This suggestion comes off the heels of my earlier post which can be summarized by saying that if you want to change the game, do it by addition, not subtraction. If the following has already been suggested by someone else in light of the upcoming changes, good.
As opposed to periodically modifying, nerfing or otherwise, all the gun types in the game, why not start adding more interesting armor perks?
Right now most of the armor perks revolve around the execution of supers and how weapons are used. Exceptions being anything that adds a jump, etc.
Instead of nerfing Thorn, why don't you give us a legendary perk or exotic armor that has Damage Over Time Resistance? Give us an opportunity to set up our guardians for PVP scenarios the same way we set up our weapons loadouts. Damage Over Time Resistance could also effect the level 35 POE Skolas round by giving you extra time before you have to pass the death counter on to the next character, or when witches/wizards poison the air. You get the idea. Call it Deflection of Intent or make up another cool name, you guys are good at that.
You can use this concept in a wide range of PVP or PVE applications
Make them exotics, quest items, random drops, Trials and Iron Banner armor. Whatever. This could take the game a lot of places that "turning the knob" on weapons damage won't.
Disclaimer: I do understand that taking certain steps to manage the weaponry of the game can be useful. Hitting a target with a pistol from a mile away is an unlikely event, but so is limiting a shotgun to a super-short distance weapon.
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Essentially what you are suggesting requires many hours of actual work done by a team of designers, testers, and many more. Creating armor assets would be even more expensive. Probably money they don't have. This might explain why there's really only one set of an armor per vendor with only class variations. The nerf probably saved them so much time and money - the activision bottom line