So we all know what the meta is right now. It's full of the last word, mida, doctrine of passing, and the thousand yard stare. These guns all perform very well in each of their certain areas- mida is the best scout rifle in the game and can compete with snipers. The last word tears up shotgun users exactly as it was designed. The doctrine of passing is performing just as an auto rifle should; it destroys at close range and can sometimes compete at mid range. The thousand yard stare is a well rounded sniper that is incredibly reliable. When I see posts about how any of these weapons are "OP" i get extremely sad about the state of destiny's pvp. It is definitely more balanced than year 1 was, but with the balancing in year 1, (shotgun, fusion, auto rifle, hand cannon, blink, the last word, and thorn nerfs) people have been going to the least affected type of weapon. Bungie has a history in destiny of nerfing a certain type of gun which directly leads to a different type of weapon becoming the meta. This has been common throughout destiny's history. For the y1 players think back to when suros would absolutely meltfrom a mile away, or when fusions rifles would end your streak in a blink of an eye. Then both types were nerfed heavily, leading to the TLW thorn meta. Then thorn and the last word were nerfed leading to the pulse rifle meta. You guys get the picture. Destiny was my first FPS and I started playing during the dark below dlc (I Was a Christmas noob). And as any good Christmas noob does, I went into pvp and skyrocketed other players kd. I was lucky to get more than 3 kills a game with less than 15 deaths. If you think I am exaggerating go check out my kd from y1 (it's not pretty). Anyway I have fought to bring my kd up and now it is a comfortable 1.37 and I enjoy pvp. Now, as a slightly above average pvp player I do not believe that anything in the current meta, (except for maybe thorn) is OP. Let's start with the last word. Throughout destiny's history this gun has been arguably the most stable top tier gun in the meta. The last word used to have way too much range, enabling it to do its job outside of the intended area. Add on the 111 glitch and TLW had the quickest time to kill on a primary period. TLW's job is to kill players in a close quarters with extreme prejudice. TLW is the bane of shotgun players existence and there is truly nothing more annoying when shot gunning than to be melted by TLW when trying to rush. However, the insane time to kill in my opinion is justified by the hand cannon's "blank shots" and extreme lack of range. If you have been shot in mid range and killed by TLW in a gunfight, know that the player you're playing against got lucky, and probably had been using the gun for awhile and understands how to use it. When I say got lucky I mean that because of hand cannons inaccuracy because of the accuracy nerfs, sometimes shots that should hit just plain disappear. If the player you are going against was fortunate enough to land those shots, it was his lucky day. These blank shots are also prevalent on the hawkmoon, and almost all legendary hand cannons. So in my personal opinion, the last word is a top tier weapon and it is very annoying to get killed by when engaging in a gun fight, but I don't believe it is OP. The Mida Multitool has been around since vanilla, and it has never been changed. This gun isn't as complained about as others but the reason it is in the meta right now is because scout rifles are able to perform as scout rifles should in this meta, with no other primary being able to beat them out at long range. In y1 hawkmoon, thorn, and pulse rifles could compete with mida. Now it is the primary king of long range battles. Does this make it OP? I don't think so. I think it is the best scout rifle and because scout rifles are solid in PVP right now, people are frustrated by being killed by the most common scout rifle of them all. The doctrine of passing is the epitome of a high rof low impact auto rifles. This gun is obtained from the trials of Osiris and this makes it a bit more difficult to obtain for the average player than exotics that could drop randomly. Doctrine has the ability to melt at close quarters as it should, but as with the last word it can reach into the mid range and compete. It's time to kill is pretty solid, and it is one of the only guns that can compete with the last word in their optimal ranges. I find that doctrine is more reliable than the last word is as a whole, but last words ttk is definitely better. The only things I could see being a little OP about this gun is the range, but it would have to be an extremely delicate nerf from Bungie, and seeing how this usually doesn't happen, I'd rather leave the doctrine just as it is. Snipers as a whole, and for the forums purpose 1000 yard stare, are very powerful right now. Y1 it was shotguns and fusions with snipers being a fine choice but it was (in general) a choice for the skilled (in year 1). I'm speaking from experience here because as the noob I was in y1, I ran around with a max range shotgun on my hunter with blink. I knew I wasn't terribly skilled and I readily accepted using a shotgun with blink to help me perform in the crucible. Note- I don't think that all shotgun users are unskilled, in fact, I admire a good shotgunners movement and use of cover as much as I do a snipers ability to hit head shots). But in y1 let's face it, my felwinters with aggressive ballastics, shot package, hammer forged, and luck in the chamber was a bit ridiculous. Especially with the movement options with blink. But blink, shotguns, and I think fusion rifles? got nerfed coming into y2, and so the least affected type of special weapon, the sniper rifle, has started to reign supreme. I do know that sniper rifles had a slight nerf coming into y2 as well, something about flinch I'm pretty sure. But quite honestly, sniper rifles are working as they should. It is definitely annoying going up against a full team of hidden hand 1k stares and her benevolences, because of the play style that using sniper rifles imply. With blink and shotguns nerfed, it is harder to get close enough to a sniper rifle user to kill him, and when that player is using the last word or doctrine to complement their sniper, it makes it very difficult for that sniper rifle user to be stopped. So do I think that snipers are OP? Maybe the ones with hidden hand and an aim assist increasing scope, but even then snipers do what sniper do. They kill you with a shot to the head. Getting killed repeatedly by snipers in a crucible match is no fun. Peaking down a lane and seeing three red dots leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But this is what snipers have always been doing, but there were more ways to counter it in year one. I still remember times when I would chuck an arc bolt nade round the corner, tickle the hard scoping sniper with my thorn, last word, shotgun, etc, and they would be dead. It's harder now. But does this mean snipers are OP? I really don't think so. The flinch on snipers is ridiculous when being shot, and if you are killed while hitting a sniper with your primary, it's 50% luck and 50% skill on the snipers part. Also they aren't very good in close range, except when the especially skilled users are using them. Still, what can we do to "fix" snipers? Quickly on thorn- the three shot body shot shouldn't be a thing, the range may be a bit too much for the fire rate, and burns in general are annoying to me personally, but that's about it. It's more balanced than y1 that's for sure. So what can we do to fix this? If these weapons aren't op and aren't deserving of nerfs why are they so overused?? Simple. Other guns are not performing well enough. Pulse rifles are in a decent spot, with the suros pdx-45 and the grasp of malok performing extremely well in a skilled users hands. However, high impact pulse rifles are not performing as intended. The spare change archetype is not performing as it should. The damage nerf was extremely significant and the range nerf was a bit much as well. If we slightly buff the range and damage- to 36 per headshot, they would be a viable option in pvp again. Scout rifles are performing very well right now, and there is nothing in my opinion that is a problem with them except maybe the hip fire detection. This is the most nit picky of things about scout rifles though. This is not a priority. Hand cannons as a whole really need an accuracy buff. Almost no one uses hand cannons (except for TLW and thorn) in pvp. With this hand cannon accuracy buff, I would not give anything to TLW and thorn because they are just fine like they are with accuracy and range. Giving TLW it's accuracy and range back would make it OP. Thorn is already borderline and I personally would not like to get crossed mapped by it anymore. Fusions rifles really need a nerf imo (please don't take this seriously Bungie). There are some fusion rifles that perform well, my thesan rf4 with rangefinder puts in some solid work. But as a whole they are an extremely underused type of weapon. Give them back some range and accuracy and they would be a great option for mid range again. I would love to be able to use my fusion rifles in trials, but right now, when I want to go flawless, I can't rely on my fusion like I can on my sniper. I know there are some really good fusion rifle users out there, but for an average user, they are not reliable. Shotguns are finally balanced. There, I said it. They are a viable option for competitive game modes because of destiny's cqc design. TL;DR- guns are underperforming so the guns that perform as intended stand out. Bungie, bottom line, buff don't nerf.