[u][b]Please read entirely before voting. This is a mature thread for mature players to intelligently discuss PvP topics. [/b][/u] Hey guys. I just wanted to have a friendly discussion or debate in the competitive forums. I wanted to know everyone's 2 cents and thoughts. [u][b]Debate question: Is quickdraw the problem, or shotguns?[/b][/u] [b]My argument: Quickdraw is brokenly overpowered, not shotguns or blink.[/b] I believe Quickdraw is the culprit as to why people seem to think blink shotgun is called many things... a crutch, cheap, overpowered, uncounterable... For those who don't know, quickdraw is a perk from the blade dancer subclass which grants the following: -Immediate weapon readiness -Immediate weapon switching -Immediate weapon scoping This combination, or even one of these 3 benefits isn't offered for any other class, it's a perk which sets out to identify the blade dancer subclass uniquely. Blade dancers who have access to this perk can shoot immediately upon blinking, immediately switch weapons and immediately scope their weapons. Why is this broken and not shotgun's massive range... or blink? Well, let me first go ahead and say banning blink is essentially banning the blade dancer subclass entirely. The super is easily destroyed by a shotgun melee, coined by the term being "baby bladed"... Blink is the saving grace of that, allowing you to actually catch up to opponents instead of double jumping, and confusing them, not allowing them to shoot you. So that's out of the question. One thing which could help the problem of rampant blink shotgunning, and one thing I believe deserves to happen, is limiting blink to 1 blink instead of 2 before a cooldown is triggered, which would help prevent blink shotgunners closing too large of gaps too quickly. Charges would have to be more thought provoking rather than mindless. Commitment to a push would be necessary, not optional. Shotguns, although pretty long distance, aren't really... ground breaking in this game. The time to kill is pretty fast and the movement options in this game, being blink and glide, allow players to travel very fast. The distance is fine, especially after the perk shot package is getting a 30% nerf after patch 2.0 anyways. I have not been one pumped at distances too far out of melee distance often, also it's important that shotguns maintain that way. Imagine the imbalances of melees between classes. Which class has the worst melee... by far? Titans. Titans have the shortest range T-Rex arm melee ever seen. They would be outclassed every single time if shotgunning required a shotgun-melee combo for killing. A solution would be increasing titan melee range, which honestly should happen regardless, but I still don't see the range on shotguns as an issue with the mobility options in this game. Okay, now let's think about blink and shotgun combined. Let's imagine a voidwalker warlock with a shotgun who uses blink. I immediately laugh at this idea, because I know the voidlock doesn't have quickdraw. Why? This warlock isn't able to shoot immediately out of blink, this warlock can't switch weapons fast or scope his shotgun to proc his shotpackage fast enough. He is in all ways counterable to my playstyle. I'm at a stage in my gameplay where I tend to know when I'm about to be blink shotgunned... Let's face it, I've played 7,000 games of Crucible on a hunter doing exactly what I'm condemning to be overpowered, Quickdraw Blink Shotgun. So how would I counter it? Usually anticipation, or blinking myself. As a titan, I don't have blink anymore so my only option is anticipation. Let me give you a scenario. I am playing on Asylum, and I am on the top deck where Heavy spawns. Not on the bottom of the map. I see red on the radar and immediately am going to assume this player will blink up from the tree below me, so I aim my shotgun into the spot he will blink up into, over the railing. He blinks up, and we shotgun eachother + both die. He makes a predictable play, and isn't punished for it ultimately because he can shoot his shotgun at me the exact moment he comes up. Anticipation can sometimes help and work, but not always. Not if the person is good at blink shotgunning and not a noob. Had this been a warlock, I would've won and countered the person because he wouldn't be able to shoot immediately. What else is quickdraw useful for, or why else is it broken? Switching weapons, or rather, immediate weapon switching. One good example is someone who simply will bodyshot me with a sniper and then bodyshot me again a Last Word or Thorn, to the point it's faster (and has more aim assist) than waiting to shoot the sniper a second time. Why wait to fire a second sniper bullet when you can immediately switch weapons and shoot me instantly in the body to clean me up with a primary weapon which holds more aim assist? Or, a shotgun rushes me, realizes he's out of range due to poor planning or prediction of an enemy, only holds me weak with the shotgun as I'm backing out of shotgun range, and immediately switches to last word to clean me up faster and take him out of the bad situation. That is, in my opinion, why quickdraw is the problem. Not shotguns or blink. I can counter a voidwalker blink shotgunning 8/10 times, I don't ever see that happening against a blade dancer typically unless he's bad at what he's doing. 7,000 pubs later and multiple held tournaments I've entered and hosted and I've still never seen players be able to counter blink shotgun and quickdraw. Primarily to what I consider, and the top 100 players, to be the issue. What do you think? How would you fix quickdraw? I would simply remove immediate weapon readiness and immediate weapon switching, and instead just have this perk provide snapshot for all guns, or immediate weapon scoping. I see no problem honestly with immediate weapon scoping, although I do with the weapon readiness primarily and immediate weapon switching. As well I would limit blinking to 1 blink instead of 2, although not entirely necessary. ---- Counter arguments brought up in the discussion: 1-Quickdraw deserves to be on the Golden Gun class instead (I totally support this) 2-Gunslinger's trance, Surge and War Machine are equivalents of Quickdraw for Golden Gun, Voidwalker and Defender Titan. Although... They activate on proc, while quickdraw is a far more superior version always being active. Should Quickdraw need to proc also for balance? (This is a good argument) 3-Shotguns are still too long distance. Honestly I could agree somewhat. But this will be fixed in Patch 2.0 regardless so I'm not stressing.