Hi there, Chief Landless here, back once again with news from this weeks HaloWaypont Bulletin. Here are the highlights, but you can click here to read the entire bulletin.

April 22nd 2013 is the next update to Halo 4 and we’ll be seeing some weapons being tuned (details below) and updates to Regicide and Grifball Playlist.

Weapon Tuning – Potential Changes to Halo 4’s Sandbox.

** These are subject to change and are in no way final decisions **

BATTLE RIFLE

Buffed from a FIVE SHOT KILL to a FOUR SHOT KILL and Rate of Fire reduced

The Battle Rifle shipped as a FIVE SHOT KILL when Halo 4 released on November 6th, it was intended to be the go-to weapon for close to medium range, however the DMR was still beating this weapon at said range. To remedy this, the Battle Rifle is intended to become a FOUR SHOT KILL with a reduced Rate of Fire. This means that the Battle Rifle will now require three bursts to the body, and one shot to the head to kill.

LIGHTRIFLE

Adjusted range at which the reticule turns red to match the DMR’s

The LightRifle has been generally pushed aside by the community because of its alien-like feel and how awkward it is to shoot, however, once you begin to use it, it becomes a pretty viable weapon, and this change will make it even more viable. This change means that when you begin getting the aim assist on a player has been tweaked to match the DMR.

COVENANT CARBINE

Buffed from an EIGHT SHOT KILL to a SEVEN SHOT KILL

When Halo 4 launched, the Covenant Carbine was pushed to the side just like the LightRifle, however this time, it was because of how weak it was for the skill required to use the weapon. To remedy this, the Covenant Carbine is going to become a SEVEN SHOT KILLcompared to the prior EIGHT SHOT KILL.

ASSAULT RIFLE, STORM RIFLE AND SUPPRESSOR

All have received a damage buff and auto aim reduction

Due to the precision rifle changes, the automatic weapons became weak at CQC as the precision rifles were outshooting them. To remedy this, all of the above weapons have received a slight damage buff, alongside an auto aim reduction to make the weapons harder to use, but reward those who learn how to use them effectively.

BEAM RIFLE

Aim assist reduction

Anyone who has picked up the Beam Rifle in Halo 4 will have noticed that just not using the scope is a lot easier than scoping in, this is due to the weapons high aim assist when unscoped. This is planned to be changed so you won’t be constantly snapshotting people without putting much effort into aiming.

WARTHOG & MANTIS CHAINGUN

Both will be receiving a damage buff

Vehicles have always played a huge part in Halo, ever since Halo: Combat Evolved. However, the Warthog & Mantis currently don’t perform as well as expected in terms of their chainguns. Both of them will be tweaked to receive damage buffs to make them a lot more deadly and hopefully feared in big team gameplay.

Matchmaking Update

First, Regicide is a playlist that is long overdue for an update. While we know many of you have suggested that it be consolidated into the recently added Rumble Pit playlist, we have chosen not to do so at the moment for a few reasons. For one, not all Rumble Pit players want to play Regicide, as it is a very different game mode from Infinity Rumble and Rumble Pro. Secondly, being that it does have added scoring modifiers, we’ve decided to add additional game modes to make the playlist more fun and varied (and even a bit more chaotic), as well as change the way the scoring works a bit. Also, we’ll be removing Complex and adding the following maps from the Regicide rotation.

• Landfall
• Dispatch
• Simplex
• Scythe

The Grifball game type has been tweaked to create better balance between the weapons. Grifball and Grifball Pro now have identical shield, damage, damage resistance and radar settings. Grifball will continue to have one continuous round with auto-pickup turned on, while Grifball Pro will still have five individual rounds with auto-pickup turned off.

Griffball maps have also been tweaked based on errors or flaws experienced and reported.

– Chief Landless

Geronimo!