Viable sure, but when hand canons are so dominant, why use anything else and put yourself at such a large disadvantage? Thats the problem. Just because you can make something work, doesn't mean its all balanced. I could use a crappy scout rifle well and claim that it's viable too but that won't change the fact I'm still using a piece of garbage not suited to the current meta. Hand canons feel at home on pretty much every map in the game, the other weapons only truly shine in certain circumstances. If I want to use an SMG I have to play around the hand canon users who will run away the instant they take damage or who can pick me off before I get within range. Hand canon users can camp corners, pressure you even outside of their max range, etc.

[quote]So a glorified HC, a HC, another HC, one pulse, yet another HC, one SMG, one Fusion, with four Shotguns.[/quote] How about we just list the weapons as they are instead of whatever you just did Dmt is still a scout Messenger / stars in shadow, darkest before / gridskipper Shayuras wrath & multimach Main ingredient & plug one Any sniper w/ snapshot • depends on personal preference [quote] Unless you're pulling legs, that's far more HCs and Shotguns than anything else by a margin. And everything else in contrast has only a single outlier represented. The Meta is more diverse than previously in the way of : before almost zero balance, now very little balance. An improvement on almost nothing is not a great thing and not anywhere close to weapon balance.[/quote] Let’s talk about why best (non handcannons) aren’t more popular. Scouts [spoiler] are unpopular due to map size not being big enough for them •dmt is good because it’s more forgiving than all other scouts & has more versatility - takes an exotic slot [/spoiler] High impact pulses [spoiler]• require a slightly more passive play style • one is from trials (not easy to farm for all) & stars is not farmable at all [/spoiler] Rapid pulses [spoiler] darkest before and gridskipper •both of these are in the same slot & are the same element meaning it’s reduces what weapons you can pair one with in half [/spoiler] SMGs [spoiler] • require a highly aggressive play style meaning the two with the most range are the best due to not having to get as close. • the two best are not easily farmable (trials & IB) • fusions and shotties dominate this range due to special ammo *cough* remove scavs in pvp *cough* [/spoiler] Fusions [spoiler] • require a very specific playstyle based around baiting enemies & timed peaking • all normal fusions are energy weapons cutting out a significant amount of weapons they can pair with *cough* Bungie add stasis fusions in the kinetic slot *cough* Main ingredient isn’t farmable, plug one is also really great but slightly worse than Main • these two fusions overshadow all other fusions [/spoiler] Handcannons [spoiler]Pali easily farmed in nightfalls, Eyasluna easily farmed in dungeon, Fatebringer is easily farmable in VoG w/spoil Templar method • easily farmable for both slots meaning they can be pair with any special you want [/spoiler] Shotguns [spoiler]Felwinter & Found Verdict easily farmed with spoils farm Matador easily farmed in dungeon & waste lander easily farmed in Dares Retold easily farmable in blind well, fractethyst in umbrals Riiswalker & cqc are great but not easily farmable • huge variety in both slots & most are farmable Af [/spoiler] Current weapon balance [spoiler] • from weapons/types I mentioned, ranges are from what consider a god roll (not always the max, although for hc it basically is max) High impact pluses (TTK 0.67, 2 burst) | 1.2TTK b - 39.1m (messenger)* Rapid pulse 0.8 TTK (7c 2b, 3 burst) | 1.4 TTK b - 33m (darkest before)* Multimach 0.67 TTK (9c 2b) | 1.13 TTK b - 25.7m Shayura’s 0.8 TTK (7c 2b) | 1.1 TTK b - 28m 120 HC 1.0 TTK (2c 1b) | 1.5 TTK b - 39.3m (igneous hammer)* 140 HC 0.87 TTK (3c) | 1.73 TTK b - 36.1 (Pali highest 3 crit of all 140s)* DMT 0.8 TTK (2c 1b) | 1.63 TTK b - it’s a scout ads range is always enough *I did not use fullbore w/ HC & the pulses both had Chambered comp or arrowhead* [/spoiler] All other scouts are still trash, most smgs are still eh, I’m not even gonna talk about sidearms, 360 / 450 autos are just a hair from being decent, 180hc are eh, the other pulse types are weird But the ones mentioned are very good and can compete with 140 handcannons / shotties

You’re right for the most part except lightweight pulses, they’re really really bad