because of the rate of fire + bloom recovery + bullet mag. It’s not the damage that’s the issue. It doesn’t have descope so you can rival precision weapons at longer ranges than you’d anticipate. I think adding descope to AR and pistol would solve a lot of the issues people have with them.
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I will say that is pretty doofy of an idea to think that a 10mm cartridge is dealing MORE DAMAGE than the classic Halo Magnum ammunition of 12.7x40mm ammunition.
Like did Shields strength and MJOLNIR quality production of armor plating materials go down somehow?
Or considering how FAT the grip is, does this mean that the 10mm ammunition of the Sidekick is 2x longer than standard 10mm ammunition we see used in pistols and SMGs today?
Like what, is it 10x50mm cartridges?
Can’t be the case considering the fact that the discharge hole is sized up to be for standard 10x25mm ammunition.
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I’m sorry you have a problem with me giving simple responses towards topics. Hopefully some day you’ll find a way to deal with your problem going forward. 
Also, been fan of the franchise since before Microsoft acquired Halo and created the first game. Played the original game for a few hours just in stores at their little XBox Set ups that you could play with my older Brother.
Miss those days.
Replaces with “Duck you I won’t do what you tell me”.
Pours beer in and around face.
Crushes can in hand.
Wooo!
I would prefer the H5 magnum over the Sidekick any day of the week. The Sidekick is just too spammy. I hope 343 can merge the Sidekick and the H5 magnum in a new weapon that would feel like a good middle ground: 6 shot kill + a longer ttk than the Sidekick.
@JensBoef I was never really that into H5 multiplayer so I don’t know where I’d stand on that. I do hope that we will one day we’ll get the CE magnum in infinite. I did love what they did in bringing it into H5, old model and all, full auto, the scope… that’s solid game design right there.
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Long story short: The H5 magnum is a 5 shot kill firing at 150 rounds per minute. The Sidekick is a 7 shot kill firing at roughly 360 rounds per minute.
Now a “new” sidekick that would be a 6 shot kill that lies in the middle of the H5 magnum and the Sidekick should fire around 255 rpm. If you want to increase the time to kill, you can lower the rpm to somewhere between 220 and 240. It will make the weapon less overpowerd, and also fixes the issue I have with the weapon right now in that it is too spammy. The Sidekick in its current form is just a RSI inducing nightmare i.m.o. Or they can make it full auto like the disruptor and commando. 
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It’s still pretty RNG-ish to achieve optimal sidekick TTK. I remember Ken saying it’s used occasionally at the highest HCS levels, but at high diamond/low onyx I can attest that I virtually never see it used… although it doesn’t have many spawn points on ranked maps anyway. BR is a better option in the vast majority of situations. A 90% certainty of an optimal-TTK BR kill beats a 60% certainty of an optimal-TTK sidekick kill. Mangler, PP for noobing, and AR for cleanup are all secondaries I’d prefer. Then I’d take sidekick for cleanup, and the disruptor… well. It’s good for trolling?
But, I guess this is more social discussion, and I really have no idea what the social meta looks like.
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@benjiFatStax In ranked it’s not really an issue because it can be countered by the BR (ranked still has a BR 2 shot + beatdown). In social, the issue is due to there being no counter anymore to someone charging at you with it and just spamming shots.
It frequently turns social matches into a game of whoever spots someone first or whoever can fire the fastest wins. Aka: Speed I Spy + Fast Unga Bunga Finger = Win.
Gotcha. I can definitely see that being a spammy mess. But BR’s still a rack weapon, right? And Mangler can even outclass the BR, so I’d think that helps balance. Close-range power weapons should crush it in close quarters–obviously if you run around in the open with a sword you’ll get killed regardless of what your opponent has.
No idea how the Hydra or Ravager play since they aren’t in ranked. And yes, the Commando is another weapon with no sandbox role at all.
Wait, remind me, is 2-shot BR + melee not a kill in social?
I agree its to strong when you can out gun a br or commando at range it kind of defeats the reason of a rifle
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No, Melee damage on all weapons in social was reduced to 90% in season 2 to address the Mangler complaints from pros. Naturally the most logical course of action to respond to such complaints was for them to nerf the entire sandbox and then - in ranked only - buff the melee damage of the BR so that it plays the same as pre-update. I mean honestly What other choice did they have, right?
It makes bleed-through melees using almost everything either take longer to achieve or requires more accuracy (heatwave/bulldog). Leaving the SK with the fastest TTK of any non power weapon. Bleed-through melees with the AR/BR/Commando -unless you’re lucid-/mangler/disrupter aren’t even a viable defense against SK spam at close range -or if the other person has awful aim-. Only the sidekick itself is.
Responds with Jack Nicholson nodding in agreement gif
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Responds with cyanide and happiness “man eating his own bum” jpeg
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It’s only rng-ish outside of it’s bullet magnetism range. Within bullet magnetism range, the magnetism trumps bloom, so whether or not you reach that ttk is entirely up to your aim.
It is one of the more difficult weapons to actually aim consistently with, because of how low the reticle stickiness feels compared to something like a BR or AR. And since it’s magnetism range drops off around 20m it offers nowhere near the flexibility you can get from a BR, which gets full aim assist fully across most 4v4 maps.
In AR starts specifically, it definitely serves its high-skill reward purpose, and as a backup weapon in BR starts if you’re feeling confident it can really give you the edge in close quarters. But as you said it only spawns on Aquarius in BR starts, most others have ARs instead. And when you consider Aquarius, it’s impossible to rely on close quarters to give you an edge because of the long hallways and open space in the middle. And then there’s the Heatwave which will outright beat it.
Plus this is Halo. A weapon that offers more flexibility and reliability will always be better overall than a weapon that’s stuck in a range niche, or that is easy to miss shots with.
I wonder what it would be like if we all spawn with the crappiest guns. The Commando and the Pulse Carbine? Plasma Pistol and Disruptor? Then the AR and Sidekick would be an upgrade.