depends. i rolled with auto rifles at the beginning too since its the "best" weapon or a simple weapon if you cant aim and even hits if you shoot in the air. i never rly liked to go witht he mainstream since i always wanted something unique, so i was going to pulse rifles. for pve they are very good. nice dmg and if all 3 shots inflict headshot dmg its mostly as strong or slightly less powerful than handcannons. in pvp it rly depends on which weapon you use. but in generally many other weapon / weapon types easily outperform pulses. suros simply reks the red death (my main weapon for pvp). another bad thing is that you need to be very precise with pulse rifles, if youre sligtly off you wont hit, unlike autos do. but if youre very good at aiming and hit all 3 shots of the burst as headshot you can 2 shot kill everyone in pvp. i would go as far and say pulse rifle needs the most "skill", right next to handcannons, (if you can call aiming skill) to use effectivly in pvp. if i should recommend a pulse use the super pox vlo (feels a bit similar to red death, every stat is better except reloading) i didnt check the vanguard perks but something with field scout perk would be great. another pulse rifle to recommend would be red death. the stats are decent / bad, the impact is good but the health regen upon kill perk is very nice. (very good for pve too, makes you more "tanky")