How to fix Armor Lock, the Pulse Cloud way.

[Pulse Cloud]

How to fix Armor Lock, the Pulse Cloud way:

Numbers:
Active Time: 2 seconds
Recharge Time: 7 seconds
One use per cycle, ie, the gauge doesn't progressively drain while you use AL - it instantly, completely drains. If you use AL for 0.5 seconds you still have to wait the 7 seconds to use it again.
Armor Lock is no longer "infinite shield" - it has some amount of bleed-through (more on that later).


When Armor Locked:
The camera is a 1st person camera - no more 360º 3rd person camera.
You lose the HUD for the duration of your AL use (basically you activate the Blind Skull when Armor Locked).

Overcharged Plasma Pistol shots disable your Armor Lock.
Grenades exploding next to your feet disable your Armor Lock.
Stuck plasma grenades or Plasma Cannon rounds ARE absorbed but disable your Armor Lock. (If you get stuck by more than one you ultimately die, because the first one disables your AL and the second one kills you.)
Spartan Laser shots, Rockets, Fuel Rods, direct Grenade Launcher rounds, Banshee Fuel Rods and Wraith Mortars exploding close enough to kill a fully shielded player with full health disable your Armor Lock and lower your shield or health to 40% of what it was. (If you had full shield right before entering Armor Lock it gets lowered to 40%. If you had half of your shield it gets lowered to 40% of that half (20% of a full shield), etc. The same applies to Health if you didn't have any Shield right before ALing. Basically, you always survive one hit of these almost-instant-kill weapons but you're left with almost nothing to protect yourself.)

Vehicles still get blown to smithereens if they hit you too fast. Your Armor Lock is disabled, though.

Any other weapon deals NO DAMAGE nor has ANY effect on you - not even the Sniper Rifle.


When leaving Armor Lock (either voluntarily or by forced disable):
You lose your shields, no matter if they were full or not.
You HUD takes 1 second to reappear.
Your motion tracker takes 3 seconds to start tracking (ie, your HUD appears and you're left with 2 seconds of a static-filled motion tracker).
If your Armor Lock wasn't disabled by anything and if you Armor Locked for the full duration (2 seconds) you burst a small EMP, otherwise you don't.

[Imppa]

That sounds like as harsh as the Treaty of Versailles to Germany.

While this would SURELY decrease it's massive amount of use in certain games/gametypes/by certain players (noobs), the tactical side of it might take a bit too much hit.

The worst ones, I think, are the changes to make it "grenade-friendly" (ie. Coming out of cover after a direct grenade 'splosion, Stickies are stickier).

Say you had full shields, and a grenade is thrown to your feet. You Armor Lock, but the grenade disables it, so you come out. Due to the new effect that is applied when you come out of it, you lose all your shields. It would be ridiculously easy to pick a headshot or simply throw a grenade and kill you. You had only wasted time, that you could've used to possibly kill the enemy and survive, armour locking, and therefore dying. On top of this, due to the radar and HUD loss, killing anyone after coming out would be quite impossible.
The other change, which makes you vulnerable to sticking, is easily pointed bad: Plasmas take 3 seconds to go off. While on armor lock, you're a sitting duck to the plasma-wielding enemy, and can not avoid it. The lock WILL go off before the grenade does. Boom.

I do think that it would be okay for the power-weapons to take it out on one blow, assuming that the player does not lose all his shields. That is, IMHO, way too harsh, and would reduce too greatly it's usability. Bleed-trough might work, too, though I think that field test would be more fitting to solve it.

I agree with the rest, I guess, even though it could be 3 secs instead of 2. Just sayin'.


Oh, and I'm kinda glad you brought this up here. Seriously, I think I might get an intelligent discussion, for change...

[Pulse Cloud]

Imppa, I see AL as a way to protect you from certain death. In a perfect world, the current AL would be perfect if it was only used when absolutely necessary, ie, when you get a Rejection medal.
My suggestion is to make it so that every time you use AL you will get a Rejection medal - because using it when not needed would hinder your ability to survive - which MAKES SENSE, because AL is basically routing all your Armor's energy to create a temporary shield that lets you survive what otherwise would have CERTAINLY killed you (that's why it also makes sense to lose the HUD and to have to wait for the motion tracker to reboot).

The tactical side of AL is to survive. You SHOULD be dead, but it gives you one last chance (if you can actually grab it [hint hint: skill]) to fight back or to let your team mates finish the opponent (promotes team play).

Being disabled by grenades and the like just plain makes sense - they would have killed you because they're so god damn powerful. AL does protect you, but the damage is so great the AL itself just can't hold on (think of it like a one-use super overshield that grants you survivability).


If you see a grenade and ARMOR LOCK you're doing it wrong. First, you should have seen the grenade. Second, if the opponent is very skilled and skilfully planted the grenade right at your unskilful feet then he is better than you and deserves to win the fight.
Like I said, AL is to give you one last chance, to give you one chance to Reject death and choose to live to fight another day. No other Armor Ability grants you immunity to grenades - why would AL do it all the time? It's just completely over-powered (as you can see if you play more than 5 seconds of Reach).
If you have full shields you will not die from the grenade, therefore, if you are better or equally as good as your opponent, you may actually kill him before he kills you.

Sticky grenades shouldn't just stick to your AL and wait to explode - they should be immediately detonated (remember that AL is capable of bursting an EMP, so it's more than capable to do this), so no - if you're ALed and someone sticks you then the grenade will immediately explode and you will come out of AL. This not only prevents close-quarters plasma grenade spamming, it also gives your opponent to disable your AL without a power weapon.
Also, 2 seconds isn't much and if you're using AL then you were going to die because of a grenade or a power weapon, so you opponent will actually be waiting for the grenade to explode and THEN he might think to through a plasma grenade, but it's too late. Again, skill is involved.

Power weapons are power weapons - they are meant to take anyone out with one single hit. AL gives you a chance to survive or to trade your death for two of your opponent's rockets (ie, one death for two rockets instead of two deaths for two rockets).

[Phantasm 08]

My use of armor lock is very limited, as I generally use other abilities that I'm more effective with.  So, I don't have much valuable input here.  Instead, if Imppa wants, I can copy and paste stuff from ZOMG AL threads on Bnet!  :laugh:

[EnigmaBiz]

AL threads have made it in here too???!!!!

I have to be honest, I think AL is fine the way it is.. It serves it purpose you're just going to die later than sooner.

Really if anything it should just be removed from the game.

I don't hate it but I don't like it.

I do enjoy vehicles running in to me right when I lock down and those crazy deflections of rockets and banshee bombs. If anything AL is fun during objectives but annoying during CF.

[Phantasm 08]

Ok, I actually DO have some useful comments 

I remember playing Elite Slayer once, trying to get that challenge for two or three stickies in a game, and I failed, because they would armor lock.  Every.  Damn.  Time.  But, in unskilled hands, it can prove to be the user's demise.  While other abilities have useful effects such as blocking the shots and healing you (bubble shield!), or moving you AWAY from the blast and towards cover (sprint and evade), armor lock leaves you right out in the open, keeps you from moving, and lights you up like a Christmas Tree.  As Pulse said, it promotes team play, since the other guys will be focused on you, not your buddies.  A single shot every two seconds or so will stop your normal shields from recharging, even if it won't do direct harm to you.  So, using it as a way to protect yourself if you're losing the fight is just to delay the inevitable^TM.