The Competitive Meta and Arena Balance

Games Halo Infinite
1

Halo 5’s arena competitive settings went through many changes and evolutions over the course of 4 years. Starting with perhaps an over abundance of power weapons and moving to a very bare bones gameplay of pistol only starts. Standard Rockets with 4 rounds became a SPNKR with only 2. Assault Rifles were removed. SMG nerfed, plasma rifles removed and so forth. I think somewhere in between the balance was at it’s best. Ideally Team Arena would be essentially the same as what Slayer is today. Every map should have a unique theme, that doesn’t mean power weapons are scattered everywhere, but they are something worth fighting for. Now a 2 round SPNKR is just an after thought, usually just resulting in 1 kill from 2 quick rounds fired. I think automatics are really important for bringing balance and spacing, and are a good change of pace. Swords should be on some maps, same with shotguns. Maybe it’s agreed that Hydra’s and Plasma Casters have no place in competitive, then replace them with something reasonable like Light Rifles, DMR, Plasma Pistol, Carbines. Overall maps should be balanced and have a variety of options. Each map with a unique theme and feel.

Make Halo Fun again. What do you guys think HCS should be like for Infinite vs what Team Arena is today?

Also it would be refreshing to have a few non UNSC weapons featured on some maps, specifically the Beam Rifle.

2

The best way to ensure weapon variety is to have weapons worth using that are not just redundant clones and that easy to use weapons are not disproportionately powerful. Having 5 near identical precision weapons, 4 bullet hoses, two shotguns, a purple sniper rifle, and 3 tracking weapons like Halo 5 is not going to lead to a lot of variety.

Each weapon has to have a unique role outside of just having a low time to kill in order to have a chance of getting used.

3

All weapons, save for Promethean weapons, need to be projectile based, with no bullet magnetism.
The pistol needs to be more like a pistol, high rate of fire, less damage, but same accuracy.
I also think that most human weapons need a boost in RoF.