Two questions about the Light Rifle and DMR that I can't find anywhere else:

Light Rifle - The ammo counter on the top left of your HUD for the LR, when shooting from hip, shows bullets in columns of 3 separate rows. When you shoot the gun, a whole column is required. Yet howcome when you zoom the gun in, if you watch the ammo up to the left, the rows morph into into long column? What's the point of putting them altogether while zoomed if the same amount of ammo is used either way? Also, I was playing campaign last night and I found a LR that a Knight dropped. It had a few columns of ammo left, but only one row of the next column were filled. This seems to suggest that it's possible to fire less than 3 bullets at once to me. Otherwise, why only give me 1/3 of a bullet?

DMR - Sometimes when I'm fighting with the DMR unzoomed I feel like it's not doing as much damage, even though the reticle is very small and I know it's hitting them (reticle is red). This affects me at short to medium range, when I have no other close range weapons and am desperate (AKA when my AR is all out of ammo). At long range this obviously doesn't matter because I'll be zooming anyway. It just feels like the gun isn't as powerful when it's not zoomed.

@xyzygy:

For the light rifle I was under the impression that, while zoomed, three shots are being fired at once to make one really powerful shot. Essentially the gun is like a rifle when from the hip and like a semi-sniper rifle when zoomed.

@xyzygy: Light Rifle is 1 shot zoomed and 3 shot burst when fired from the hip.

light rifle is just a combination of the Battle Rifle (from hip) and DMR (from zoom). I guess to appease fans of both weapons but it just seems lazy to me.

@SuperWristBands: I don't know, it does have it's own uniqueness to it. It's definintely a harder weapon to pick up, I find. It uses ammo like crazy and can't hold much as a maximum.

The light rifle seems wholly inferior to the DMR and even the BR. It seems to shoot slower and doesn't feel like it hits sometimes. The DMR and Carbine are just great rifles. The BR feels weaker in this game than previously. It could just be that it sounds weaker because the magnum sounds weaker too but feels better to use.

The Light rifle has a very good kill time when zoomed in, it is the best weapon at long range when you are not receiving incoming ire, but the DMR has much less recoil when you are being shot at and returning fire than the other head shot rifles, while being very accurate at long range, and having a 3x zoom.

The light rifle has a slow kill time when not zoomed in though and I feel like it is not hit scan, which for me is a total deal breaker.

To answer your question, if you are zoomed in it is more likely that the magnatizim is taking over, so your shots will often times hit more when when zoomed, unless you are not getting knocked back from incoming fire. How ever in my experience Halo 4 has fucked up hit boxes, I have head shots not count all the time, and often have misses count as head shots so I don't really know what to say.

@MariachiMacabre: The Battle Rifle definitely has a very specific window of viability. It is strictly a "mid-range" weapon, but even at that distance the DMR can beat it and the Carbine is more than a match. At long range the Battle Rifle's bullets seem to have a spread and the gun's accuracy suffers.

@xyzygy: The Lightrifle, as everyone has said, is more effective when zoomed. The effect isn't super obvious in the campaign, since most of the enemies are damage-sponges. But in multiplayer it has a distinct advantage. The DMR and Battle Rifle both require a minimum of five shots to kill an enemy player. The Lightrifle only requires four, and only one of those shots needs to be zoomed (plus, it doesn't have to be the last shot. You can open with a zoomed shot and then land three hip-fired rounds for the same effect).

I've tried different weapons for the multiplayer but have always settled on the DMR. It's too good at long range.

The Light Fire is burst fire from the hip and single shot when zoomed in. I've had great success using it on Ragnarok, but I go with the Covenant Carbine on all other maps. I like that weapon better than the DMR and BR because of its faster fire rate.

I find that I always disregard the Carbine out of those 4 weapons (CC, LR, DMR, BR) because while it does have the fast rate it seems drastically weaker. Maybe I just need to experiment more in MP, but an AR and a DMR is working great for me

I really liked the light rifle and suppressor. The light rifle was great and picking off people at a distance and getting quick headshots. It was the best for the four-legged animals. And on normal I rarely ran out of ammo for it. The suppressor was great for when I had to get up on dudes. One magazine damn near took out everything and it reloaded so fast it was easy to kill those that could take the punishment (again, on normal).

@xyzygy: The Carbine is crap in this game, it needs a buff, stay away from it.

Loved the Lightrifle in the campaign, but in MP I'm mostly using the DMR. Can't beat that long range accuracy.

@xyzygy: Everyone seems to have disregarded your DMR concerns over your light rifle concerns so I'll address them- the feeling you're having is just a feeling. It does just as much damage from close range/from the hip than from long range/zoomed.

@xyzygy: As the DMR goes, always shoot while crouched if you want fast accurate shots (insanely little reticle bloom + very quick bloom recovery). This is extremely effective at getting people at extremely long distances (yes, even unscoped!) that the BR could never achieve. When it comes to short-to-middle range, the pistol is your best friend (using paced controlled shots rather than spamming the trigger) rather than using a DMR. The AR is also as viable an option when using short-controlled bursts at short-mid range.

Can't really speak much for the Light Rifle as I've rarely used it.

@Rotnac: Ahhh. Bloom. That's what I wasn't taking into account. The reticle is red, but the bloom hasn't recovered. That basically means that my shots are missing right? Thanks for the tip, I will now utilise this haha :)

@xyzygy: The Carbine is crap in this game, it needs a buff, stay away from it.

@MariachiMacabre: It has the same kill time of the BR, with out enough ammo to get more than one kill per clip. It also has a 1.5x scope so is outmatched at range, it is a terrible weapon when compared to the rest of the rifles.

I love how every one of these guns has it's own fanbase.

@MariachiMacabre: It has the same kill time of the BR, with out enough ammo to get more than one kill per clip. It also has a 1.5x scope so is outmatched at range, it is a terrible weapon when compared to the rest of the rifles.

@xyzygy: I was just thinking that.

Fuck, I love the Suppressor, but then again i'm no pro

I love people that hate on the covenant carbine. I'm by no means saying it's the best. If you are looking for the most solid single shot precision weapon I would definitely rock the DMR but if you are good at grenades or coming in on clean up the covenant carbine is brutal. Everyone knocks it because it is by far weaker than the DMR or LR but no one takes into account that the accuracy is absurd even when getting shot at it's dang near centered in the reticle at all times. In my opinion it is by far the most accurate weapon in the game but it is also way offset by it's weaker damage. It's huge benefit is though it has a crazy fast fire rate so if you are an opportunist with headshots it is a single shot weapon when you get an overshield down. Granted you may waste half a clip doing that yourself but it gives you more room to miss and still get a headshot kill. Overall though I would say the DMR is the most solid weapon in the precision weapon classes. I rocked covenant carbine when I first started the game and massacred people. It is a brutal ambush weapon when used right with active cammo. But I have been leaning more towards the DMR at later levels closer to finishing the spartan IV specialization. I finished out the spartan IV specializations messing around with the Light Rifle. I loved it in campaign because it does the most damage of all precision weapons but it has the slowest fire rate and leaves the least room for error for missing shots when in multiplayer. I totally didn't even notice the switch from scope fire to unscoped fire being 1 round that is worth 3 ammo and hip fire is 3 rounds because the 3 rounds are so fast that they actually just feel like a really slow friggin one round shot. If you are a headshot master the Light rifle is your best bet. If you are a headshot middle range person the DMR. If you are a headshot beginner the Covenant Carbine. And for anyone saying I am a covenant carbine fanboy for defending it i say pshaww because I hardly ever use it anymore because now that I've gotten a little better at headshots i've moved to the DMR as my go to and now that I finished the spartan IV specialization I am moving towards the Light Rifle because my headshots have gotten a little more consistent. I will still say though if you are not on point every shot with the Light Rifle you will be super disappointed with it. The DMR is just an all around good weapon. If you are having a crap time with the DMR but like headshots, try the Covenant Carbine. If you are landing every headshot per shots fired on the DMR try moving on to the Light Rifle. If I am having an off day i go to the carbine. If I am having an awesome day I go to the Light Rifle. For every other day I go to the DMR. As far as the battle rifle goes...I don't mess with it enough to comment on it. Seems like if you are a nasty open sight head shotter the BR might be your golden gun. The BR just seems too limited with it's range compared to the CC, DMR, and LR. If I wanna go that close range I'm gonna just go full auto and go with the Suppressor.

@nathan_wurts: also one other thing that turns me off from the Light Rifle that I forgot to mention. It seems to have a really weird lag feel to it when scoped in on shots. It seems like the travel time of the bullet is slower than that of the DMR or CC. I have no proof of this other than it just kinda feels like that, especially on any multiplayer. It may just be because you can see it's bullet trail all the way better than the CC, and DMR so it is just a psychological thing. Also since it is the SLOWEST FIRE RATE of all precisions it might also just seem like it lags because if your aim is slightly off at all on multiplayer with any kind of latency issues you won't get that headshot that you think you are scoped in on so you will just be like man eff this weapon.

@xyzygy said:

I love how every one of these guns has it's own fanbase.

It's a good sign that they got the balance mostly right.

These two weapons are shit. DMR should only be used in Big maps 8 v 8, never 4 v 4.

BR is my favorite and it owns them all. short to mid-range its always the best!

Light Rifle is useless!