This is isn’t a debate about whether boltshot is too powerful and needs nerfing.
My problem with the boltshot is that it promotes and rewards camping. Certain maps have points that become virtual fortresses if an even remotely organised team of modestly skilled players decide to camp with all four players.
For example, the bases on adrift. In one game I noticed that the score had very quickly become lopsided (about 50-0). I looked through my promethean vision and saw all four enemies in the same area. One had the scattershot and was crouch camping one doorway/mancannon landing. A second player had boltshot and was crouch camping the other doorway/mancannon landing. One dude was covering the high passage with a boltshot. Their final player was roughly in the middle and would move to replace anyone who died. And yes, you guessed it, he had boltshot.
We picked up one or two kills with well placed nades and such, but ultimately we were left with a choice: Run in and die to corner campers, or to stand back and have a really long, slow boring game. We chose the latter and refused to give them the satisfaction. It took a full 5 minutes before they got bored and left their position.
SO WHAT HAS THIS GOT TO DO WITH BOLTSHOT?
The boltshot facilitates this sort of campy gameplay by giving everyone the equivalent of a shotgun. Is adrift a potentially campy map? Yes. Does boltshot make the campyness 100% worse? Most definitely. I’ve seen the same on abandon on the top level of the tower. Whole teams camping with boltshots, effectively forcing the other team to run in and get slaughtered or stand back and have a really boring game.
That’s my problem with boltshot: That it can kill the flow of a game. I just feel that halo would play a lot better without it.