I disagree. (Destiny)

by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, April 25, 2015, 19:55 (3442 days ago) @ Cody Miller

Again, your logic is flawed. Yes, further nerfing Special Weapons will decrease the number of Special Weapon kills. But would you kindly explain how reducing the amount of Special Weapon ammo does not also work towards the same end result.

It works towards the same result, but it has other detrimental effects making my solution superior. In my opinion of course.

Both potential solutions have potential detrimental effects. Nerfing weapons or entire weapon types has the risk of causing the player population largely abandoning those specific weapons or weapon types. See: Auto Rifles. Your idea also kinda presupposes that Special Weapons themselves are too powerful, even on a shot to shot basis which I largely disagree with. I believe there are certain weapons that are outliers in that they are too powerful. Felwinter's Lie is a good example. But I don't think Shotguns as a whole are too powerful.

Instead I believe that most Shotguns and Sniper Rifles, and to a far lesser extent Fusion Rifles, are well balanced as long as ammo isn't so plentiful that they can be used as Primary Weapons. The big distinction, for me at least, is that Special Weapons should be reserved for special situations. Instead, before the latest change, they were very often being used in every situation. Reducing the available ammo for Special Weapons keeps those weapons as viable and balanced as they were before but will help push their usage into "Special" role they were meant for.

At the same time, yes, reducing Special Ammo on the map has some drawbacks. It can be frustrating to run out of ammo and not be able to find more. It is especially hard to switch Special Weapon types (from Shotgun to Sniper, etc) since there is a much larger chance that you won't be able to find any ammo for your new weapon. And, if there is far too little Special Ammo to go around, something which I am not convinced is the case, that "Special role" that Special Weapons are meant for will not be fulfilled because not enough people will be able to use their Special Weapons even when it is appropriate to use them.

This isn't a one way is wrong, one way is right situation. But answer this: In general, and ignoring the obvious outliers like Felwinter's Lie, do you think Shotguns, Sniper Rifles, and Fusion Rifles were too powerful? If so then perhaps your solution is the better answer. As I said above, I think all the Special Weapons were fairly well balanced, just that they were used outside of their "special role" which is why I think the solution Bungie choose to go with was the more correct one.