The Bolt Shot envokes the same feelings of frustation as Armor Lock.

[Chris Hansen]

Allow me to explain.

 

I am not comparing a weapon to an AA.

 

In halo Reach the biggest problem I and many others had with armor lock is in essentially you could have had an enemy completely beaten, and dead to rights, when they not only survive but go one to cause your death (inadvertantly with buying enough time for team support or directly in a close quarters situation with the emp function). The ability to negate a stick was also super annoying and anti-halo to the extreme. This was and always will be frustrating, although its worth mentioning that Armor lock was eventually nerfed by 343i.

 

So here we are in halo 4, and although there is nothing close the scale of broken like armor lock or Reach's Banshee; a very familar feeling a frustration and feeling cheated started to stir within me.

 

The Bolt Shot. The charge function on this weapon is just outrageous. It's too strong overall for a secondary weapon. There have been countless examples of my getting someones shields down in not open spaces with anything, a Saw, assault rifle, DMR, battle rifle, only for them to get around a corner or platform and instantly kill me with the bolt shot. I have NO problems with any of the other weapons in this game, in terms of balance and strength. I usually don't accuse weapons of being too good as there is usually a playstyle and other guns that trump it and that's true, except you don't spawn with anything thats a direct counter besides another Bolt shot. Anyway the thing has slightly better range then a shot gun shot and it's pretty much bull****/annoying everytime I get killed by it. I've played all the halo's and love them, well not Reach. But all the other halos. And I love this one too.

 

So in summation, I feel cheated, and annoyed whenever I get killed by the bolt shot, much like armor lock. Not because the weapon is powerful, but the range and damage allows it to get people out of situations they have no bussiness surviving, much like the AA. It's not as bad obviously, but still pretty damn annoying. The weapon could be balanced easily by simply reducing the range slightly on the charge burst, thats it. I don't even want the damage reduced.

[TRF BaDInTentZs]

lol. Not quite the visceral hatred I had for AL but close

[RedStarRocket91]

I'm going to have to disagree here: I think it works perfectly fine as it is. It's a skill-based thing (unlike Armor Lock, where you just held the button down and let lag do the rest) as it has to be aimed, charged, and timed perfectly to get a kill. And it really does have to be charged: have you seen how pathetic the regular shots are? That''s two shots per clip, with a very slow firing rate as well.

 

As for spawn weapons that can counter it, think of it like this; what does a Boltshot user do against a Magnum at range? Fire his incredibly slow, weak individual shots back and hope for the best? It's the short-range secondary, the Magnum is the mid-range secondary, and the Plasma Pistol is the utility secondary.

 

Plus, it can actually be countered pretty easily. Staying out of range is the obvious solution, but you can also try other things to throw their aim off: jumping around corners will help decrease the chances of their shot landing, throwing a grenade at the base of the corner will force them backwards and give you extra room, Holograms a half second in front of you can take the shot in your place, the Jet Pack can give you safe height if you don't think a jump is sufficient, a well-timed Hardlight Shield will negate the shot entirely, and the Thruster Pack is astonishingly effective due to the Boltshot's low firing speed, as you just have to dodge the first attack to pretty much guarantee a win.

 

If you're still having trouble, the other alternative is to switch to a longer-range fighting style. Pick up a Carbine or Lightrifle and see how quickly they fall apart in the open. And if they refuse to come into the open, that's time that they aren't getting kills for their team. Use a little patience and they'll either switch out for their primary to try and take you on out in the open or spend the whole game hiding in a corner not doing anything. Either way, you're negating their advantage without actually having to take any risks!

[Adam151]

I can't use the boltshot aswell as the other secondarys so its not too accessible to everyone I've been playing halo since the original xbox. It's hardly the sawn-off from gears 3 and I don't get frustrated by it at all and you gotta think like the shotgun your a few feet away you'll win with a br, dmr etc or a plasma straight in the face if your getting annoyed have a brew

[LiQuid BioniX]

I would tend to disagree just a little bit with you. I do understand that at close range it IS a one-hit-kill, but the range at which that happens is usually just outside melee range or a little bit closer in even. I think it is a skill-based thing. It works well with Promethean Vision, and it's often just a timing thing. If you could hold the charge for as long as you wanted, THEN I would absolutely agree that it would be overpowered, but the fact that it takes half of a clip, has a charge time, and discharges pretty much as soon as you reach full charge still leads me to believe that it's not overpowered, at least not yet.

[Adam151]

I agree

[Maximum Clutch]

Still though, I HATE when I no shield a guy and he runs around a corner and I get hit with the boltshot.

[OMG Treason]

Good another Boltshot thread.

 

No its not a problem, I barely die by it. At most it should use all its ammo in one charged shot.

[spidermancy612]

Okay, so I read the original post and agreed. I then read the posts following saying its not OP. It is by far useful in good hands. I have 13% on my Promethean weapons by using the boltshot alone. You only equip it when you are hiding around the corner and more often than not you don't know I have it. If I am hiding around a corner then most people run after as it looks like I am running. You cant know for sure if he has one or not, and trust me it goes way farther than a melee. If is were given less range and take an entire clip for the charge it would be better.

[Fishy]

I still am fine with boltshot, that's why I'm not an idiot and back up away from the enemy; so this doesn't happen.

 

[snqrls]

I'm going to have to disagree here: I think it works perfectly fine as it is. It's a skill-based thing (unlike Armor Lock, where you just held the button down and let lag do the rest) as it has to be aimed, charged, and timed perfectly to get a kill. And it really does have to be charged: have you seen how pathetic the regular shots are? That''s two shots per clip, with a very slow firing rate as well.

 

As for spawn weapons that can counter it, think of it like this; what does a Boltshot user do against a Magnum at range? Fire his incredibly slow, weak individual shots back and hope for the best? It's the short-range secondary, the Magnum is the mid-range secondary, and the Plasma Pistol is the utility secondary.

 

Plus, it can actually be countered pretty easily. Staying out of range is the obvious solution, but you can also try other things to throw their aim off: jumping around corners will help decrease the chances of their shot landing, throwing a grenade at the base of the corner will force them backwards and give you extra room, Holograms a half second in front of you can take the shot in your place, the Jet Pack can give you safe height if you don't think a jump is sufficient, a well-timed Hardlight Shield will negate the shot entirely, and the Thruster Pack is astonishingly effective due to the Boltshot's low firing speed, as you just have to dodge the first attack to pretty much guarantee a win.

 

If you're still having trouble, the other alternative is to switch to a longer-range fighting style. Pick up a Carbine or Lightrifle and see how quickly they fall apart in the open. And if they refuse to come into the open, that's time that they aren't getting kills for their team. Use a little patience and they'll either switch out for their primary to try and take you on out in the open or spend the whole game hiding in a corner not doing anything. Either way, you're negating their advantage without actually having to take any risks!

1. Not hard to use

2. You can get headshots off of it

3. 4v4 maps offer a lot of cqc action

4. A lot of your alternatives depend on them not being bad. Jetpack does not work to get away fast enough, and using it or the thruster pack for an extrastrafe doesn't give enough distance to escape the AoE even if they don't track you. Grenades need to be thrown perfectly, and are circumstantial especially given they have their own ability, and the gun itself has a very large effective range.

5. You're forgetting it's a secondary. Why wouldn't they have a dmr with them to counter you at distance too? You don't give up anything to use it.

 

I would tend to disagree just a little bit with you. I do understand that at close range it IS a one-hit-kill, but the range at which that happens is usually just outside melee range or a little bit closer in even. I think it is a skill-based thing. It works well with Promethean Vision, and it's often just a timing thing. If you could hold the charge for as long as you wanted, THEN I would absolutely agree that it would be overpowered, but the fact that it takes half of a clip, has a charge time, and discharges pretty much as soon as you reach full charge still leads me to believe that it's not overpowered, at least not yet.

 

It's actually a bit farther than the sword lunge range. As for it taking down your shields, I've had that happen to me from a good 12-15ft, and the pellets do count as headshots. Or rather, maybe the distance between the boxes beside the lift on adrift; perhaps closer to the inner edges of the two, but you get the idea.

[Cocoa]

Use decoy or hardlight shield.

[DoctorB77]

I would tend to disagree just a little bit with you. I do understand that at close range it IS a one-hit-kill, but the range at which that happens is usually just outside melee range or a little bit closer in even. I think it is a skill-based thing. It works well with Promethean Vision, and it's often just a timing thing. If you could hold the charge for as long as you wanted, THEN I would absolutely agree that it would be overpowered, but the fact that it takes half of a clip, has a charge time, and discharges pretty much as soon as you reach full charge still leads me to believe that it's not overpowered, at least not yet.

 

This is correct. If you could hold it down like a plasma pistol then it would be overpowered. But if you do happen to charge it up and not time it right then you will miss and most likely not when the gunfight with a pistol. So it requires some skill and it is somewhat risky to use. So I think that it is pretty balanced because there has been plenty of times where the person that is attacking me misses me and I can get an easy melee and I only have to sacrifice my shields for a moment.

[BumblePumpkin]

While I agree it's a bit frustrating for someone to spawn with a weapon that can kill in one hit, it really isn't that different from a Plasma Pistol + Melee combo. It takes some amount of skill to charge the weapon and time it well to get a kill, so it isn't overpowered. It's just a weapon that is in the game, learn how to spot someone with it and keep a distance.

[Kasey Chrisman]

IM with you OP >:|

[ProudDrunkIrish]

I like the weapon personally and use it quite a bit. It gets cheap kills though in anything more than a 1 on 1 often leads to your death.

 

The charge/release time is very open making it a very easy weapon to use there really is no skill involved! I had it working well after using it in 3 rounds.

 

It is becoming very common. Was playing oddball yesterday and both teams were just running round with boltshots lol. Have to say in slayer its not that big an issue but in objective games it is becoming some people primary.

 

The range is well outside melee range (not sure why people keep claiming it to be such a short range weapon), many of my kills have been beyond the 1HK range of say a scattershot.

 

Being a user of the gun I like it but have to admit it will become a problem in some objective games (just a matter of the novelty wearing off), As i have said before they could change it slightly e.g. keep the 1HK, reduce the distance to just beyond or equal to melee range, make it do next to no damage when you are outside the 1HK range. These changes would keeps its use but make it a little less common.

 

As I said I like it as it is but have to admit its a bit over the top for a secondary but still no game breaker. Most players using it will die once they get a kill, still love killing a sword guy or shotgun guy with it lol. Have to say seems to be evenn more powerful than a mauler was in Halo 3....

[Halogeek99]

Since all matches are long distance strafe fests, I'd say loadout SHIELD is the new annoyance. And wallhack. The most stupid thing ever.

 

Boltshot isn't much different from the Mauler of Halo 3, its just the loadout system enabling you to start with it that **** things up.

 

Same problem with Plasma Pistol making any vehicle ride a short one...... It's not theweapons, its the stupid loadout system!

[RedStarRocket91]

1. Not hard to use

2. You can get headshots off of it

3. 4v4 maps offer a lot of cqc action

4. A lot of your alternatives depend on them not being bad. Jetpack does not work to get away fast enough, and using it or the thruster pack for an extrastrafe doesn't give enough distance to escape the AoE even if they don't track you. Grenades need to be thrown perfectly, and are circumstantial especially given they have their own ability, and the gun itself has a very large effective range.

5. You're forgetting it's a secondary. Why wouldn't they have a dmr with them to counter you at distance too? You don't give up anything to use it.

 

It's very difficult until you've gotten used to it, and even then you have to predict exactly when your opponent will be in firing range. And the Magnum is easy to use, too, plus that can get kill at MUCH longer ranges, and nobody wants to ban that. Same thing for headshots, except again the Magnum can do that at mid-range instead of just point-blank where the target is likely to be killed anyway.

 

As for the maps, what does that have to do with anything? Well done on them for picking an appropriate loadout. Some maps have very long, open sightlines, isn't it unfair that people can have a Magnum on those? Or a Plasma Pistol on maps with lots of vehicles?

 

The Thruster Pack actually DOES give enough distance to dodge a Boltshot, if you strafe straight left or right. It's especially easy if you jump. Jet Pack is just used to attack them from above, and Jet Packing backwards and upwards increases the rate at which you're getting out of distance, even if it were the same on its own.

 

And if we're going to argue situational, then what if the situation is out in the open? Unless you're really unlucky, they can't do a thing to you. Forcing a fight at close quarters is just good tactics, the same way you'd have to be a bad strategist to run up to someone with an Assault Rifle while holding a Battle Rifle. You're giving them the advantage and expecting to win!

 

As for the last, that's exactly my point. Even if they do have a DMR or whatever, they're being forced not to use their Boltshot. It becomes just another fight instead of one against a weapon you have problems countering.

[TornadoFlame]

i think the boltshot is op. but i don't complain about it cause i use it all the time to prove it is overpowered it has more range on it then shotgun most people can 1 shot you with the boltshot then clean you up with DMR before you finish with dmr i mean if its a loadout weapon why is the shotgun not one? i don't think boltshot takes skill charge and shoot not that hard. lol as a starting secondary i think range should be toned down its a gun you spawn with not one you pick up But like i said i don't care for it much because i use it or am forced to use it. duh to everyone else using it.

[Bloody Initiate]

I never found Armor Lock especially frustrating. So I agree with your subject line.

[SkItZo1041]

As an avid boltshot user, I agree that it is cheap. But it gives you a chance against people camping with shotguns, swords, etc.. By the same token, the fact that a secondary weapon overpowers a power weapon feels wrong. But if you think about it, it can be one of those specific situation weapons as well. If there's a lot of vehicles going around (like a banshee that seems to do nothing but spawn kill you,) you just spawn with a plasma pistol. Same token, if there's nothing but kids with CQC weapons or camping corners with rockets or something, your best chance is spawning with a boltshot.

 

On another note, I thought Armor Lock was fine. If teammates killed you when they locked, I wouldn't consider that cheap, I consider that a team tactic. If they dropped your shields, turn and run or something. I'm not saying that because I used armor lock, I actually always used sprint or jetpack. Armor lock only when there were nothing but a ton of vehicles going around. The sticky thing is nbd, and even for the people who it was a big deal for, they released a title update, just for you.

[snqrls]

Power weapons should be countered by other power weapons, or teamwork. Not by a lone secondary.

[SkItZo1041]

Power weapons should be countered by other power weapons, or teamwork. Not by a lone secondary.

 

I'm not saying that I agree with that, I'm just saying that's one way you could look at it.

[BirdieJuice]

the range on that thing is ridiculous. i honestly haven't died by it much. i'm horrific in close range so i avoid that. but still that thing will completely drain my shields from a ridiculous range. the boltshot is better at draining shields than a plasma pistol. you can avoid a plasma pistol you can't avoid a shot from the boltshot.

[snqrls]

I'm not saying that I agree with that, I'm just saying that's one way you could look at it.

 

Uhuh. yeah, well, it's a wrong way to look at it then. The only way it counters camping is by making camping all the more feasable, and even then, rare power weapons shouldn't be so powerless against even a primary. It defeats the point of having one.

 

There really is no excuse, when it's only ballanced for btb.