A reader posed some questions to me about how to get better at slaying and improve your K/D. I’m no MLG guy, so my opinions and experience come from the regular everyday fan, not the elite. What I layout is but some suggestions. By no means a rule book to follow. The following was my response to the reader via e-mail, and I thought I’d post it here as well, in case it might help others.

How do I get better at Halo?

This is quite a loaded question and to answer this properly it would take a MUCH longer time to write an appropriate detailed response. In lieu of that here is the message I sent to the reader:

Well without seeing how you actually play, I can only give generalizations.

First and foremost aim for the head. That will give you kills quicker than body shots. To do this, I recommend playing SWAT as only head shots will give you kills. That will make you get used to aiming for the head.

Learn how to strafe back and forth while shooting. How can this be done as practice and in-game? You could forge a shooting range, or later this month when fileshare becomes easy to search on LIVE, search for a shooting range already forged and test them out. As far as in game, might I suggest trying Spartan Ops first and then maybe on a lower difficulty rating such as “normal.” The enemies will still shoot at you, however the stress level you might get form enemies shooting back will be greatly reduced. Work through some missions in Spartan Ops, then try a harder setting. First Heroic, the Legendary. When you feel that you’ve gotten better at strafing then go into matchmaking.

In Halo 4, I’d recommend Team Regicide. Since the better players will likely be the “King” in game, you will have less people gunning for you as you’re not worth as many points. Yes, you’ll still have people shooting at you. However, I’ve noticed in my experience in-game that when you are not the “king” in a Regicide match, you don’t get shot at as often. This will help to alleviate some of the competitive pressure that comes with enemies shooting back while you’re trying to strafe left to right.

As well, for a time, I would suggest playing CTF (Capture the Flag) and NOT going for the objective, but rather playing defense and keeping the opponents from getting your flag. You’re still helping your team, while not dying as much and not having to also think about playing the objective. This means you can focus on slaying and use that as another way to get better in that apsect of the game. Oddball is similar in nature, however look for teammates and/or opponents throwing you the ball, especially when you least expect it.

Again, when you feel you’ve gotten better, then I’d say go into Team Slayer matches. NOT CTF or Oddball. What you want to focus on is the slaying aspect of the game first before you try and juggle playing for the objective at the same time.

The biggest thing to remember is patience. You’re not going to all of the sudden become great overnight. Heck, I’m still working on it. If someone kills you in-game, slough it off and move on. It doesn’t help to get upset about it. You can’t change that. However, maybe you can learn from it. How? Well, if there was a particular kill on you that someone did and you don’t know how, then I suggest you check out the film of the match and watch what they did. That is yet another way you can see how better players (and yes, lucky players) get kills. Theater is great for this kind of thing.

Another thing though that I make sure to tell folks is this, remember it’s a game first and foremost. Have FUN. If you’re too focused on having a positive K/D and/or get mad when someone slays you, you’re going to miss out on just the fun of the game.

I had a decent K/D in Reach yet my K/D in Halo 4 is lower. Why? Simple, I made it a point NOT to worry about K/D any longer. I go for the objective, even if it means I know I’m going to get killed before completing it. I’m all about the wins. So there are times I may go -10. But if we win, that is more important to me.

I used Reach as a test to myself to see if I could be a good slayer. I accomplished that. So now with Halo 4, I’ve gone back to my roots of wanting to WIN. Now mind you, I don’t always go with the intention of just throwing my Spartan out there to be killed. If it means I touch the flag to reset the timer, then it’s all good. If it means I grab the oddball and throw it to a teammate then die, no problem.

It’s really a matter of what YOU want to get out of the game. Play for K/D or play to win, or play for both. (Though the latter is tougher it can be done.)

End of message.

I want to reiterate, these are but generalizations. There are MANY ways to get better. Certainly playing with a team of better players will help, playing more in general will help, learning callouts on maps helps if you’ve got people who actively call out during games. Again, I could go on and on, but for now, I hope these very basic suggestions can get you started on a path to being a better player.

Respectfully,
Sal