I'm going to try to keep this first post neat as there is a lot of talk about shoguns in PVP....again.
I'm a Day 1 player and hopped into the forums maybe about 4 months in.
Let's all be honest with ourselves. There hasn't been a time where shotguns were not complained about in PVP.
Range, Impact, perks, range, perks. Over and over again.
If it's not the shotguns directly it's movement abilities tied to 'Closing the Gap'.
Blink, Shadestep, Twilight Garrison, Blink, Titan Skate (Not touched 'yet')
These things alone have gone back and forth in a vicious cycle of nerfs and the problem is people will never be satisfied with Shotguns.
Let's just pretend a shotgun nerf is imminent. It would likely be something to do with their range again. Do you know what the next issue would be?
Shotgun/Melee. Specifically Warlock and Hunter to a degree.
People are always going to find what kills the fastest and gravitate. Especially in Close quarters.
Guess what, there are more close quarters opportunities in this game that there are other ranges. Shotguns will ALWAYS dominate that. Always.
Bungie's own Goals for the weapon - [b]Shotgun is most effective at very close range[/b]
Is that not what the shotgun is right now? [b]ONLY [/b]effective at close ranges?
So for the complainers, how close is "the right" close for you? Right now the right gun with the right perks has a max range of about 12 feet give or take.
How much closer do you want it? 8feet? 5 feet? 2? Is any of that going to change the "Closing the gap" thing? No it's not.
Another of Bungie's goals is for weapons to not infringe (too much) on other weapons effective ranges.
In Y1 I can understand why they reduced the range. ARs and even fusions couldn't compete. Once the range was normalized there's really been no infringement.
Now, people want to say that the "close the gap" thing changes this but I disagree. Getting yourself into effective range can happen with any weapon. It's just more obvious with shotguns because it's a 1HK.
The real issue there is not letting them close the gap. You have to counter player movement just as you do their weapons.
People are also saying that this uptick of Shotgun prowess is because Snipers are under performing.
Compared to what? When they were [b]over performing[/b] before the last changes? When the insufficient predictable flinch was allowing people to get kills while being hosed by primary fire? Is that what it's being compared to? C'mon son. That's about the most Sniper bias viewpoint there is right now.
All the while shotguns were [u]still only effective[/u] within the close ranges yet people still complained about them.
Now less people are complaining about OP snipers and shotguns are still making people loose their minds.
We need to stop the cycle people. Shotguns, by Bungies own definition, are fine.
And so are snipers now BTW
TL:DNR
Shotguns (for a while now) are ONLY effective in the closest ranges. People will continue to try to 'close the gap' to make best use of the 1HK potential at the closest ranges.
Nerfing them more will only result in continuing the cycle of nerfing their power or movement tactics/abilities
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For Snipers do you want them to under perform or Over perform? Snipers need to be buffed and statistically the only game mode they were oppressive in is Trials and people are gonna play like a pu$$y there anyways.