Active Camouflage promotes stealth and slower-paced gameplay; with it, players can sneak to a better position for an engagement and get the first shot on an enemy instead of just charging them head-on and hoping that they can outgun them to win the shootout. This is how I play- basically, if I don't have the advantage in an encounter, then I turn around and run away to try to get myself in a better position, which pisses the hell out of some people, but it's still extremely tactical.
Autosentry supports fortification and defensive tactics. Players can get the advantage by strategically placing themselves and their sentry at a position they intend to hold to launch planned ambushes against attackers. The defender needs to make sure that his sentry isn't too easily noticeable, but is still placed where it can defend him and the location he intends to hold.This is another tactical alternative to just openly shooting at attackers the moment you see them.
Holograms must also be intelligently deployed in order to fool an enemy. It can be used offensively or defensively, as long as the user plays it right.
Regeneration fields support team-based gameplay. Players with this ability can exploit it by staying back further and playing like a medic to keep your guys alive.
I would say that players can use promethian vision to ambush enemies, but the fact that your position on radar is given up when it's used makes this difficult to do.
Players can use active camo or ProVi, for example, to gain an advantage, and with this advantage they do not need as much shooting skill to win a battle. I see this as a good thing because players can outsmart an opponent if the opponent is more skilled and you cannot outgun him. However, Some players see this as a bad thing, because they think that Halo should be all about skill, and that the more skilled players should always have a proportionate advantage and nothing should get in the way of that.
To build on my previous questions:
Camo: Is stealth a strategy? Is slower paced gameplay a strategy? And if they are, does Camo create a strategy or just reduce the amount of skill required to execute one (is playing passively / defensively viable without camo?)
Autosentry: Doesn't the sentry just shoot at attackers the moment it sees them (and then of course, you also shoot right after)?
Etc, etc... for the other armor abilities.
Also, I think somebody mentioned this above, but there is a distinction between "skill" and "aiming skill" - one can have more overall skill but have awful aim, or just rely on their aim to make up for their bad skill-based decisions. Not sure if that was clear; tell me if it's not.
Another thing to consider is the regenerating nature of the armor abilities and the inability of any player to know about or do anything about the armor ability beforehand. It is impossible to know whether opponent A has jetpack, in which case one, being no shields, might as well not bother running to consere his sniper ammo and go for the headshot since he'll be seen anyways, or whether opponent A has camo or some other armor ability, in which case the player with the sniper should run away in peace.
Which brings up the question: Are armor abilities bad by nature or is their implementation in this game bad? Would there be such a problem if armor abilities spawned on the map at set times so that people can fight over them like they do over normal weapons and powerups (RIP camo/custom powerups)?
The above also brings up the question of whether armor abilities should recharge (if they're map pickups, that is), seeing as over time, more and more players will have armor abilities and it will become more and more difficult to figure out who has what (imagine doing that in a BTB match).
Just food for thought. What would you say? Would armor abilities be better for casuals and competitive players if they weren't given off spawn and/or didn't recharge?