There are a ton of people arguing for Sniper nerfs. Then there are those against it. I personally think buffs to other guns would be more deserving, but Bungo seems convinced nothing's wrong. So there are a few arguments against the legitimacy of Sniping inside the game Destiny as it is now. [b]Recoil/Flinch While ADS (Zoomed):[/b] Try shooting through a sniper scope on ANY gun in real life. You'll notice that the magnification causes the recoil (ergo flinching,) to appear drastically worse than when you hip fire or if you used an iron sight. Yet the recoil pattern seems to treat low Impact Snipers the same as max Impact Snipers. Therein lies the problem; the Snipers are all given the same niche, with different levels of power. But the power given implicates a direct rise in recoil, which is where Destiny's balance falls short: The recoil doesn't emulate anything close to the real thing. Effectively, for the zoomed recoil/flinch to be moving those few short inches from its centered position, you could logically only be recoiling slightly bodily (when realistically, you'd be groaning and tensing a bunch, possibly leaning or wobbling.) It's physically impossible that it is simulating anywhere near the true intensity of the expectable recoil/flinch, considering the visual representation given and the natural implications of using a magnified sight. [b]Higher Impact = Lower Accuracy/'Consistency':[/b] Normally, if you want to spray a sniper at a score of enemies, you don't choose a Bolt-action with a heavy round meant to down a tank's tracks in extreme situations: You choose a smaller, compact weapon with smaller bullets and a larger magazine and a faster rate of fire. You are compensated with increased accuracy for the loss of sheer stopping power. Your shots will barely bounce the rifle if you hold it down enough. For a higher caliber rifle, you're taking a single shot that you calculate carefully over massive distances. You're not blasting shots away like a madman, you can't afford to risk exposing your location so quickly. It's more of a waiting game. Inside Destiny, there is no distinguishable difference between either archetype, and that is the underlying problem with Snipers and [i]choosing/balancing[/i] Snipers. Choosing max Impact makes more sense for Revive Sniping and punishing bullet sponges (a monopoly on PvE AND PvP,) and since there is no discernible differences in accuracy they get away with optimum damage [i]AND[/i] accuracy when there should be a give/take. Any other time, Bungo is ALL about the give/take. Except now. Makes me wonder why. Think about it: [b]This is the exact change made to Efrideet's Spear Year 1 that changed Sniping thereafter. It got hit in the accuracy, and then it was more fair to use.[/b] That nerf combined with the Final Round nerf alone put sniping back into the true [b]"niche"[/b] category where they belonged to stay for those who love to practice at their competitive game. [b]Lack of Competitive Counters:[/b] In truth, the only real way to achieve balance is to make sure nothing is top dog. Otherwise balance is merely an illusion, a word we keep saying to ourselves and we [i]pretend[/i] to believe is real. So far, we have not obtained true balance. Only the illusion. Like most games. And that is because the only true competitive counters for Snipers are: Scout Rifles, Pulse Rifles*, and Rocket Launchers.* One of those counters got nerfed ('balanced too hard' I'd say,) while the other is Heavy Ammo that honestly only counters by sheer overwhelming force. MG's do the same but they can't cross-map bomb you like a Rocket, so I consider them an opportunist counter like Shotguns/Fusions/etc. Scouts are okay as a counter, but MIDA [i]immediately[/i] obsoleted all the Legendaries and even Tlaloc. Pretty much the only Scout that can actually counter a Sniper is MIDA, the rest mostly just annoy snipers. And running a Scout practically necessitates a CQC Special, which just got nerfed, so running this loadout is still very questionable for elitist game modes like IB or ToO. [b]The Sniper Niche: Stealth Assault[/b] A thing about Destiny that immediately signaled that sniping would go above and beyond actual physical constraints was when they completely botched the practical niche of snipers: the stealth assault. Snipers very rarely 'go loud' because they KNOW JUST HOW IMPOSSIBLE SNIPING IS UNDER RETURN FIRE! They're not running around and in your face about it... except in Destiny, then they're strafing, juking, and possibly Blinking/hopping around trying to outpace your crosshairs and get theirs into place quicker. It's like Bungo decided the nest big idea was to make "Call of Duty: Adderall Warfare." And that's the problem with the practicality behind Destiny's sniping: Bungo expects them to be jumping around, fighting other guns in the Crucible. They've actually designed Snipers around being a skill gun more for on-the-go trickshotting than the actual niche they hold in reality. They've been endowed with power beyond imagining while other options are having their viability torn from them through petty attempts at what they call balance. [b]Conclusion:[/b] So at this point, we're left to understand that the meta is in a tricky situation, and the biggest problem is the lack of a true niche in Snipers. They've become a generic boomstick that anybody can use with enough practise. I only equipped Snipers sparingly, and even I can scrape up some decent kills with 1k Stare. The stuff you expect the pros to be doing in average/above average footage. Certainly not something you expect from a Sniper newbie. And then there's the pros, going [i][b]way[/b][/i] over the top with what they've been enabled to do. I'm sorry, but when I watch these allegedly 'pro' players all using nearly the same loadout to snipe, regardless of whether or not it takes time to learn to use the NLB or whatever sniper you argue takes skill (it takes practice, not skill,) the bottom line is there's obviously a bias towards Sniping infecting the meta. When I watch Mr. Fruit play, and I see him racking up kills with the weapons [i]that are supposedly nerfed into the dirt,[/i] that's where I see a true pro in the flesh. A guy who doesn't give a quack about your meta and can still show you what for if you think your little one-shot Special Weapon gimmicks are enough to stop him. [b]This[/b] is the type of pro player that deserves attention for going above and beyond expectations. All anyone else is doing is [i]conforming[/i] to the meta; true legends [i]challenge[/i] the meta. (Hail Mr. Fruit!) And I think that's the problem here, we've created this impossible illusion that these players are skilled when they're only practised. It's like saying a Katarina player in LoL is pro because they can Pentakill 1v5. ANY KATARINA WHO PRACTICES CAN DO THAT. It's not a skill, it's just the learning curve. It's not a skill you have or you don't, it's all about learning the ropes. Going the extra mile. (Seems awfully conspicuous to try and enforce a meta that requires the largest learning curve... almost makes one wonder if they're once again trying to artificially increase play/grind time.) What we've effectively done is nerf everything in the meta because it doesn't have a 'learning curve' near the scale of a Sniper's. But all that did was create a double standard. These other guns had less range and damage (which is the potential to deny shielded revives in one shot,) BECAUSE they were easier to use. Now Bungo has given them a learning curve (players have to re-learn the weapons' max range, recoil patterns, etc.,) all while their strengths are being beaten further and further down into irrelevance and oblivion. Speaking of oblivion, can't wait to see the sea of naysayers. Talk to you guys later.