Then why not reduce the range a good amount? Keep the damage, but make it really close range to close-mid range. That would be a better balancing act. Why? Because this wouldn't make it shit by lowering the TTK there by not making it more susceptible to rushing shot gunners when they exit a door to come at you. This would make sure that it is a close quarters weapon, and if you want to engage guys outside of its low range, you'd better bring a sniper/fusion(don't do fusions unless you want to be looked down upon, but who am I to tell you what you can and cannot do). So if a person is using a pulse rifle at mid-range, the auto rifle user will have a [u]severe[/u] disadvantage because of the range/damage drop off. Now if the auto user goes behind a wall to recuperate some health, and the pulse user engages closer, now the auto user is the range advantage and will do more damage than the pulse rifle user because they auto user can get shots off faster.