https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HEXWRTEbj1I

the flinch was definitely needed on the snipers Damage nerf though was a bit uncalled for

Honestly, weapon balance is not responsible for the rise in shot gunning. In year 1, sniping was the "cool" thing to do. It was the hallmark of most popular content creators. As a result, "skilled" players sniped while "scrubs" shot gunned. So, players who wanted to be good sniped regardless of their actual results. For most of year 2, the Thousand Yard Stare was equipped to over sixty percent of guardians at any given time. However, most payers were not dominant snipers so they did not use the weapon frequently despite equipping it. On the other hand, shot gunning was dominant in the competitive community from the get go. The sweaty community simply was not in the limelight. Sweats and as a result the sweaty playstyle have become a much more popular part of the destiny community. Skilled shotgun play, yes it exists, is more prevalent now. Sniping is not put up on a pedestal as the "superior" playstyle anymore. Many successful content creators now shotgun. Because players now see it as a viable style of play, shot gunning has increased in popularity. Particularly, because the map design and mobility inherent in destiny give shot gunning an edge in most game modes. Elimination and doubles are notable exceptions. Some food for thought, most of the maps that favor sniping such as first light have been removed from the rotation due to unpopularity. Bungie did not design the crucible for exclusively cqc. We, the fan base, have been pushing the game that way for some time. On an unrelated side note, I prefer a shotgunning meta to a sniping meta. Scouts, side arms, and fusions are much more viable, although admittedly not top tier. Plus, the game favors taking ground over holding it which is more fun for me. Penny for your thoughts destiny community.

I've just started bagging every shotgun user to kindly inform them I do not agree with their play style. Edit: Also shooting their corpse with my primary to communicate that they might have better luck using their own primary.

PvP isn't broken, if you patch this meta out of existence then another meta will take its place that will aggravate another subset of players. Hand cannons were OP, patched Special ammo was OP, patched Snipers were OP, patched High impact pulse rifles were OP, patched Shotguns were OP, patched (sort of) Arc/fire bolt Grenades were OP, patched Shoulder charge was OP, patched Fusion rifles were OP, patched Grenades & horseshoes was OP, patched Bladedancer was OP, Patched All of these things have been patched (I probably missed a lot) at some point. Things will never be balanced when you cater to the vocal minority. Shotguns were nerfed in year one when they could have shot package and rangefinder at the same time, they only became relevant again because everything else that they couldn't compete against was nerfed. This will be a cycle that will keep repeating.

The worst thing they did to snipers involves eriene rr4. It used to be black spindle impact, but now it's 1k state impact which had already taken an impact reduction. Edit: It's been pointed out to me that I was wrong. So just ignore this comment. Sorry :)

I'm not the greatest sniper but I use them. This patch is not that bad, if you know how to snipe, you should be able to handle it, for example, if you're trying to snipe and someone starts shooting you and you know you're gonna die, don't try and shoot them, just run.

The worst prat about shotguns is how slow they are to equip. On multiple occasions players come rushing across the map with a shotgun and I can't even swap to my shotgun in time to counter. So pretty much if you're not using it as a primary you're doing it wrong lol

The flinch change hit very hard on snipers, so hard in fact, I now only use the raid fusion rifle for PvE.