Even Red Death does not outperform most solid legendary scout rifles. And it is all because of mag size vs. burst count. PR's have decent damage per burst, comparable to SR's. But where a gun like VoC has 27 1 round "bursts" per mag, Red Death has 9 3 round bursts. The bursts would need to feel significantly stronger for this to be acceptable. In addition, the recoil on most PR's makes medium to long range use much less viable. I have to aim at waists to not have my final round in the burst go over the enemy's head. And, as with Halo 2, the spread needs to be extremely small. The original Battle Rifle from H2 had almost no utility before they massively reduced the spread. PR's need to do this as well imo. TL:DR. - pulse rifles need lots more ammo in mag. OR, more reasonably, much higher impact and lower spread. EDIT: So far the best suggestion I have heard is to make PR's into closer range options. More impact than SR's, with shorter range, keep the spread similar. This way it has a different role completely than Scout Rifles. For a skilled player, better than ARs in close. Inferior to SRs at range. NOTE: This is ALL in regards to PvE. I realize a lot of people like PR's in PvP. Thoughts?