A lot of people are suggesting huge nerfs to sniper rifles, and while I agree as a sniper myself that they are slightly overpowered in the current meta, I do not agree with the idea of nerfing them into the ground. What we need are a few things to really balance snipers. 1: Stow/ready times and ads times increased marginally. The sniper rifle is the patient man's weapon, and should reflect and reward calculated thought, not rushed action. 2: Sniper kick from firing and recoil from incoming fire should not auto recenter, or not auto recenter as fast. This rewards the headshot, while making it difficult to get the body shot, but leaving the double body shot truly possible to the highly skilled. 3: Leave AA as is. With the change in number 2, it will be necessary for recentering the target. 4: Increase the benefits of unflinching. With the changes to 1 and 2, unflinching should allow for a closer range engagement and a more run & gun playstyle. Guerilla fighter will also probably see more use with these changes. Reasoning for these changes: with the current primary time to kill meta hovering between .9 and 1.1 seconds, sniper rifles can double body shot before even the fastest primaries (TLW, NLB, and UR excluded) can kill you. This means that the meta rewards a lack of accuracy almost as much as a headshot. These changes would allow for the current primary meta, while still allowing snipers to be a good precision weapon. Right now snipers occupy all ranges in the meta, leaving little room for competition even from shotguns and fusion rifles, and that needs to change. Sniper rifles need to be pushed back into their correct range (NLB excluded). If this happens without an overkill nerf, the only weapon types not viable in the meta would be high impact pulse rifles, minimum impact hand cannons (because their effective range is shotgun range), and arguably high impact auto rifles. This means we would have the most open weapon meta in destiny history, leaving Bungie free to tweak those three weapon archetypes and the subclasses minutely to free up even more options. Edit: I have posted this elsewhere, and it seems there is a common theme that unflinching needs to go, so I thought I would put my two cents in as to why I disagree [i]if[/i] these changes are implemented. If these changes are implemented, getting hit with any enemy fire would send the scope into recoil and either not have it return to center, or more likely take much longer to return to center manually. Because of this, I see no problem with unflinching even if it is buffed, because it will still leave recoil high enough to keep the double body shot in the 'skill' category. I think of this perk as a reverse rangefinder. In shotguns, rangefinder allows you to extend the reach just a bit to be more lethal beyond a normal shotguns effective range, while other perks are still viable, but lead to a different shotgun playstyle. In the same way, unflinching is designed to allow you a bit closer, as the closer you are the more likely you are to get shot. Unflinching allows you to push the archetype and get closer to the enemy, allowing a more aggressive playstyle for the truly skilled while still allowing other perks to have a place as well without consequence, as they allow a different playstyle, while with the current changes listed above making a broken point blank headshot or double body shot unlikely. I think another interesting way to encourage multiple ways of playing with snipers would be to buff geurilla fighter but switch it to the same perk node as unflinching. Make the requirements for being "in cover" just a little more lax so we begin to see the stationary sniper gain in popularity and another playstyle is born. Make another perk that would allow for more mobility while ads in the same slot and you'll see sniper who will take risks at range by being out in the open in the same way people with Mida and the radiant dance machines do, and we'll see a third playstyle emerge that hasn't existed in destiny. (This last one might be a terrible idea, but the purpose is to show that we need more variety in snipers to balance them, not less). Edit 2: It seems a popular idea to have snipers descope on being shot/being crit. I did consider this issue, but enough have posted this suggestion that I feel I should address why it doesn't work. First, let us look at a game where it works. In Halo 5, descoping on being hit works because it represents the inability to aim [i]well[/i] under fire. There is a hipfire reticle, so it makes sense that being scoped in is supposed to be a benefit only when you are getting the drop on the opponent. In Destiny, descoping on being hit does not work, because it represents the inability to aim [i]at all[/i] while under fire. This means that if you have a sniper, and the red flare that shows you have begun the scope in animation has begun, I can send a bunch of auto rifle rounds down range, suppressing you the whole way while I bunny hop my way over to finish you off. It would essentially make it so that any scout automatically beats a sniper, as a sniper will not be able to scope in first (especially with my changes), and the scout will get the first hit. Another suggestion I have gotten is to lower the damage on sniper rifles to three shot body shot kills. While this does make headshots the more rewarding option, it causes a few problems. The first is pve. A 33% reduction in body shot damage would destroy snipers in pve. It would also wreck them in pvp, as you might as well be using a scout rifle at that point. The purpose of my changes are to preserve the stopping power of the sniper while still punishing body shots and rewarding head shots. I really appreciate the input, as it has causes me to really think about how changes like this will affect the game as a whole. It has strengthened my conviction that we need fixes that don't destroy pve. Also, if anyone has suggestions as to changes that would make it difficult to use a screen red dot without destroying the sniper, I would be happy to entertain them, and if they are good post them up here. At the moment the only suggestion I have gotten was good, but ultimately promoted close range sniping. Edit 3: I didn't think I needed to put this here, but this post is not a place to put your "sick snipes" montage. Cue the trolls and their mlg vids in response. Edit 4: I just want to mention that ideally none of these changes would affect pve, and shotguns and fusions would get a buff in pve, but since we all know that when a nerf comes in it will affect both pve and pvp (and we all know one is coming whether we like it or not), I chose to post changes that would affect pve the least (considering other options are descoping on hits, removed aim assist, and lowered damage, all of which would be bad for PVE especially). Edit 5: Just to clarify on the ads being slowed, I am advocating for 0.5 second to 1 second depending on scope and perks, with lower zoom scopes being faster and snapshot speeding things up further. The purpose here is that if someone quickscopes and fires, there is an accuracy cone the shot is filtered through since they fire before the sight is full ads. This means there is more rng as to whether a body shot or whiff is made when a shot is rushed. A quickscope that is perfectly center is possible, but is more accurate the longer into the ads animation you wait, so a 0.5 second animation would have a significantly faster quickscope shot than a heavy sight without snapshot, meaning if people want somewhat effective quickscopes, they have to give up stability for snapshot. Just the fast sight wont do it anymore, at least as effectively. This also prevents a sniper from just aiming and firing while under fire with ease. It should be more difficult to land the headshot when you are under fire as a sniper. Edit 6: it seems like a common comment is "buff other specials to even the playing field." Unfortunately, this would actually exacerbate the problem, as the key issue is snipers pushing [i]primary[/i] weapons out of the meta. I speak a lot on how shotguns are combatted at close ranges by snipers while sidearms and fusions are combatted at medium by snipers. While these are big issues, the key issue is that primary weapons are being outshone at all ranges by snipers. Special weapons are special. Because of this, they should outshine primary weapons at optimal range. I am of the unpopular opinion that scouts should not beat a skilled sniper (if the sniper is getting head shots). The issue comes when you have a special that covers all ranges. You see, special weapons should be countered first by other special weapons in their own optimal range (snipers countered by close range shotguns for example), second by other specials of the same type (shotgun vs. shotgun for example), and thirdly by primary weapons that function outside the special's optimum range (handcannon vs. sniper at mid-close range for example). Right now, this balance exists against the other specials. I can counter a shotgun with a fusion or auto at mid range. I cannot think, however, of a single weapon that counters a sniper consistently when that sniper has skill, however, except a shotgun at point blank range, and the last word counters that for snipers. If we buffed special weapons, that would only exacerbate the problem, unless we buffed the primaries too. I think a buff to a ttk of .7-.9 seconds would not be terrible if done, but there would need to be consistency. No more of this rotational meta. Instead, insure a time to kill consistency across the primaries that makes the difference in the type of weapons rather than which one is flavor of the month for damage. I personally like the current time to kill meta of .9-1.1 seconds.