It should have never been introduced at all. This class of weapon should not be a spawn weapon, or even a pick-up weapon at all in Halo. Why? Because put very simply, it stagnates gameplay terribly, turning any map into a match of team snipers. No one wants to move because if somebody starts pinging you across the map, there's not much you can do. Therefore, the entire match is turned into a campfest, with only a few brave souls venturing out to retrieve power weapons that are worth the risk. Vehicle maps are destroyed because of how much the rifle damages vehicles, and although this has been changed somewhat, this does not eliminate the how much damage can be dished out when a few people working together open fire on any vehicle. Now, I played Halo 3 the other day, and had a sudden realization. I had to change my playstyle entirely for the game because of how different a primary spawn weapon was. This isn't even about the weapons themselves and whether or not you like them. I found that in every match, there was far, far more map movement and team coordination when spawned with a BR and AR, because you had no long range engagement options. If you wanted to win you had to get out there and do work. And as a result power weapons became far more relavent and important, because they gave your team a very good edge that could tip the scales. I actually believe now that the introduction to a long range weapon available to people at spawn was hands down, the worst decision ever made in the Halo series. People say that AA's and all this other stuff destroyed the core gameplay, but seem to fail to realize what a massive part of the core gameplay was that made it so fun to play, and that was, people got out right into the thick of things and got their hands dirty, rather than covering one spot on the map that gives them absolute control because they have an all seeing eye in their hands.