I’ve played enough of the flight this weekend to get a good feel for all of the weapons in the testing sandbox; while I’m happy with almost all of them, the pulse carbine doesn’t stand out to me in any particular way. I feel that at its core, it’s a confused design. It has the plasma projectiles of a plasma rifle, almost the range of the covvie carbine, and a slight homing feature similar to the needler. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t able to use it effectively, but I couldn’t quite find a spot for it in matches. At close range it absolutely shreds, provided that your bursts all hit your target while compensating for the strafing the higher level bots employed (I haven’t tested this against players), but at medium-long range the projectile velocity is on the lower end of the things and the homing feels a bit weaker. I know it has good killing potential, but its identity feels all over the place and to me it was too wonky to use effectively. Thoughts on this? How was it in the pvp if you played that?
I did not like it that much and didn’t really function very practical. With the banish playing a role in the new game I think they should have focused on like a hybrid brute carbine. Upgrade the spiker. We’ll have to see when the game comes out but I feel there was some missed opportunities on some cool weapon designs cuz I feel like 343s trying to make their own iconic weapon. I can feel this by them destroying the rocket launcher in Halo 5 and them trying to shove in their version of a shotgun.
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> With the banish playing a role in the new game I think they should have focused on like a hybrid brute carbine. Upgrade the spiker.
Honestly agree with this. I would have liked for them to keep the classic plasma rifle and add a banished precision weapon like a spike rifle or the old covvie carbine. I think it’s here to stay though, so they should at least tune it to be better at medim-long or close range. I’d like a buff to the projectile speed and a nerf to the homing.
Honestly hardly ever touched it, was mostly sticking to the BR, AR and needler as my go to weapons.
I get what you mean, and I felt the same way after we first saw it in the Campaign reveal. I thought that playing with it may change my opinion, but I can’t say that it has. That being said, I’ve never really felt much for the plasma-based rifle used by the Covenant/Banished — only using it when I couldn’t find another weapon.
I think the weapon being burst-fire mixes its identity with the Ravager a little too much, and I’d probably prefer it being a full-automatic. I think the Commando would have been a good model for the Banished plasma-based rifle, with the Commando feeling too mixed with the AR and BR. Had it been a Banished weapon, its hybrid nature would better fit the sandbox.
Unfortunately, PvP hasn’t seemed to be available in the UK. It would’ve been good to test against players.
The problem is the tracking, the tracking will often pull your shots completely off moving targets making it virtually useless. If they scrapped that and bumped up the projectile speed a bit to keep it capable of mid-ranged engagements it would instantly become a good weapon. There are a few other changes I’d suggest, like removing the headshot multiplier from it (and all other plasma weapons) so that it deals consistent damage so long as your shots are properly lead, as well as increasing it’s burst to 6 shots, and then balancing the damage it deals with both of these changes so it can still 2 burst, but requires perfect shot placement for all 12 bolts but the first two tweaks are the most important ones.
I have the same feeling as you.
its better than the gun it replaced, but not by much.
A cool concept it honestly made me eeekk when I picked it up in the test range but using it against the bots in mp made me feel like the players if they were fast enough could just run away or come up with a way to push me back before I got the chance to kill them with the weapon. I think they need to bring back the real carbine and like someone said up top a banished twist on the cov carbine.
I think it’s supposed to be a long range support weapon. I found a ton of success with it when aiming for targets pretty far away, and keeping the reticule red the whole time the bolts tracked to the target. It strips shields VERY effectively, and it sort of seems to me like the bolts track better the farthest away the target is, and the longer you keep the reticule red.
Using it specifically to strip shields and then letting team mates finish players off seemed like how that build of the weapon was intended to be used to me.
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> I did not like it that much and didn’t really function very practical. With the banish playing a role in the new game I think they should have focused on like a hybrid brute carbine. Upgrade the spiker. We’ll have to see when the game comes out but I feel there was some missed opportunities on some cool weapon designs cuz I feel like 343s trying to make their own iconic weapon. I can feel this by them destroying the rocket launcher in Halo 5 and them trying to shove in their version of a shotgun.
A slow firing spike-based weapon would have been slick as a Banished answer to the Carbine
The Pulse Carbine definitely needs some more attention.
It didn’t feel consistent at all. It felt like a burst Storm Rifle that struggled to get kills against the bots during the technical preview.
It does impressive damage but it feels like you can’t really consistently land the bursts.
it wasnt as good as plasma rifle plus the low ammo capacity is the worst part
For scoring kills? Not very good. For causing mass amounts of damage so that your teammates can pick them off and you can get assists? That’s where it really shines. Kinda like the heatwave, except the heatwave can actually land kills quickly if you aim in the right spot. The pulse carbines plasma shots just move too slow to use it as anything other than cooperative play.
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> The problem is the tracking, the tracking will often pull your shots completely off moving targets making it virtually useless. If they scrapped that and bumped up the projectile speed a bit to keep it capable of mid-ranged engagements it would instantly become a good weapon. There are a few other changes I’d suggest, like removing the headshot multiplier from it (and all other plasma weapons) so that it deals consistent damage so long as your shots are properly lead, as well as increasing it’s burst to 6 shots, and then balancing the damage it deals with both of these changes so it can still 2 burst, but requires perfect shot placement for all 12 bolts but the first two tweaks are the most important ones.
SO MUCH THIS.
I kept wondering why I could slaughter bots with my pistol, but the pulse rifle I couldn’t get a shot in when they jumped about. It was really frustrating and at a certain point, I stopped using it.