Halo 3 Balancing Changes. What is different now?
Grenade, Melee and Dual Wielding – What is probably the most significant pair of changes may seem minor. Both grenades and melee attacks have gotten a boost in damage and effectiveness that permeates every aspect of multiplayer battles. Since both grenades and melee attacks are now stronger, and since you can only use them with a single weapon, dual wielding in Halo 3 is much less effective than it was in Halo 2. This is an important fact to remember when choosing your weapons.
More on Melee Damage – Here’s something to consider: In Halo 3, two melee strikes with any weapon will kill an opponent with full shields (provided the opponent does not have an overshield). Generally, most weapons deal the same amount of melee damage, though some, like the Brute Shot, deal more damage but still require two hits to kill an opponent outright. A fully charged Plasma Pistol shot followed by any melee attack will now kill an opponent (not the case in previous Halo games) and a single melee attack from a stolen flag will also drop an opponent dead. A number of weapons, including the Battle Rifle and the Magnum pistol, can kill an opponent with one headshot after landing a melee attack.
Sniping Nerfed – Halo 3′s Sniper Rifle is not as good as Halo 2′s. That’s a good thing in our opinion, but nevermind our view because it directly affects your play no matter how you feel about it. Halo 2′s Sniper Rifle had some serious auto-correction that made headshots relatively easy to get with a technique dubbed “sweep sniping.” This is not the case in Halo 3, and consequently getting head shots with the Sniper Rifle is more difficult. Talented shooters can still get instant kills, but keep in mind that most people you play are not that talented. Against these less talented folks (like, uh, us) you can usually be pretty aggressive with a non-sniping weapon and overwhelm a would-be sniper.
Vehicle Balancing - We think the vehicles in Halo 2 were a bit too strong, and it looks like Bungie agrees. There are some balancing changes with the vehicles that generally make them less effective against on-foot soldiers. One major balancing tweak now lets a charged Plasma Pistol shot temporarily stall a vehicle’s engine. Peg a Warthog, Banshee, or even a Scorpion tank with a charged shot and the vehicle’s engine will stop working for about five seconds (a successful hijack will instantly kill the drivers of most vehicles following a Plasma Pistol-induced stall). Otherwise, vehicles seem generally more resilient, as it takes way more to actually destroy a vehicle. Ghosts no longer have a weak spot on their side. Gunfire is almost useless against most vehicles. The balance here is that it seems as though drivers and passengers of vehicles get no protection against guns like they did in Halo 2, as long as you’re shooting exposed bits. Moral of the story: When fighting vehicles, shoot for the drivers and passengers, not the vehicle. The only case in which you’re better off attacking the vehicle directly is if you’ve got a Rocket Launcher, Missile Pod, or grenades (sticky grenades destroy most vehicles instantly).
Rocket Launcher Lost its Balls – If by balls you mean lock-on, and in this case that’s what we mean. Halo 2′s Rocket Launcher had a lock-on feature that made taking out vehicles a brainless task—just point, pull trigger, and the rocket would tenaciously track a moving vehicle target. Halo 3′s Rocket Launcher does not have this lock-on feature, so you’ll have to show a bit of skill if you want to bring down a vehicle with the Rocket Launcher. Again, we think this is a positive change to the multiplayer balancing, but again our opinion doesn’t matter because even if you don’t like the change, it’s real and you’ll have to man up…
…Unless You Have the Missile Pod - Our swooning over the weakened Rocket Launcher is a bit short lived, though, because Halo 3′s Missile Pod has tracking abilities versus vehicles. The Missile Pod’s shots aren’t as powerful as the Rocket Launcher, but it can fire off shots in quick succession and bring down vehicles pretty quickly (it locks on instantly, too, which is better than even Halo 2′s rocket launcher). Thankfully, a carrier of the Missile Pod is burdened with the weight of the weapon and moves slowly.
Shotgun Range - The Shotgun in Halo 2 was always a bit finnicky in our experience, with uneven damage that varied by shot and a really short range that made one-hit kills a bit of a rarity. But this is another example of “no longer the case,” as Halo 3′s Shotgun packs a serious punch. In fact, the Shotgun is now one of our absolute most favorite weapons, especially if you can stick to corners and tight areas for fighting.
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