That statement is almost as retarded and useless as this entire thread. It's in no way "game breaking" and to hear you say that almost makes me think you haven't the slightest clue how to counter someone who's using it. I watched the videos and I'm still going to stand behind the fact that it is a fair/balanced way to defer CQC. But I'm not going to get worked up over a few specific examples. I've seen kids be utter douche-bags with armor lock and I've used it myself. It may be the most irritating thing in the entire game, but guess what? Annoying and overpowered are two completely different things. amidoinitrite?
Look pwn, you're arguing over a few very specific and very rare instances. Even if we assume you're completely right and things did unfold the way you say, then what? You can't possibly call for changes over such trivial and infrequent occurrences, and you certainly can't call for them just because you're impatient, so there's really not much left to justify your stance. Heck, you may have seen the video on Bungie that featured someone getting killed by the dropping fist of an Armor Locker, but would you really clamor for changes over a fluke? The more common instances sound more like personal problems, to be brutally honest. What may be a coin flip for you tends to be a sure bet for me, and even If I am bested by AL, that's ok. I'm bested by a lot of AA's during the course of a few games, but it would be foolish of me to demand changes to what I have trouble with instead of simply working to overcome it.
This is getting frustrating to me. It's like we live on different planets or something. You really think it's "specific and very rare" for someone to sword lunge or melee at a guy who pops in an out of armor lock just long enough to reject the damage and pop the other guy's shields? Apart from surviving grenades and destroying vehicles, that's probably the primary way people use armor lock! What exactly is rare about that? The guy with the sword/melee attack is still going to win sometimes due to superior timing, instincts, reflexes, whatever, but the fundamental aspect of armor lock - that it lets you instantly convert a CQC situation you were losing into one where you're on equal or superior footing, AND you have an extra armor lock burst or two in your back pocket whereas the other guy probably doesn't - is not kosher to me. It's an exploit. And the other situations I mentioned - rejecting stickies that are already stuck to you, spinning 180 degrees to face an opponent that had the drop on you - are not "rare or specific" situations either. They are, again, things that happen most games where someone uses armor lock. No, because that's an actual fluke. You're simply ignoring the fundamental thrust of the argument at this point. We may differ at a philosophical level about whether a guy with a default loadout should have any kind of chance against a power weapon simply by virtue of pressing a single button. I say he shouldn't; you obviously disagree. Fine. But please don't assume that I have "trouble" with armor lock and I'm therefore crying for it to be changed. I beat AL users most of the time (because most of them are bad, which their crutch armor ability can't compensate for against somebody decent). I even win the majority of CQC situations against armor lock users. I just feel that a lot of the current features of armor lock aren't good for the game, and are frustrating to better players for no real reason. An armor ability shouldn't act as a bailout for players who are too unskilled or unaware to face the direction of their enemies, avoid plasma 'nades, stay out of high-traffic areas, keep their distance from guys with swords, etc. Armor lock does all of these things. If they nerfed it in the manner I suggested, or something even kind of similar, it would be much more palatable and require more skill to use, and slow the game down less. It wouldn't make more than a tiny difference in my own personal game results or k/d ratio - that's not what this is about. I think the banshee bomb is overpowered too but I know good and well how to avoid it or survive it (frequently using armor lock, ironically!), and I know how to take out an enemy banshee too. That doesn't mean I think it's good enough as is. I would certainly not turn my nose up at a Reach title update that tweaked a good many things. And I'd be happy to provide a list, but this is the armor lock thread, not the hypothetical patch thread.
This right here demonstrates my point perfectly. You win a majority of the time, and yet you still claim it needs a nerf? That's absurd, and it's exactly why I have no sympathy for people who oppose the ability so vehemently. The rest of your post is largely contradictory, but I'm not going to continue to write essays in an effort to point this out, as it's clear your position only stems from frustration, not reason.
I'm not going to read through 17 pages of discussion, but Armor Lock is by no means overpowered, and anyone claiming it is probably isn't very good at the game. Any argument made against Armor Lock has a parallel to other AAs (except Active Camo, because honestly, it's just the worst piece of crap armor ability to possibly exist). For example, I think Sprint takes a lot of skill out of the game. It's much like CoDMW2 where people just ran around with a tactical knife and the three golden perks stabbing people. Where is the skill in double beating down someone cuz you know you aren't going to a win a fight actually shooting them in a FPS? Whatever, the point is, if it's soooooooooooooooooo cheap, just use it, and I think I'll sport the Jetpack and Sprint and we'll see who does better. It's part of the game, get good or get gone.
It doesn't demonstrate anything. You pick on something you think is contradictory when it's not (I have explained REPEATEDLY in this post that I don't usually have problems against AL users, except the very best ones), and ignore everything else or wave it off. And when you say something that is then proven to be untrue, you just move the bar as if it didn't matter to begin with, like the EMP thing. You're talking to the wrong guy, again. I'm not frustrated at all. I've made my points clearly. If you had something to say in response to them, you would. This is just posturing, or laziness - you pick. [br][/br]Edited by merge: If you're not going to read the thread, please don't bother chiming in 17 pages later. Much has already been said including your basic argument about 500 times. The short version is this: the thread isn't called "Armor Lock is Overpowered!!!11", it's called "Armor Lock balance issues." Basically nobody here is claiming that armor lock is an automatic ticket to winning.
I did address the EMP, and even if we argue the semantics of that specific discussion, it doesn't change the big picture, which we've clearly narrowed down to personal preference and personal skill, neither of which make AL as unfair as you and several others make it out to be. I'm not saying you're currently frustrated, either. I was referring to how you find AL frustrating, and how said frustration, while tragic, has no relevance in the greater scheme of things. If you want to reel back the sensationalism most anti-ALers employ when discussing it, I respect that; I understand that you're more moderate and even-tempered about the issue than posters like Psycho. However, you just can't expect me to buy that AL needs changing when the best argument against it is merely pacing and personal skill.
Changing up strategy is not a viable counter to an armor ability. I mean that in the sense of gun play. There isn't any weapon or armor ability that counters armor lock and that it's problem, because it needs one, because it's a great counter for close quartered weapons and rockets, especially. It's like if you were playing rock, paper, scissors but you didn't have paper. You need paper to counter rock, but since it isn't there you have to punch each other in the nuts to determine the winner. The loser is the one who whines loudest. That's very close to the same feelings I got when playing against armor lockers.
To be fair, I don't believe the AA's were designed only to counter one another. If I had to guess, they feel like they needed to add some defense to counter all of the improved offensive abilities that the others provide. If I were designing something like this, I'd definitely want to avoid that rock-paper-scissors setup; this isn't an RTS, after all.
Pegasi's k/d is over 2. Mine's a less impressive but still well above average 1.4. Try again. [br][/br]Edited by merge: No, you clearly narrowed them down to "personal preference" and "personal skill." You can claim that you like the idea of someone being able to remove themselves almost completely from the action for up to one quarter of a game, but I don't believe you. You can claim that you want Halo to run slow as dirt and for kills to take 2-3 times as long as in any previous iteration of the game, but I don't believe that either. And even if you do actually believe these rather peculiar things, the far majority of Halo players disagree with you - which is why the main complaint about armor lock that you hear over and over again on this forum, the Bungie forum and elsewhere else is that it slows the game down too much. To pose you a hypothetical example, if Bungie released a game where movement speed was half what it is in Reach (and no sprint/evade either), or a game where every player started with a double-strength overshield, would you like that game? Would you want to play something where it took twice as long to get to a combat zone and/or three times as long to kill an enemy player? Outside of occasional customs for laughs, almost nobody playing Halo wants this, and there would be a massive outcry if that was the core mechanic of the new Halo game. Yet armor lock does basically this same thing, just on a limited scale - because some people choose not to use it. If everyone used it the game would be almost not worth playing. Certainly it would be a lot more irritating and a lot less fun. What other armor ability is that true of? Maybe camo, that's the only one I can think of. MLG is full of sprinters and evaders and it's fast and fun. Jet pack can be annoying if you're not jetpacking, but it certainly doesn't slow the action down; and when you ARE jetpacking it just transforms Halo from a two-dimensional firefight into a 3D one. As for "personal skill," yes I usually go positive against armor lock users. That's not the point. It's about the fact that players who don't bother playing well or intelligently are given a second chance option to use any time they want. Ran into a tiny room and found a guy with a sword? Just armor lock! Ran to a teammate's red X in a high traffic area and got barraged with grenades or DMR fire? Just armor lock! It's a five-second delay on the natural results of stupidity and poor play. And it gives their teammates the ability to bail them out entirely (turning an 0-1 situation into a 1-0), AND it gives them a handly EMP blast and grenade/projectile rejection feature that at least occasionally allows them to turn the tables all by themselves. I've been betrayed by a teammate's plasma grenade that was stuck on a guy - when he went into armor lock it flew off and exploded in my face. I've also betrayed teammates when a guy used the burst method to deflect two separate rockets I fired, and they went flying off down the top hallway on Reflection and hit somebody who wasn't even in the same zip code. Why should a default loadout on a guy who was running through a war zone in front of the game's greatest power weapon, in the hands of a capable user, be granted the ability to turn a sure death into a double betrayal for the other side (and waste half of that weapon's ammo)? Or turn Halo's most certain demise - the blue glowing sticky of doom - into a betrayal for the other side? In both cases all the guy did was run somewhere he shouldn't have been, in front of a better player with a better weapon, and then pressed a button. Though I'll admit that at least the rocket incident took a little bit of timing. The plasma grenade thing was just standard armor lock herpaderping. I stand by my previous suggestion. Nerf it like I said and it becomes a much more balanced and skillful option, that slows the game down less, yet doesn't hurt players who know how to use it properly. In addition to that, I'll offer up an alternative: keep it like it is, but take it out of playlists that don't involve vehicles. Armor lock (in its current form) makes a lot more sense on Hemorrhage than in the tight corridors and rooms of Sword Base.
Now you're simply exaggerating to an unreasonable degree. People do not AL for a quarter of the game, it does not take 2-3 times longer to kill people, and neither this game nor AL is anything like your hyperbolic hypothetical. And here I thought you were trying to be less sensational. Also, your performance against AL is the point, because you don't change things on a whim unless there is a serious issue that influences the outcome of a game far more than was originally intended. As a counter question, why should the other default loadouts strengthen all of the already devastating power weapons while leaving no real way to counter them? What's more, why should someone's desperation sticky at point blank range even be Halo's "most certain demise"? When someone is stuck at range, they usually won't even realize it and can't AL out of it, but if someone thinks they can trade kills with a last-second unmissable toss even though someone got the drop on them, why shouldn't there be a way to counter that? You can't honestly believe that improving all of the most dangerous parts of the game with no additional way to fight back against them is a fair trade-off for "faster gameplay."
I was exaggerating to make a point that you dismiss far too cavalierly, and say just comes down to "personal preference." Any use of armor lock slows the game down - that's the nature of the beast. If a player can't move and can't die then there is no other word for what is going on than SLOW. Extensive use of armor lock by several players will slow a game down heavily, absolutely it will. The exact extent is a guess because I don't have stats on thousands of games to do the math. You seem to be arguing that it doesn't matter. I believe it does. I get tired of staring at people in shiny crouch mode, waiting the obligatory 5 seconds before shooting can start again. I don't think that's very fun. If it happened occasionally it would be fine, but it happens multiple times per game if even one player on either team is using AL, and much more than that if more people are using it. How is staring at a motionless, indestructible guy over and over again good for the game? How does that increase your enjoyment, unless you're the guy hiding out in the lock and a teammate bails you out? Do you think something I'm saying here is incorrect, or does it just not matter to you? I think this essential boredom is one of the main roots of a lot of the complaints about armor lock, and lessening the amount of time it lasts would be a great way to alleviate that, without entirely removing it from the game or making it ineffective in its other uses (living through nade spam, killing vehicles). I disagree with your premise. A big part of the mission statement of any game is fun. Things that make the game less fun should be tweaked. Balance problems in a game like Halo detract from the fun, EVEN IF there are counters and ways to overcome it. See also: the banshee bomb. I have no problem with counters of a limited sort. I'm not proposing to ditch armor lock, just nerf it. I'm also not proposing to get rid of bubble shield, which is fine as is. My main beef is a loadout that makes a counter so, so easy against somebody that worked to get a good weapon. I'm not saying armor lock should NEVER triumph over rockets or a sword, I'm just saying it shouldn't be as easy as it is today. Also it's worth pointing out that other armor abilities ALREADY act as limited counters to power weapons. Evade is good for getting away from almost any power weapon, if timed properly and used in the right setting (i.e. don't evade into a wall or off the map). Jet pack is great for avoiding rockets (no more splash damage, they now have to hit you directly) and both of the close range power weapons, especially sword. Bubble shield - duh. Camo - retreat around a corner, engage camo, and stay still. Highly effective against many power weapons and especially against a sniper. Hologram - perhaps its primary goal is to attract power weapon users so you can avoid them or get the drop on them. The difference between all of these and armor lock is that they aren't guaranteed, just-press-one-button strategies. They take some finesse and situational awareness. Armor lock requires one thing only, for the most part: pressing one button at the right time. Wait a minute. You have argued throughout that anybody who gets near someone in armor lock (and ends up EMP'ed) is playing "stupidly." And yet somebody who gets stickied in the face point blank is not? That person DESERVES to be able to counter the sticky? Color me astonished. Anyway, yes, I think a plasma stick should kill someone basically every time (except rare circumstances like when an overshield is involved). There shouldn't be a loadout that allows you to automatically send the sticky grenade flying elsewhere, saving your sorry ass. The majority of sticks don't happen at point blank range, but even when they do, the other player still had to go somewhere to get that grenade (they are not default equipment outside of elite slayer) and had to think to throw it (many do not) AND may have had to switch to that grenade type, if they had any frags left; and even then they still have to hit you, which is not guaranteed unless you never strafe or jump during CQC, and insist on just pounding the guy directly in the face. So yeah, suffice to say I have no problem with taking away the world's easiest counter from what I think I can (taking a page from your playbook) call a somewhat rare and specific occurrence. Point blank stickies are not so endemic that we need to have a ****ed-up, overly versatile armor ability to tidy up the problem. Most maps have few plasma grenades and most of those grenades are not near initial spawn points. I'm quite comfortable with plasma 'nades the way they are... except for the fact that armor lock renders them meaningless.
As I already pointed out, even the slowest AL intensive match doesn't even come close to running the clock out the way other matches do, so why don't those bother you? Because it's more convenient to ignore those games, I suspect. You also argue that it should be removed from playlists unless there are vehicles, that basically means getting rid of it. Your "nerf" is limiting it to situations where it's not even worth using just because you don't like it. Also, no one is forcing you to stand there and watch it. I can't explain why so many people such as yourself are drawn to the AL's light like flies to a bug zapper, but that's no one's fault but your own. That's fine, disagree. The game isn't going to be changed because YOU don't find it fun. There aren't balance problems here, there are enjoyment problems, and that's being generous. Most shooters don't even have weapons that are blatantly better than others, so that premise is already unbalanced to begin with, if you want to be technical. The fact that there's something out there now that keeps them from getting too out of control in conjunction with the other abilities isn't a bad thing. At the end of the day, you're still going to pick up power weapons, and you're still going to do quite well with them. God forbid you be deprived of a perfection every time you pick up the sword on Countdown, though. That's ridiculous and you know it. Those abilities add to the offensive abilities of the weapons far more than they help you defend against them. What's more, effective AL use requires just as much finesse, otherwise you're just another free kill once you pop out. There are good and bad ways to use all of the abilities, and AL is no different. Yes, I'm referring to any gametype with Elites as well as others that have starting stickies, such as Slayer Pro. While common in those situations, I rarely encounter sticks outside of these gametypes, and when I do, the person usually dies as a result. Besides, a stick is nearly the same as getting a frag right under someone's feet, but those are blockable as well. Also, I only addressed stickies because you keep bringing up this rare and specific occurrence over and over. I've never claimed AL is in place just to handle plasma grenades. It only makes them as useful as a frag grenade, which is to say, still very useful. Think of it this way, one is for bouncing, the other is for staying in place. That's always the mindset i've used, even in previous games, and it has served me fairly well.
Which games? I've read most of this thread and missed that, apparently. I offered that as an alternative. My main suggestion has nothing to do with changing the playlists or loadouts, just the way armor lock works. And by the way, armor lock is WELL worth using in big team. It's highly effective against ghosts and revenants especially, it offers bursts of protection from banshees and wraiths (which is often enough to get you out of harm's way as they wait to fire again, or circle back around), etc. I play a lot of big team and I use AL *more* in that playlist than in others. For once could you engage with my actual remarks and not assume you know how I play or what my motivations are? I'm not "drawn to AL's light" like it's a bug zapper. If I see one or two teammates waiting on a guy in lock, I leave to do other things. I'll sometimes leave a guy that *I* put in armor lock because somebody else is waiting and there's no point in having multiple eyes on a wounded, stationary target. But if I'm in an area with just me and a guy in armor lock, yes, I sit and wait for him to come out of it. Because that's the only intelligent response to the situation. He is wounded and even if not he's an enemy in a known location with no cover - I'm going to try to kill him. Because that's the point of the game (assuming we're talking about slayer, that is). Not only that, but if I run past him or just turn my back on him, he has a free try at hurting or killing me. If you're really going to argue that I should ignore a guy in armor lock most of the time when no one else is present but him and me, that's an argument I'd love to hear. The game gets changed when a multitude of players dislike something about it and ask Bungie to tweak it. In this case I'm just a small part of the multitude. If you disagree with those people, fine, but let's not pretend for one second that I'm the ONLY GUY who thinks armor lock has problems. Jesus, just look at this thread and all the posts in it who aren't by me. I'm far from the only guy here, and I'm probably being the nicest about it. Look at the Bungie forum. I'm not an MLG fan per se, but one of the first things they did when they got their hands on Reach was ditch armor lock completely. I am hardly the lone voice in the wilderness on this one. There's a hundred ways to kill a guy with a sword on Countdown. Stop setting up strawmen. Halo games have had problems with power weapons - I'd say the sniper is the worst culprit in Reach; the sword was ridiculous in Halo 2, and the rocket launcher was over the top in CE. I'm not against the idea of nerfing power weapons when they need it. I just don't think the way to create "balance" is to add a get-out-of-jail-free card to the loadout list. I like how I list specifics and you basically just say "They're all the same, whatever." Fine argument you have there. As for whether or not what I said was "ridiculous," I strongly, strongly disagree. I use jet pack defensively all the time; it's great for getting out of sword lunge range or shotgun's effective range (the vertical equivalent to backing up and DMRing, except that a guy with sprint or evade can't close the gap). If I see a guy with a rocket launcher, the first thing I do regardless of the map is get off the ground to avoid splash damage. And I don't even think you have a case against what I said about hologram or bubble shield, you're just flat-out ignoring them. I never said that you claimed that. It's just an unnecessary benefit of armor lock. Sticking somebody is a fun achievement in Halo and always has been. It gives a great sense of satisfaction. That satisfaction evaporates quickly when armor lock is in play. You think that's just meaningless - I disagree. Whatever. It's not a major point of contention to me. I just think it's part of the laundry list of benefits armor lock has that it doesn't really need to be effective, and therefore part of why so many people dislike it so much. -- Just for visibility, I'm going to post this again. This is what I propose doing with armor lock to make the game play better and eliminate most of the complaints about it. If you want to argue further about my "nerf" suggestion, this is the actual suggestion. Here's how armor lock could and should work that would benefit the game greatly, and restore balance. 1. Same basic functionality as it has now, but no sticky rejection for grenades already stuck on you prior to locking, and no pan-around/auto-turn feature coming out of it. 2. The lock takes an extra quarter or half-second to initiate and an extra second or so to come out of. This prevents bursting in and out of lock reflexively as a last-second bail-out mechanism against swords/vehicles/whatever, and due to the longer release time, it makes it easier for opponents to predict when you could possibly be unlocking. It would also mean you'd only get two locks per charge cycle instead of up to three. The reason for the longer lock initiation is simple - I don't see any reason people who aren't even visibly locked yet should have vehicles and bullets bouncing off of them, and I don't see why they should get an advantage over bubble shield users (the shield takes longer to establish than AL does, and yet it's less beneficial). 3. A full lock should last about one second less than it does, to prevent so much slowdown of the game. If they did all that they can keep the rest the same IMO, including shield recharge while locked (it would matter less, since the armor lock doesn't last as long) and even the EMP.
"As for your peculiar game, that's too bad, but it sounds like it would have been easy pickings. It doesn't compare to the sluggish games I have in TS and Swat on Sword Base, however. When the games are close, it always turns into a standoff because no one wants to give up any more kills. It's not unusual for the time to run out before anyone even gets above 40 or 45. Still, I don't think it's anyone's fault, some games are just slower than others." I drive the Revenant frequently and the Ghost less so in BTB, and AL is one of my favorite abilities to run in to when facing infantry. Jetpack is hard to hit, Camo is hard to see with the vehicle view, and Sprint/Evade can close the gap pretty well. Most AL users try to hard to get in front of your vehicle, making it obvious their intention. You can even make good users force their hand with a simple boost feint. They are always the easiest to pick off if you're not reckless with the L trigger. I personally use AL less in BTB for this reason. It really doesn't matter whether you do it or not, I'm just saying that it happens. I don't feel obligated to chase down every guy that runs from me to finish him, so why do people feel obligated to finish someone in AL when it's the same general situation? I don't think people make the distinction, and/or they're just being a little too greedy for their own good. You've got to quit speaking in extremes, I'm not making you out to be the only person, but it's far from a raging mass either. Even out of the people that are complaining, only a small portion of them have legitimate concerns, but that's just not enough to warrant changes. What MLG does is irrelevant, as their goal is completely different. I've never really been a fan of MLG in the Halo series because their changes are always so radical. No strawman here; at least you recognize the discrepancies on some level. Again, AL is nowhere near the level of coveted Monopoly card, it only helps in the same way the others help with their roles. It's not as though there aren't multiple ways to a relatively balanced game, and I've never said that changes wouldn't do anything, I just don't believe in throwing nerfs around as an answer when nothing is actually broken to begin with. Do I really have to spell out how the other abilities add offense? I could have sworn I've pointed these out already, but I can go over it again if you're still not clear. I'm simply trying to deflate posts rather than inflate them as this drags on. As for Bubble, what about it? It does its job in objective games, but it's not particularly relevant since it isn't very offensive. As for Holo, let's be honest, it's a joke unless you're very skilled with it. It's the same reason Spy disguises in TF2 were so transparent until the buffs that occurred much later. Is that really what you want for AL though, to be nerfed to the point of worthlessness? While we're on the subject, why not petition for buffing Hologram to put it on more equal footing? Do you remember how easy it used to be to throw a nade at your feet before death and take the enemy down with you in previous Halo games? Reach has managed to avoid that carnival with their grenade adjustment, but plasma grenade gametypes would still look like that if it weren't for AL. If you're willing to trade that in just so you can see another sticky medal pop up on screen every few games, then fine, but I prefer getting even more enjoyment out of a stick because they're slightly harder to get.
Holy **** you guys. It's ****ing Armor Lock. Chill. On another note, here are some changes I would like to see: *Decrease duration by 1/2, maybe a full second *Swap AL for Drop shield in maps that are enclosed, (i.e. Sword Base) and keep as is on other maps *???? *Profit
Yeah, I'm trying to wind down, as I could be using this time to do more feedback for people instead. For those suggesting to decrease duration, what do you suggest be done about the EMP effect? I'm not saying it's wrong, I'd just like to consider the other changes that occur as a result of a seemingly minor tweak. Would you rather chop the EMP off where it ends up at the end of the new duration, or do you think speeding it up to fit within the new parameters is a better idea?
Fair enough. I just think the average game with multiple AL users is noticeably slower and with lower kill totals than an equivalent game with no armor lock, and that's true across the board in any gametype. I just can't get behind that. I wouldn't defend slowness for most other reasons, if that's what you're wondering. We used to play iron CTF on Blood Gulch back in CE and stopped doing it because the games routinely turned into 30 minute epics with lots of hiding and very little killing going on. If I felt there were gametypes or playlists in Reach that had this going on regularly, I would not be a fan of it. I do agree with your anti-AL techniques (common ground! ) but that doesn't negate the fact that a good many vehicle drivers apart from us are splatter-greedy. And if you're content to usually not be able to destroy them, AL is also very useful defensively against the wraith and banshee because of the length of time it takes them between attacks. I even like it against warthogs because for example on Hemorrhage they tend to circle the base, and you only have to lock long enough for them to circle until the base is between you and them. Anyway I'm not saying it's my favorite armor ability in big team, but it is quite useful under certain circumstances that come up more than occasionally. (As an aside, I would offer this tip to anyone use armor lock and trying to bait a ghost or revenant - once you know where they are, don't face them and try firing at something else and moving in that direction as well, even if there's nothing else to fire at. I've gotten several armor lock kills that way because they think you're not aware of them and will go in for the "easy" splatter. Turn towards them just enough to have a little peripheral vision, or just watch your motion tracker and listen for the thrusters.) Well, it has to be easily the most complained about thing on the Bungie board, aside from general trolling of the "Reach sucks!" variety. I was over there today and there were something like 4-5 threads about armor lock on the front page - mostly against it, though one was defending it from the complainers..! At this point I just have to agree to disagree. I feel like I've made my case as powerfully as I can. I am not a fan of the very loaded word "broken" in this context, because that's not what this is about. Bungie has made tweaks in the past like nerfing or buffing 'nades in Halo 2 (or was it 3? my memory is failing). They were far from game-breaking, but people wanted a little more or less splash damage and Bungie did something about it, to just make the game feel and play better. That to me is what armor lock is - something that just needs a little fine-tuning. It doesn't need removed or radically transformed. The core elements of it - the lock itself that resists all damage, the vehicle destruction, the EMP - I am in favor of keeping. I'm quite clear, thanks. If it isn't obvious from the massiveness of my posts, I spend a lot of time thinking on a detailed level about Halo (and everything else I take up as a hobby). I realize that jetpack makes it easier to headshot and get to high ground, and easier to use the splash damage of rockets accurately; that evade and sprint are deadly combined with shotgun or sword; that camo is a sniper's best friend. Yes, I'm quite aware of that. I wasn't even trying to argue against it. I'm just pointing out that most armor abilities DO have defensive uses against power weapons, when you said that all they do is add to power weapons without offering a counter. That's just not the case. If you evade toward me with a sword, I can evade, sprint, or jet pack away. If you fly above me with rockets, I can lift off too and get away from my real enemy - all that flat ground. Armor lock is not the only counter there is for power weapons, and the other loadouts don't simply add offense while offering no extra defense. That's what you implied; I'm saying it's not at all the case. I want it nerfed in the exact way I already described. If you really think it would be worthless with those tweaks, make a case for it. I think it wouldn't be all that different - just the few most annoying aspects would be gone or toned down. I'm no extremist on the subject. ...And yes, I would support a slight buffing of hologram. I would be indeed... and for the record, I miss being able to take people down with those last-gasp grenades. It wasn't a sure thing but it gave them something to think about when they over-committed to CQC. I was masterful at it. Ah, the glory days... [br][/br]Edited by merge: No worries. I got a little exasperated there but mostly I just like discussing the **** out of a topic. I have no hard feelings towards Chrono at all and hopefully he feels the same - we're just differing on a matter of opinion, and making our respective cases. [br][/br]Edited by merge: I would say speeding it up would be appropriate. I'm not sure if there's even an appreciable difference between the 4 and 5 second marks though - it might be exactly the same whether you speed it up or not.
Argue all you want about how balanced or imbalanced it is, but it doesn't change the fact that it's not very fun to play against. It's not fun to melee them, lose your shield, and have them come out of the lock and beat you down. It's not fun to get a nice shot with the grenade launcher, or a nice throw with a grenade only to have it negated by AL. It's not fun to wait for them to come out of armor lock so you can finish them off. I could go on forever.