"The associated risk with a shotgun is that they aren't safe outside of their optimal range" You know what else isn't safe outside of their optimal range? EVERYTHING. If anything, shotguns are even safer than snipers, because you will never be outshot by a pulse or scout, or anything whilst at a shotguns optimal range, whereas a sniper can be flinched and killed off at their optimal range by most primaries in the current meta, and in their optimal range snipers don't grant guaranteed kills like shotguns do. It's much harder to land a sniper headshot at optimal range than it is to blindly spray a shot at someones body from point blank. Secondly, it is much much easier to close distance on a player than it is to create distance. Because destiny has movement abilities like sprint, blink, and titan skating you cannot backtrack as fast as someone can move towards you. Creating space is important in maintaining optimal positioning for a sniper, which is much harder to do than closing a distance between players. What about the fact that destiny's radar gives you all of the awareness that you need for close quarters engagements, so there is nearly 0 skill in knowing where players that are close to you are. Don't be ridiculous asking for shotguns to be buffed. A good player can still do much better with a shotgun than he can with a sniper due to how much easier they are to use. Their kill potential per game is SOOO much higher than that of a sniper, you get more ammo, and it is easier to be more efficient with said ammo, plus you are encouraged to be aggressive, netting you significantly more kills than a sniper in the same period of time for a fraction of the skill/effort. If you ask any of the top tier players, I'm talking the top couple hundred in the world, at least 95% would agree that sniping is still harder than shotgunning.