Let's say we judge these weapons in terms of pvp Three of them Where one holds a thorn, a TLW, and a hawkmoon Hawkmoon is effective medium to long range and even farther Last word is effective close to medium range Last word can hit long range but if it were a 1v1 there would not be enough time to kill them if they were already shooting at you with the other weapon types Thorn is effective short to long range (It varies which upgrade you are using, either send it or perfect balance) Now in terms of encounters If an enemy came around the corner and you panicked with one of the pistols, it takes two last word shots then one melee It would take one shot with a thorn and the damage overtime would have to end so a special melee can finish them off; a regular melee can't do enough damage for someone to be dead Now for hawkmoon because of the random bullet shots Idk But from my experiences the first three shots always procs an increased damage shot So if you were to panic it would just take three shots In terms of you're sure you're going to die and you can only put an amount of bullets into them The thorn would win if you made two headshots, died, and the damage overtime would finish them off As for the last word you're going to have to strafe and spam them And the hawkmoon,a lucky and I mean lucky headshot can kill an enemy in one hit Anyways If I would have to choose it would have to be without a doubt thorn because the damage overtime throws people off and the green shade is an added bonus