The meta is essentially set in stone at this point, hand cannons and shotguns, that's what its going to be next season, thats what it was for the past year, theres no changing that, unless the glave is just god tier from the start. For one thing to be considered meta, it needs to have somewhere where it shines above everything else. For balance design, generally speaking, there is always a trade off with having something. I'm going to go ahead and list everything and give their tradeoffs in my mind, you may notice something pretty obvious at a couple places, but just hear me out, ill give the general overview of what i think. Scout rifles, mid-long range, roughly 1s ttk, fairly easy to hit head shots when ads trade off: hard to use in close quarters combat, and zoom is too much for close quarters combat, flinch can cause extreme missed shots fusion rifles, close-mid range, instant ttk after charge, longer range than shotguns, no headshot multiplier so bodies hit hard trade off: time to charge sidearms, close range, .6-.8 ttk trade off: same range as fusions and only slightly higher than shotguns at max range bows, mid-long range, ttk ???, potential to 1 shot in empowered rift, does over 100 damage in a single hit, fairly easy to hit headshots with, can quick swap into another weapon to finish the kill trade off: draw time, hard time hitting at close ranges pulse rifles, mid-long range, 0.8-1.0 ttk, two burst headshots consistently with some archetypes trade off: hard to use up close, flinch can cause extreme missed shots ​ auto rifles: mid range, ttk ???, consistent trade off: requires significant accuracy and little flinch to be effective grenade launchers: mid range, instant ttk on player impact, can get people behind walls and around corners trade off: extreme skill to hit players around walls/corners, user has to predict where the enemy is/is going trace rifles: close-mid range, ttk ???, fast ttk when hitting all headshots trade off: most use the exotic slot, lots of recoil, flinch is bad on this smgs: close-mid range, ttk ???, fast ttk when hitting all heads trade off: at longer ranges, flinch and recoil become problems hand cannon: mid-long range, 0.8-1.0 ttk, extremely easy to hit headshots, range covers most long ranges in the game's maps currently, flinches opponent significantly more than most weapons, most aim assist in the game besides some exotics trade off: somewhat difficult to use at close range shotguns: close range, instant ttk trade off: close range, requires some luck with pellet spread unless slug shotgun at further ranges snipers: long range, instant ttk, head shots kill instantly, zoom is helpful, aim assist cone is fairly large for a precision weapon trade off: extremely difficult to use while being flinched or at close-mid ranges My problem is the only problem that hand cannons have, the shotguns cover exactly. There is a small hole where hand cannons and shotguns together do not have one of the best chances to win, and that is right where smg's shine. snipers are decent when not flinched, but are easily counter by hand cannons that give tons of flinch.