After extensive play time in both of the flights and now playing pretty much all week in the Beta this is my opinion of where the weapons stand in terms of balance.
For the most part just about all the weapons feel great I’m actually really impressed with how good everything play and fits in the sandbox. I’m happy about the AR being a real usable weapon again and the sniper doing vehicle damage again like it did in Reach. In my opinion I don’t feel like anything needs to be nerfed as a matter a fact most the weapons I’m about to list are only on here because they got nerfed in the first place from how they were in the flights.
The Ravager- This one has been nerfed hard compared to how it was in the flights and it is avoided by most players now including myself, I think the only time people will use this weapon is when they have a challenge for it. Its simply just too weak now and unless you nail every shot the time to kill is just too long compared to someone with a different weapon, in the event you don’t nail every shot the overcharge also kicks in after the first couple bursts making it even harder to actually get the kill with the Ravager single fire bursts. This weapon should be buffed back up to how it was in the first flight in my opinion.
The Skewer- The only real problem here is the vehicle damage with the Skewer has been significantly nerfed, in the last flight the Skewer would pretty much one shot any ghost and even Warthog or Wasp that had even just a bit of damage to it. Now the Skewer still does damage but not nearly as much to vehicles. The drop-off for the spike projectile when shooting long range also seems to drop off a lot sooner than it did before, I could be wrong about that one but either way I don’t mind that at all its the vehicle damage nerf that really hurts this weapon for me. This weapon should be buffed back up to how it was in the second flight in my opinion.
The Plasma Pistol- This is the one weapon that truly feels bad to me and feels out of place in the sandbox. I understand the EMP effect being taken away to give that to the EMP weapon but the Plasma Pistol should have gotten a big damage buff in place of the EMP effect missing. Instead both the single fire damage is underwhelming and the charge shot tracking radios is extremely low and inaccurate. In my opinion the Plasma pistol should have damage similar to how it did in Halo CE with a high single fire damage and very strong and accurate charge tracking. The battery life and drain when charging is significantly better now than how it has been in recent games and I don’t have a problem with that at all I would just like to see the single fire damage significantly buffed and the charge tracking be stronger and more accurate, maybe even the reticle size be larger at least when charging to help with guiding the charge shot.
The Stalker Rifle- This weapon is an odd one to me because it’s a DMR/sniper like weapon hybrid. I find the weapon hard and a little awkward to use. I would like if it had a slower more powerful shot mode when sniping and its faster rate of fire normal damage mode for non sniping (firing from hip) besides that maybe make the projectiles fire just a little faster or even just the ability to change the mode of fire whenever you want. It definitely doesn’t feel like a sniper in my opinion and I find myself and most people avoiding this weapon for the most part.
The Commando- This ones there’s not a lot to say, I think its almost perfect and I get the edge here between too powerful and not powerful enough is really thin with this weapon but I do believe it should receive a slight buff. Either the damage should receive a slight buff or the reticle size/bullet projectile size should be increased making it easier to land shots with the Commando in my opinion.
That’s about it for my thoughts on where weapon balance is right now, feel free to agree/disagree or add your own down below.
4 Likes
I find the Ravager to be pretty sturdy. It’s similar in a lot of ways to the halo 3 brute shot. It’s a one shot melee kill, it has splash damage, and that charge attack is pretty useful for setting up multiple enemies to be no shields or to cut off doorways, damage vehicles, flush out campers, etc.
I wouldn’t mind a fire rate buff on it though. It’s not something you want to try and challenge a sidekick with directly, but it is something you can use tactically for a variety of purposes.
Stalker rifle is a 5 in the body 3 in the head. It’s a good weapon if you use it right.
Ravager - needs a Buff. Either im very bad with the weapon, but i cant beat all 9 stars with it. I think they should buff the splash damage and more damange with the AoE .
The skewer - does not really need a buff right now. If they gonna buff it, then they could just add the Spartan laser back cuz the skewer, there are no warnings at all. you feel that you got Thanos snapped
Plasma pistol - sorta need a damage buff since EMP is not comming back for that weapon
Stalker rifle. - I think the this weapon could have a charge up shot like the plasma pistol. When charging up the shot, you shoot a much powerful shot that is the same strenght as the S7 Sniper Rifle
Pulse carbine - Feel the projectile should maybe be a bit faster. Other then that, i think the weapon is alright
Sniper rifle - reduce the sniper glint. too easy to spot a sniper
Energy sword - probably just me, but i dont really like the the look on the -Yoink!-. maybe make it look more like the Halo wars smoke effect
Gravity Hammer - feels good, but…the secondary melee attack should be changed there you make a quick side swing with the blade side of the hammer. The other thing is that i wish we could Gravity hammer jump with it
Needler - feels alright other then sometimes the tacking sometimes feels very weak.
BR - IDK if this gonna break balance, but maybe make it so you can burst a bit faster between bursts.
Any plasma weapon needs a buff, there’s absolutely no point in using them.
Hydra needs a major boost, zero splash damage and it just tickles vehicles…its a missile launcher.
wont bother picking any of these up which is a shame as all weapons look cool.
Hydra is best used on Wasps for sure. 5 hit destroy. Not sure why it sucks on other vehicles. Warthog is surprisingly very beefy
Very interesting take on some of the weapons!
Ravager: in the flights it had OSK potential if you hit the entire burst so I was glad it’s nerfed but now it feels like it’s only function is area denial. The damage of the splash now works fine and is quite effective, so I’m glad with the change.
Skewer: the nerf indeed feels pretty harsh. One shooting any vehicle was a bit too strong in the flight but I would like that at least it still retains the impact effect on the first hit (giving the vehicle a massive push). It currently feels every pebble and fart tumbles the warthog but it just keeps cruising after a single skewer shot
Plasma pistol/carbine: both weapons are still in an odd place because kinetic weapons also shred shields so fast. Curious what there plan is with them
Stalker rifle: don’t sleep on this one. It has a faster TTK then the commando but very little aim assist so a bit of a learning curve. Expecting this will be the next nerf.
Commando/sidekick: my main complaint is still that these weapons are balanced by applying bloom introducing an either slow “reliable” TTK or an RNG overpowered one. I want to use them but always frustrating to feel I’m playing with a slot machine in comparison to the battle rifle and the stalker rifle.
1 Like
I haven’t had much time with the stalker. But to me it fires like the halo 5 light rifle did when it was scoped
The fact that the Plasma Pistol, one of the oldest guns in Halo, specifically known for its EMP abilities, can’t EMP vehicles makes me mad.
The Plasma Pistol is one of my favorite guns, I’m fine with new guns being trash, but don’t make such an iconic part of the Halo weapon sandbox useless.
At least a charged shot fully depletes a shield.
To be fair the Plasma Pistol didn’t actually EMP vehicles until H3 so it’s not an original feature but it definitely was known for EMPing vehicles, i think the problem is that’s the only thing it was useful for pretty much since H3. H1 was the only game where it was genuinely a good weapon.
For anyone that’s interested in following this i actually made a bigger list that covers everything listed here plus much more from bugs, vehciles, equipment, things that need to change etc. I also changed my opinion on the Skewer after playing around some more i find it to be ok now not really needing a buff/nerf.
The new post is called: Honest constructive takes on what needs buffs/nerfs and where things stand now as of 12/02/21.
Id love to hear how you all feel yourselves about anything i listed or if you have your own issue you want to add to the list.
There’s is most certainly a weapon balance issue. The AR is pretty much superior to the commando and BR. Which is fine cause the AR is actually not useless for once.
But, I played a lot of swat through the years and really fell in love with the DMR ……the closest thing we have right now is the commando……and the commando is darn near useless and needs some tweaking for sure.
The BR and commando should have a little step up from the AR but not not make the AR obsolete. Just my opinion take it for what it’s worth
Spike grenades.
Right now you can stand on top of the spike grenade and it does not kill you.
Throwing a spike in a room should kill everyone in that room unless you have a super good RNG that somehow the spikes missed you in its richochets