I have experienced it all. Every phase of PVP to when the vex was broken, to the auto rifle meta, to the thorn meta, and beyond. If I had to choose a time where this game was most "Balanced" it would be the time of the taken king. Pulse rifles and hand cannons felt like strong primaries, and could combat shotguns and snipers pretty well. HOWEVER... NERF NERF NERF NERF NERF. There is a slowly down turning cycle in the destiny PvP community but it has never been worse than it is right now. This cycle goes as followed: -the community discovers a gun, or a specific archtype, that is dominant -our beloved communities and youtubers spread awareness about it, causing a good chunk of players to go get it -they get good with it -people cry about it (trials of Osiris) -nerfed. Perfect example of this: the last word. Not the last word in the thorn meta because that was broken because of the 111 headshot glitch, but when you could hipfire it and still 2 shot a guardian, with two 99 hip fire headshots. Remember seeing videos, "the last word is still good". The community then got good at hip firing the last word. All of a sudden, hip firing damage has been removed, range has been nerfed. SKILL IN THE COMMUNITY SHOULD NOT EVER BE A REASON YOU NERF SOMETHING BUNGIE. Now that the cycle is explained, let's get into the trash that is known as current PvP. The repeated nerfs have pushed primaries into a state where they are no longer relevant. As a result, the past 6 months or so have seen a rise in the era of the shotgun. Snipers were still prominent, but thanks to the scope change and nerfs to zoom time , shotguns were more reliable choice for any non-pro sniper. Bungies response to this was taking special ammo upon respawn. ????. IF THERE WAS EVER A MORE LAZY PATCH I HAVE EVER SEEN. Snipers? Irrelevant. Shotguns? Irrelevant Fusions?irrelevant . Then they tried to cover up this laziness, with the poor excuse of wanting a primary meta. Do you know why primaries aren't being used? BECAUSE THEY SUCK BUNGIE. THEY COULDNT KEEP UP WITH SPECIALS THATS WHY PEOPLE USED THEIR SPECIAL MORE. I'm not even gonna start on the sloppiness that followed the patch, where the sidearm respawn "glitch" allowed you to keep your ammo. Didn't you foresee this happening Didn't you foresee guns like the Ice Breaker, and sidearms, and universal remote, and No Land Beyond usage percent skyrocketing? If a player is rushing you with a shotgun, would you rather pull out your Last Word or Wormwood? It saddens me to say that I feel that a high percentage of the community would say wormwood. Allow a 15yr old kid to tell you how to fix this garbage meta. 1. Buff Primaries considerably (preferably back to the state of yr1) If it is true that you want a primary focused meta, this would be a safe move. 2. Bring back special ammo, ONLY when you are sure primaries are strong enough to compete with them. (A slight shotgun range Nerf is understandable, so is a scope buff for snipers) 3. Exotics. Exotics should feel exotic and dominant over legendaries. Instead of trying to attain a meta where exotics aren't used, go for a meta where EVERYBODY should have one equipped. I don't want to see somebody using a Palindrome with luck in the chamber, over a hawkmoon. Offset other exotics strengths, with OTHER exotics. For example: Bring back the last words hip fire damage, but do not increase the range. Therefore players will love it for close range combat, but will suffer from other exotics at medium range, like the Hawkmoon and First Curse. Views on type of meta: Destiny entertains a both competitive and casual gamertype. The problem is when you push towards one side, the other side suffers. We can have a competitive playerbase with the meta we have right now, we really could. But being forced to use guns like IceBreaker and Wormwood is not fun at all. Year 1 was the best because people could use virtually anything and still feel crispy, solid, and do good. They could play using anything, entertaining the casual style, but on the same hand, everything was for the most part competitive. I know this was very long and it took me a while, but I felt that it was necessary. If something doesn't change, I'm not sure PVP will last until Destiny 2. -Sincerely, CMF Gaming, Coolmanfire Edit: I like and appreciate all thoughts and opinions expressed in the replies. This is my first post on the forums and I wasn't sure how the feedback was going to be, and I didn't expect this, thank you. Edit2: ayyyee, we trending ;). Edit 3: I have replied a lot about icebreaker and wormwood cheating the special ammo system. This is not me complaining about the weapons. They should not be in any way nerfed. Icebreaker has been regening ammo since yr 1, I don't have a problem with the weapon at all. The problem I have is me being forced to use it when I want to win.