With all the talk about special ammo changes happening in Destiny PvP I thought it would also be good to also have a serious discussion about potential changes to snipers(and no it's not aim assist). [b]Notice: This is a long post I have highlighted the key points in bold for a TL;DR[/b] First let me come out and say that yes I am a shotgun user in PvP and that granted I don't have much skill if any at all when it comes to sniper use and that I simply prefer shotguns over sidearms and fusion rifles. That said I do know most people who do snipe will be automatically skeptical of this post. Though I can tell you that I am here to make a rational argument and proposition not another "OMG snipers are OP!" type of post. How I want to communicate my personal thoughts on what needs to happen to sniper rifles is by first discussing the advantages and disadvantages that each special weapon has in the Crucible and the risk of which each one presents to the user: Shotguns Advantage- Excellent one shot kill potential for user in close quarters combat Disadvantage- Requires the user to be extremely close to target creating significant risk for the user as they regularly place themselves within melee or shotgun range of their own target. Fusion Rifles Advantage- Excellent one shot kill potential at medium to close ranges Disadvantage- The required charging of the fusion rifle creates a short duration of which poses a risk to the user as they are exposed to potentially lethal damage from their target or other oppenents while charging. If the users fusion rifle shot misses or does not hit enough for lethal damage they are at an even greater risk of being killed as they must either charge for an additional shot or switch weapons leaving them exposed to their target for a further increased duration. Sidearms Advantage- Excellent quick time to kill at close to medium range; gives user quick defensive or offensive option in various unexpected scenarios Disadvantage- Requires user to be consistent with maintaining shots on their target. Doing so can be difficult for users as a sidearms rapid fire capability create significant recoil which can cause shots to miss. By missing multiple shots it puts the user at risk for lethal damage from their target before the user can eliminate their target. Snipers Advantage- Excellent one shot kill potential from medium to long ranges. Disadvantage- Requires a more skillful user to wield effectively. User places themselves at risk when aiming down sight as they can be counter sniped, flanked, rushed, and killed by a target or oppenent that the user was not aware of or not prepared for. The user also has no hip fire indicator for when they are unexpectedly rushed by a target. Now that I have laid out the advantages and disadvantages it may seem confusing as to why I am wanting a change to happen to sniper rifles since they clearly do have a disadvnatage. The issue is the fact that snipers are currently the special weapon that create the least amount of risk for their users and no it has nothing to do with aim assist or the disadvantages that I have stated. [b]The problem is that snipers as a whole reward too much damage for landing a body shot. The reasoning for this is that a single body shot from a high impact sniper rifle in Crucible does approximately 165 damage (pending on armor) leaving the target with about 17% of their health left. By dealing this much damage it barely takes anything to get lethal damage on a target. And while the target who did take damage can run to cover to heal up by doing so they are temporarily removed from the fight. This allows the sniper to reposition, go in for the kill, or give his/her teammeates the opportunity to go in for the kill as their target is incredibly vulnerable.[/b] Another situation is that while snipers do have the disadvantage of being caught off guard by being rushed the risk of the sniper dying is mitigated if they land a body shot on the rusher. By doing so it provides the sniper enough of a damage threshold that they can either finish the target with a second sniper body shot or switch to their primary weapon. Pending on the impact of the primary weapon it will finish the rusher off with a few shots or even one body shot often before the rusher is within harmful range. There are arguements that can be made about sniper rifles being able to deal such high body shot damage. One is that as a sniper it can be difficult to land a body shot at close range when being rushed. While that is very much so true a well practiced sniper I have found can often reliably body shot a target. Even so a mediocre sniper still has a reasonable chance of landing a body shot giving them the advantage over person who has caught them off guard. Ultimately by landing a bodyshot with a sniper rifle it gives the sniper far too great of a damage reward that critically injures the target from a safe distance. For all other special weapons to critically injure a target they have to place the user at a far greater risk. For example shotgun users that critically injure targets must get close which carries risk since they are at close range, Fusion rifle users which critically injure a target are at risk as they are left exposed for a longer period of time as they must charge their shots, and sidearms to critically injure have to land their shots quickly and consistently and by failing to do so put themselves at risk. Snipers on the other hand to critically injure do not have to be close to critically injure, they do not have to charge their shots, and they do not need to land multiple shots. To critically injure they just have to land one singular, near instantaneous shot to the body. [b]All of this said I still believe snipers should be be rewarded with a kill if they can manage to land two bodyshots on their target as it means they succeeded in being not only accurate but consistent with their shots. That is why I believe that the body shot multiplier for snipers in general needs to be lowered such that a single high to medium impact sniper body shot leaves a target with 35% to 40% health remaining and low impact sniper body shots leaves a target with 45% to 49% health remaining. In exchange the headshot multiplier is increased for all sniper rifles to encourage skillful play with them.[/b] By implementing this change it will give a sniper's target a fair chance if the sniper only body shots them but still reward the sniper for consistency if they manage to land the seocond lethal shot. [b]So what do you think? Is this a reasonable proposition, is there a better solution, or should things be left the way they are? Please be civil if you have disagreements with my proposition as I would like to have a reasonable discussion on what should or should not happen to sniper rifles in PvP. Thank you and don't forget to leave a like so we can get this discussion trending.[/b]