Bungie is historically great at making nerfs that completely destroys a gun's usefulness in game. It's like their balancing team has bipolar balancing disorder, where either a gun is so freaking good that it can map people and still have 0.7 ttk (Hardlight) or be nerfed so hard that it literally becomes a piece of trash that can't kill a 5 health stationary target from 10 meters away.
The Last Word was obviously a good gun, above average when compared to most hand cannons. But provided that it is specifically a PvP EXOTIC weapon and literally useless anywhere else, it should be good at the job. However, it was relatively easy to use when compared to something like Luna's Howl, but it was still limited by range - something that made guns like Spare Rations still a better choice than TLW in almost every mode. However, I do agree that the ease of use compared to the power output did need a little bit of tweaking. But Bungie, like they usually do, slams down the nerf hammer and destroys the gun. They not only nerfed the body damage by 45 PERCENT, but cut the ADS crit damage by 24 PERCENT. That's not all. They ALSO nerfed the range EVEN MORE and then decided to make the gun kick up harder than an angry horse. It is so hard to control when using sights that even top tier PvP players have problems getting shots with it. They justify it by saying, "well Susan, this is supposed to be a hiP fiRe gUn, so that's why we buffed hip fire crit damage by oNe pOiNT" - which is all fine and good, but the hip fire is so garbage that even the Buzzard (a PvE sidearm) is infinitely better. Let me explain.
Obviously, hip fire accuracy is pretty trash on most weapons, especially hand cannons at ranges larger than 10 meters. The Last Word does have a fan fire perk that gives it greater target acquisition, which in theory, means that it is much easier to hit hip shots on this weapon than most other hand cannons. This is true, but to a very limited extent. Hip crits are easier to get on this gun, but it doesn't help WHEN HALF THE SHOTS YOU FIRE ATE GHOST BULLETS THAT DONT CONNECT. For some god forsaken reason, it just so happens that this hip fire weapon cannot hit half the hip fire shots. Now, I'm not talking about long range. I'm talking about within Mindbender's area of killing. Somehow, even when aimed perfectly at the head OR the body (which is a much larger hit box for people who have trouble with shapes and sizes), this gun manages to shoot bullets that magically disappear into another dimension. There are SO MANY TIMES that the bullets don't do damage even at a person not even strafing at 8 meter range. The hit registration is so broken, that literally not bothering to aim well hits about the same number of shots as aiming perfectly. I've tried to calculate the rate at which I get ghost bullets (aka I aim right at the target, and the shots just disappear), and the rate of no hits is a shocking 29%. That's equal to missing 2.32 shots for every full mag (8 shots total).
I hope Bungie seriously revisits what they did to the gun. In my opinion, they could have increased the gun's kick to the INSANITY it is now, while not nerfing the ADS crit damage and only reducing ADS body damage from 68 to 51 (since it's nearly impossible to hit all the shots with this amount of recoil), OR nerf the damage to where it is now but not increasing the magnitude of recoil AT ALL. That would reduce the gun's ease of use, putting it at around the same effectiveness as most decent PvP hand cannons, while ensuring that hitting your shots means you get to kill someone instead of the dollar store magic trick bullets you have now. To put it simply, there is a problem when an EXOTIC HAND CANNON MEANT FOR DUELING IN PVP SUCKS AT PVP.
Edit: this is for MnK PC, not console or controller players.
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You know what I hate? People always complain about how powerful an exotic is and ask for it to get nerfed to the ground, and then they complain about how exotics suck. And you know the worst part? IT’S A WEAPON OR ARMOR PIECE THAT YOU CAN ONLY EQUIP ONE OF. IT SHOULD FEEL SPECIAL TO EQUIP IT, AND IT SHOULD FEEL POWERFUL. But this godforsaken community cries over a PvP Weapon being too powerful, and Bungie unfortunately listens. I’m glad that Suros and Hard Light haven’t been nerfed. Hell, I’m glad that Antaeus and Geminis haven’t been nerfed either. Why? Because they’re -blam!-ing exotics, and should feel powerful.
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I can sympathize with ghost bullets. Even happens here on console sometimes. As for the rest, the skill floor on the gun is INCREDIBLY high on MnK. I think that's by design. Fantastic players can get it to work on MnK, but that's it. TLW will let you know real quick if you're half as good you think you are on MnK. So for 99% of MnK players, it's unusable. Not really the best design if you ask me, but until weapons operate the same recoil-wise between MnK and controller, Bungie had to make an adjustment. This the right one? Maybe. Maybe not. [i]Something[/i] had to give though.
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What I heard: “I’m a mouse and keyboard player who can’t stand to aim so I have to have no screen shake and no recoil and now I can’t hipfire a simple gun and i can’t hit headshots so it has to do good bodyshot damage omg!!”
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You know in the Hard Light meta you can't even use Ace Of Spades either, all hand cannons fall short and becomes to slow.
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I miss the ADS. That said, it was made for Hunters as well as the fact it's different on PC vs Console. VERY different [spoiler]Space some words out please. Us older people get headaches reading that mess[/spoiler]
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Something that can help a is pairing it with the recluse, that’s what I run in my crucible load out and I do fairly well. But right now pretty much all weapons play second fiddle to hard light and Randy’s throwing knife. Gosh I’m so sick of those two guns.
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Regret
Cater to casuals! - 舊
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I dunno. I use the following a lot in crucible currently and always end up with a good score: Last word, dire promise, waking vigil, thorn, crimson, suros, hard light and the summoner. I change my load out depending on the map. I understand your point and agree with it to some extent but i feel 600 rmp ARs can be beaten. Also on the last word, I hear that it's pants on MnK but with console if you add the mods on to your armor.....nasty
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Agreed, they always trash weapons into the ground when they NERF. They never adjust it to a reasonable level they smash it into near uselessness. WHY?! I could list so many once "OP" weapons nerfed into oblivion since the start of D1, but it's a long list...