This is why EVERY AA is BAD.

> Sprint:

Sprint just doesn’t fit into Halo. Plain and simple. Halo is about having the best strafe to avoid enemy fire, and finishing all of your 1v1 fights. Sprint allows you to run away from anything, and breaks your consistent movement speed. It’s pretty much a speed boost, which nobody should have while playing Halo.

> Jetpack:

Jetpack destroys map control. This is a fact. I shouldn’t be able to jetpack up to the sniper attic with rockets at the beginning of a game on Reflection. It just isn’t fair that someone can push a button and instantly have the high ground. Also, I know what you’re going to say. “It speeds up the game.” Wrong. It actually slows it down, considering it’s just another way to escape 1v1 fights. On a side note, it ruined jump maps. Seriously, nobody makes them anymore because of all these gimmicky AAs.

> Armor Lock:

“Press X for invincibility for up to 6 seconds!” You should be able to see right off the bat that this is horribly unbalanced. So, you attack me with your BR. I turn around, out play you, and get you one-shot. I deserve this kill, right? I was obviously more skilled than you if I turned around and out-BR’ed you. Instead, you armor lock and your boyfriends come over to save you. You survive, and I die. This is ONLY because of armor lock. If you can explain to me how that’s fair, I’ll give you a cookie.

> Drop Shield

Drop shield is basically a longer lasting, but more balanced Armor Lock. However, it’s still just as detrimental to gameplay as any other AA. First of all, it functions just like armor lock, except you can move around. Read my argument against AL to see why this is bad. Secondly, you can just keep throwing them onto objectives, or hide in them with your shotgun. This wouldn’t be a problem in Halo 3, because that was what the bubble shield was meant for, and it only spawned every couple of minutes. In Reach however, this is a huge issue. You get a free drop shield every x amount of seconds, and you get a fresh one every time you die. Like I said, it destroys objective.

> Active Camo

I really can’t understand why Camo wasn’t a pickup in Reach. It’s too powerful to be able to just spawn with. Seriously, invisibility at the push of a button? We might as well have overshield too, because they’re just as effective. You can argue that it’s balanced because it makes the entire enemy team’s radar impossible to read, but what about BTB games, where you can’t see them on your radar? Camo sniping, that’s what. The newest camping tactic of Halo. Easy kills, no opposition. People abuse the hell out of this AA. Please just make Camo a pickup again.

> Evade

Evade is just the Elite version of Sprint, so read the Sprint section for my argument against this.

> So, this is why every single AA in Reach was bad. I feel like I’m forgetting one, so please tell me if I am. I will be able to make an argument against whatever it is, I promise you. AAs broke the game, and I believe they are half the reason that Reach didn’t last nearly as long as Halo 3.

I agree with all of your post. I want my old non gimmicky Halo back. :frowning:

You forgot Hologram.

Hologram:

Wait . . . no one uses it anyway and its easy to tell if they’re fake, so you might as well not have it.

> You forgot Hologram.

Ah, crap.

> Hologram

Hologram is just a bad AA in general. I shouldn’t have to be guessing whether or not the guy I’m trying to snipe is real. Besides that, it’s practically useless at higher level slayer on regular-sized maps. It’s only really a problem in BTB, because that’s the only playlist it’s actually used in besides Snipers. Hmm, I really don’t have much else to say about Hologram except that it’s extremely gimmicky.

Yeah I toataly agree.

> Hologram:
>
> Wait . . . no one uses it anyway and its easy to tell if they’re fake, so you might as well not have it.

That’s not always the case. Whenever I use it in non-BTB, people usually go for my hologram (melee,shoot,etc) and I end up killing them because nobody usually uses it.

Drop shield was removed from all objective type games in matchmaking.

Why are you saying “They” will jet-pack up to the sniper spot or “They” will camp inside the drop shield with their shotgun when you have the exact same advantages?

BTW i hate AA’s as much as the next person but not for those reasons. I just liked Halo how it was in Halo 3.

But what about VARIETY D:

(i’m being sarcastic)

> Why are you saying “They” will jet-pack up to the sniper spot or “They” will camp inside the drop shield with their shotgun when you have the exact same advantages?

That’s not really a justification of any sort, although I see it used for Armour Lock a lot. “Yeah, but you have Armour Lock too, so it’s fine!” If everyone’s abusing these things, it might be “balanced”, but it sure isn’t fun or exciting in any way.

I would be happy to see the AA’s placed as pickups on maps, or potentially give players sprint and hologram off of start.

> > Why are you saying “They” will jet-pack up to the sniper spot or “They” will camp inside the drop shield with their shotgun when you have the exact same advantages?
>
> That’s not really a justification of any sort, although I see it used for Armour Lock a lot. “Yeah, but you have Armour Lock too, so it’s fine!” If everyone’s abusing these things, it might be “balanced”, but it sure isn’t fun or exciting in any way.

Well yeah. I never use armor lock nor do i play playlists with it either. I mostly play BTB, Invasion and Infection. No one uses Armor Lock in BTB because its just a deathtrap. You should try playing BTB for once, it relieves the stress of Armor lock-Phobia. IMO i think all AA’s play out great in BTB. Not smaller playlists like TS or SS.

While I agree that the AA’s are very unbalanced, I honestly don’t think sprint, evade, or hologram are bad. You should probably stick with the classic playlist if you don’t like new additions, or an older Halo game. I’m very much against armor abilities, but you just come across as a person who hates ANY change.

I just keep thinking how great Reach could’ve been if Bungie wouldn’t’ve waisted their time implementing loadouts and AA’s.

All that coding and time for NOTHING but a headshot to the Halo franchise.

Agreed

Yes exactly they are all cheap gimmicks and detract from the game in my opinion. The only one I see in adding something is sprint but the longer kill times in Halo also make this one kind of a crutch.

The other reason I see all AA’s invalid as loadouts is because they are not pick-up only like the weapons. I cannot interchange my AA during combat until I spawn(except in ML which got it right) making it so I am restrcted to ONE AA while I may have a different weapon that does not work very well in combination with my AA’. For example I choose jetpack as my loadout, but I then pick up a sword. I then would rather have spint or evade with my CQB power weapon but I am stuck with the jetpack+sword combination which is really weird.

AA’s should of been interchangeable on the map as pick-ups like the weapons to preserve symmetrical starts in Halo, and also to work with the core game mechanics/weapons of Halo which they currently do not as loadouts. Having them interchangeable would not restrict a player to one AA and thus one style of gameplay in many situations which you do not wish to have said AA but another one.

Agreed

agreed.

AA’s definitely have POTENTIAL, but i really doubt any company would nail them to the point where they were all:
-balanced
-viable
-non rage inducing
-intuitive
-promoters of skill gap and skilled play

its much safer to just abolish them and never look back IMO.

Nice post, Fear My 1 month.

Every single Armor Ability in this game is ridiculous, and it is even more ridiculous they thought having these would be a good thing for Reach (notice how I never call this game Halo: Reach in my posts because it is not even close to being a Halo). They are completely broken like you said, and most of all shrink the skill gap in this game.

AAs should never happened in the first place. Shame on the designers of this game.

Help us, 343. You’re our only hope.

AA’s should be optional pickup’s and even then, they should only be on certain playlists.