I found this pretty cool video earlier and i got me wondering about plasma weapons in Halo.
The Pain
I’m sure you all know that plasma weapons have been the anti energy shield weapons for over a decade now in Halo while projectile weapons have been the go-to fighter weapons. Plasma weapons have always been a great source of the shields to melee combat but the issue that is coming up more and more is line of sight. Halo is filled with medium range combatants which really takes away from CQC because more medium ranged weapons are effective close up. Most of the CQC weapons are covenant and the longer ranged humans weapons dominate the game with no signs of slowing down. They don’t really have a weakness compared to their plasma counter parts either. The only one that really competes is the BR to Carbine or in new cases the storm rifle to the AR. The problem with Storm Rifle to AR is the Storm Rifle is an AR that just fires blue bullets.
While the plasma weapons aren’t exactly in a bad of a spot as they were before, the mounted plasma turrets are really in a terrible place pre H5G release and I’m hoping that 343i will change that. Human turrets, like their standard weapons have been extremely reliable. They might not be doing Phreak Tons of Damage but they are just to efficient for plasma weapons to keep up.
The AR actually has some pretty amazing range and if you pace your shots you can out duel a BR user. The problem with this is simply that the Storm Rifle/ Plasma rifle can’t even dream of trying to take out a carbine user because the weapons reliability goes away after foe takes three steps away from the user. Still this is pre H5G post H4. Halo weapons typically have minor changes from game to game but there are obvious changes that need to be made.
Possible Solutions:
Before: I used to make threads about having damage over time affects for plasma weapons but now really looking at it, Halo would just have the same problem with Destiny’s Thorn. I’ve also thrown out the idea of plasma damage but that wouldn’t help much since, most fights in Halo are 1v1. Adding a splash damage wouldn’t really do much besides reward players who missed their shots.
Now: After watching the video I got a pretty good idea on how to give plasma weapons that UMPH!
So I came up with the idea to make them “annoying”.
Not Drones level of annoying but final boss kind of annoying. ( I hope)
Standard Plasma Weapons
I suggest that the average plasma weapons should get a buff that allows each shot to stack up an affect that makes shield recharge rate and delay longer.
Example: Storm Rifle engages a BR. Storm Rifle lands 6 shots before being killed. Each shot stacks up a 0.2 second timer on the shield delay and recharge so now the BR user is out of the fight longer.
Yeah, yeah I know i said that splash damage was useless because of it’s 1v1 applications but this is different. Different in the sense of objective gamemodes. In objective gamemodes, Time is Victory. From clutch last second scoring of flags to +2 seconds increased respawning in objective gamemdoes the more you are out of the fight the worse you are doing for you team in every regard.
Even in slayer its still good because unlike splash damage which would need enemies to be extremely close together or the splash to have an outrageous radius. Both of those take away from grenades but this allows for post duel clean ups and better team fighting. We’ve all been in those engagements where they are at their spire and you’re at yours and each team keeps slugging rounds into each other to get a kill. With this, a carefully placed burst of plasma rounds could turn the tide of the battle because. XxX420SWAGSCOPEXxX shields couldn’t recharge fast enough to keep up the pressure.
The affect will be capped at 3 seconds and will remain on target for until shields full recharge or death.
Power Weapons
Should remain unaffected by these changes.
Mounted Plasma Turrets
This is what truly started my passion to reform plasma weapons. Mounted plasma weapons are slow to the turn, have low ROF and low damage along with that they are attached to the weakest vehicles in the game or on a large stationary postilion that exposes the pilot. Their ability to take out shields is even lack luster.
Most of those things I listed above aren’t even a problem for what i’m about to suggest because it would be seen as counter balance.
I suggest that targets hit by Mounted Covenant turrets should receive a stacking slow that starts at 15% and increases 1% each other shot landed. Players hit directly by the mounted plasma cannon will have the same debuffs a standard plasma weapon. I.E. if it hits the side of the warthog instead of the drive, the drive won’t suffer the affects.
Debuff will also affect player sprint/standard run, vehicle movement and turret turn speed.
What this does is allow for even more team cohesion. A Wraith gunners no longer looked at another piece of candy but as an actual asset to the team. Even allowing for a Wraith to make clutch shots on air-vehicles, mongoose and compete with the monstrous Scorpion tank, especially from angles away from the main gun. This will also help Covenant gunner positions with having a presence in MP. Really, how many forge or MP maps have you ever seen a Covenant gun position?
The slow will be capped at 45% and last 3 seconds. Each shot restarts the timer.
Ghost/Banshee Applications?
Personally I think the ghost and banshee are in pretty good spots right now. They both had a problem with all vehicles in Halo 4 and Reach which was being to flimsy. If either of these two were to get any of the changes it’s the banshee getting the slow, but only because if anything else is in the air the banshee is assured death. Just thinking about the people trying to take on hornets back in Halo 3 with a banshee brings up terrible flash backs. To be honest, a hornet destroyed everything on release.
I think that with these changes plasma weapons could become wildly preferred among many players. Even greater in objective and low skill cases. This will drag the from the Cheesy area of the Halo spectrum and bring them strongly into the light. Either way the odds of this being implemented is below slim but I’ve never been a person not to try.
Don’t forget to comment why you voted for your option and never let the elites die out of MP. If they can’t be in MP can we atleast get some answers from the devs as to why?
