A fusion rifle that could hit criticals would have been more impressive... sad to say. I mean... unless the gun does literally 250 to 300 percent more damage on the first charge... it's just won't be anything more than Main Ingredient with Firefly. I realize this gun was made with stuff like Luna and Rally in mind... but not a single other pinnacle weapon [u]relies[/u] on an external source to actively, and consistently, use their pinnacle perk. I'll explain why. Broadsword and Claymore? Get critical kills, profit. No strings attached. This potentially happens with every single kill. Also, since bosses typically has adds around them, it rewards players that kill add damage the boss, rather than one or the other. It rewards smart play. Luna and Not Forgotten? Get two criticals, profit. You get 5 seconds of pure bonus damage against bosses, or you get a ohk in crucible / normal enemies. No strings attached. This potentially happens with nearly every single enemy. Also, this buff can be refreshed as you keep firing (if you have Back Up Mag Mod on like I do). Gambit Gun? Increased fire rate with rampage. No strings attached. Literally works with every single kill. I would say the GL thing but I don't know how that perk activates, if it even has an 'activation'. All of these guns mentioned above are proactive with their perks. They reward precision, or offensive tactics, or just otherwise [u]doing what the gun is meant to do... which is kill things[/u]. But then we have Loaded Question. And I ask, what does it reward? Landing all bolts? Killing multiple enemies with the intrinsic punch through? Maybe destroy shields or enhancing the charge time as you kill things? How does it help you actively use the weapon for it intended job as you slay enemies? It doesn't. No... instead it rewards for... reloading? -- Okay... let's play Devil's Advocate here. Reloading in indeed important. It gives you bonus damage for being active with you fusion rifle and not leaving it in the dust. Okay, I get that. Now... let's see what strings are around for this perk we have to manage... there should be close to none, right? Simply using the gun as it was meant to be used, like with Luna and Redrix and Gambit gun. Right now I can see two massive, hampering strings. A) You have to have a full magazine... and a full magazine is [u]7 charges[/u]. I don't know if you understand the implication here... but most fusions carry around 24 charges. Automatically, 1/4 of the gun is absolutely useless to the point of the pinnacle perk. No other gun has that constraint. All of the gun is useful, as well as all the reserves, no matter the situation. B) The purpose of a gun is to kill things, yes? The point of fusion, more specifically, is to have punch through on close targets and decimate shields, yes? Yet, none of these things are enhanced. Go to tldr for super basic point. Instead... it rewards reloading. If you're reloading... then you're not getting kills, you're not actively using the gun, and your actually losing DPS by using the pinnacle perk. Not only that, but it's apparent that the gun does not enhance the actual reload in any way. It doesn't have the fastest reload in the game, from what I could tell, because they didn't show it. So even then, with a pinnacle perk that rewards reloading, it does not enhance the PURPOSE of the pinnacle gun. A recap of the other guns, more specifically to point B. [spoiler]Meanwhile, Luna and Not Forgotten are precision weapons that reward precision hits. They rewards what the gun was designed to do. Redrix is a pulse meant for longer ranged kills, and the perk allows the gun to slay faster while not detracting from the point of the gun. It rewards what the gun is designed to do. The grenade laucher even, especially those types of GL, are meant to reward direct hits. That pinnacle gun rewards players for using the GL for the best use of the gun. IT rewards what the gun is designed to do. Gambit gun, again, is clearly meant to slay lots of enemies by stacking rampage. The spin up helps that along. It rewards what the gun is designed to do. [/spoiler] However, reloading is [u]not[/u] the fusion rifle is designed to do. Reloading is [u]not[/u] the main point of a fusion, much less the actual purpose of wielding a fusion. It does [u]not[/u] reward you for using the gun, in fact, it does the complete opposite. The act of reloading even though you have an 85% full magazine mean, by default, you are taking the time to [u]not use the gun[/u] even though you could be. So, it's quite clear, that this pinnacle weapon rewards you for [u]not[/u] using the gun, instead of because you're using the gun. This is in direct opposition to what pinnacle guns are... which is... rewarding their strengths as they are used. [u][b]tldr[/b][/u] The string is simply this. You have to stop using the gun... to use the gun. That's asinine, and defeats the purpose of having it on in the first place. I want to equip a pinnacle weapon because of my want to actively use said weapon. Not because I constantly want to stop, reload, and THEN use the gun (which any other option more efficient). -- So, now that we see why this gun is literally the opposite of what a pinnacle gun is supposed to be (reinforced by the fact that the other 'new pinnacle guns' [u]still[/u] adhere to concept of rewarding players that use the guns strength), what could we do to change Loaded Question into something... not backwards? I have a decent idea. My Idea ) The elemental type of the fusion rifle changes based on the shield it attacks. If the fusion rifle breaks the opponents shield, the next burst does what the above perk (the original perk) does. Reminder of what that perk is. [spoiler]2 to 2.5 times damage with a firefly effect on kills.[/spoiler] Here me out. So kinda like how Susanoo from D1 changed energy with your subclass, and how HardLight / Borealis changes energy based on desire, why not have a Fusion rifle that also does this but in a more proactive way? The goal of this perk is to encourage a bit of flexibility. It rewards those that go after shielded targets in either gambit or in strikes or in other high level activities where they might be several types of shields your have to deal with at a quick pace. Nightfalls, to be more specific. So, it'll allow you to seamlessly face any faction without the hinderance of a locked element. And then, on top of that, if you break the shield it gives you a burst to 'finish the target off' as the fusion rifle offten follows up with killer blows once the shields are down and the target is stunned. Not a bad idea, right? Bonus point! It would literally not affect crucible at all (leaving room for an [u]actual[/u] crucible pinnacle weapon. This my proposal. Since this change is based on already existing abilities present in the game (changing elemenents and the perk they just showed up above) I hope this might actually be considered possible to implement. You can stop reading now. But I want to address one more thing in terms of arguement. -- "But Drama, you could simply use Rally and Luna to make the Bungie version of the Fusion Rifle useful! Just build smart and it will be a good gun!" Correct, you can 'build' around the gun. However, you can 'build' around [u]any[/u] of the pinnacle guns. Gambit Auto will do great with Luna Rift. A Luna Howl will also do great with a Luna Rift. Redrix, of course, could use that Luna Rift as well. And so on and so fourth. Yet, none of the other guns I mentioned [u]rely[/u] on the use of a Luna Rift or rally for [u]standard play[/u]. Those are extras. They are benefits derived from your playstyle or build. Not from your gun... But the [u]gun itself[/u] needs to be a pinnacle weapon in order to be distinquished. Otherwise you could easily find tons of weapons that would fit way better over the proposed fusion. If you have to have Luna or Rally, then you don't have a reason to use the fusion without Luna or Rally. None of the other guns suffer from this dilemma, because the support their intrinsic purpose. The bonuses are nearly passive to the playstyle of the guns themselves. There are no 'strings' to them. Merely how well you play to their strengths. Having to constantly reload the fusion rifle is anything but passive, and goes directly against the point of high magazine capacity weapon... which the point of that is use it as much as possible without the need to reload. And you can't 'passively' always have a Rift or Rally up. So while you can make this current version 'work'... that does not make it a pinnacle gun. Any gun can 'work' if you try hard enough. -- Hope this is informative.