Coming from a guy thats been using high impact snipers since the LDR 5001. The main argument for "what takes more skill: snipers vs shotguns" is that snipers are harder to use because you have to land headshots. I just don't see it like that though. The truth is that snipers are so much safer to use. You can distance yourself where you cant be killed fast by the majority of meta weapons, you can pop in and out of cover and still get kills. Even if you miss, youre safe, the same cant be said about shotguns though. With shotguns, you have to put yourself at risk, either by pushing past the half way mark on the map, going into the other teams spawn, etc. You need to be agile and use your character's mobility. Its not easy to do. Sure, you can get one easy kill. But most of the time you end up trading, either with the guy you kill or you die by his teammate because you put yourself at risk. And in trials, trades are bad for the shotgun user, because they have to advance to get their close range shotgun kill, so the shotguns dead orb will usually be un-revivable whereas the orb that was killed by the shotgun will usually be on his teams own side, so it is usually revivable. With snipers, you can get one kill and safely walk away. And the fact that shotguns and fusion rifles aren't as good as they used to be, everyone is now sniping, and playing almost risk free. Pvp has mostly come down to a game of pop-in pop-out where whoever gets the first snipe has the advantage. The only risk you put yourself in is getting sniped by someone else. Playing that safe should not be so rewarding. This has nothing to do with high aim assist. As a sniper main I know nothing has changed about snipers since vanilla when it comes to aim assist. Im not "one of those guys." I genuinely believe the reason people have gotten so good at sniping recently is that [i]everyone[/i] uses them now and we've gotten so much practice with them. Nothing to do with aim assist. All Im saying is shotguns and fusion rifles, and even sidearms need to be buffed so they get more usage. I actually liked the HoW meta better because shotguns were extremely good but still had that risk factor to them. They could still be stopped dead in their tracks or could be traded with. Nowadays its almost unsafe to walk around any corner because there is already a sniper aimed down it at head level. I find myself hitting down on the dpad to see around the corner in third person every time I get to a corner. Its not a good meta at all. Bring back shotguns and fusion rifles! Again, this is coming from a sniper main. Tl;dr Shotguns take a ton of awareness and use of your character's mobility and you have to put yourself at risk for every kill, but snipers are almost risk free to use. Shotguns didnt deserve to be nerfed and should be buffed along with fusions and sidearms to give them more usage.