I am afraid that my favorite archetype of weapon has been somewhat ruined with the way player health and damage has been redesigned in Destiny 2's Crucible. I loved these guns in D1 because they took a lot of skill to use well, were punishing if you were careless, but were very rewarding if you could use them properly. They had a quick optimal time-to-kill, but required perfect aim to achieve it, and punished missed shots heavily. That is no longer the case. Even if you land 100% headshots while firing as fast as possible (which you almost certainly cannot do with any kind of consistency due to their huge recoil), you still will not kill as quickly as most other types of weapons. And though their ttk is the same as the 200 rpm model, they still demand more accuracy. Where they were once high-skill, high reward, they are now higher-skill, no-reward.
But unfortunately it seems they've landed squarely in the spot where high impact pulse rifles were after The Taken King. Killing in 4 headshots right now is just too slow, but if they were to go back to killing in 3 headshots with their current RoF, they would be objectively better than every other weapon type. They've become impossible to balance in this regard.
The first thing I would suggest is a stability buff across the board for the 150 rpm archetype. They would still be less than ideal, but it would at least make them more competitive. Or, more radically, they could have their rate of fire changed. Either you could slow them down to 120 rpm, and buff their damage so that they once again kill in 3 headshots. Or you could leave their damage where it's at, and simply increase the rate of fire to 160 rpm (with enough stability to make them usable).
As it stands right now these weapons are incredibly unrewarding for how difficult they are to use. And they could use a slight damage buff in PvE to be honest with you.
[b]EDIT:[/b] I've been doing some thinking, and I believe I've come up with a solution. I honestly don't think Bungie would ever change the RoF for these weapons. It's something they've only ever done once, and even then after months of a weapon type being unusably bad, so it's very unlikely. So if a change in their optimal time-to-kill is not probable, then they could at least be made a little bit easier to use. As of right now, they do 37 damage to the body and 52 to the head (keep in mind these numbers are technically rounded), and thus can kill any guardian with 4 headshots, or 6 body shots, both of which are painfully slow compared to most other weapon types, especially auto rifles, and arguably harder to do considering their single shot, slow-firing nature. They can also kill anyone who is using 3 resilience or less with 3 headshots and 1 body shot.
So how about this: if we increase their damage by 10%, that would bring their body shot damage up to roughly 41, and their headshot damage up to roughly 57. With this change, they would still require at minimum 4 shots to kill another guardian in the Crucible, but their headshot requirement would be decreased. They would be able to kill any guardian with 3 head shots and 1 body shot, and they could kill anyone using less than 5 or 6 resilience (depending on rounding errors) with two body shots and two headshots.
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Nameless midnight is the best.
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On Reskinned Shores I got bested by a Uriel's Gift at capture point B and I was near capture point C. I was flinching so bad I could barely use my Guiding Sight. I got auto-mapped.
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I've amended the OP with additional comments and ideas on how these weapons could be better balanced.
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Edited by Swiftlock: 10/13/2017 1:52:12 AMBuffing them so they feel satisfying and competitive in PvP is hard because Destiny 2 is now all about teamshotting. The MIDA is already an issue. Can you imagine organized teams camping and obliterating opponents with buffed high-impact scouts? High impact weapons are supposed to be the archetype that is very unforgiving if you miss and can kill extremely quick if you're accurate, but Bungie's blanket nerf to everything in Destiny 2 means that a high-impact archetype really doesn't have a lot of space to exist where it feels balanced and competitive at the same time. Bungie painted themselves into a corner on this one.
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Fang of Ir Yut and VOC - best scouts ever
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I hear you. Frontier Justice is my favorite gun in D2. With Zen Moment its basically Jade Rabbit, my favorite gun in D1. I really think 3 headshots to kill is the ideal outcome. With how much flinch you get in gun fights and nearly every map only having like 1 long range area, low RoF scouts seem like youre already at a disadvantage. I have a 1.8kd at the moment so Im not complaining because Im losing all the time. I just think why would I use the Frontier Justice when I could just use a 180 scout or 200 scout? Doesn't feel like Im getting any kick out of it besides it having nearly max range which is good but since theres no maps like First Light or Bastion and are all mid to close range...that nearly maxed range stat quickly becomes meh. anyway Ive talked too much.
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I'd hate to say the team shot meta would become a nightmare if high impacts were buffed, but at the same time, I too feel like they were shafted quite a bit in both PvE/P.
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Yep, other than ARs, high impacts just feel like they were intentionally made to be more difficult to use, but not more rewarding.
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Frontiers justice
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I miss the Cocytus.
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I miss the jade rabbit