The exception is bosses, just want to clarify. It went from the best perk in the game at launch, to a decent perk following the first nerf, to being one of the worst perks in the game following the second nerf. After the first nerf, Explosive Payload already resulted in slightly less crit damage (on non bosses) in exchange for significantly more body shot damage and a bit of AOE. Still worth it imo. But now the damage penalty on crits has been doubled while the damage bonus on body shots has been halved. And the AOE damage is lower too. Rough numbers: compared to non Explosive Payload guns, you do about 16% less damage on crits and about 16% more damage on body shots. That trade off used to be about 7%-8% less on crits and around 30%-33% more on body shots after the first nerf. Pre nerf, it did equal crit damage and around 50% more body shot damage (!!!). Is sacrificing 16% crit damage worth the extra 16% body shot damage and a bit of AOE to bunches enemies?