Every Halo game on Legendary difficulty, to its detriment, has massively favored the Noob combo (overcharged plasma pistol blast + single head shot). Except for Halo:CE, that is. One of the best things about Halo:CE on Legendary was that you weren't shoehorned into NOOB comboing your way through every Elite encounter. Play it again and see what I mean.
Notice that Elites aren't "frozen" by the initial plasma blast for more than a split second. (It was never a given that your plasma overcharge would hit either - the Elite would dodge it about 50% of the time.) It was a real achievement to head shot an Elite with your first pistol bullet. The Elite would recover from the plasma blast so quickly and duck, dodge, and dive - all while firing at you from distance - that it often took 3-5 seconds of firing at his face before he dropped.
The result of making the Noob Combo so hard to pull off was that other weapons and weapon combos were still feasible on Legendary. To me, this gave the game a lot more replay value and kept it fresh. For example, both the plasma pistol (rapid fire by pulling trigger quickly) and the plasma rifle (full auto) would subtly "freeze" Elites and drop their shields quickly, allowing you to take them down with a melee or just more firing. The needler was another good option at medium range. Power weapons (rocket launcher and sniper rifle) did the trick too, as did stickynades. The player truly had a lot of different ways to take down those tricky bastards.
This was unlike all Halo sequels, where Legendary was designed to cater to the Noob combo. The overcharged plasma blast almost alway hit and its "freeze" effect on the Elite (Brute in Halo 3, and ODST) was overly generous. Further, the availability of the Battle Rifle's 3 bullet spread allowed the player to swipe his reticle over the enemies' head - making it possible to head shot with almost 100% accuracy.
I appreciate Bungie's intent that Legendary require a certain amount of skill to conquer. The problem with the sequels is that they force the player to use that same tired weapon combo again and again. By the fourth level, you're bored out of your mind. How much fun is it to have 15+ guns in a game, but know that 13 of them are basically useless on Legendary? The disparity between how long it takes to drop a shielded elite with the Noob Combo and everything else it too great in Halo 2, 3, ODST and Reach. I think they either should have (1) made the Noob Combo harder to pull off, (2) increased the amount of damage (some) other weapons do to Elites, or (3) strengthened the player's shields slightly. This would return some of the variety and replayability we treasure in the original Halo's gameplay.
Did anyone else feel this way when they tackled Legendary on the Halo sequels? Legendary wasn't the perfect mix of challenge and fun anymore - it was just a torturous exercise in trial and error.
What else do you miss about Halo:CE's Legendary? (Besides Sergeant Johnson's tender moment with that Elite.)