> I just want it to be balanced at mid range with the LR, DMR and CC (Or at least the CC) 
Wouldnât that defeat the purpose of having unique weapons? As I see it, BR is the go-to mid range weapon (Carbine comes in second) and the DMR is the go-to long range weapon. The LR does a little bit of both but not as well as the others.
For what itâs worth, LR is my scoped rifle of choice.
I donât recall the âdays where players used all the weaponsâ in Halo. There has always been 1 dominating weapon over the others since 2001.
> I donât recall the âdays where players used all the weaponsâ in Halo. There has always been 1 dominating weapon over the others since 2001.
There was always a go to workhorse weapon but past Halos saw a lot more weapon variety in play because of the lack of custom loadouts. If you canât just spawn with your favorite weapon you have to pick up whatever you find on the map.
> > I donât recall the âdays where players used all the weaponsâ in Halo. There has always been 1 dominating weapon over the others since 2001.
>
> There was always a go to workhorse weapon but past Halos saw a lot more weapon variety in play because of the lack of custom loadouts. If you canât just spawn with your favorite weapon you have to pick up whatever you find on the map.
Yeah but for example in Halo 3 everyone pretty much got rid of the AR for a BR or vote BR starts whenever it popped up
However Iâm seeing a lot more variety
> > > I donât recall the âdays where players used all the weaponsâ in Halo. There has always been 1 dominating weapon over the others since 2001.
> >
> > There was always a go to workhorse weapon but past Halos saw a lot more weapon variety in play because of the lack of custom loadouts. If you canât just spawn with your favorite weapon you have to pick up whatever you find on the map.
>
> Yeah but for example in Halo 3 everyone pretty much got rid of the AR for a BR or vote BR starts whenever it popped up
>
> However Iâm seeing a lot more variety
Sure, but BR starts didnât get voted for every time. And weapons still spawned on the map, so people would pick up different secondary weapons. Not to mention the fact that in Halo 3 a lot of playlists didnât give you a starting weapon gametype choice.
> > I just want it to be balanced at mid range with the LR, DMR and CC (Or at least the CC)
>
> Wouldnât that defeat the purpose of having unique weapons? As I see it, BR is the go-to mid range weapon (Carbine comes in second) and the DMR is the go-to long range weapon. The LR does a little bit of both but not as well as the others.
>
> For what itâs worth, LR is my scoped rifle of choice.
All class-bassed games have no problems balancing the guns like that, only 343i seems to fail to do itâŚThat being said BR still is better than the CC so theyre not even balanced for middle range combat
> All class-bassed games have no problems balancing the guns like that, only 343i seems to fail to do itâŚ
Yahno.
I get asked all the time in rumple pit(before regicide) why I even use the storm rifle.
I only play with the storm on Simplex or Abandon⌠no use using it on the other maps or else Ill dieâŚ
But I always see the Light Rifle in Skirmish if that matters 
> And OP, Iâm not sure what days youâre remembering. Back in Halo 2 and 3, the BR was king. In Reach it was the DMR.
>
> One weapon being over-used is nothing new to Halo.
This - I look back over my online MM career and it is generally dominated by one weapon.
I do have to say that Reach offered a viable alternative to the DMR with the Needle Rifle in Short to Mid range combat. Completely under-estimated weapon. In âCompetitiveâ playlists in Reach I had a ratio of 3.35 for the DMR and 8.01 for the Needle Rifle.
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/players/robobeast76/haloreach/stats#!/?section=Competitive
> > And OP, Iâm not sure what days youâre remembering. Back in Halo 2 and 3, the BR was king. In Reach it was the DMR.
> >
> > One weapon being over-used is nothing new to Halo.
>
> This - I look back over my online MM career and it is generally dominated by one weapon.
>
> I do have to say that Reach offered a viable alternative to the DMR with the Needle Rifle in Short to Mid range combat. Completely under-estimated weapon. In âCompetitiveâ playlists in Reach I had a ratio of 3.35 for the DMR and 8.01 for the Needle Rifle.
>
> https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/players/robobeast76/haloreach/stats#!/?section=Competitive
This is true, but Halo4 has a class-based system that should work otherwise
> This is true, but Halo4 has a class-based system that should work otherwise
And it does, somewhat. Try using a BR in BTB.
The BR might need a slight RoF nerf, but otherwise the weapons are pretty balanced.
And just because people over-use a weapon does not necessarily make it OP. It just makes it popular. Personally, I suspect the influence of Halo 2/3 nostalgia.
When has halo ever been different? I donât ever remember a time when players were able to EFFECTIVELY use a variety of weapons against reasonable competition.
Since the BR was introduced, its always been the go to gun because it has always been the most versatile. At first in h4 it was the dmr, and now it is the BR again after the TU.
Halo has a history of having one utility weapon, thatâs what it should be, but with the TU, every weapon is as effective as it should be.
BR is great in 4v4 settings, DMR and LR are good in bigger maps. Itâs all fine in my books.
> Halo has a history of having one utility weapon, thatâs what it should be, but with the TU, every weapon is as effective as it should be.
>
> BR is great in 4v4 settings, DMR and LR are good in bigger maps. Itâs all fine in my books.
I feel like the weapon sand box is becoming a little overcrowded. The storm rifle/suppressor and battle rifle/carbine are overlapping niches enough while still having fairly narrow roles that some weapons are feeling redundant but creating too much of a rock, paper, scissors dynamic with utility weapons.
I mean, the assault rifle has always been outclassed at range by the BR which is in turn mowed down by the shotgun in close range. But when the BR, DMR, and LR start dominating each other depending on the range, it becomes a problem for me in that the point of the utility weapon used to be versatility, which is undermined by having too many utility weapons that outclass each other depending on range.
> I feel like the weapon sand box is becoming a little overcrowded.
When you compare it to modern online games, where you have 4 or 5 different shotguns or as many sniper rifles, Halo just looks poor. Sure each niche is crowded in games like CoD or Battlefield, but this way people are not only able to choose weapons that suit some particular niche; theyâre able to choose weapon that suits the niche AND their preferences inside that niche. For these personal preferences I prefer e.g. Suppressor over AR or LR over DMR.
This kind of variety isnât needed to play the game, but this is something that separates AAA shooter from XBL Arcade shooter nowadays.
> > I feel like the weapon sand box is becoming a little overcrowded.
>
> When you compare it to modern online games, where you have 4 or 5 different shotguns or as many sniper rifles, Halo just looks poor. Sure each niche is crowded in games like CoD or Battlefield, but this way people are not only able to choose weapons that suit some particular niche; theyâre able to choose weapon that suits the niche AND their preferences inside that niche. For these personal preferences I prefer e.g. Suppressor over AR or LR over DMR.
>
> This kind of variety isnât needed to play the game, but this is something that separates AAA shooter from XBL Arcade shooter nowadays.
I agree with RavensHal0; the weapon sandbox is becoming a little crowded.
Having a bunch of weapons that are all the same except for aesthetics does not make a game good.
> I agree with RavensHal0; the weapon sandbox is becoming a little crowded.
>
> Having a bunch of weapons that are all the same except for aesthetics does not make a game good.
Iâm still waiting for mid-long range automatic weapon. Something like Needle Rifle from Reach or SMG from ODST. It probably wonât happend as the most conservative Halo fans are also the most influetial, and BR/DMR will always be exemplar of how mid-long precission rifle should work (why ancient-alien weapon shots in 3-shot burst?). After TU 343i made AR/SR/Suppressor basically the same (except for projectile speed), with low spread and very similar kill time. No wonder Suppressor sucks right now, as it just doesnât work as it was designed to.
343i should really learn from competition of how to make variety of similar-but-different weapons. Indeed making BR/DMR hybrid that shoots orange light will get us nowhere from competitive point of view. At least from more casual point of view I can choose weapon that at least looks different. After 9 years of shooting with BR this is some reason to play more. However no wonder more and more people goes to games where they can choose between e.g. automatic shotgun or 4-shot burst AR.
> When you compare it to modern online games, where you have 4 or 5 different shotguns or as many sniper rifles, Halo just looks poor.
To me the well defined roles of each weapon makes Halo look streamlined, not poor. A big part of the reason that I gravitated to Halo in the first place is that it didnât suffer from the problem of many military shooters where the weapons feel similar and lack definition.
> > When you compare it to modern online games, where you have 4 or 5 different shotguns or as many sniper rifles, Halo just looks poor.
>
> To me the well defined roles of each weapon makes Halo look streamlined, not poor. A big part of the reason that I gravitated to Halo in the first place is that it didnât suffer from the problem of many military shooters where the weapons feel similar and lack definition.
Yep, part of what makes Halo great is that each weapon is defined. You can recognise the gun from a distance or from the audio alone and you can use that knowledge to counter it properly. Other games play differently so 5 shotguns can work for them but in a game like Halo if we have 5 shotguns then making them unique is going to be a lot harder and donât want to be running into a situation where multiple weapons look and sound similar but their stats make it a situation I should take head on or avoid outright.
Just back to Teusz suggestion though, I would love the Needle Rifle to come back. It was my favourite weapon in Reach. Fairly useful and people freak out when you use it on them because theyâre not sure how to counter it.