Hand cannons are at a perfect spot right now and this is coming for a pretty terrible Eyasluna guy. They were SOOOOO op year 1 with each one possessing ungodly range. Ghost bullets need addressed tho. Badly.

If anyone thinks hand cannons need a buff you are not using them correctly and not using the right weapon. I don't use the hand cannons anyone of you named and I drop 25+ kills per game

They got nerfed with the most recent patch, despite claims of a blanket buff. I'll explain what happened. They changed what made Hand Cannons accurate at range. For awhile, it was a scaling ratio with the Range stat. The higher your range, the further you could shoot without the gun sending rounds in a cone around your target. This meant that Hand Cannons without a reliable Range roll were by and large considered [b]unusable.[/b] That's the key phrasing here, without that Range stat and the scaling accuracy that came with it, they were mostly [i]useless.[/i] So what this blanket buff did was essentially beef up a Hand Cannon's accuracy [i]without[/i] requiring a Range roll. This meant that in theory, even cruddy roll Hand Cannons could perform wonders. Except they only barely made them accurate within Suncharge range. Beyond that they get jenky, which is awful for TFC and Hawkmoon archetypes. They're meant to excel at leading off a target with a first shot just before they get too close, not when they're already well within 1HKO range for a Shotgun or Fusion. However in doing this, they decided that the increased accuracy-at-range on the former useful Hand Cannons needed neutered. They either completely removed or at least gimped the scaling Range-to-Accuracy the range stat provided, meaning that every Hand Cannon has the same peak range regardless of the range stat. Not only did this completely butcher everyone's old Hand Cannon rolls, but it made using the slower archetypes even less beneficial. Timur's and Fatebringer archetypes took the same range nerf, basically squeezed into the range niche as the faster Hand Cannons but firing slower, making them poor choices. For instance, I have an Eyasluna with Rangefinder+Hammerforged, a Lord High Fixer with Rangefinder+Hammerforged, an Eyasluna with Rifled Barrel, and an Eyasluna with Braced Frame. And the only one remotely useful is now Braced Frame because instead of trying to be accurate, I'm expected to rapidly fire and pray I deal enough damage to outperform a TLW in close-quarters. -blam!-ing ridiculous. So basically it was all just a ruse to nerf Hand Cannons while pretending some of the shittier rolls would at least be marginally less shitty than before. What I find ironic is that everyone has been asking for a Hand Cannon buff and most people agreed, even competitive players. So what do they do? Pretend they buffed it as the guise of a nerf. Classic Bungo. But on the plus side, The Last Word is now the best Hand Cannon around once more, which was probably what they were trying to do of course. I guess TLW will always be meta at this point, Bungie loves it too much. Alternatively I have an Appellant I rolled with Icarus I'm tempted to try out. Icarus is really what makes TLW so consistent, other than Full Auto, so I'm keen to give it a try and see if it's worth.

Still see phantom bullets. I do not mind damage drop off from farther ranges, but not register as a hit when you clearly aimed at them is so annoying.

I saw the title and was instantly thinking you were another person wanting a year 2 thorn... Guess its just those damn Nam flashbacks haunting me with the its old final round glitch and trials in general. That combined with any shotgun with shot package

I'm pretty sure anyone who has ever tried to use The Last Word in PvE agrees.

Go grind for a Lord high Fixer, that gun is AMAZING! I prefer it over any other weapon currently in game.

Hand cannons are top tier. The only buff they need is an accuracy buff. Remove the cone effect and hand cannons will be good

I feel as if there is no reason to use a handcannon if you have a pulse rifle like Hawksaw. It has more stability, more effective at range, and doesn't fire any phantom bullets.

I'm just tired of having to babysit my shots. If I am truly pacing my shots to ensure maximum accuracy I'm long dead against many top tier weapons.

First Curse, Lord High Fixer, Eyasluna, and Imago Loop all work great for me