[ReaperxKingx]

Originally Posted by Rising Dragon

What gave the Spartan-IIs their apparent superiority is their genes, actually. Due to the strict adherence for candidates that Halsey kept to, all of the Spartan-IIs had "perfect" genes and those genes allowed their augmentations to be much, much more powerful. For example, as stated in Ghosts of Onyx, the augmentation that would've given a Spartan-II a 300% increase in their reflexes instead gave them a 1400% increase due to their genes.

Furthermore, it would seem that Noble Team, despite being made up mostly of Spartan-IIIs, still fulfilled the perfect gene requirements within the looser selection criteria. As a result, their enhancements ended up being on par with a Spartan-IIs, which is why they're as capable as any of the Spartan-IIs. It also appears that as they age and their bodies become more and more used to the augmentations they'll grow more powerful, so the older Spartan-IIIs would've likely been as good as the Spartan-IIs had they survived and matured into adulthood.

That's going to play a factor in the development of the newer Spartan-IVs, I imagine, as all of those candidates are adults, like the Spartan-Is. So their bodies likely wouldn't have as much time to adapt to the augmentations, unlike the older Spartan-IIs and Spartan-IIIs (since they want the survivors to join the ranks of the Spartan-IVs in the program).

Well I give them that, but the Spartan II is still certainly better since they been in combat a lot more. Spartan III and IV will certainly get there, but only in due time with combat experience.