Edit: Please read the entire post before creating a reply. Thanks! -- I'm not butthurt, I don't suck at the Crucible (although I guarantee someone will look up my stats and try to tell me I do), I'm just telling it like it is. It's a matter of time to kill. Shotguns have effectively 0 time to kill, while most other weapons require several seconds to finish a fight. This is theoretically balanced by the fact that you have to be close to your opponent, but nearly every map in Destiny is rather small with narrow corridors. Plus, you have plenty of abilities to assist you. Melee can be activated immediately after a shotgun shot to guarantee the kill. Felwinter's Lie can be re-rolled until it becomes a sniper. Sunsingers can abuse their melee overshield. Strikers have shoulder charge to assist their gunplay. Blink can teleport you right in front of someone (if you delay the button press you effectively teleport forward). A shotgun is strong enough to instantly end a bladedancer's super. I'm sure there's more, but that was just off the top of my head. What about sniper rifles and fusion rifles, you ask? Sniper Rifles - Requires headshots or final round (which is only a OHK on high impact, low RoF snipers which are extremely high risk, high reward weapons) to kill instantly - Has extreme amounts of flinch if shot, even with Unflinching - Must be far away from your target, be using a low zoom sight, or get lucky - Hip fire is awful and aiming down sights takes extra time Fusion Rifles - stupid but not nearly as much as shotguns - Requires timing and accuracy to be successful - Will not kill instantly at range Essentially, instant kills are meant to be high risk, high reward scenarios, but there is almost no risk when using a shotgun, as I've explained. Remember to bump if you agree, otherwise feel free to prove me wrong. Edit 1: Added #Competitive tag Edit 2: Sure, shotguns are common in other games. But it's a power weapon in Halo, and in games like CoD other weapons have extremely low TTKs as well, so there's less of a discrepancy. My issue with them in Destiny is that in the same game you have weapons that kill in 0 seconds and weapons that kill in 3 or more seconds. Edit 3: Think of this as a request for bigger maps or nerfing secondary ammunition, if you wish.