Halopiphany

So I said I'd never write any thing else concerning Halo unless it was a news article...I lied.

Since the site mml tourney has begun, I've found myself reentering the Halo world. I've discovered there are many things about Halo 3 I neglected to blog about in my previous tutorials and there are still many things I have to learn to become not only a better Halo 3 player, but a better FPS player. But this entry will deal entirely with Halo 3.

My previous tutorial blogs might be a bit misleading. Because they were written for beginners I feel the gist of the matter is sound, but I based much of my information and strategy on the play styles that were popular in Halo 2. Since I started playing H3 more often it has become apparent to me H3 is a different animal than H2.

In Halo 2 pro MLG strategies in slayer and objective game types were often to dominate map position by holding three key areas on a map and have your main slayer or main objective player use those positions to his advantage to get kills, grab the flag or take time in the hill depending upon the game type. In Halo 3 this doesn't fly.

Static map dominance strategies worked really well in H2 for a couple of reasons. One of those reasons was the button combos of BxR and RRx. Both of those combos made it much easier for a single person to hold a position even if he was being charged by two opponents. he could always RRx the first person and BxR the second and still come out on top. Another reason was the aim assist for H2 is much stronger than H3. This created the ability to shoot at and hit your target with much greater confidence than H3 allows, which again made it easier to hold a position. Spawning in H2 was (and is) much more predictable than it is in H3. Your map set up in H2 almost always determined where the other team would spawn and also set your team up in an extremely advantageous position to deal with any new opponent spawns.

Halo 3, like Homey da Clown, don't play dat. No combos means positions are more apt to be overrun. No aim assist seperates the wheat from the chaff, and rarely do you find a team consisting of four great shots who can consistently get four shot kills. Spawn locations in H3 aren't in areas that only allow one or two ways of quick egress from a spawn so opposing teams often find themselves out of position to consistently spawn trap. Add to that the new beatdown method which often results in the death of the attacker and defender in H3 and you have a recipe for disaster for teams who habitually try to occupy the same sopts on a map over and over again.

So what is the new strategy for Halo 3 pros? I call it circular aggression. Circular aggression is still a map dominance strategy, but with much more motion and certainly much more aggression than players used in Halo 2. Players on a team practicing circular aggression are still trying to achieve the same results as H2 teams who set up areas and held them, but in H3 players often trade spots every 4 or 5 seconds with team mates in order to consistently occupy 2 or 3 of the main spawn points on the map. This ensures if someone dies while travelling through and area, a team mate will replace him within a matter of seconds to eliminate his teammate's killer (who has low shields due to his prior battle) and continue to ensure that area will no longer be a spawn point for the enemy. He then stays in place long enough to reload and recharge his own shields and then manuevars to his next destination on the map which should be an area recently vacated by a teammate.

What circular aggression accomplishes that a static map placement strategy doesn't is the ability for a player to always be attacking and always have an unpredictable avenue of escape. If, as I have suggested, it is much harder to hold a position in H3 than it was in H2, then it would only make sense that instead of always defending a position, you'd always be trying to attack those positions instead. By always attacking your team is almost always going to control the initiative in any given battle or match. True, in real life, defenders always have a stronger position to work with because they choose the ground, but with circular aggression you eliminate the choice of the matter. You are giving them the position so you can either kill them or flush them out so a team mate can. Also, this ain't RL.

I've also noticed that teams using this philosophy have a tendency to avoid one part of a map at all times in the hopes that vacated area will be their opponents' spawn area. On guardian in slayer games it tends to be green tree. On construct it is almost always gold 2 or the basement. If teams find themselves spawning in those areas they have designated as no travel zones they vacate that area as fast as possible so as not to drag their team into that spawn with them.

Circular aggression is used in every gametype except it is toned down a bit in oddball. I've noticed in oddball games on the initial spawns pro teams definitely attack from the start. Teams spawning green will fight to take gold or snipe and blue spawns will fight for the same, but once those positions have been established better teams always tend to try and take the other team's position using circular agression until only one person is left in the original attacking position. This straggler is more often than not the de facto ball guy and he runs the ball to the new team's position. The ball doesn't stay put though. Often the ball will dictate his team's position by shuttling them towards the offensive to take a new position. By forcing the other team to fight from their position, they avoid having to deal with the ball-less team attacking their position. They're trying to force the attacking team to defend their attack formation. It is often a sound strategy and usually leads to 20 to 30 seconds of unmolested ball time. If the ball teams fail, the ball carrier can always opt to play the ball at the last second to force another showdown at the ball spawn and waste another 10 seconds while the ball respawns. His team, which has just respawned, is almost always in the better position to re-grab the ball so it becomes a win/win situation.

Hill games also show the prevelance of circular agression. teams are always switching out players to take time in the hill and hold better offensive positions. Construct is a good example of this. When the hill is low-middle, hill occupying teams often have one man in the hill and another waiting nearby in river or on the arms waiting to take his place should he die or need to vacate the hill to recharge his shields. The vacating player will often run to basement and take open or closed lift up to take someone else's spot who has moved on to cover an open or closed side high. The open or closed side guy then moves to 1st level center console while that peson takes over the sword position so the sword arm guy can take over the hill. In this model of circular agression this team is claiming sword room as their spawn and leaving outliers like open side high and center cosole to defend the spawn. They are deliberately avoiding gold 2 and gold platform to force the other team to spawn as far away as possible from the hill. When the hill changes to open side, this example team is already in position to hold it by virtue of their previous placement. The player left in the previous hill now needs to make his way to lobby or open or closed lift high to deny the enemy there while sword guy moves to center console and console dude takes over defending gold 2. the player who was playing high close or open has now become the defacto hill dude in the new hill. Shoul he need to recharge his shields he drops off the side for a quick fall to basement or he retreats into a lift room. (i've noticed pros tend to favor the long drop because by the time they use the lift to return to the battle their shields are already recharged).

I've given a few examples of this type of play, but I don't think I've fully explained how circular aggression works. The aggression part can be a bit misleading. Indiviual players are not attacking at all costs. Their first priority will be, and has always been, to stay off the respawn timer to deny the other team kills and/or overwhelming force in objective games. If a player has been shot first, he does not fully challenge his attacker expecting a kill, he only wishes to get maybe one or two shots off on him to help prepare him to be taken by someone else on his team. He then moves to recharge his shields and continues his attack. He does not run while reloading. Doing this leaves the player running in the open defenseless for that precious second or two it takes the reload animation to complete. He does not chuck grenades willy nilly thus giving away his position and depleting him of offensive ammunition. The circular aggressive player is a cooly calculating player who must be good at communicating what he knows to be important, and he must trust his team mates to pick up his slack. And he will slack. Not even pros run these strategies perfectly the entire game. Attacking does leave you open, so you must know when you have to sacrifice your life and when you must cut and run.

Circular aggression is tough to pull off, but it is a dominating strat when it is done correctly. It constantly forces the other team on their heels by taking the initiative and denying any semblence of a set up for the other teams. Circular aggression is so dominating i've come to believe if a team can win the initial spawn battles and set up their run, the game is effectively over.