I’m going to tell you now that you are correct but are wasting your time telling the forum this.
The AR is a power weapon / Tier 2 pickup in ranked.
Casuals do not understand what that really means.
Even then, I think it enjoys too much being able to feather your shots to hit that far AND headshot at the same time. It elbows its way into the territory of other weapons who build their sandbox role around that similar range and headshot potential (like the SK and Pulse Carbine).
This indirectly pushes these weapons out of the way as Sandbox options since the starter AR is so much more powerful as a bread and butter, the position enjoyed by the BR for many Halo titles. Rubs me the wrong way that we finally have a non-BR dominant Halo but then another weapon rose to take its place while being even more accessible to use.
The best compromise is really to simply remove the headshot bonus and up the fire rate a small bit. It will make the AR still efficient at killing close to mid, but not have these wild random headshots just by spraying the head.
i agree with this. It’s easy to make points due to realism but it doesn’t work in the gameplay balance. This is why BF and Fortnite have bullet drop with sniper rifles. The drop isn’t realistic at all but is necessary to avoid making the game a sniping fest.
The AR never had headshot damage in Halo 3, i’m not sure about Reach. The Halo 3 AR is essentially the same role as the H2 smg. It’s a close range starting weapon. I think that’s why they made it sound like a BB gun lol
Being casual has nothing to do with your ability to understand the game. So forgive me if I don’t directly see eye to eye on some issues.
What I do know is that the AR never really had a place in comp. This was even before Infinite. As you remember, H5 really was the starting point where the AR began to shift into a more mid-range role until the nerfs shot that down.
Even then, nobody wanted to see that gun in comp. In official HCS modes, it’s nowhere to be seen. The gun just seems to be an eyesore to the competitive community. Which has led to the gun being absent or limited from most if not all comp modes.
It’s also worth noting that Tier 2 weapons cannot be picked up from the racks until it fully despawns from the map or all the ammo is used up. The AR drops do not have this drawback in any iteration of ranked play as far as infinite is concerned. If the rack doesn’t turn red after you pick the gun up, it’s not a tier 2.
Not quite. The H3 AR was the golden standard for ARs in term of killing power on a starter loadout, enjoyed more range and accuracy than H2 SMG too.
It was largely overshadowed by the BR is what happened to it. A real shame.
H4 imo had the perfect AR and H5 inherited that as well. Infinite’s AR was clearly designed to phase out the BR as the new bread and butter of Halo, but there’s a huge pushback because Halo traditionalists see AR as a low skill weapon and to be fair, it kinda is being a full auto spray style weapon.
The issue here is giving a low skill weapon so much presence. While I like the accuracy and range of the Infinite AR, I think ultimately adding that Headshot on it is abit too heavy handed of a buff. It needs to be removed to make it a staple killing weapon without it relying on RNG head taps.
H5’s AR had a headshot damage buff although not as severe.
Here’s the thing, an auto weapon generally shouldn’t be the comp standard. It’s not consistent enough.
I guess I mis-used Tier 2. Thing is only 1 really appears on the map at any given time, in Streets, and it’s generally a good weapon to pick up. Definitely better than the BR.
I edited my post and deleted smth that was supposed to be there. You’re correct, the AR filled the same role as the h2 smg but had more range.
And that’s fine. Auto weapons probably should be on the racks. At this point, it’s pretty tradition to have autos set aside somewhere in ranked. Forces you to seek control over the map by guarding weapon spawns.
And autos are generally better on certain spots on the map. It’s just the descope mechanic is what’s punishing folks. Had the BR had more effective range when firing from the hip, it would most likely stomp.
Still waiting to hear back from them on the roles the AR and BR are supposed to play. One of the in game hints basically tell you to fall back when you’re getting descoped, which is fine. Just seems a bit on the weird side when the BR is concerned.
Post of the year.
Only after H5’s balance update and in Infinite does the AR have a headshot multiplier. Personally the H3 AR is soothing to the ears, I like my little lawnmower gun.
You’re suggesting we change the whole game and make ttk faster across the board to keep the AR where it is right now? Just nerf the easy button gun lol make it something to surprise people with or use in combination with something else. Halo has always been about getting headshots.
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There’s no reason to buff or nerf anything. The AR is fine. It’s just people would rather it have H3 AR range.
Which isn’t a good reason. It’s not crossmapping. It takes 2/3 of a mag to kill anything before a reload. The only thing people are saying is that it’s outgunning the BR, which is disagree. If you’re far enough, the BR will have easier time but it is in now way as easy to do like it is in H3.
Unless it poses an actual threat to the sandbox and isn’t just messing with someone’s OCD, there’s no reason to nerf it.
How about people just don’t think a hold lmb and win weapon should have any place up with more difficult weapons to use? It isn’t about “keeping it just like it was in the old days!!!” It’s just not a fun weapon to fight against regularly, and given it’s rof it doesn’t leave much room for turnaround if they shoot first. Halo is about precision weapon skill, map control, leveraging power weapons, etc. AR doesn’t improve any of that.
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Well there’s your problem. Playing on mouse. It’s truly not a pleasant experience. At least not yet.
Halo is about weapon skill. Not just precision weapon skill. Weapons you need to counter include the AR.
Personally I enjoy the AR as it is and am very wary of calls to nerf it, especially when I feel like there’s a lot of other weapons that are more in need of tuning over the AR and just the state of Infinite as it currently is in general which includes not having options to have BR Starts in other game modes. I feel like if we had such options on the table, these occasional threads and their discourse - whether they have merits or not - would be even fewer than they currently are. Having to nerf the AR, especially when there are a lot of people who are fine with it, only to then get BR Starts and have those who complained about it running off to those modes, is not particularly something I’d be at all happy to see.
Infinite’s sandbox as a whole needs drastic changes, not just simple buffs and nerfs. However the AR is a clear case of needing to be nerfed into the ground alongside the changing of other weapons.
AR- no headshots and increased base spread/lower rate of fire
BR- remove recoil and make projectile based
SK- remove bloom
VK- remove the gun entirely and just add the carbine in as the fast firing precision weapon.
Snipe- remove bloom and aim-resist
PP- give it actual shield damage on primary trigger, make overcharge EMP and have either more tracking or/AOE light stun effect
Pulse Carbine- Either remove it in place of the plasma rifle or remove it’s tracking so it’s useable at all ranges with enough skill
Shock Rifle- no EMP
Skewer- no crosshairs when not scoped, projectile is a bit slower
Ravager- AOE charge lasts much longer with slightly more damage while primary shot does high knockback
Hammer- knockback brought back
Bulldog- remove and bring back normal shotgun
Frags- lower splash radius
Plasmas- longer fuse with more splash
too lazy to keep going with equipment and what remaining weapons, Infinite’s sandbox is broken in all the wrong ways and has very shallow depth.
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How though? There’s very few instances in Halo where one weapon ever actively counters another. Obviously you leverage range, no one is gonna face rush someone if they know they have a shotgun, for example, but you can’t really do that in Arena at least with the AR since it reliably puts out damage even at medium range currently. NIche situations like shotguns (at least used to) countering energy sword lunges, but other than that when do you ever actively counter a weapon with another? It’s all about player skill and how they use their tools, not which tool they use when fighting a certain weapon.
“YoU ShOuLd HaVe To CoUnTeR It” isn’t a very strong argument, which actually I think would lean towards nerfing it more by shortening it’s effective range or increasing dmg drop off, making staying farther away from AR users a stronger counter to it.
I’m glad you asked.
See the big weakness of the AR is it pretty much is dependent on aim assist/bullet mag. You always want to be outside it optimal range. That’s where the BR shines.
You see, the AR’s maximum range, when ads, is shorter than the BR’s minimum, when hipfiring. That’s your ticket to beating an AR.
Counter is kinda a strong word. I admit. What this really is about is mitigation.
AR and Sidekicks are close range beasts. What they don’t have is the realiable burst DPS a shotty would have. All you have to do is fire once and smack him in the face.
While I can perhaps agree with a few of the changes, I also think quite a few of your other ones are far too excessive and what I think is exactly the wrong kind of treatment to help “fix” the game, particularly the outright temoval of weapons such as the Bulldog and Commando; weapons that I actually DO like and I believe only needs a couple minor tweaks to be better (moreso the Commando than the Bulldog).
Too bad, they are poorly designed and replaced better weapons that performed the role better. Plus the commando looks like a generic futuristic assault rifle and I’d rather Halo have a unique visual style.