Armor Abilities

Halo's answer to perks. That answer? "Fuck your shit, we're doing this my way."

And the world rejoiced.

What are Armor Abilities?
Armor Abilities are a new feature in the Halo series that combine perks with Halo 3's equipment. In multiplayer they are selected before you spawn when you pick your loadout. In campaign they can be found and switched similarly to equipment in Halo 3. They cover a large area of abilities, and no two are very similar.

Sprint
The first armor ability seen, and probably the most welcome, is the sprint ability. When used, your Spartan will lower his weapon and dash in whatever direction you're going. Sprinting enables you to leap farther and give your enemies a push while meleeing. The drawback is that you can't shoot back or crouch while sprinting, and that when you stop sprinting you have to draw your gun again. This makes sprinting with weapons such as the Rocket Launcher or the Sword very risky, as it takes you a long time to draw them. It should be noted that killing a sprinter with a headshot rewards you with a medal in multiplayer.

Armor Lock
Armor Lock is an armor ability that forces the Spartan to punch the ground and overcharge their shields to the point of invulnerability. This is only temporary, and you'll be left open when it runs out. It reflects rockets and detaches any sticky projectiles such as plasma grenades and Plasma Launcher rounds. The longer it is held the stronger the EMP emitted upon exit will be, reducing shields of surrounding players. In the Beta it was possible to pop in and out of Armor Lock twelve times before having to recharge, but this has since been corrected, and now it's only possible to pop in and out three times. If you manage to absorb enough damage to kill a player with full shields, you'll be rewarded with a medal in multiplayer.

Active Camoflauge
The Active Camoflauge ability is exactly what it sounds like. It's similar to the ability that the Arbiter had in Halo 2: temporary invisibility that must recharge after a certain amount of time. While using this ability your motion tracker will be jammed as well as your opponents. In the Beta you would also jam your allies motion tracker, but this was unintentional and has since been fixed. This will also momentarily deafen you, and moving at anything faster than a crawl will make you somewhat visible.

Jet Pack
Exactly what it says on the box: a Jet Pack. Not much to say here, just don't fly too high or you'll take fall damage. This ability is handy for finding sniper spots or for raining hell down on to the opposition.

Evade
Evade is the Elite counterpart to sprint, allowing Elites to combat roll in any direction to evade attacks. You can roll twice before you need to recharge. When used correctly, you can completely ruin someone's day with a well placed Plasma Repeater/Melee combo. You cannot shoot or melee while rolling. Spartans can also use evade but as of yet there are no Spartan vs Elite gametype that will allow for it.

Drop Shield
The Drop Shield is the Reach version of Halo 3s bubble shield, and so you should already know what to expect. Planting the shield will spawn a spherical shield that blocks all projectiles, but has limited health. While inside of the shield your health regenerates faster than usual, and you can fully regenerate health without the use of a health pack. The effect stacks, so placing multiple shields on top of one another results in more healing.

Hologram
The Hologram is an armor ability that spawns an exact imitation of yourself that will run in a straight line to wherever you tell it to. You point your reticule wherever you want it to go and pressing the button will spawn the hologram, which will run until it gets to where you placed your reticule. If it makes it in time, it will simply stand still. If time runs out before the hologram makes it to its destination it will simply fade.

Gallery
Note the lack of an Active Camo picture. It's because he's fucking invisible.