Because, because, becauseeeeeee. It is the wonderful thing Bungie does!

Bungie nerfed gunslingers throwing knives and tripmines because they were outperforming the other subclasses. The problem is they weren't outperforming the other subclasses because tripmines or knives are op but because its a well rounded with simple to understand the mechanics with good perk synergy. So bungie had to think of a reason to nerf it even if if they really was none and then they made that flawed graph to support their flawed logic. 1. I can't even remember the last time I've been killed by a throwing knife and if I do the person who threw it either got lucky or is good at the game. The only time you could even get a one hit kill fairly regularly is if you fighting a low armor guardian or you are fighting someone with low light level in trials or iron banner which are all very specific circumstances. 2. Same for tripmines, it took skill to actually stick someone compared to magnetic, flux, or fusions which all have tracking. On top of that tripmines can be inconsistent with doing damage when they explode, and even if they do explode, before the nerf the only time I was killed or got a kill with them was when either I was low or the person I threw it at was low. The funny thing is that Bungie says the reason they only want it to stick to walls is because its supposed to be used as a trap grenade, a large bright flashing red stick that is extremely noticeable unless you have no awareness. So now it doesn't stick does less damage and still is extremely noticeable. But here's the best part usually as I said without shooting someone to kill them you would have to throw two tripmines to do enough damage to kill them and apparently in Bungies eyes thats balanced. But at the same time you have lightening grenades, same visibility, can only stick to walls, you can carry two max, and the can't kill a guardian in one pulse unless they're already injured. But because they can flash many times before disappearing and with the Armementarium and max discipline you can get your grenade back fairly quick. Which makes lightening grenades the closest in relation to tripmines but better in almost every respect with the one drawback being if you let yourself get hit by the first pulse of damage. Now I'm not asking for a lightening grenade nerf but I have ask lightening grenades are better in every way than tripmines now why were tripmines nerfed and not lightening grenades? Answer: Bungie is a bunch of short sighted idiots. I can't wait for another .004% buff to autos even though they've been bad since the suros nerf.

Something to do with a particular perk combo that allowed for a 1-shot throwing knife

Here's a better question: Why are Fusion Rifles not getting nerfed? (EDIT) this is a joke so don take it seriously k

Fact: The KDR of Gunslingers was highest of all 9 subclasses, and Bungie considered this too high of an average. Opinion: The KDR of the class was above average because of an incredibly easy super to use. Nerfing the neutral game was a mistake as it addressed the wrong factors of the Gunslinger's dominance. A better nerf would have been to reduce Aim Assist or duration of the Golden Gun.

Same as every other Nerf in the game......from enough PvP cry babies whining about getting killed by them.... You can thank PvP for the steaming pile of doggy doodoo this game has become. SRL isn't even fun this tome around.

if you get hit in the face with a flaming knife you should die

Bungie nerfed the hunters like they did because hunters had a higher K/d than warlocks and titans.

Blame all the streamers and YTers running around using hand cannon and throwing knife combos to generate very low TTKs that none of the games other weapons could match.

Because Bungie heard people complaining about melee range, but didn't realize people were talking about stormcallers instead of gunslingers

I believe the Gunslinger nerfs in June that included throwing knives and tripmine grenades was due to the then upcoming release of Supremacy in ROI. Why? Because YAS and Gambler's Dagger gave you two OHK sticky grenades and two OHK throwable melee. With good aim, the two together was insanely good at shutting down anyone within shotgun range. The nerfs were the equivalent of removing wolves from Yellowstone, and now shotgun scrubs are everywhere.

It's the best ranged melee, can crit(no other melee can), & it has a dot effect.

Yeah i hate how they nerf stuff for just being "good", I dont like using rubish items. And i feel as if they were nerfed the most in PvE I used to go on mass ad killing sprees with just throwing knives but now I feel its very hard to get a precision kill with them. Seems as if the knife glitch's and doesn't count as a precision hit even if I hit them directly in the head...