WARNING! It's a long post. Seeing how many nerf/buff posts there is on the forums, I wanted to create a post on weapon balancing and try to explain my point of view on the overall balance on weapons, especially primaries, and how it should be. The document linked here are stats provided by a fellow guardian on almost all primaries. We can see various values such as TTK, aim assist, rounds/burst to kill, damage, etc. [b]Definition of balancing[/b] Now. What is a balanced weapon? My take on it is it's a weapon that has strenghts and weaknesses allowing to adapt to different playstyles and tactics. If the weapon has an amazing quality, it should have a huge flaw to compensate it's strenght. The Last Word is a good example. It's strenght lies in high damage and fast fire rate. However, it's huge flaw is that it can only sustain it's fire for a short time having a very small magazine, rendering it almost useless when against multiple enemies. It also lacks the range and accuracy to kill at long ranges with this ability. Knowing that, let's get into it. [b]PRIMARIES[/b] A pulse rifle is a weapon that favors versatility by allowing maximum efficiency at medium range, but lacks the accuracy to dominate long range engagements and lacks damage output to kill enemies at closer ranges. Auto rifles on the other hand should favor damage output over accuracy, making them devastating at closer ranges but incapable of killing anything at long range because of their lack of accuracy/stability. Now, if we continue, scouts should be accurate, maneuvrable, but lack damage output in medium ranges against pulse rifles, but still be on an even fight against auto rifles. Handcannons are an odd fit. They are headshot weapons. They should be accurate at almost all ranges, yet loose their powerful impact at scout rifle range, and be hard to handle at closer range to line up an headshot. They should have a lower critical TTK than all other classes, but higher TTK on body shots. Currently the primary weapon category has some balancing issues due to it's variety of arsenal. [b]SPECIAL[/b] Special weapons on the other hand need to excel in certain areas and be completely useless in certain situations. Eg. Fusion rifles are useful to deal a large amount of damage at medium/close range at the cost of an extremely slow reaction time. Shotguns don't do anything out of CQC and snipers are almot impossible to use in close combat. Currently, this class is pretty balanced, shotguns being overused because of the lack of another good close quarter option, such as Auto Rifles. [b]HEAVIES[/b] Heavy weapons are High damage, versatile and easy to use weapons, which is what makes them so powerful. Currently, this weapon class is pretty balanced, rockets favoring quick kills, but less kills compared to LMGs favoring more kills with higher TTK. [b]THE BALANCING WITHIN WEAPON CATEGORIES[/b] So what we learn from heavy weapons is that what makes them powerful is having BOTH the damage output and the reliability in most ranges. What happens if a primary weapon has both reliabilty AND damage output? It becomes an overpowered weapon. To me, this example is currently Thorn. Thorn has an amazing ability to deliver 2 shot kills consistantly without having random factors such as Hawkmoon or TLW. It also has a strong aim assist, good fire rate and a high enough range and stability to be a very reliable weapon. Solving this problem can be done in two ways explained further below. The complete opposite, which is low damage output and low reliability makes a weapon completely underpowered. The example is Necrochasm, which has a low TTK with a high recoil, low magazine size for a high rate of fire and poor range. Again, two ways to solve this problem. Should we make it reliable or max it's damage output? Now, which of these two factors do we need to buff or nerf? Reliability or Damage output? This is where it gets interesting. A high damage, low TTK weapon with poor reliabilty makes something called a skilled weapon. The best example would be No Land Beyond. It has a very low TTK (instant on headshot) but has an unmanageable recoil, horrendous sight, poor aim assist, heavy sway and a poor rate of fire. TLW is also a good example with Low TTK, but poor accuracy, range and a small magazine for it's high rate of fire making it very useful in only a handful of opportunities but a complete destroyer in certain situations. Using it out of it's specialization is not recommended and hard to do. The reliable weapon has a higher TTK, but very good overall stats making it able to hit almost anything at a wider variety of range allowing a maximum of possibility. The first example I am thinking of is The Suros Regime. Currently, it has an above average TTK but is very versatile and reliable at a lot of ranges with good stability and excellent handling making it a weapon to be feared of in lot of situations. Even though it still needs a little more punch with its rounds, like many autorifles, it mostly respect this category. Weapons can be between these 2 categories and still be balanced by not being excellent anywhere but also not having any weak points. Disscussions are greatly appreciated in comments below, suggestions are also welcome. See you around guardians.