceeding Battle Rifle, less than Assault Rifle.
> 100% Headshot killtime slightly exceeding Battle Rifle.
>
> Basically merges the Carbine and Storm Rifle into one. What? You don’t want the Carbine removed? I guess you guys just hate change.
>
> Battle Rifle
> Medium-Long Range Precision Rifle
> 2.5x Scope
> Very fast projectile speed.
> Perfectly accurate bursts.
> Only requires the last shot to be a headshot for maximum killtime.
>
> Easier to use at medium range than the Storm Rifle, and far superior at longer ranges due to increased speed, magnification, and accuracy.
>
> Assault Rifle
> Close-Range Powerhouse
> Has the most DPS of any loadout weapon.
> Very fast projectile speed.
> Very poor accuracy when fired full-auto.
> Moderate accuracy when burst fired, but inferior DPS.
>
> Secondaries
>
> EMP Launcher
> Ground-Vehicle Boarding Weapon
> Slow projectile speed.
> Launches a draining device that attaches to vehicles and slows down their movement/weapon systems (does not disable vehicle).
> Device can be shot off the vehicle.
> Device will slowly drain shields when used against infantry, then will fry itself.
>
> Magnum
> Handcannon
> Killtime similar to AR when spammed.
> Extreme Bloom.

As much as I’d prefer personal loadouts to not make it to the next game, I could definitely live with this. Probably the best suggestion I’ve seen out there for PL’s. However I’d change the EMP launcher to a grenade, and only be able to carry one at a time.

Also, for clarification, when you mention hand-cannon do you mean the original 3sk, or something a little less like 4sk…? Cuz 3sk is f***ing powerful as ****.

8

In an effort to minimize redundancy, I would only like one automatic Plasma rifle in the game. Let’s say that we keep the Storm Rifle – from there, I think we all realize that a few further measures would have to be taken to make it a viable pick over the Assault Rifle. The stun effect is a good idea, as long as its kept light.

Maybe we could sort of remove the overheating, and substitute it with a gradual slowing of the firing rate. Theoretically, you could keep shooting until your battery runs out, but the slow bolts would lose all of their stun effect and a lot of their speed. Naturally, letting off the trigger would allow the SR to cool down. Imagine an AR duel in which you just run out of ammo before your enemy falls. While reloading, you often find the tables turning. With the Storm Rifle’s lack of reload, however, you have one aspect in which it holds a slight edge over its UNSC counterpart.

As for Covenant secondaries, I would love for the selection to really stand on its own in comparison to the UNSC options. Personally, I’d like to see the Reach Needler return to loadouts. If the Needle Pistol and the Needler together seem redundant, an idea I had for a new secondary was the Beam Pistol – sort of like the Focus Rifle on a much, much smaller scale. I believe that both could be balanced appropriately. Having two sets of secondaries that generally fill the same niche (SMG/PR, Magnum/Needle Pistol) isn’t necessarily bad, and I can certainly see the appeal of uniform options.

Its just a matter of personal preference. I prefer diversity.

9

I’m of the opinion that the Plasma Rifle should return functioning pretty much as the Storm Rifle does now and that the Storm rifle should become more of a mid ranged Automatic. Faster projectile speeds, bloom similar to that of the magnum, headshot bonuses like the CE Plasma Rifle…

I am also keen on the idea that it could have a zoom function as well. I mean that would give it a clear distinction between it and the Plasma Rifle and it would have its own identity. I mean it is supposed to be a kind of fusion between the Plasma Rifle and the Carbine. It was originally called the Assault Carbine in the alpha build. I also think this would be a fun weapon to use, unique from any weapon from any previous Halo games. It would make for a cool pick-up in a pure arena Halo, much more so than the Repeater, and it would make for a viable Primary Rifle in loadouts if they return.

I’m not sure about stun though since it reduces players ability to strafe… which I don’t think is a good thing.

10

I want my Plasma Rifle back. :frowning: It’s an iconic Covenant weapon and it looks and sounds a thousand times better than the absolutely terrible Storm Rifle.

11

OT: I’ll take Storm Rifle over the Plasma rifle any day. So just give the SR the plasma rifle’s traits from CE, and let it be.

12

I have extreme discontent for the Storm Rifle not only because it replaced my favorite weapon in the series, but it also assumed the form of an Assault Rifle that fires blue marshmallows.

While I understand that we’ll never get the CE Plasma Rifle back, can we at least give the Storm Rifle the same effects as the CE PR? Why couldn’t we have had that iconic stun effect, or the spine-chilling headshot multiplier?

It would have been perfectly balanced with the AR, yet for some reason, the Storm Rifle was just a reskin instead. I don’t even think the SR does extra damage to shields! (This may need clarification)

With Halo 5, I want the Plasma Rifle (and the SMG) to return as secondary loadout weapons, I want the Plasma Rifle to undergo a few changes so that it’s not just a blue SMG, and I want the Storm Rifle to gain the properties of the Halo CE Plasma Rifle.

13

I would like to see the Storm Rifle get some personality of its own. Throw on a 1.5-2x scope(that little bit on the left side is begging for one), add some light stun, tighten the spread, lower the DPS to balance it(should still eat through shields like most plasma weapons). Headshot multiplier optional.

On a separate note, has anyone else heard the storm rifle when it is a bit laggy in game? For a brief moment it sounds AMAZING before reverting back to coughing. Replace the normal SR sounds with that one and we are all set.

As for the plasma rifle I don’t want it to return at all if it is going to be banished to the “secondary” category. The same goes for the SMG and magnum. Let them be free like the plasma pistol and boltshot to form their own niche. “Secondary” and “Primary” designation suck the life out of weapons just as much as much as “variety” has.

14

> I think to answer that question you firstly have to ask yourself what are the current major differences between the AR and the SR since both are close to mid-range weapons.
>
> AR:
> -effective against shieldless opponents
> -has to be reloaded
> -hitscan
>
> SR:
> -effective against shields
> -hasn’t to be reloaded (theoretical allows constant fire)
> -projectile
>
> The AR is the overall better clean up weapon and is more precisely especially at mid range because of hitscan.
> The SR suites you better when you want to take down shields fast and effectively and theoretical allows constant fire without reloading, though you can risk an overheat as well.
> In my opionion both encourage a different way to operate in CQC in their current state just like the BR and Carbine do in mid-range why I think they can actually stay as they are.
> In addition, in case all weapons would be turned into projectile weapons in the next title then the AR’s bullets could travel significantly faster than the SR’s.
>
>
> Now to the secondary weapons.
> Secondaries should be able to even out the weak point of your primary weapon but have to be weaker than their primary weapon counterparts.
> With that in mind, the SMG and Plasma Rifle would actually be weakened versions of the AR and SR but still have to be effective against precision rifles at point-blank/close range.
>
> That would mean:
>
> SMG:
> -effective against shieldless opponents
> -has to be reloaded
> -hitscan
>
> Plasma Rifle:
> -effective against shields
> -hasn’t to be reloaded (theoretical allows constant fire)
> -projectile
>
> Both would be giving significant recoil and spread to make them solely effective for point-blank/close range and of course they would do less damage then their big siblings (AR & SR) but should do still enough damage to be able to beat/effectively fight an loadout precision rifle in their effective range (point-blank/close range).

The Storm Rifle and Assault Rifle break Shields ii the same amount of shots as each other. They threw that out the window for Halo 4’s Loadout weapons

15

The NP, PR and SMG will be weaker re skins of their primary counter parts but that’s not a bad thing.

Redundancy is something we don’t want but if the PR, NP and SMG are going to be secondaries the only reason we’re going to use them is because we aren’t going to be using their primary counterparts. So if I can’t use an AR as a secondary I want the next best thing which is the role the SMG will play.

If they are implemented I can see the combos turning out like this:

AR-Magnum/NP.

SR-NP/Magnum.

NR-PR/SMG.

DMR-SMG/PR.

The SMG and PR as secondaries are going to be used for players with long ranged Primary weapons as compensation for close quarters combat.

As an automatics user I spawn with a Magnum and an AR. I choose the Magnum because it helps compensate for the fact my primary has no scope. A DMR user with an SMG as a secondary will effectively be my opposite, He’ll have a better chance at long range while while still having a chance at CQC while I still have a chance at long range but I’m better off in CQC.

Right now if you think about it it’s a bit unfair that automatics have the magnum to compensate while medium and long range rifle users only have the Bolt shot to compensate at close quarters which isn’t a very good system.

The way I see it the closest thing to the Magnum is the DMR. The Magnum has less range,a higher fire rate, less ammo and is weaker. This should be the guideline when making a secondary counterpart to a primary weapon.

The SMG should have less range, a higher fire rate, less ammo and be weaker than an AR for example. But in all honesty I’m no balance expert and I know that plasma weapons are a whole different ball game.

Now I’ve played with both the SR and AR a lot and I’ve found them distinguishable enough as it is but I have no complaints with making the SR even more distinguishable if it’ll make everyone happy but only as long as it reflects onto the PR as well because like I said above you’re only choosing the PR because you don’t have access to an SR and the PR is the next best thing.

Making the secondaries like this may seem redundant at first but what 343 have to aim for when making these secondaries is to make them as different form their primary counterpart as the Magnum is to the DMR.

But wait someones gonna tell me that the Magnum and DMR are completely different. Well if two single shot, UNSC, scoped weapons can be in the same game and not make anyone angry I don’t see an issue with two automatic plasma guns, two single shot Needle guns and two UNSC automatics.

I know I’m gonna make a lot of people angry for out right asking for redskin weapons but I hope some of you can see where I’m going with this.

16

The Storm Rifle IMO is perfect. I LOVE it. It’s my second most used weapon.

Plasma Rifle is really nice, and I love it, but I prefer the Storm Rifle over it.

As for the Plasma Repeater… Don’t like it at all. Terrible. While I won’t go into terrible detail, one of the main things that I love about the Storm Rifle/Plasma Rifle over the other automatics/Plasma Repeater, is the fact that I can fire them indefinitely without the need to ever reload/vent nor lose any RoF/damage/etc… thanks to the fact that I can maintain the overheat.

17

All I have to say is that the Plasma Rifle from Halo CE was a deadly beast. The Plasma Rifle from Halo Anniversary is not the same weapon at all. :frowning: Like the Plasma Rife didn’t stun someone body the more they got hit by it and the plasma shot weren’t twice as big to. Halo Anniversary Plasma Rifle was a disappointment for people that played Halo CE in the past.

So any Plasma Rifle after Halo CE should not be added to Halo on Xbox One.

18

> >
>
> The Storm Rifle and Assault Rifle break Shields ii the same amount of shots as each other. They threw that out the window for Halo 4’s Loadout weapons

Is that really true?
Personally, I have barely used the AR or SR in multiplayer but in Campaign as well as in SpOps it has always felt like that the SR does more damage to shields like the AR, while the AR does more damage to unshielded enemies.
The effect was not as significant as of the Plasma weapons in previous games though.

However, in case the effect was really removed then why not simply bring it back and make it a significant difference again?

19

> All I have to say is that the Plasma Rifle from Halo CE was a deadly beast. The Plasma Rifle from Halo Anniversary is not the same weapon at all. :frowning: Like the Plasma Rife didn’t stun someone body the more they got hit by it and the plasma shot weren’t twice as big to. Halo Anniversary Plasma Rifle was a disappointment for people that played Halo CE in the past.
>
> So any Plasma Rifle after Halo CE should not be added to Halo on Xbox One.

It still stuns in CEA. 343i didn’t touch the game mechanics, they just reskinned a 10-year-old game and layered new soundFX and 11 terminals. That’s it.

20

> > >
> >
> > The Storm Rifle and Assault Rifle break Shields ii the same amount of shots as each other. They threw that out the window for Halo 4’s Loadout weapons
>
> Is that really true?
> Personally, I have barely used the AR or SR in multiplayer but in Campaign as well as in SpOps it has always felt like that the SR does more damage to shields like the AR, while the AR does more damage to unshielded enemies.
> The effect was not as significant as of the Plasma weapons in previous games though.
>
> However, in case the effect was really removed then why not simply bring it back and make it a significant difference again?

Even still the weapons would feel just about the same. They both bloom to large amounts that make them useful only at close range, also making them pretty annoying to use due to their large, uncontrollable, inaccuracy, something more fitting for weapons like the SMG.

The Repeater wasn’t great, but it was on a much better path than the SR. Had it not dropped in ROF the longer you fired and/or if it got a damage buff, then I think more people would’ve appreciated it as a unique counterpart to the AR.