What happened is that Bungie went overboard in their effort to get people to use Pulse rifles. So they took ARs and broke them over one knee. Hit them (about 6 weeks ago) with a both a range nerf (faster damage fall off) AND a baseline damage nerf. The damage nerf they said would "average" 2%....but the actuall EFFECTIVE damage reduction on most ARs ended up being about 10-20%. They then gave pulse rifles a baseline 9% damage buff. So what ended up happening was PRs and ARs switched places. PRs now dominate mid-range combat, and ARs are essentially no longer a competitive option for most players. So what happened at first---since ARs could no longer occupy the dominate role they were supposed to have in close-to-mid-range combat.....shotgun rushers went wild. Effectively tripling the range of shotguns (just as Felwinter's showed up in Iron Banner), because now no weapons could kill them quickly enough...and htey just shrugged off primary weapon fire to rush and blink into range. Then in response to complaints, Bungie put a stranglehold on special weapon ammo. So now with ARs, FRs, and shotguns all having been nerfed....there is little to keep the hand cannos from creeping in and taking over that close-midrage. Thorn is still annoying...but its actually undergone a mind range nerf. Its just that there is no longer any weapons that can really punish the Thorn user for creepiing in to close like the ARs used to be able to do. "Bungie needs to stop the weapon nerfs.....and roll back that huge damage nerf they socked ARs with.