The system is what it is. For example, this scenario happensseveral times in a ranked match where both myself and my opponent go in with guns blazing but I know that I started first and we're both using assault rifles--the opponent wins the melee attack. Why...not because I hit last but because when he hit be my shield was lower.

Theoretically,thewinning tactic in a gun fightis actually to melee your opponent as late as you can and simply hope that his shield was lower than yours when you land your blow. I know that the obvious logical flaw is that his blow should kill you if your shield is low, e.g. 1/2 or less. For some reason, flaw in the AI perhaps, the timing doesn't seem to factor in and thus during the encounter it is more about who makes contact against the lowest shield.

Theories abound but it seems, from a web search sampling, that the majority of Halo 3 players believe that melee kills are determined by shield level and not who strikes first. If this is the case, then how do you use this to your advantage?

*deploys flame shield*