I. Love. Hand Cannons. Revolvers are just better, Hawkmoon is my Pride & Joy, and someday I'll take my TLW into the Crucible. I have no hard feelings against The Last Word and I consider it fairly difficult to get used to. However, I don't think I'm alone in considering a 2-3 shot kill from a full auto weapon in Destiny a little insane. I'm going to propose a new perk and slight modifications to existing perks instead of a vague nerf cry. The goal is to make The Last Word retain it's crown as CQC Primary Exotic of choice, but altering it's mid-range game to mesh better with it's Old West theme. Without further ado:
[spoiler]- Single Action Perk (When aiming, this weapon fires slower, but gains bonus Accuracy and Stability). The Last Word is fired with the Fanning technique, which can only be achieved with a single action revolver. However, it makes no sense to use that technique while ads. Single Action would reduce TLW's effective rate of fire to 120 rpm (equal to Timur's Lash) and would make the weapon incapable of automatic fire while ads. Additionally, Guardians will prime TLW's hammer with their thumbs while ads. Single Action and Fan Fire are active at the same time and neither require unlocking.
- Replace Aggressive Ballistics with either Linear Compensator or Accurized Ballistics. Aggressive Ballistics grants alot of impact for a very small sacrifice in Range and Stability. Nine times out of Ten, Aggressive Ballistics is the better choice, meaning there's little to be had in customization. Linear Compensator and Accurized Ballistics aren't as objectively superior to TLW's other ballistics perks, if at all, but still have their own qualities to offer.
- The Last Word Exotic perk applies bonus damage to -all- precision shots. This would make the weapon's damage more consistent and compensates for the slow rate of fire while ads. This would still make TLW a potential 2HKO under any scenario, but bodyshots are [i]punishing[/i] while ads as its base Impact would apply.[/spoiler]
TL;DR: If you hip fire TLW, you wouldn't notice much difference in how it handles or how fast it kills. However, TLW becomes a very different beast while aiming. While you would no longer receive a damage penalty, the slow rate of fire means that you'd need to make good use of cover and that every shot counts; missing a single round will cause your TTK to skyrocket. Even so, TLW would become more viable in mid-range engagements as now it could be customized for improved Range at the cost of Stability.
All feedback is appreciated.
EDIT: It seems there's a little confusion as to how Single Action would effect TLW. While it would fire more slowly while ads, the TTK would remain roughly the same at 0.50 seconds, assuming perfect head shot accuracy (the TTK is currently 0.56 seconds while ads, if you don't proc the bugged damage boost). However, every shot you miss with Single Action will increase the TTK by 0.50 seconds, whereas today the TTK penalty per missed shot is only 0.27 seconds.
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The Last Word is broken. The range fall off, should be at LEAST double what it is now. There is no viable reason why someone with TLW should be able to effectively and consistently, out gun someone with Jolder's Hammer at mid range. Even when the heavy weapon user hits first, as I've conducted research on both sides of the gun. People gripe about Thorn constantly, but it seems to be one of the only viable counters to TLW as Crucible currently stands. The ADS damage boost glitch only adds to the no talent hacks, spamming the hell out of it in PvP. A team of 3 or more, especially if in a party/ fireteam, is almost unbeatable in a direct gunfight. No single weapon should break a game type. TLW ruins Crucible for the masses, almost as much as Lag Switching. Consequently, use of both seems to skyrocket after school gets out... And oft used in tandem. I guess the kiddies get tired of getting their brains kicked in and opt to cheat their way to victory. I wish everyone would get consistent in reporting the lag switchers in the community. Bungie should ban them all from PvP, since dedicated servers clearly aren't on the list of future improvements.