We all know what the hotfix released on Oct. 14th accomplished. Auto Rifles, the Mythoclast, Shotguns; and many more were nerfed or buffed. My problem is: was this really necessary to nerf these items? Didn't the Crucible auto-nerf everything you brought into it already? The reason I ask is this; a core design element of the game was that no matter where you got your weapons and equipment, it could all be brought into the Crucible. Whether farmed from a cave in Russia, found somewhere else in the PvE side, bought from a vendor, etc., it was all viable equipment for the Crucible. But in order to get that to work, they would have had to program in certain nerfs once the Crucible was entered, and they had put that in place to ensure fairness in competition while one was in said Crucible. So we know that: While Rate of Fire, Stability, and Range were still up to the quality of the weapon; base damage was the same amongst weapon types (as in all Auto rifles have the same impact/damage, all Pulse Rifles have the same Impact/Damage, etc.), regardless of what the value meter in a weapon's statistics would say. They would still all do the same damage as any other weapon of it's type. My problem is this; If a change was needed in order to bring balance back into the Crucible, why did that change need to spread beyond the Crucible? If the Crucible evens everything out (takes God-like weapon in PvE and makes it the same as any other weapon of its type while one is in the Crucible, then let's it revert back to demigod status upon leaving the Crucible) for only the time one is competing in the Crucible, why does a permanent change need to be applied [i][b]outside of[/i][/b] the Crucible? Take a weapon like the Vex Mythoclast. In the Crucible, I can see the Rate of Fire being an issue, but if (for some reason) the equalizer-code did not adjust the VMC's Range and Stability accordingly, then why not just fix the code for the limmited time that weapon is in the Crucible, then let it revert once you leave? Considering it can only be found form RNGesus blessing you during a 'Hard mode' run of the Vault of Glass (and it's a weapon meant to be very effective against Aetheon [you know; the hardest enemy you guys have placed into the game] by its very nature), it's [i][b]supposed to be[/i][/b] like holding a living Demon in your hands and using it to wipe the floor with the Darkness opposing you. That's why it's [i][b]the[/i][/b] 'End Game Weapon'. But nerfing these weapons across the board (meaning the same stats that the weapon has in the Crucible apply to it's stats in the PvE world) only makes those affected weapons worthless in the PvE side of the game. They were originally designed to pour out damage by the bucketful in the PvE side, but be limited to the same stats as everything else in the Crucible. Making the PvE stats the same as the Crucible means that they don't do enough damage at a range and damage base that is required to take down the games tougher bosses (including Aetheon). Why Bungie chose to make the changes effective across the whole of the game rather than contained to the Crucible, I don't know. I was not a party involved in those discussions. The balance of these weapons [i][b]was not[/i][/b] in question on the PvE side. they were performing perfectly as designed in the PvE side. If the balance is in question in the Crucible, shouldn't those fixes be quarantined in the Crucible? So I ask again, was the nerf necessary? Or was it overkill resulting from a knee-jerk reaction? Discuss.