Ok, here we go again. First there was SWAT in TS, then Infection in Rumble Pit, now my pet peeve has become Elite Slayer, once again in TS since it's the playlist I play most by far. This thread is not intended to promote bashing of the Elite Slayer gametype, I personally don't like it but clearly others do and that's fair enough, I want to make that clear from the off. I personally don't enjoy it, it pretty much always ends up as a chaotic mess in my experience, the combination of sticks and evade, plus basic increase in movement speed, leave little room for set ups or decent map movement before you die in a hail of stickies or needles. But I would not presume to tell other people that they have no right to enjoy it and therefore play it. However, as was true with SWAT, I feel that the high weighting and the fact that the majority seem to gravitate towards it over any other choice brings the variety of the playlist down. I also dislike it based on the fact that the Elite weapon set removes pretty much all of my favourite weapons from the maps, and I'm sorry but a Plasma Repeater is a poor substitute for a Shotgun. I did actually enjoy it quite a bit at first, but swiftly grew tired of it because of the sheer frequency with which it's picked. There's also the issue that it's pretty much always on Sword Base or Powerhouse, the former of which I'm not too keen on, especially for Elite Slayer. Increased movement speed + Evade in the tight hallways which make up much of the map only worsens the chaotic gameplay in my experience, and whilst I absolutely love Powerhouse, again I feel that the Elite weapon set brings it down just a little from the default version. I'm quite aware of the obvious counter to this objection of mine: if the majority pick it most of the time, it's unfair to expect Bungie to change the setup since said majority is obviously happy playing it this much. However, this was true for both SWAT and Infection, and is in essence the real problem. The aim of Halo playlists seems to be to promote reasonable variety whilst still catering to the preferences of the majority, a sound principle to be sure. But the fact that Elite Slayer ends up being picked so often not only counteracts this idea of variety (I see Elite Slayer on either Sword Base or Powerhouse is almost every selection, counting all 6 if it goes to none of the above, but have to play for a whole day or more to get Slayer DMRs or Slayer Pro on Asylum), but also indicates that the popularity is high enough to warrant a playlist separation just like with SWAT and infection. Now I know, one gametype does not a playlist make, so I'd suggest expanding the principle to include objective gametypes as well. The Elite variant is different enough in terms of basic gameplay mechanic to provide a pretty different experience in Slayer, so why not in objective gametypes as well? On that note, it kind of surprises me how there are no Elite objective gametypes, whilst the TS playlist is flooded with it. Kind of unrelated, but I'd also like to see the Team Objective playlist tweaked slightly to include some DMR start objective gametypes other than the Pro variants. Don't get me wrong, I prefer Sprint only starts and no motion trackers personally, but I see the merit in standard DMR start gametypes which allow for other AAs, weapons and trackers, especially when I'm going in by myself for a bit of fun and don't have any semblance of communication in-game. tl;dr: I think there should be an Elite gametype playlist, with objective variants as well as Slayer, and Elite Slayer should be removed from TS or at least the weighting should go down significantly. Thoughts?
Elite Slayer is fine, but most of the time there's not stupid noobs when I play it. I see nothing wrong with it, IMO.
I am the complete opposite. I am never able to get elite slayer. It pisses me off so much. I want to play it so badly but nobody ever votes for it. I think I may have played it 5 times since launch but thats pushing it.
Neither do I in principle, which I tried to communicate repeatedly in the OP. I don't enjoy it that much anymore, but that does't mean I think there's something wrong with it. My point is that it's not only weighted extremely high, and on two specific maps as well rather than across all of them, but that people pick it more often than not when it's there. It reduces variety and means that those who don't enjoy it are forced to play it more than any other gametype in the TS playlist. This is exactly the same reasoning behind why SWAT and Infection were given their own playlists. If they were simply bad gametypes they would have been removed, this is not what I'm trying to say at all. EDIT: @DimmestBread: Wow, is all I have to say. I find that it fills the first slot more often than not, on either Sword Base or Powerhouse 90% of the time, and that people pick it a great deal. I genuinely don't know what to say to you, other than possibly suggesting that you recover my account so you can have your fill lol.
I like elite slayer every once in a while, but you're right it is well overplayed, especially in multiteam. It would run much smoother without needlers and AL though IMO. Basically I would love to see an "elite pro" gametype, with just the one loadout selection of needle rifle, plasma pistol, and evade, and of course no radar.
I wouldn't know about those maps in particular, I usually get it in big team. I think its fine though.
big team can be fun on, its kind of funny how the wraith on boneyard in elite slayer is just a big death trap if the other team isnt completely stupid, because a plasma bolt and you just become a huge target.
Agree completely. In fact, any vehicle is taken out pretty quick (again, if your team isn't a bunch of fools) You never know though. I have a friend who's played halo 3 for 2 years at least. When he found out the plasma pistol OC drained shields, he was amazed. When he found out it stops vehicles, he was flabbergasted. Spent too much time in MLG i guess
Are you referring to FFA or TS? I don't mind FFA Elite Slayer, most of the time, I quite enjoy it. Team Elite Slayer just doesn't work IMO. Giving everyone on teams of 4 stickies, is a bad idea and I pretty much agree with everything you said aboot it. I'd definitely be interesting in playing some Elite objective games, it'd hopefully be great.
I'm talking about it in TS, tbh I barely ever get it in FFA. I'm fine with it being there, just don't think it warrants the weighting it currently has in TS. And since many people seem to like it so much, I thought that maybe expanding it to a playlist and branching out in to some objective variants would be the most logical solution.
I miss SvE slayer. I know there is invasion slayer which is basically the same thing, but SvE was soo much fun! Even though it was just a test for the beta
You could make that, just do invasion slayer, and have the hills inaccessable. But I love the dynamic that Invasion slayer adds to the game.
I just had the most wonderful idea of quoting everyone in the thread and adding a responds to every single post to put extreme emphasis on the fact that i read everyone's post and that i took every single one into consideration... I'll have to do that sometime for a really long thread for kicks... uh.... Anyways: I would like to say that I sometimes enjoy a good ol' chaotic mess of elite slayer.. Though the word "sometimes" carries tremendous amounts of weight pertaining to the validity of this claim. The moment I want to play Regular Slayer but Elite Slayer is chosen, a barely resistible urge to destroy the nearest expensive object falls upon me quite suddenly... Setting possible anger management issues aside, I interpret this feeling as racism... er... rather the unconscious desire for things to be separate from each other. In other words, I emotionally agree with you. The gameplay in elite-populated-gametypes differs drastically enough from their human counterparts that giving our warmongering Sangheili brethren their own Playlist is easily justified. I do enjoy entertaining the idea of giving the hypothetical Elites' playlist more objective based games, in fact I highly suggest it. Though there is one problem about Halo reach, that i think resonates best through Elites-only gametypes and that is grenade spam. I have very few times entered a small room with a member of the opposing team and experience an entirely grenade free engagement. Armor Lock, which is arguable the most hated feature in the game, is a counter to grenades. If you eliminate grenade-spam, you'll have a better case against Armor Lock. How one eliminates grenade-spam (at least mostly) is to have grenades start on the map only and not with people when they respawn, as to limit the amount of grenades thrown.. -Though I will have to test that one out and be more detail..ier in another thread-
The reason grenades are used more in elite slayer is because it offers an instant kill, because the needle rifle is weaker than the DMR, the reason everyone hates AL is because it takes away sticky kills, which gets REALLY annoying real fast. But yeah, starting with 0-1 nade will help drastically, just have to add a few more nades to the maps.
I don't see why in Elite Slayer all the Loadouts have different weapons. Why not just have all have a Plasma Repeater and a Plasma Pistol, then keep the original Armor Abilities from normal Team Slayer but replace Sprint with Evade?