Except when an enemy passes it to you leaving you basically defenseless as they whip out an energy sword and destroy you.
You are mistaken, that is awesome. You just need to start doing it to others and not letting them do it to you.
Right. Things like that are only awesome when they're not happening to me lol. But that was my first experience in an oddball game. After that I started doing it to others and found it extremely satisfying.
Wreckage looks pretty damn cool, glad to see a fully Asymm. map added (complex and Exile are not quite enough.) Campers will camp, but I think we can pull off some cool hogging on here so long as we are careful. Interesting note, Duck and I were wrecking in a hog in matchmaking last night. We changed up our strategy a bit with some more defensive driving, and we were rewarded with 11-12 kills per game on Longbow, Vortex, and Exile (sorta.) Even worked to some extend on Meltdown and Ragnarok, though there we were usually acting as support for the Mantis (Mr. Mock.) We're going to keep this up, as it seems to work much better against the overly confident people used to getting lots of sticks and plasma pistol overcharges on hogs.
It can absolutely be effective as long as you approach it more conservatively and keep your distance. The turret is far more accurate than all past incarnations of the hog, with a lot less bullet spread even over great distances, which helps balance it against the proliferation of plasma pistols and stickies. But you have to utilize that new accuracy, not just charge-and-circle like you used to be able to do.
And that's where sprint+AA's come into play, Warthogs have better long range aim sure and you get to avoid most sticky's and PP that way sure. But Combined with kill times are not that fast for long range when considering everyone can sprint behind nearest cover Or use AA's like hardlight shield making bullets at range useless, Thruster pack get behind cover even faster, Camo making them hard to see at distance, Jetpack getting them behind any vertical cover. There is a sweet spot that's not to short but not to long where vehicles can kill alright at, It's still in range of PP and stickies but not far enough so people can just run from your damage. (maps don't accommodate this range very well for vehicles.) When been on foot is better at short range and been on foot is better at long range and been in vehicle is only little better at a specific medium range. Which makes vehicles niche and since I like vehicles that's annoying given how predominant they where in other halos, but more importantly for how many BTB vehicle maps there are in Halo 4 I don't think they should have made vehicles niche.
I think that the boltshotgun is more of a problem than I thought before. Most maps like Haven and BTB maps have wide pathways/entrances and a lot of turning room for most corners, but the ones that don't, like adrift, complex, exile, and to a lesser extent longbow, seem to have only narrow pathways/entrances and tight corners (or so many that they can be travelled exclusively), as if to keep a consistent architectural theme. I'm only saying this to demonstrate why players ever pick the boltshotgun at the cost of the two other very useful secondaries. The actual problem is that the boltshot's 1sk range is much longer than I expected, and the charge time is just above negligible when you don't wait the entire time (the railgun works the same way-it gives you flexiblility in when to fire). I got one-shotted at a range on exile which (if the spread of the yellow wall-bullet-marks are any indication, and not just for show) was probably extremely lucky. It looked as if the guy wasn't looking right at me (I'm not talking about a killcam), and that was replicated in Theater when I saved the clip (BTW, no other damage was done to me at all). Whether it was or wasn't lucky, however, it's a problem. Can't they make it so that there isn't a single possibility that the bullets would be close together? It was basically what would usually be ideal SAW range (100% accuracy at full bloom)- that's what I was using, and I lost even though I shot about .1 seconds before he got his boltshotgun out. TL;DR (I admit it) : It is too easy to 1sk with the boltshotgun on maps which common sense would suggest the exploitation of. In other words, I don't think players should be rewarded (for using video game depth perception to figure out which maps are close-quarters) by being allowed a shotgun that has twice the range of the reach shotgun at spawn every time (for every player). Also, Camo is a problem. Not being able to rely on any cues for the existence of camo enemies outside of radar range is not competitive, especially with so many BTB maps. I swear that I noticed the same thing that was mentioned in a different thread - camo guys not being shot when the reticle was right on them- and not only was aim assist turned off, it seemed to become anti aim assist (speeding my reticle up when passing over their camo translucence). I'm going to test this with a friend if I remember.
Agreed. I think history will appreciate the Boltshot as the plague of Halo 4 in terms of weapons. I'd personally prefer if it just wasn't a 1SK and more like a nerfed mauler which you have to charge, but at that point I guess it would just be a worse alternative to the PP. Ya know what? Screw being able to choose secondaries. No upsides imo.
Remove choices in secondaries (except using primaries in that slot with firepower) and choices in grenades and we'd have 1 major problem fixed. There would be others still but this is one of the biggest issues in my opinion.
After playing with the Boltshot for a while, and playing against plenty, I don't really think it's a problem. It's powerful, yes, but I don't feel you should be consistently at that range enough for BS to really wreck you. If you are, double beatdown is just as effective. The rest of the loadout sandbox is really pushing for a mid-range game and gives you countless ways to check corners. I mean you've got Sensor which I highly recommend, as it gives you a massive awareness advantage once you get used to it, and you've got PV, you have Hologram to bait with, and three kinds of grenades to clear with (which is usually what makes my BS moot), you've got perks to increase the blast radius and spawn count of grenades, you could always use Active Camo, Hardlight Shield, Thruster, or even JP to come at it a different way, and lastly you have access to a BS of your own, at least allowing you to go mutual. With all of that, I found that the BS was only a problem before I leveled up and I was running around with a BR and my thumbs up my ass. Once I got some stuff unlocked, BS only gets me when I'm being careless, just like double-beatdowns. And for the record, if somebody misses a BS shot at you (or you deke it) double-beatdown can be a very effective counter, circumstantially. Camo needs patching, and it's a bit OP for a spawn ability combined with certain perks (like Stealth), but the majority of it's OPness comes from the bugs - like radar jamming not happening sometimes, letting you sit invisible and not on radar what-so-ever - and even with the bugs, decent awareness and a reasonably useful teammate or two should make it a relatively minor issue. A big part of that is people boosting commendations for armor aesthetics. Of course they're going to waste their games sitting in one room invisible abusing every glitch they can so they can pull five or six assassinations off in a match if they're obsessed about Venator or whatever and playing like that means they can have it considerably sooner than playing normally. That said, I think the BS would be better balanced if it were a primary weapon. That would make it take up a more valuable slot (or two less valuable slots) and require a significant sacrifice in exchange for the situational advantage. And plasma nades ought to be 1/2 count like the promethean ones. Being able to run with 2/3 stickies and a PP is a bit much, even with the nerfed nade power vs. vehicles.
The issue with that, Gordon, as I've said before, is that the Boltshot lacks the range and other basic qualities of the other primary weapons. As it is now, it just doesn't fit into the primary weapon slot.
If they removed personal ordinance and secondary slot choice (or all loaadout choices in general, for the sake of consistency), then the boltshot would have been a welcome lower tier power weapon, like the Sticky Detonator. the Grenade launcher, and the concussion rifle used to be. If weapons were tiered like this, I would be happy: AR< "Secondaries"PP,Magnum (slightly<) Precision weapons (DMR) < lower tier Power weapons (Sticky Detonator) < Upper tier power weapons (sniper, plasma launcher) < control based power weapons (rockets, Binary rifle) -decisions on getting a power weapon change more depending on the situation and weapon -gives more freedom for the developers to make whatever gun they want (not limited to just primaries, secondaries and control power weapons) -filler -filler -makes me look smarter -look how good this idea is, it's got like a bajillion reasons why it's good!
If they removed personal ordinance and secondary slot choice (or all loaadout choices in general, for the sake of consistency), then the boltshot would have been a welcome lower tier power weapon, like the Sticky Detonator. the Grenade launcher, and the concussion rifle used to be. If weapons were tiered like this, I would be happy: AR< "Secondaries"PP,Magnum (slightly<) Precision weapons (DMR) < lower tier Power weapons (Sticky Detonator) < Upper tier power weapons (sniper, plasma launcher) < control based power weapons (rockets, Binary rifle) -decisions on getting a power weapon change more depending on the situation and weapon -gives more freedom for the developers to make whatever gun they want (not limited to just primaries, secondaries and control power weapons) -filler -filler -makes me look smarter -look how good this idea is, it's got like a bajillion reasons why it's good!
I'd still consider the Concussion Rifle to be a lower tier power weapon, certainly not higher than the Sticky Detonator.
How about they just remove melee? Or just make it do like 10% of the damage it currently does? People would be okay with that right?