**Edit** Thanks to everyone who checked it out and much love to those who commented or voted, Its only been up for 15 hours and we've surpassed 300 votes that's dope as hell. It's not really easy or practical to build a following on this platform (reddit maybe?) but I just so you guys know I plan to continue writing posts like these and will get very political in regards to D2. Thx again ;) This melee ability on the new gunslinger's WoTC subclass is something that I'm glad to see introduced to gunslingers. With first playing this class I had experimented with numerous PvE builds, some that were so enjoyable to use that I questioned myself If I was actually doing anything significant during the activity or if the fun I was having was at the expense of not maximizing effectiveness. But god was I wrong, the synergy of the subclass abilities enable you to receive knife energy in some way with every neutral ability including the melee itself. the stacking 15 second trance of 12--->6--->4 second recharge rates without melee mods allows a very consistent string of knife tricks. and the damage is so surprisingly high, that it becomes wasteful to use a primary during any time you have it charged. Anyways, I could go on forever with the mods perks and exotics and even event modifiers that can be used to optimize this already insane class tree. speaking of which: brawler, use this class with brawler active. you can thank me later. With all of the hype that manifested from the PvE havoc this SC was causing, I felt inclined to jump in a crucible match and ditch my usual and generic bottom tree arcstrider, and instead use the knifey guy. After the PvE experience with this ability I had no doubt in my mind that this subclass would be a reason to never play anything different in comp quickplay or trials. In the opening minute of the game I encountered an "alpha proto titan" who was bee-lining toward me at a relative speed of mach 3 with the intention of high fiving me in the face with his knee cap. Upon seeing and then recognizing what was coming my way, Immediately without any conscious decision my anti-shoulder charge instincts from back in D1 had kicked in faster than the v-tec in a decked out Civic SI. I landed a quick body shot with my better devils and chucked the knifes. It was very briefly that I felt excited and confident that this classic combo I once used long ago would take him out easily. I even lined them up considerably well, but to see two of them land and hit for 90 ish damage (39 to the body and 51 to the head) had me thinking it was a harmless error. But to my dismay, it surely wasn't. For a while I kept using em hoping it was a glitch and the "actual" damage values would be entirely different, just to try rationalizing my disbelief that this was the intended PvP damage of knife trick. In the end, the two sides of this story really just made me contemplate whether experiencing any sort of happiness was worth the inevitable disappointment that was to come afterwards. I know that was super dramatic which I'm sorry for, and I spent way more time making this than I intended to. But that can be attributed the high dose of vyvanse I took earlier in the evening to help me study for a chemistry quiz. But my point is that it's upsetting to see knife trick do such abysmal damage in the crucible. 50 damage to the head is sad, but 39 to the body is just pathetic. don't forget the spread pattern of the knives which restricts the range at which you can land three knives on a single target too. The maximum potential damage at 150+burn is okay on paper, but you aren't going to land three headshots 95% of the time you use it. To hit all three as crits is very rare, and I don't know why bungie is so scared of it being able to occasionally one shot if they are willing to give warlocks the handheld supernova. And really a damage buff is not asking much. Also it wouldn't hurt to show the other two throwing knife variations some love too. cause back in d1 a regular throwing knife headshot did 158 if i remember correctly. and throwing knife was in no way an overpowered ability at any point in d1. Well, the community would definitely concur, and if they didn't then they probably just thought the ability was flat out bad. Bungie didn't think so, and that became evident when they decided to nerf the throwing knife. I guess they wanted to rub some salt into the wounds of the hunters ie. (me) who had just helplessly witnessed the brutal and unforgettable murder of the beloved bladedancer **rest easy**. So yea, throwing knives were once kinda okay but more so just fun to use and now they aren't. So Bungie, it's up to you to make them adequate or proficient or excellent or at least worth taking the time to throw them when you have the option to use a gun.