Is the new halo 4 Needler to OP?

[BaconShelf]

It is designed to be powerful.

[RedStarRocket91]

The thing with the Needler is that even though you only need something like 7 needles to strike an opponent to kill them, because it's inaccurate and the projectile travel time is so slow most of the time you're going to have to empty the clip to guarantee a kill - unlike something like the DMR or Magnum where you know and can adjust instantly for something like a missed shot or an enemy ducking into cover. Because of this there's not much of a skill gap: even a veteran player is going to struggle to get more than one kill per magazine, and so it's extremely inefficient in terms of ammunition. Plus, a player making good use of cover or their armour abilities can counter a Needler fairly easily, as the Hardlight Shield completely deflects all damage from the needles, the Thruster Pack is great for dodging an incoming set, and deploying Active Camouflage (I think) cuts off their tracking ability. And of course, that's on top of just dodging them through movement, which is easy enough to do at close and long ranges.

 

Only thing I really don't like is that individual needles do way too much damage to shields - even if you only get hit by three or four your shields will be almost totally depleted, which means you can easily be mopped up by other opponents. But as is, while holding a needler basically guarantees kills against unprepared opponents, the fact that it has so little ammunition and that it has such a small skill gap means that it seems pretty fairly balanced to me.