Edit: As a note, the first choice for "stability and recoil" is meant to say that "Recoil and Stability should be [b]improved[/b]."
Second Edit: Looks like Bungie found the need for the buff on their own and are buffing the rifle themselves...I didn't see how exactly, though.
NOTE! This was a thread prior to release. On release of the game i found pulse rifles to be greatly improved and in fact quite viable in both pve and pvp now.
All of this talk on the feedback forum about the Hand Cannon, when arguably the weakest (or at least the least popular) primary in the Beta was the Pulse Rifle.
I'd like to say that the biggest issue of the weapon is that even when you manage to get all three shots on target, you could not pull out more damage than either the auto rifle or the scout rifle. The magazine sizes were too small for the engagements due to the high recoil. The damage was not rewarding and the range was only acceptable.
In my experience, I had white scout rifles that could outperform green pulse rifles. These guys need SOMETHING.
The unfortunate part of that something is that I have no idea exactly WHAT needs to be done. Increase the stability of all Pulse Rifles? I mean that makes sense, burst fire was used to provide volume of fire of the automatics and the ammo conservation and stability of semi-automatic. Unfortunately, increasing the stability just makes the game easier...and easy games aren't fun.
What about boosting the damage and range? Well...sure, but then you start competing DIRECTLY with the scout rifle, a competition in which the scout rifle will most likely win out on if the Pulse Rifle doesnt become a complete beast.
Larger Magazine size or faster reload speed? Maybe, but a faster reload speed on a weapon that, more often than not, appears to be bullpup in design? Seems a bit weird.
Most of my complaints here are arbitrary and pointless in the long run, but I'm legitimately at an impasse on what the proper "buff" to give the Pulse Rifle. I figure, I should leave it to the community to help me here.
If you have a suggestion that does NOT fit the three suggestions, please feel free to state it below. If you think the weapon is fine in its current orientation, lemme know what i'm doing wrong. :<
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Well they ARE buffing it. I believe they did it by improving the stability (lowering recoil), judging from offscreen footage from gamescom. Could be wrong.