Bungie doesn't seem to understand what an Assault Rifle really is ... From the WiKi: In a strict definition, a firearm must have at least the following characteristics to be considered an assault rifle: It must be an individual weapon It must be capable of selective fire It must have an intermediate-power cartridge: more power than a pistol but less than a standard rifle or battle rifle Its ammunition must be supplied from a detachable box magazine [b]And it should have an effective range of at least 300 meters (330 yards) [/b] [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_rifle[/url] I'm not sure if its the damage nerf or the range thing that gets me most. All my shotguns have longer range now, and that's just plain wrong. The AR is the weapon that is supposed to be [b]between the handgun and a full rifle[/b]. Bungie for some reason seems to think they're supposed to be a vastly underpowered pea-shooting version of an Ingram Mac-10, which is a machine [b]pistol[/b] with a 50-70 meter range. Now, I wouldn't mind a gun modelled on the Mac-10 for thrawl suppression, but it should be it's own class, and it should be able to kill reliably at the 50-70 meter range. The current nerf has left me melee killing most of my opponents as my AR's don't seem to drop them reliably even at close range.