Alpha player here, and I legitimately think the Crucible was the closest it's ever been to balanced before the game launched. I don't know how the hell we got where we are now, but it's awful. Even the handcannon meta was awful because despite being faster paced, we started losing the casual players way too quickly and they were what kept the Crucible afloat as something dynamic and entertaining. Casual players didn't care about meta weapons, they just used whatever the hell they felt like and that influenced everyone else to do the same. Bungie managed to kill them off, it took a long time and it was a slow, painful process but that innocent fun is gone now. All we've got left are the pulse rifles and scout rifles and camping snipers and rangefinder shotguns. Nobody who's left cares about just screwing around with a fun loadout and seeing who comes out on top. It's all about results and Bungie's let the meta get so clearly defined it could be counted as a failure on the part of the developers. It really hurts to see a game I have so many fond memories of decaying like this, but that's what's happening between the dullness of PVP and the content drought that Bungie should be ashamed of. I've had games I played for years where the decline was peaceful. Slowly things changed, and eventually newbies became vets and we all moved on and brought good memories with us. This is a game where people leave in mass exodus after every big content drop because they dont want to watch it spiral.