They are vastly different skill sets (with some overlap) (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, February 09, 2017, 13:43 (2657 days ago) @ Cody Miller

because seeing what kinds of problems are caused by the changes at that skill level is very different than seeing the problems at lower skill levels.

You almost can't look at low skill levels when determining balance, because at low skill levels essentially everything is overpowered.

That depends on many factors. I think the year 1 Destiny weapon balance showed some signs of a sandbox balanced around a lower skill level. Look at how insanely overpowered Hand Cannons proved to be in the hands of skilled players. Compared to an Auto Rifle or Pulse Rifle, a Hand Cannon is inherently punishing to use. The slow rate of fire and small clip size means that every missed shot is a big deal. Put a few low-skilled players against each other (players who have trouble keeping their reticule on target and miss more shots than they land) , and the hand cannons balance out decently well with the rest of the primary weapons. The problems became apparent when highly-skilled players started using them, because they rarely miss their shots. What seemed relatively balanced at certain skill levels was very unbalanced at the high end of play, because the weapons had very different levels of potential effectiveness.

The trick is that by nerfing hand cannons down to where they are now, they have become somewhat underpowered compared to the other primaries for players at lower skill levels.