I'm fine with them, but I prefer the H Reach and H4 Armor Abilities, they gave more original stuff. I miss my Bubble / Hardlight Shield!
Personally, I really hated armor abilities in both games, mainly because there was no balance to them. In halo 5, everyone has them and it's up to you to learn how to use them. I personally dislike Spartan Chargeand stabilizer, but Clamber works well as does thruster slide. And, while I feel it could be better balanced, I enjoyed Thruster.
Here are the unbalances of each:
Armor Lock - Easily the most overpowered ability in Halo Reach!!! This ability grants you immunity to almost everything, except falling off a map. It's annoying to waste a rocket round trying to hit a guy with this ability, and in Halo Reach BTB especially, people spammed the hell out of it. Running someone over with a ghost or warthog was almost impossible because you continuously run into someone who uses armor lock at the last second.
Sprint - Halo Reach's version was an armor ability. Players could easily run away from combat and get behind cover easily in a lot of situations. Those who do not have sprint, have to deal with the annoyance of losing a target (whose shields are half-way down, fully down, etc) because of this ability! Never chase after a guy with sprint, because more likely than not, they will get behind cover, throw grenades at the entrance, and/or find another teammate and take you down! Most of the time, it's better to find some other enemy to fight because when another player has sprint, they'll just be running behind cover as soon as their shield goes down. Although, it's not as bad as halo 4's, it was unbalanced!
Jetpack - One of the few abilities, if not the only ability that has a use on every single map you play on. It allowed players to hit people from above. It was easy to shoot people from behind cover. Jetpacks are slow, which makes them easy targets to hit. As well as get to higher platforms that would normally be impossible. This is actually one of the least unbalanced abilities, and most useful. I almost exclusively used this in Halo 4 to get behind an enemy team or to lay down fire from above.
Thruster Pack - Halo 4's version was an armor ability, and considerably one of the worst, if not the worst, to use. As you said, the only real use it has was to break your fall, which is almost useless because there was no falling damage in Halo 4 (at least, that's how I remember it being. Haven't played it in years, and NEVER gonna go back to it!)
Drop Shield - Similar to Armor Lock, it acts as a method of cover, though this ability is not activated instantly. I've killed people with a rocket launcher while they were trying to activate this ability and nailed them right as the shield landed. However, the issue is that this ability acts as a rechargeable bubble shield (Halo 3), which doesn't seem like an issue at first, but can easily be exploited to avoid death from firefights with standard weaponry. In Halo 3, you had one chance to use it, which required the right time and place. If you used it up, it's gone until another respawns where you found it. Not as unbalanced as Armor Lock, but still unbalanced enough to take skill out of the equation in a firefight. Also very annoying to fight against!
Autosentry - Like Thruster Pack, this is one of the weakest abilities. It spawns a sentry that doesn almost no damage. It's almost unusable. The point of the matter is why put something in the game that nobody is gonna want to use, 343?!?!
Regeneration Field - THE MOST OVERPOWERED ABILITY YET! A lot of people say Armor Lock is the most OP, but I have fought dozens of players and brought there shields down, only to have them activate this ability, recharge half of their shields and have to waste more ammo trying to bring there shield down all over again. Most of the time, they manage to kill me instead! HOLY ****!!!!! And if you miss a shot, you have to use another two rounds to make up for the shot you missed! I'll be honest, I thought the Regeneration Field equipment piece in Halo 3 was annoying, but this... THIS IS SO VERY MUCH WORSE!
Promethean Vision - This is basically just thermal/x-ray vision for 3 consecutive seconds. Nothing too problematic, but it does make sniping people easier during that timespan. This doesn't actually annoy me as much as it does other players.
Active Camouflage - Also, one of the most overpowered abilities! Snipers and shotgunners use this constantly! When they don't move, they're almost entirely invisible! It's unpredictability makes fighting these players very frustrating! Everybody's been **** on by a sniper or shotgunner who had active camouflage engaged! Bungie had it in Halo 2's campaign (as the Arbiter), but didn't include it in multiplayer because the testers KNEW it would be unbalanced! But during Halo Reach, they said "**** it!" and threw that out the window, and then Halo 4 came along and put it right back in the game, even after the negative reception Armor Abilities got in the Reach!
- I could talk a lot about Hardlight shield, Hologram, and Evade, but I really don't want to. I will say Evade is the worst of the the three remaining and Hologram isn't so bad (because it's easy to tell whose the real player and the hologram based on movement), and Hardlight Shield can be used skillfully in many situations.
Now, onto the Spartan Abilities:
- Stabilizers: Allows a player to hover in the air and take out targets. This is more annoying than anything else. Let's say you jump to another platform turn around and want to take a shot at something in the distance with a sniper rifle (a very pro-level tactic), this makes it easier to line up the shot and kill the player on the other side of the map! It takes skill, sure, but gives you more time to shoot than it did in previous halos! It's annoying to trying and shoot someone of the ground, while aiming down the sights (because aiming makes your gun more accurate in Halo 5!) and puts you at a disadvantage!
- Spartan Charge - This acts as a forward thruster boost, only with melee damage. It pushes you and your target back, but forces you to wait a bit before being able to shoot. When your target is already shooting at you when you hit him with this ability, if he isn't dead, then you are dead.
- Ground pound - It's very hard to land a kill with this ability, but it is extremely useful when entering gravity lifts. I've been able to pound onto different platforms and floors that I'd never been able to reach before.
- Thruster Pack - Halo 5's thruster acts as a mobility booster and a way to dodge enemy fire. My issue with this ability is that it's unpredictable. If you are shooting at me and I can get to cover from both the left side and the right, you have to predict where I would thrust towards (50% chance of getting it right). If you get it wrong, it's hard to line up your sights with the target once he gets closer to a cover point. In previous halos, all you had to look at was the direction the target was moving to know where he/she would be going. The design is similar to how Advanced Warfare's exo boost worked, but far, far, far less annoying! Thruster Pack is enjoyable, although takes a bit of skill away from the game.
- I don't mind clamber or Spartan Slide personally! I will say, however, that they do not need to be in a Halo game. I can easily play Halo 5 without them!
