I know it's probably too late to ask for one of these with Beyond Light around the corner, but I'm gonna ask for it anyway. This time, I've done a bit of research. Personally, I believe that Trace Rifles need a buff because they're kind of weak in PvP, which sucks for me. After all, I'm a huge fan of lasers. They're kind of strong in PvE, especially Prometheus Lens with its add-clearing Bubble of Doom™ and Divinity with its critical-hit Bubble of Doom™, both of which outshine Coldheart and Wavesplitter and [i]maybe[/i] Ruinous Effigy. Even then, I think it'd be nice to give them some PvE buffs so they can be at least viable for raids if people don't have optimal DPS weapons, but hey, that's just me. In PvP, however, they are pretty weak. Instead of trying to list my own reasons, I'm going to quote Pattycakes (who is by far a better PvP player than I am) in his video "Exotic Weapon PvP Tier List Rankings | Special Weapons (Destiny 2)," since that video explains their issue better than I ever could. [quote]The main issue that I have with these trace rifles, in general, is that they require special ammo, but only have an optimal time to kill that's pretty similar to primary ammo auto rifles. And to add to that problem, the ammo economy of special ammo on these really hurts. You'll often just barely get enough for another kill when you do pick up a special brick. Aside from being fun to use, I don't really see a big reason to use this in PvP.[/quote] Now, as someone commented on my last post on this topic, asking for a PvP trace rifle buff would be asking for trouble. I can see how a huge buff would cause mayhem, but perhaps a slightly improved TTK or ammo economy will be enough to make them viable, but not overpowered. I'd also imagine someone bringing up the point that trace rifles are PvE weapons, and I can definitely see that with Prometheus Lens, Divinity, and Ruinious Effigy, but certainly not Coldheart and Wavesplitter, especially since they have at least a 3.5/5 PvP rating on light.gg. Another thing I wish to address is a trace rifle that deals Stasis damage. Now, Coldheart's damage is always going to be Arc, or else it would contradict its lore. Divinity would make a lot more sense since this weapon is Vex and Vex are from the Darkness or something, I don't pay too much attention to the lore, but there's still the Judgement Bubble of Doom™, which I feel like Arc suits it more than Stasis and ice. I'm not going to ask for more exotic trace rifles since we already got one in the Season of Arrivals. I also kind of want to address the trace rifle catalysts. While the Coldheart and Prometheus catalysts do give it some nice stat boosts, maybe they can get more unique buffs, like Coldheart can completely stopping enemies after holding fire on it long enough - which rewards good accuracy - and Prometheus can have a faster-expanding bubble or cause enemies to explode, incinerating enemies around them, increasing ad-shredding potential. Will these be game-breaking? Probably. Is this a good idea? Probably not, but I think it's cool, and strike catalysts have such a low drop rate, so having powerful catalysts would maybe make the grind more worth it. Also, I think Wavesplitter and Divinity could use catalysts as well, so even if they don't get buffed, they could still have a better chance than before or something. Perhaps for a Wavesplitter catalyst, its Supercharged Battery trait can become stackable and deal more damage with each Orb of Light collected within a certain period of time, pairing well with the fact that exotic catalysts allow weapons to drop Orbs on multikills. Then, for the Divinity catalyst, Penance (shoot enough and then burst of damage) can become an AoE explosion, making it useful for ad clear and not just DPS. My last and probably weakest point is the need for legendary trace rifles. They'd probably be just like their exotic counterparts, but now with random rolls. It may sound dumb to some, but I think that it would be fun to have a special ammo-powered laser without taking up an exotic slot, which could probably open some fun or powerful loadouts. The problem with creating new trace rifles and new weapons, in general, is having to model them and all that coding stuff, so I can understand why Bungie wouldn't do this. Anyway, that concludes my excessively-long essay on why I think trace rifles need something fixed with them. Will people agree with me? Probably not. Will a Bungie employee look at this and consider it? I think the chances are slim, but this essay was still a fun waste of time and allows discussion. If anyone wants to add to this with their own suggestions or yell at me for being a stupid idiot, be my guest. Edit: Wow, this post got better comments than I thought. Also, someone asked for a TL;DR, so here it be. TL;DR: Bungo please kinda fix trace rifles in PvP and kinda rework their catalysts and maybe add legendary trace rifles