Brian "SketchFactor" Jarrard talked to 1UP.com about the changes in the 1.1 Halo 2 Update, touching on one particular weapon tweak (or rather the lack thereof) that was close to the hearts of the author:

Jarrard: Yeah, I was hoping the needler would get a bump also, but it hasn't received any loving in this update. It's funny because I remember at one point, that was our whole pitch, right? How the needler won't just leave a nasty skin rash anymore? How it actually will do damage? But at some point in that final pipeline, I think, for a variety of reasons, the designers kind of scaled back on it a bit, because I'm positive that the needler we played with originally is not quite the needler that shipped in the final version. I think it had to do with the dual needler situation and how two of them were suddenly ridiculously powerful.

Lots of information there about the changes, be sure to read up. Thanks HBO.