They are a lot more forgiving and noob friendly now. I used sidearms well before the patch as my secondary weapon never done the whole double primary and now I feel confident in saying and doing that you can go 1 on 1 against some one at full health while they are using a primary (that isn't a stupid shotgun) in the sidearms effective range which is any where between 14 and 16 meters. Like if you want to you can go a entire round pistol only. Are there still drawbacks ? Yes singles need a bit of a range bump and autos need a stability and magazine buff and bursts got this buff to so the fact they where king queen and jack before the patch is just over kill now. But never a less sidearms are more than a reliable back up and primary now and with random rolls coming we could be getting a Wormwood 2.0. I personally love Enigma's Draw which I consider Wormwoods little sister. Recommendations. a swift verdict allied demand (iron banner weapon and will not be able to get any more with year 1 weapons being removed and there being no more iron banner this year) atheflad-d (grave robber got buffed to fully reload primary weapons magazines with out pulling from reserves. great for melee focused builds or run out of primary ammo. ) enigma's draw (it is a FWC weapon and will not be able to get it any more since year 1 weapons are being removed and there are no more faction rally's this year) minimum distance 18-kelvins any of the veist sidearms swift solstice or dead man walking (the only 2 auto sidearms i can personally recommend since they both have stability boosting traits but swift solstice > dead man walking) Now stop reading and go get a sidearm.