So, one thing that has me hung up at the moment is thus, a large portion of pvpers use pulse rifles, mostly red death, nirwins mercy and now no time to explain (guilty as charged) and to me at least, this in itself is an imbalance, but really, why so many pulses?
I see most posts that complain and outright state that pulses are OP get slammed, badly. Is this just folks defending their new favorite weapons, or are they on the right track? If 80%+ of crucible uses pulse rifles, doesn't this show up that imbalance? If the common consensus is 'just use a pulse rifle yourself' doesn't that indicate a bad balance?
Honestly, I can't make my mind up here, I've started to use high stability PRs and tlaloc (depending on the map/team) and it certainly doesn't make me a godlike scrub, but the proliferation of pulses, and the general consensus on countering PRs is to use one yourself (to a much lesser extent, scouts are offered up as a viable counter too) confuses me.
To conclude, I'm not saying PRs are OP, they definitely aren't weak, but I can't come to a strong formulated answer to 'are PRs OP?' So come forth, educate a scrub. I'll also save you some time looking up stats: I'm terrible, and should feel bad.
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I'm slightly biased being a Warlock main but, honestly, I've found the best counter to the Pulse Rifle meta is the Tlaloc. If you can stick it out for the first 4 or so minutes the Tlaloc will wreck every single Pulse Rifle. It relies on some skill as you want to be aiming for the head while strafing, but the boosts to handling and fire rate the Tlaloc gets when your super is charged is godlike. Try it out when you get the chance.