I had a long ass block of text before but I accidentally closed out of the tab... So I'm going to just be brief.
There are 4 primary weapon types, Scout Rifles, Pulse Rifles, Auto Rifles, and Hand Cannons.
Hand Cannons don't have a place in the circle of life. Scouts are long ranged, Pulse is mid, and auto rifle is short.
Hand Cannons just take up the place of another weapon type, usually causing most of that weapon type to be useless.
Hand Cannons don't belong in the game. Certain hand cannons likes TLW, Thorn year one, and hawkmoon were and kinda still are game breaking. Plus some legendary ones that I don't feel like spelling.
This is not a hate post. Just my opinion.
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I hate to say it but I kind of agree with you, they've tried their hardest to put pistols into this game, in the form of hand cannons and sidearms, the unfortunate thing is they are nearly impossible to balance with the multitude of other weapons that we have at our disposal. We couldn't just get rid of them and lose great lore like that of last word and thorn though could we? I don't think they are going anywhere.