Gjallarhorn needs a nerf, but not a stupid one that makes it weaker and provides no alternative. Gjallarhorn needs to be BALANCED with OTHER EXOTIC ROCKET LAUNCHERS, not just weakened.
Hear me out.
How it is now-
Truth- (Aggressive) Tracking + Prox Det
Dragons Breath- Max DPS from mag
Gjallarhorn- Tracking + Prox Det + Max DPS from mag
Who thought that was a good idea?
Proposal:
Truth- Leave it as it is
Dragons Breath- Add tracking, make tripod a hidden perk like it is on Truth, minor increase to solar flare duration.
Gjallarhorn- Remove tracking. If you want to nerf Wolfpack rounds a little, have at it, as long as overall DPS is similar to Dragons Breath potential.
Now what do we have?
Truth- (Aggressive) Tracking + Prox Det
Dragons Breath- Tracking + Max DPS
Gjallarhorn- Prox Det + Max DPS
Why does this matter?
Now the answer is not universally Gjallarhorn in every situation (at least in PVE)
Are you a ledge-monkey on Crota (long range bullet sponge with moderate movement)? Dragons Breath
Are you facing a large number of quick-moving enemies and trash mobs? Truth
Are you facing a stationary bullet sponge at relatively close range? Gjallarhorn
Now the endgame content has multiple solutions based on playstyle, what enemy you are facing, and what your skill level is. For instance, Gjallarhorn with no tracking would therefore REQUIRE SKILL TO ACHIEVE MAXIMUM DPS, which in itself may mitigate the need for a major nerf to Wolfpack rounds.
Holy Shit! Balance without pissing in everyone's Cheerios! Who woulda thunk?
TL;DR- BALANCE the exotic Rocket Launchers by moving perks around in order to make it so the situation determines the optimal weapon.
Edit- clarified title
Edit 2- I'm not a -blam!-ing Viking, so I just corrected the spelling of Gjallarhorn
Edit 3- To clarify, I absolutely believe that Gjallarhorn is overpowered. It needs to be reduced in power overall to get rid of its "easy button" characteristic. That being said, if you take the most powerful gun and make it weaker, but don't make anything equal to it, then all you have is a weaker most powerful gun- that isn't fun, and it doesn't fix the fundamental issue which Bungie cited as their reason for the nerf in the first place. My proposal acknowledges that the overall DPS may need to drop, and that is fine- as long as the perks change to at least make the other exotics viable options, while keeping all of them above legendaries.
Edit 4: I got 99 replies, but the Dev ain't one...
Edit 5: There are some other interesting ideas floating around in here for leveling the field even more, such as reducing Gjallarhorn ammo (either in the mag, or in reserve), making Dragon's Breath solo flares more powerful (either making them sticky, having them cause ignite, or making them do more damage or last longer). It seems like most people agree with the central points:
1. Gjallarhorn is really too powerful as is
2. Dragon's Breath is not sufficiently powerful enough to elevate it above legendaries.
3. Truth is probably fine
4. It would be better for game play to include a buff of some other weapons as part of the Gjallarhorn fix in order to provide more options for the endgame instead of just making the one choice weaker.
I've outlined one possible option, but just a brief look through this thread shows many more creative solutions which could work as well. Ball is in your court, Bungie...
Edit 6 (24AUG15)- so, this piece was originally written a while ago, prior to the Twitch reveal last week that showed that Gjallarhorn will not be moving forward into Year 2. This post assumed that Gally would not be left behind on Sep 15, but now that we know it will be,the broken parts about it will likely fix themselves.
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They could just reduce it reserves to 4, 5 with a carry more ammo with heavy weapon armor piece on.