Hello all, vVvDARK WOLFvVv here! so, I'm going to keep try this brief (though it is unlikely), and this is, to me at least, a huge problem, especially in competitive game types like Iron Banner. Pulse rifles.
Personally, I do not agree with the notion that any primary weapon should be able to kill with two pulls of the trigger. Especially now that hand cannons like the Thorn and The Last Word cant achieve a kill in anything less than 3 shots (unless of course you get a hip fire two shot headshot with a last word, but That's rare, and 2 shot kills with the lucky rounds of a Hawkmoon aren't as common as i thought it would be but still kind of annoying when it happens but i understand that these are exotics and need something to set them apart, and thorn is made good by the three shots anywhere will kill but I digress)
Now i understand that pulse rifles need to be able to compete, and for the most part they do. a bit too much in some cases.. most notable examples being the Messenger. Ever since its archetype of Pulse Rifle got buffed to have the same fire rate as Red Death but still retained its previous impact, getting 2 burst killed by it is a pretty high likelihood. and in Iron Banner, getting two shot killed by a red death is annoying, especially being a hunter who maxes out agility and is much more vulnerable to the possibility of being killed in two trigger pulls.
some other outliers like the Hawksaw and Bad Juju kill way too fast considering their higher fire rate.
So here are my suggestions for a re-balance of pulse rifles:
first of all, remove stipulation of the armor stat making you more or less vulnerable to pulse rifles, no one should have to be penalized for wanting to run high agility instead of high armor. Especially when this is the only weapon type that functions like that, if EVERY weapon type functioned like that, this would be a whole different conversation
for higher impact and lower rate of fire pulse rifles such as Read Death and Messenger, AT MINIMUM, you should have to commit three trigger pulls (and all bullets making contact to the head) with a pulse rifle to kill with a headshot, and 4 trigger pulls should be committed for a body shot or mix of head and body shots
Now, for faster fire rate pulse rifles such as Bad Juju and Hawksaw, at minimum it should take 4 trigger pulls
(and all bullets making contact) for the headshot and 5 trigger pulls for body shots or mix of headshot and body shot.
the high fire rate/low impact pulse rifles simply fire way too fast for them to be a three burst headshot. especially considering how much being hit by any pulse rifle throws your screen around.
Pre - 2.0 it was a battle to see who could two shot better with a primary, but such is not the case any more, especially ever since Thorn and The Last Word got smacked down. hand cannons now typically kill in a minimum of 3 shots to the head in the second highest impact class (and rarely anyone uses weapons like the Ill Will and Timur's Lash because of how slow they fire and how little ammo they have). The only time I get two shot or perform a two shot with Hawkmoon is when two lucky rounds line up and the ONLY way to get a two shot headshot with TLW is when you are hip firing, and doing so is not exactly an easy task, and i only mention these because they are exotic, and clearly have an edge, but not one that makes them broken. Not to mention the stability and range nerfs to hand cannons. Pulse Rifles have easily twice the range and stability of a hand cannon
But now, post - 2.0, where most weapons need at least three shots, i think it is fair to say that no primary weapon under normal circumstances should kill an enemy in crucible in less than 3 trigger pulls. especially considering how tight groupings are when aiming down sight.
Thanks all for reading this far, still no Tl;Dr, I don't do those.
As usual any and all comments and feed back are appreciated, just keep it respectful.
SEE Y'ALL STARSIDE!
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Only two pulse rifles I struggle against are Hawksaw and Bad Juju. Red Death is good but I win most encounters. Basically don't make the class into autos just because a few dominate.