What would be your solution then? Because ikelos shotgun was over powered and needed addressing.

Honestly? Leave it be. Who cares how anyone else plays or enjoys PvE content? Right.. only the snowflakes who feel a need to create competitive balance when none is required. Now if you even try to use the argument that it was the only choice.. it wasn't. Ppl just got so used to it they leaned on it hard like Ghorn in D1. I had that shotgun and used it a handful of times. Never did I feel it was the only choice. D1 I didn't even get Ghorn till a week before it was nerfed and left behind. I still completed all D1 activities easily. By nerfing that shotgun all they tried to do was force players into other less exciting, fun to use gear. Some dude fast burning a boss in PvE doesn't bother me in 1 bit.

But that doesnt address the issue of ikelos being a legendary special weapon capable of doing greater dps than exotic weapons like sleeper simulant and one thousand voices. The perk needed to be brought inline with other weapons of its catergory or perhaps get the black hammer treatment and become an exotic heavy, because like it or not a balanced sandbox is important for a good game. Having a balanced sandbox allows people to experiment and use what they like without being at a severe disadvantage and not only that it promotes people to play the game and obtain different weapons which is good for the community because it makes people more willing to play activities bolstering numbers and giving the game more life. Yeah you may not mind people melting bosses in pve but that same gun was being used to melt gambit bosses in a rediculously quick time giving people little chance to counter play, which in turn makes ikelos shotgun very close to a must pick for boss killing because its damage was at a similar level to that of heavy weapons but the ammo is everywhere due to it being a special weapon. It was a power weapon hiding in the special weapon slot, it need to be tuned down a bit and they way they did it was a great way of doing so, reducing its dps by making you use your melee often means its slightly less useful for melting bosses but deals with majors and high health adds with ease still.

Who cares. Why do exotics have to be the best in its class? There are many many examples where that isnt the case. Stop making up imaginary rules.

None of that was an issue for me. I just don't see it as being an issue as you described. You could still use those weapons and vault the shotgun. No one made anyone use it. Shard it then.. if it was that big an issue. You know free will and all that jazz. Dont rely on someone else to ruin everyone elses day because the other guy was butt hurt. It's like running to you'r parents and getting them to take away Joey's supersoaker cause it's too good. I didn't use it as often and I still did EP clearing, won gambit matches, finished Shatterd Throne and ran the raid. The nerf doesn't hurt me, but I dont like the idea of dumbing down weapons. Though I am not saying you are wrong. I just dont agree with it.

Yeah fair enough man and technically it didnt dumb down the weapon it added a new layer of tech to it, if you time your melees the gun still does crazy damage, it just less reliably melts bosses now. Honnestly its a pretty smart way to nerf it rather than just straight up lower damage values.

They dumbed it down to make everything else thats subpar seem better. Lets not suger coat it. Yes it was a better way to adjust a weapon.. but lets be honest. Until this new season it wasnt even mentioned by Bungie. This is also the same exact thing they did to the sniper before Forsaken. Which they did so ppl would you other options like the DC sniper, which is also inferior. This is an established patter with Bungie.