*clapping* Very well said, I commend you, hopefully a lot of the sweaty, salty, tryhards see this and if gets into their thick skulls that this is the truth

Other game devs have said that nerfing is usually a mistake. It becomes a landslide. Once you nerf something, then there's another and another... It's better to adjust up, make more weapons as powerful to compete with the weapon considered op.

Well said sir.

Your right, not all pieces of gear are made the same. Auto Rifles are supposed to dominate close range. Scouts are supposed to be unrivaled at range. Pulses and Hand Cannons are supposed to be in the middle leaning at towards different ends. One gun should not be good at everything, and same can be said for Supers. Yet, back in a not so long forgotten past, Thorn beat almost every primary weapon in the crucible by a NOTEWORTHY margine in nearly all encounters, close or far. Bungie clearly doesn't want their game to be a "one tool beats all". And that's how it should be. Nerfing is not -Always- the answer, but sometimes there are abilities and tools that just sit as statistical outliers that something needs to be done, and it be impractical to try and raise everything else to 1 or 2 items level. Right now, do pulse rifles need a nerf? they are dominating the crucible as the most common, and on average dominant weapon outside specific exceptions. They just need to give Hand Cannons their accuracy back (just accuracy, not range or mag size), and roll the larger maps back into circulation to give life back to Hand Cannons and give Scouts a purpose (outside notable exceptions). This is an example where nerfing isn't the answer (and the larger maps would also give a reduction in use of the ever ire provoking shotguns, two birds, one stone) Thorn was an example where nerfing WAS the answer. It's kill time and easy of achieving kills was noteably above other weapons accross all primary weapons categories. And to change the other weapons to match it would not be the answer because that would greatly change the flow and pace of the game outside Bungie's Intent. Back in the Year of the Thorn, if two relatively equal players were to get into a gunfight, one with thorn and one without, statistically the Thorn user has the advantage almost regardless of range. It's one thing for something to be good or very good at a couple things, and another thing to be better at everything than everything else. Because at that point the game becomes boring too, because everyone is using the same thing just to be competitive, removing diversity from the game while many, many other features and options are left in the dust. Hammer of Sol right now is easy coming into that "Too good at too many things" catagory, we're already seeing high influxes of people playing nothing but Titans. Durability of a Sungsinger, healing and kill volume and travel of a Bladedancer, lethality of a Golden gun, Range of a Nova bomb. Is nerfing the answer? entirely situation, but most often no. Thorn was probably one of the best handled "nerfs" yet. Rather than flat nerfing it they simply changed how it worked. Reducing it's PvP dominance without destroying it and in fact improving it for PvE. To bad they ruined the near whole Hand Cannon class as a result of over-nerfing the catagory. Now, nerfs are sometimes warrented, the Thorn is a good example of a weapon that needed a nerf and got one that didn't destory it and arguably improved it in some regards, but "Bungie Nerfs" are an entirely different thing, see Auto Rifles and Hand Cannons in general.

Well said. Even the best weapon is only as good as the guardian wielding it.

Well said [b]you can't Nerf skill!![/b] I hope desticles get that through their heads. Hand cannons and shotties got nerfed.. Good players will adapt and find new weapons to get good with

Well put Hufker - enjoyed reading your view. I offer the following thoughts ... Balancing is a [b]process[/b]. This process attempts to, but may never find, THE sweet spot and so continuously oscillates. To experience the balancing challenge try solving x^2 - 2x + 4 = 6 - that ping pong feeling you get is a little like balancing systems of weapons, armour, perks, skill and critically the perception of these in the hearts and minds of millions of gamers. Interesting huh ! I come from the school of thought that holds theres no joy in actually finding the sweet spot, even if it did exist. My logic is if you ever did manage to do so there would be no further change in the game and it would become inherently boring. The halo battle rifle was great but for years ? Still, there are folks who eat toasted cheese sangars (Aussie for sandwiched) daily and remain quite contented. I quite enjoyed the "auto" age, then the "hand cannon, SG age" and the current :"pulse rifle age" mixes it up. Perhaps I just have ADHD ;) My best gallp