Alright so this post is about shotguns and hand cannons in PvE. You could probably guess that from the title but I'll restate it. The reason I'm making this post is both of them are extremely under powered and severely underperform. Hand Cannons: Okay with small arms and maybe something like airborne they're not that bad. The issue is those modifiers aren't always on and even when they are there are better options. The range drop off is one of the biggest issues in something like your oracles encounter in VoG. When you try to shoot the hobgoblins with a hand cannon you have to stand at the edge of the map and even then most of the time you're 2 tapping on a crit unless you have explosive rounds. Why would I do that when I could have a scout with explosive rounds equipped and while my buddy is killing his oracles on the opposite side of the map I turn around and kill all the hobgoblins on his side from the spot where I'm currently standing in 1 or 2 bullets and not sacrifice reload speed for using explosive rounds? It's not practical. Why not use explosive rounds then? It makes fatebringer 1 hit most enemies at a lower tier right? That would be a common answer from most people probably right? Let me tell you why. 2 of the most sought after perks on hand cannons are outlaw and firefly. These are 2 perks that by nature mean absolutely nothing if you use explosive rounds. Just by running explosive rounds if the explosive damage is what kills the target you just negated the fact your weapon even has outlaw or firefly. At this point in PvE I'd rather have an imago loop with spray and play, explosive rounds, and rangefinder than a fatebringer so I could have range to kill my enemies, explosive rounds for damage, and a reload perk that isn't ruined by having explosive rounds. 2 changes that could be implemented are: 1. Buff the overall damage of hand cannons in PvE. They should be that 1 tap weapon to any lower tier red health bar enemy. They have horrible reload speed and low mag sizes compared to other weapon types. Give them the damage without explosive rounds to compensate for these 2 areas where they are weaker. 2. Make it so the damage falloff is less severe in PvE. The fact that 1 step forward or backward can be the difference between a 1 shot and 2 shot kill is ridiculous. Shotguns: Revert shotguns to being able to crit in PvE. It's that simple. The 15% damage buff you gave them to compensate for the lack of critical damage doesn't actually compensate for anything. The removal of critical damage from shotguns is possibly one of the biggest mistakes I've ever seen in this game and we can all agree we've seen some big ones. The ideal shotgun for most people in PvE will include full auto and most likely perks for a longer mag and better stability. These perks encourage a fast paced aggressive playstyle which should be rewarded in PvE with more damage as most of the time rushing a boss is a bad idea since they have a ground slam that can potentially 1 shot you. Critical damage on shotguns was the reason that this was possible. Aggressively rushing bosses and killing them with shotguns isn't possible these days unless you have modifiers that are set up specifically to compliment that playstyle and I'll provide YouTube links to my own videos showing and proving this. Specialist/Solar burn: https://youtu.be/LLuk3tV1wsE Solar Burn/Airborne: https://youtu.be/yWgP3s5MM6s These are 2 videos where the modifiers lined up perfectly for an aggressive shotgun rush on bosses and you know what? This was fun as hell. You don't understand how boring it is sitting back taking potshots with snipers at bosses like Templar, Nexus Mind, Atheon, Aksis, Vosik, Skolas, any servitor boss ever, and many more bosses is. Shotguns need to be brought up to a point where they can compete against snipers in at least strike boss encounters without having modifiers specifically allowing them to do so. TL;DR- There's not one. If you can't read it now but you want to leave a comment and I'll bump it for later.