Would You Like To See Skirmishers Come Back?

Games Halo 5: Guardians
1

I thought Skirmishers Where awesome. The Idea of a Jackal that dodges and weaves like an Elite but better was really cool, and the certainly proved to a different and unique enemy, and could overwhelm you if you where not careful.

If they where to return, I would like to see them Equipped with the Following:

Minors are your basic low ranking troops, but can be efficient in large numbers
Plasma Pistol

Engagers are a step up from Minors, and are slightly better equipped, and will constantly hound you and keep up suppresive fire, both Engagers and Minors will lose coordination when their leading Major or Combat Master dies

Plasma Rifles
Small Energy Shoulder Plates

Majors are confident, proven and tenacious enemies that will Hound you until you kill them, never truly retreating, they will flank, surround and coordinate the other skirmishers under their command to do the same.

Carbines and Needlers, and will swap between to suit situation
Large Abdomen and shoulder energy plates
Extra Health

Scouts are seen paired with Jackal snipers to pick off enemies wounded but not killed by the sniper, and will target weaker enemies more frequently than a stronger one.

Carbines
Poor Camo

Combat Masters are Group Leaders, Proven to be sneaky, intelligent and ferociously brave, and are often seen leading Skirmisher groups or escorting Field Marshal Elites in pairs. Their level of ruthless efficiency has seen them gain recognition among even the highest ranking Elites.

Needle Pistol (Pistol Variant of Needle Rifle that works better at CQC, but has marksman capabilities, fits with the Jackal origins)
Energy Blade (Can melee kill you in 5 Hits on easy, 4 on normal, 3 on Heroic and 2 on Legendary)
Large Energy Plates across various body regions
Extra Health, Weak Shields (Like Red Drones in ODST)

I like to think of Skirmishers as Drones that like to stay on the ground, except when Leaping enormous distances

what do you think? If skirmishers returned like this, would they be awesome, challenging but fair or OP?

2

Skirmishers…Absolutely, positively not. TBH, they are just plain annoying to have. Watchers and Crawlers is enough to handle, but if Halo 5/XB1 had Skirmishers, it would truly be frustrating to a point of rage quitting, lol. Not to mention, to aim at them is so difficult. Now that you mentioned, Drones, though, I would like to see them come back. They weren’t that bad, except for Halo 3 shivers

3

Absolutely yes!

They’re more fun than Drones, and less predictable than Crawlers.
If we don’t get them back, at least delete the Watchers and introduce a Forerunner “equal” to the Skirmishers.

4

There’s no “none” option in the poll, so I didn’t vote.

I really didn’t like Skirmishers. They were basically just Grunts that were faster and more difficult to hit. I thought Drones were much more unique and more interesting to fight, to be honest.

5

I liked Skrimishers in Reach and I wish they came back.

6

Um I rather not have them back. They where annoying and hard to hit unless you have a rifle which makes no sense to me.

7

I’d say yes as for once there is a unit which is actually smart and tries to flank you, surround you, etc

8

I really want skirmishers back. I want all the covenant races back!

9

I’d rather something agile and interesting to fight as opposed to the giant bullet sponges that everyone seems to ask for (Brutes, Drinol).

Skirmishers were neat, and expanded on a species that doesn’t get focus usually.

10

I don’t get the hate for Skrimishers. They were one of the most fun Covenant units to fight, period. They were actually able to outsmart, outflank, outgun, players who weren’t paying attention. Even against those who did they were always a challenge.

Drones were also fun to fight, and I don’t see why we can’t have them back too. It’d be interesting to see more rivalry between each Covenant species.

11

Skirmishers were amazing, so HELL YES!!

12

  1. Where’s the “no” option?

  2. I would want an enemy LIKE the Skirmishers, but from the Forerunners or Precursors. I’m sick of fighting Covenant. I’ve been doing it for 13 years.

Bring on the Forerunner/Precursor enemies.

13

I would like to see Skirmishers return. Brutes, Drones, and Flood too. I like maximum variety and it’s not like any of them are redundant.

> If we don’t get them back, at least delete the Watchers and introduce a Forerunner “equal” to the Skirmishers.

Crawlers (fast, can leap/climb walls, not much health)

14

Skirmishers were pests.
A cheap unbalance between dexterity, numbers and endurance.

I don’t think they’re nessecary when we already have Jackals, too.

15

Personally, I absolutely hated skirmishers, but you have given me what I believe to be a good idea, OP: how about instead of having several different skirmisher variants, we could have them be more like mini bosses than standard foot soldiers; think gold sword elites, or brute chieftains. I imagine them being more like mercenaries than religious zealots, they would operate more independently from the more militaristic troops. Favoring the more unorthodox tactics, they utilize exotic equipment and weaponry customized to suit their unique fighting styles.

Here are some skirmisher classes I think would be awesome sauce:

-Skirmisher vanguards: these are what you get when you cross a shield jackal with a sword elite. With a point defense gauntlet on one hand, and a short energy blade in the other, these Kig Yar are comfortable in light armor, relying mostly on their shield and the added mobility to avoid damage. Like the sword elites they will rush the player with alarming speed and ferocity, but instead of running in a straight line they close distance with zig-zag patterns in combination with rolling (which exposes them momentarily), avoiding shots. Their energy blades will kill in two quick slashes.

-Skirmisher challengers: These elite mercenaries fancy the noob combo with dual plasma pistols as their primaries and a carbine as secondary; you know how it goes. They drain your Shields in volley of plasma pistol fire or with a charged shot, then switch to their carbine and attempt to clean up the kill with a headshot. This would be the first time an enemy would use a weapon combo intelligently. Like the player they will utilize strafing tactics, including crouching to appear as small as possible, and jumping up on platforms in order to maintain the high ground in a fight. As for protection, the challengers wear exotic full body plate armor with some jagged pieces of hardlight for additional protection and to deflect projectile rounds (I choose hardlight because I think ‘popping’ pieces of hardlight offers more satisfaction than flaring shields). If the player gets to close they’ll pounce and give the player a good thrashing before using a thruster pack to reach safety before the player can counter.
In short: I want these enemies to feel like a true challenge; an equal to the player. Not because they do more damage or have more HP, but because they use the same tactics a veteran Halo player would use. Of course, these guys would be hell for a programmer to script, but I think the new power of the glorious XBone could make AI like this a reality.

These enemies don’t have to be Kig-Yar. They could just as easily be elites, brutes, or prometheans, but I’ve always like the idea of every race having their own top tier special forces units

Good idea or bad?
Just spit-balling, really.

16

There is no “None of the Above” or “No, I Most Certainly Would Not” option, so I didn’t vote.

17

My initial experience with them were “heh, genetically superior Kig-Yar?” but they were forgettable.

18

Actually I want every species and subspeices to make an appearance in the next Halo game.

Also a Skirmisher who melees spartans can be a cool addition.
He shouldn’t have to get in fight of attrition with a spartan, just blitz in, hard melee strike, partially or fully drain Spartan’s energy shield, run away for support units to fire at the Spartan.

19

I personally think that Skirmishers coming back would be kind of pointless. In all honestly, all we need is a few high ranking Jackals that move faster than normal infantry that use shields.

In fact, something like this would have made more sense in Reach than making a “subspecies” of Jackal. The fact that we see skirmishers on Reach and not in later events just makes things confusing. Faster Jackals not held back by their shields would have explained it perfectly.

20

Skirmishers as rare melee/fast attack units would work fine.
Normally working in conjugation with a high ranking Elite or Zealots.