Get ready, this will be a long post and I'm going to break down the archetypes of Scout Rifle and why they're severely underperforming in most areas of the game, as well as brief notes on the Exotics. Let's start with the traditional workhorse archetype, [u][b]180RPM[/b][/u]. Easily the most flexible archetype, Precision Frame is always a plus, well-balanced stats. IMO they're definitely the best Scout archetype for PvE, with Nameless Midnight (Vanguard), Oxygen SR3 (Vanguard Pinnacle) and No Feelings (Scourge of the Past) being my recommendations. They're as versatile as a Scout Rifle gets, do moderate damage and can operate at long enough distances that you shouldn't care about damage dropoff. As for PvP, it's an entirely different story. They're just bad. 55 headshot damage, 35 to the body, with an optimal kill of 3H1B (200 damage) in 1.00s. Too slow to be worth using and, over longer distances, gets completely outclassed by Blast Furnace or any Aggressive Frame Pulse Rifle. Exotics: None - Bungo pls The PvP shortcomings of the 180RPM archetype are only exacerbated by the [u][b]200RPM[/b][/u] archetype. With 54 to the head and 31 to the body, for an optimal kill of also 3H1B , the same as the 180RPM, but achieves this in 0.9s. Unless the Precision Frame is an absolute must for you, there is no reason to use a 180RPM Scout over a 200RPM one. In fact, the difference in damage between the two archetypes only comes into play when the enemy has 7+ resilience (194 health vs 193 damage from 3H1B 200) or when exclusively hitting body shots - 6 for the 180 in 1.67s versus 7 for the 200 in 1.80s. Range very rarely matters in PvP for Scout Rifles and the added mobility from the Lightweight Frame is a nice touch. On the flipside of things, they're not worth using in PvE over a 180RPM. It's almost a reverse of the situation, shooting that extra bit faster means you might not always be able to kill trash mobs in 1 hit by way of the lower damage, the mobility boost is meaningless and range is more likely to be a factor. Notable examples are Night Watch and Vouchsafe. Exotics: MIDA Multi-Tool - very solid PvP weapon, Third Eye is a huge help, High-Cal for flinch is always a valuable tool and the double-down on mobility is excellent for letting you be in fights more of the time plus strafing benefits. Borderline useless Catalyst, however (adds Outlaw to a base 82 Reload Speed, in case you didn't know) My favourites, the [u][b]150RPM[/b][/u] archetype, may be the worst offenders here. Unwieldy and unforgiving are the two best words to describe these, they demand precision and a snail would be ashamed of how slow they are if you miss a shot or two. They are very sluggish to handle and have low Aim Assist stats that, despite being balanced out by their naturally high Range, never really feels as if it's sticky until you're fighting from a Range at which other weapons might not even be dealing damage. The Talons of the Eagle that Saladin sold in the last IB, with Outlaw and Rampage, seems like it should be a wonderful PvE weapon. It's definitely not the worst thing I've ever used, but I could never shake the sense of being underwhelmed by a gun with two of the best perks in the game. If those same perks were on a Hand Cannon, you'd be content with calling it a God-roll and never having to use anything else. On this Scout, it felt lacklustre beyond words. In PvP, these things might as well be Jekyll & Hyde in rifle form. You either click and decimate your opponent or struggle to land more than a couple of body shots. They deal 68 to the head for an optimal kill of 3H in 0.80s (204 damage). Sounds good, right? Well, miss a single headshot and the TTK rockets up to 1.20s (50% increase). Did I mention that they take flinch really, really badly? Coupled with the standard low stability stat that they all share, just about any incoming fire is enough to throw your aim off significantly. Beyond that, the damage to the body is an abysmal 38. Hitting just body shots results in the slowest TTK of any primary, barring bows, by some distance - with a whopping 2.00s. That's enough time for Luna's Howl to get 3 kills. The next slowest are Graviton Lance and Crimson, tied at 1.87s, but for a weapon that shoots at the standard rate for its weapon class, the closest competitor is the 140RPM Hand Cannon, clocking in at 1.73s. No reason whatsoever to use these over an Aggressive Frame Pulse Rifle that will match them for Range, output much more flinch to the enemy AND beat them in both optimal TTK (0.73s vs 0.80s) and worst-case TTK (1.60s vs 2.00s). Notable examples are Transfiguration (Last Wish) and Talons of the Eagle (Iron Banner) Exotics: The Jade Rabbit - confusing gun. The signature perk doesn't make up for missing a headshot in any meaningful way, Catalyst for +30 Stability is complete overkill when it has base Stability around 46 (sources differing and numbers seem a little off, but it's in that region) and Zen Moment. That said, Aim Assist of 80 makes it very easy to work with. Would be good if less time was put into making ornaments for it. Polaris Lance - explosions. Nice gun, Dragonfly from the Catalyst is a very nice addition on top of its unique perk for lots of solar AoE. Also has Zen Moment, which seems more than a little unnecessary with its base 75 Stability. Aside from that, good gun all round, doesn't need touching beyond any forthcoming buffs to Scouts in general. Skyburner's Oath - worst Exotic in the game, hands down. Worst Catalyst in the game, hands down. I mean, +30 Range? On a Scout Rifle with Explosive Payload? It simply doesn't have a place in the game and, if the anti-Cabal theme is going to stick, it likely never will. I can't understate that there is nothing good about this gun. Not even the hip-fire projectiles are fun. Lastly, the forgotten archetype, the [u][b]Veist 260RPM[/b][/u] aka Black Scorpion sr4, the only representative for this archetype that exists in Year 2. Not a terrible gun, but it's plagued by poor base stats and a simply horrific perk pool. Rangefinder and Opening Shot are good perks - just not on Scout Rifles. Grave Robber and Hip-Fire Grip go against how you should even be using the gun. Don't even bother using this in PvE. On the off-chance you get one with Zen Moment and Rampage, you're still better off using something else. Burns through ammo quickly with a very low damage output and doesn't have the Range advantage that any other Scout Rifle would. Similar story in PvP, in the few times that a Scout Rifle gets to flex its Range, this one won't be of any use. 45 to the head and 26 to the body, with an optimal kill of 4H1B (206 damage) in 0.93s, it's respectable but not great. Deceptively, that's the same optimal TTK as Bygones, which is far more consistent and will beat out Black Scorpion pretty much anywhere. Seems like there's general theme here, doesn't it? Use a Pulse Rifle instead. Exotics: None As many people will be quick to point out, map size is certainly a factor behind the underperformance of Scout Rifles, but I hope these numbers and statistics provide a better insight as to why Scout Rifles account for just 4.2% of weapon kills, average across all platforms (in QP Clash, for what I hope are obvious reasons). I think, bare minimum, Scout Rifles need to take reduced flinch (or an across-the-board Stability increase, particularly for 150s) and have some of the garbage perks removed from their pools. Whatever it takes to distance them from Hand Cannons, in terms of damage-per-shot (as they share archetypes at 150RPM and 180RPM, where Scout Rifles are damage capped as they can't do more damage than a Hand Cannon of the same RPM), and Pulse Rifles, in terms of being the ranged option. Individual weapon data pulled from here, though I know some numbers are off and/or out of date https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_6zsM7kzvg0aUT8YtM_-Wg_5K1gKDOlrwfVzutEjq-s/edit Weapon type statistics taken from here https://guardian.gg/2/weapon-stats/2/71/0/2019-04-01/2019-05-01 Edit: Normally I don't like editing my posts but I have to make a special exception here. Anyone who has seen me around the forums might know that I've been hunting for God-rolls on three Scout Rifles - Transfiguration, No Feelings and Does Not Compute. Well......... https://m.imgur.com/a/AoxTs3N