H4: Specializations Part 2

We've discussed Armor Specializations before, but here's my quick cut:

• Wetworks: If you love assassinations and creeping around. (FragginURdoodz, TimMAY1023)
• Pioneer: If you want to level up as fast as possible. (CoolerSopranos2, UnsavorySamurai)
• Engineer: If you want to help the team coordinate special ordinance drops. (Beer4Porter)
• Tracker: If you love special weapons. (FishBone10, Masher 24)
• Rogue: If you spend a lot of time scoped in (Sniper, DMR, BR). (gtdroptop, Octurian Poon)
• Stalker: If you get fixated on killing one person. (darknorpo, QuelBelle)
• Pathfinder: If you're always in the gunner seat (OmniscientDeath, MEAN MR MONKEY)
• Operator: If you're always driving (BeerMonkeee, Mean Mrs Monkey)

Picking your Specialization is important because you can't change it until you've fully leveled it up.  There are 8 choices in total, with Pioneer and Wetwork being available to all players at launch.  Purchasing the Halo 4 Limited Edition gets you access to all 8 right away.  Those who pre-order and play by November 20, will get all 8 quicker as well, but probably not until 11/20 (about 2 weeks after launch).

Clan Night Postmortem

Halo Charts has a new Game Aggregator tool that produces some pretty interesting data.  Thought I would share some highlights from clan night last night.  Below is some key stats from our Slayer games (objective games excluded).  Numbers will obviously be tilted slightly for people who were helping the clan while on the other team...

Player Spotlight: TimMAY 1023

TimMAY 1023 is a clan member from back to Halo 2.  Per popular request, we sat down for a quick interview to find out more about him.

Q1: What's your name in real life?
A1: Tim Romero

Q2: What is your day job?
A2: I work for Intel Corporation as a Data Center Platform Applications Engineer.  My basic job is to help large OEMs debug their initial platform bring-up of Server platforms and debug tricky system failures while in the qualification process.

Q3: What's an interesting thing about you?
A3: I am half Ecuadorian

Q4: How did you get into Halo and/or video games?
A4: I got into Halo due to John and Clan; this was in the Halo 2 timeframe.  I have been playing video games since I was 10 or 12, the first game I remember would be The Legend of Zelda on NES but there some BBS games I got into on my first Texas Instrument computer.

Q5: What's your favorite thing about playing Halo?
A5: I like playing with the clan against other teams while on-line.  I like driving the vehicles, tanks and the new helicopter and at times snipping.  I enjoy the general slayer matches the most.

Q6: What's your biggest dislike about playing Halo?
A6: I don’t like being killed and trust me that happens a lot.

Q7: How do you manage video game time with family time?
A7: It is getting harder but generally I let my wife know if there is a certain event like clan night and can get on at that time.  Also after 9PM is usually fine as they are asleep but I am not allowed to play any gun games with the kids around so there is a tightrope

Q8: What is your favorite weapon in Halo and why?
A8: I like the tank because it kills most stuff, my second favorite is the jeep, it just feels fun to drive.

Many thanks to TimMAY 1023 for his time!

Reach Midnight Campaign Run

Starting now starring gtdroptop, OmniscientDeath, Fishbone10 and TimMAY 1023.  We'll have an Xbox Live party running if you'd like to pop in to say hello.

Clan night tonight. 9pm PT. Halo 3.

Exactly one week to Reach.  We have a full team signed up for a midnight campaign run: gtdroptop, OmniscientDeath, TimMAY 1023, Fishbone10.  If there are others who want to commit to a 7 hour campaign run at midnight, have pre-ordered their game at a retailer open at midnight, and are looking for friends, I'm happy to help coordinate.

Clan night tonight. 8pm PT. Left 4 Dead 1.

While attendance is still low due to summertime silliness, I'm planning to host an L4D1 tonight.  Campaign is still good times, and Versus mode works better with 5 people on L4D1 than on L4D2.  For all you goons that voted for H3, I need you to actually show up on clan night to make it work.

HR: Player Profiles - TimMAY 1023

Player: TimMAY 1023

• Rank: Corporal
• Games: 21; Kills: 108; Deaths: 187; Assists: 82; Time: 0:02:50; Wins: 8; Medals: 168
• Win %: 38%; K/D: 0.58; K/G: 5.14; D/G: 8.90; A/G: 3.90; M/G: 8.00; Encounters/G: 18.53

Ranged Precision Slayer, Sniper Specialist. Though not obvious from the Reach stats due to low game count, TimMAY 1023 is the only player in the clan with an affinity for sniping.  Interesting stats include highest kill percentage with the Needle Rifle (11%), lowest Death/Game ratio (8.90) and second lowest Encounters/Game ratio (18.53) all point to a play style hanging really far back from the action.

Best suited: Long range slayer, controlling sniper weapons and calling out enemy locations.

Recommend: Continuing to refine sniping skills, learning spots on maps to move around to, learning common terms for map geography to direct team mates.

Halo 3 Service Tags

• B80: gtdroptop (John Wei)
• B81: BeerMonkeee (Scott Lenker)
• B82: TimMAY 1023 (Tim Romero)
• B83: CoolerSopranos2 (Kevin Copeland)
• B84: OmniscientDeath (Ryan Averill)
• B85: FishBone10 (Laurence Day)
• B86: Beer4Porter (Brien Porter)
• B87: Available
• B88: Available
• B89: darknorpo (Nory Ison)

Halo 3 Final Stats

It's been a year since H3 came out, so this is the last week that I'm going to update the stats like I've been. Here's a dump of the past year:

• gtdroptop was promoted to First Lieutenant. Represented as clan overlord with a massive number of games logged, specializing in Team Slayer by optimizing play for K/D ratio and leading the clan in fewest deaths per game in all game types. Finishes the year with most games played, most custom games, most campaign missions, most enemies killed, best campaign K/D ratio, most achievements, highest gamerscore, most skulls, most meta-games finished, highest campaign level finished, least ranked deaths/game, best ranked K/D ratio, most social games played, least social deaths/game, least total deaths/game.
• BeerMonkeee finished the campaign on Legendary. Finished the year with the least ranked deaths (owing largely to very few games played there). The stats don't show it, but BeerMonkeee is an assist machine and is far and away the clan's best vehicle specialist with over 1300 Wheelmans and over 200 Splatters!
• TimMAY 1023 finished the year as the highest ranked active clan member as a Major, grade 2. TimMAY was a ranked matchmaking machine, logging some 4X the number of ranked games as the next closest person, and 7X the clan average! He had the most matchmade games, the highest skill, the most EXP, the fewest friendlies lost in campaign, the most ranked games, the most ranked kills, and the most total kills. His most important contribution is taking up his role as team sniper, something Bada Bing has always desperately needed, logging over 500 sniper headshots, and over 1100 total kills with the human sniper!
• CoolerSopranos2 fell from grace during H2, but has regained a shadow of his former glory. Though he remarkably leads in zero stat categories, he has maintained a positive social K/D ratio for almost eight straight months. An impressive feat, considering how few games he logs.
• OmniscientDeath is the clan leader in kills, taking the reigns from darknorpo's H2 reign. ODeath leads the clan in games/skill rank, skulls found, meta-games finished, campaign level finished, social kills, social kills/game, social K/D ratio, total kills/game, and total K/D ratio. His score-whoring is welcome because of his unparalleled skill on the chain gun. He proves that it's more than spray and pray, with two Untouchable and one Invincible medal in his medal chest.
• FishBone10 has been our small team's most consistent fourth. His video game ADD syndrome hurts his H3 skills, but he has racked up an impressive body of work, considering how many other games he has had to play to chalk up a clan leading 15,860 gamerscore. Though he doesn't lead in any individual stat categories, he does trail in the fewest, showing a consistent strength across the board.
• Beer4Porter gets special notice here for being far and away the most persistent n00b, sticking through the tough times to come out on the other side as a respectable team member. Gone are the days of being double digit negative, Porter finished a stringent training regimen through the lower ranked game playlists and actually bests CoolerSopranos2 in several real categories including: games/skill, games/exp, ranked deaths/game, social deaths, social deaths/game, total deaths andn total deaths/game.
• darknorpo has let work take priority over his true love, and his H3 stats have suffered accordingly. Once a clan powerhouse, he is now relegated to being an occasional average contributor. He does shine in games/exp, ranked kills/game and fewest total social deaths. But norpo is a shell of the master chief he once was. Maybe with the new map packs and new achievements, we'll see more of the pink wonder.

As a clan, the active members have logged:

• 4,253 games
• 44,764 kills
• 38,343 deaths
• 10.53 kills/game
• 9.02 deaths/game
• 1.17 kills/death