The Spartan Laser, its formal glory.

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

Hello all, I am here to discuss one of the most memorable weapons known as the Spartan Laser. From Halo 3 to Halo 4, I myself has noticed a change regarding ammo usage to nerfing. While some might not know, the Spartan Laser is considered a very powerful anti-vehicular/infantry weapon, highly capable of removing things from the battle field in a single shot, thus making it a weapon of choice to the masses.

I, myself, have noticed that whenever playing Halo 3 through Halo 4. The weapon has been nerfed drastically. Halo 4 showed me this whenever I first picked up the weapon. I have shot at Warthogs, Infantryman and even Banshee’s and have done in some cases little to no damage. In Halo 3 the SL’s rapid laser’s were more closely together thus making it hard to avoid and if you managed, your shields were depleted making you an easy kill. Now in some cases on Halo 3 the splash damage would kill you as well, so you had to keep your toes up whenever you were facing someone was good skill using it.

In Halo Reach, the SL got its reduction to not only its ammo but to the damage it outputted, but it was still a very deadly weapon, still easily capable of taking out vehicles and infantry with ease. One thing I, myself, have noticed is that the splash damage, in most cases would drains the shields of any infantryman. Which to me, I thought it was ok but you still needed to have the cursor over the enemy to ensure a direct kill.

Then I moved to Halo 4, where I noticed right away that the SL has taken a serious nerfing. Keeping the 4 shot charge, the damage output was tremendously nerfed. There were times, I know the laser hit and it did little to nothing, infantryman can easily keep most if not 3/4 of their shields, and this is by grazy their sides. (In Reach it would deplete them of their shields completely). I have shot directly on Warthogs and gotten nothing, with possibly little damage to the vehicle.

To me, I think the Spartan Laser needs to return to the formal glory like it was in Halo 3 or Halo Reach and actually be able to destroy like it use to, and please bring back the sound effects for the original, sounds so much better than Halo 4’s by far. It’s like a child’s play thing rather than a massive big boy gun. I know some of you might throw in that Halo 4 has the Wheelman perk and all but I have used it and been taken out with a single shot, so I know that perk doesnt help protect against the SL’s destructive power.

Does anyone agree? If you feel like you disagree, please explain why you think so.

2

SL should be restored to it’s Halo 3 standard.

When priming to fire, the recieving ends gets a clear red laser being aimed at them, along with an obnoxious (yet cool-sounding) laser hum, letting them know that they’re being targeted by the laser, and can get a chance to take cover/eject the vehicle.

Reach lost this Obvious laser, and as such i thought that the laser was a bit more unbalanced. H4’s laser is bad with damage, and also with hit detection, which should be fixed.

3

Again with complaining about H4’s new sounds… I seriously don’t see any reason to. They sound just fine to me. Nothing like a “toy” in any way (Warthog “maybe” but not the weapons)

That aside, I do feel the Galilean should be returned to being a lot stronger. A banshee should not EVER be able to shrug off a direct hit from the thing, full health or no. A grazing blow that barely scrapes the wing, sure. A direct hit to the cockpit? Absolutely not. A tank or wraith should be reduced to critical health, and a mongoose or warthog should simply cease to exist after being struck full-on.

You only get like four shots with it, and it’s rediculously hard to aim with it, so there’s no excuse for a light vehicle or spartan to survive a hit from it.

4

> Again with complaining about H4’s new sounds… I seriously don’t see any reason to. They sound just fine to me. Nothing like a “toy” in any way (Warthog “maybe” but not the weapons)
>
>
> That aside, I do feel the Galilean should be returned to being a lot stronger. A banshee should not EVER be able to shrug off a direct hit from the thing, full health or no. A grazing blow that barely scrapes the wing, sure. A direct hit to the cockpit? Absolutely not. A tank or wraith should be reduced to critical health, and a mongoose or warthog should simply cease to exist after being struck full-on.
>
> You only get like four shots with it, and it’s rediculously hard to aim with it, so there’s no excuse for a light vehicle or spartan to survive a hit from it.

Well the effort put into the noise sure makes it sounds stupid, like a pew pew gun IMO. Then again, some welcome the new noise but to me I personally dislike the noise. A Tank or Wraith should be reduced to ashes and not critical condition. Spartan Laser should be a anti-vehicular weapon regardless and kill most and if not everything in one hit.

5

The laser should DEFINITLY be restored to its glory of a weapon of mass destruction, it didn’t satisfy me at all in halo 4 I couldn’t kill ANYTHING. Sure it was op but it’s supposed to be op.

6

> > Again with complaining about H4’s new sounds… I seriously don’t see any reason to. They sound just fine to me. Nothing like a “toy” in any way (Warthog “maybe” but not the weapons)
> >
> >
> > That aside, I do feel the Galilean should be returned to being a lot stronger. A banshee should not EVER be able to shrug off a direct hit from the thing, full health or no. A grazing blow that barely scrapes the wing, sure. A direct hit to the cockpit? Absolutely not. A tank or wraith should be reduced to critical health, and a mongoose or warthog should simply cease to exist after being struck full-on.
> >
> > You only get like four shots with it, and it’s rediculously hard to aim with it, so there’s no excuse for a light vehicle or spartan to survive a hit from it.
>
> Well the effort put into the noise sure makes it sounds stupid, like a pew pew gun IMO. Then again, some welcome the new noise but to me I personally dislike the noise. A Tank or Wraith should be reduced to ashes and not critical condition. Spartan Laser should be a anti-vehicular weapon regardless and kill most and if not everything in one hit.

I don’t see that at all really. Yes it sounds different, no it doesn’t sound like a “pew pew” toy gun. I don’t welcome it nor dislike it - I just don’t have a problem with it. The only time I disliked a new sound in any of the Halo games was the Halo 3 assault rifle, but even then I just “Grin and bear it”. Life’s too short to make such a big deal over little things like this and spend so much time complaining about them, especially since it doesn’t even affect the game in any way.
Still, that’s just differing opinions. I can’t change your opinion, so I won’t even try - I’ve explained how I see it and will leave it at that.

As for the Tank and Wraith one-shots, I have to disagree with this one. That would push the Galilean into “Overpowered” territory. Especially if you’re given four or five shots with it. Light vehicles I understand - they’re weakly armored usually and respawn fairly fast, but not heavy ones.

7

> The laser should DEFINITLY be restored to its glory of a weapon of mass destruction, it didn’t satisfy me at all in halo 4 I couldn’t kill ANYTHING. Sure it was op but it’s supposed to be op.

So I suppose we might as well eliminate the charge time and make it full auto to boot? No.

8

I on the other hand didn’t really like the Laser in Halo 3, Reach’s version in my opinion was better.

If we are to return to the Halo 3 laser, I feel like the laser need to be pointed at the target when you start firing it, for the laser to “confirm there’s a target”, you could then point where ever you want, and then aim back at your target as you’re about to fire, or another target if you so wish.

That’s me then again.

9

For once, I actually prefer something to be entirely the same as Halo 3…

10

> For once, I actually prefer something to be entirely the same as Halo 3…

Pick up laser, aim at something you don’t like, charge it up and then watch as your target ceases to exist.

Halo 3’s laser was the best.

11

Man I miss the Spartan Laser from Halo 3…I remember me and a buddy of mine were the best with it and everyone would run for cover whenever we had it lmfao

12

Yea sure, let’s have another way to completely destroy vehicular gameplay even more than what’s been done.

13

One other complaint about the Halo 4 Spartan Laser; it sounds like crap.

Most of the classic weapons in Halo 4 do… that’s actually one of my biggest complaints, that 343i went a completely re-did the sound effects for all the weapons and vehicles.

Aside from being completely unnecessary, they also did a very poor job. The charging and firing sound effects for the Spartan Laser in Halo 3 and Halo:Reach were much cooler.

14

> Yea sure, let’s have another way to completely destroy vehicular gameplay even more than what’s been done.

It didn’t kill it in Halo 3.

15

> One other complaint about the Halo 4 Spartan Laser; it sounds like crap.
>
> Most of the classic weapons in Halo 4 do… that’s actually one of my biggest complaints, that 343i went a completely re-did the sound effects for all the weapons and vehicles.
>
> Aside from being completely unnecessary, they also did a very poor job. The charging and firing sound effects for the Spartan Laser in Halo 3 and Halo:Reach were much cooler.

While I agree the Plasma Pistol sounds much different, I actually liked the sounds of the Sniper Rifle, Assault Rifle, and Rocket Launcher. The Galilean I can’t really comment on since it’s been too long since I’ve last used it in Reach or H3.

Still, my humble opinion - one of many at that - was that I never really minded the sounds in Halo 4. The exception being the Fuel Rod. Maybe I’m just easy to please, or maybe these things just don’t really bother me that much.

> > Yea sure, let’s have another way to completely destroy vehicular gameplay even more than what’s been done.
>
> It didn’t kill it in Halo 3.

That’s because we couldn’t spawn with Plasma Pistols and grenades in Halo 3 and respawn a split second after dying, so we could keep throwing ourselves at a vehicle until it finally died. Couldn’t do that with lasers in H3, so it never ‘destroyed’ vehicular combat in those days.

If the Galilean’s power gets ramped up in Halo 5, I’d hope that the PP and grenade are only map pickups. One less thing to worry about when playing with vehicles.

16

The Spartan Laser is suppose to be the pinnacle UNSC anti-vehicle power weapon in the Halo sandbox. Pretty much any vehicle it hits it should vaporize. The only exception to that would be the heavy vehicles like the Scorpion and Wraith, but that is only if the player doesn’t hit the driver and/or weak spot in the rear on the first shot. Due to it’s small amount of ammo and charge time, I feel it should return to that status again.

17

> > > Yea sure, let’s have another way to completely destroy vehicular gameplay even more than what’s been done.
> >
> > It didn’t kill it in Halo 3.
>
> That’s because we couldn’t spawn with Plasma Pistols and grenades in Halo 3 and respawn a split second after dying, so we could keep throwing ourselves at a vehicle until it finally died. Couldn’t do that with lasers in H3, so it never ‘destroyed’ vehicular combat in those days.
>
> If the Galilean’s power gets ramped up in Halo 5, I’d hope that the PP and grenade are only map pickups. One less thing to worry about when playing with vehicles.

Sniper rifle needs to be fixed as well. A sniper shouldn’t be able to kill a warthog in 8 shots or less from across the map.

18

> > > > Yea sure, let’s have another way to completely destroy vehicular gameplay even more than what’s been done.
> > >
> > > It didn’t kill it in Halo 3.
> >
> > That’s because we couldn’t spawn with Plasma Pistols and grenades in Halo 3 and respawn a split second after dying, so we could keep throwing ourselves at a vehicle until it finally died. Couldn’t do that with lasers in H3, so it never ‘destroyed’ vehicular combat in those days.
> >
> > If the Galilean’s power gets ramped up in Halo 5, I’d hope that the PP and grenade are only map pickups. One less thing to worry about when playing with vehicles.
>
> Sniper rifle needs to be fixed as well. A sniper shouldn’t be able to kill a warthog in 8 shots or less from across the map.

Why would one even waste their entire sniper stock on a single Warthog anyway? I mean, I know it’s possible, but if you had to choose between sniping the guy in the middle of the map with the splaser, or unloading all eight of your sniper rounds into the machine hog doing circles on the opposite end of the map, wouldn’t you gun for the guys holding the power weapons instead? Or put a few rounds into their Mantis to get it to flee?

I mean, sure a sniper probably shouldn’t be able to kill a warthog on their own but with all the targets you could possibly choose from, why would you waste them all on a single warthog that will respawn again in half the time it takes your sniper to respawn?

19

Canonically, the Spartan Laser (Or, as I affectionately call it, the SpLaser) is a super-expensive weapon built in parallel to the MJOLNIR GUNGNIR armor set and is capable of unbelievable damage. I want that weapon. I want an extremely rare weapon capable of slicing through a Scorpion and punch a hole in the base on the other side of it. Make it really rare in multiplayer, but make it absolutely devastating.

20

Never even thought of this… I guess I’ve been more focused on the story and overall multiplayer quality. I completely agree with you that the SpLaser should be brought back to Halo 3/Reach standards.