Similar story with scout rifles (Destiny)

by slycrel , Thursday, July 16, 2015, 23:43 (3517 days ago) @ Cody Miller

For starters, I think this is a good change overall to the weapon base. I don't fully understand the pulse rifle changes, but they seem more... sideways than a nerf. Autos needed a buff. Exotics are, per usual, more exotic and it sounds like we will have some new winners. I agree with you that fusions will be hit and miss now -- it remains to be seen just how much so vs the new shotgun ranges. Fusion rifles have a special place, if they can fill a niche that shottys can't, and I guess that remains to be seen. I'm amazed gjallarhorn has survived this long -- it does pretty well double the damage of other RL's, and now it'll only get 150% -- it'll still be more than the rest.

For scout rifles though... they're making them worse short range, where they already struggle. They're in many cases about on par with using a sniper already at very close range, other than maybe fang of ir yut, which is the only scout I know of that works okay at close range. They are practically useless from the hip already, and that's only going to get worse. It's possible that they are not awful from the hip long range, but I've certainly never used them that way, so maybe I'm missing out on something fun. =)

The damage buff for PvE means they'll likely keep up with the same ratio of damage (bullets per kill) that they've had previously. I've noticed enemy health has gone up much faster than damage for scout rifles, and has been a pseudo-nerf at higher levels. So with this they'll likely feel about the same as they do now at high levels -- pretty good mid-long and long range, too slow or inaccurate anything closer than mid-range. Which is where 75% of the game plays, so they continue to be situational.

I don't understand why they have gone towards less impact than hand cannons -- with the goals as they are they fill the same basic slot at differing ranges, so why the impact disparity? Their goals are almost identical:

Scout Goals:
1- Scout Rifles are the best Primary Weapon for long range engagements
2- Scout Rifles perform best when landing paced precision shots
3- Rate of Fire and Optics are tuned so that Scout Rifles are a little harder to use effectively close in

HC Goals:
1- Hand Cannons are optimal at close to medium range
2- Hand Cannons are optimal when shots are paced, but become less effective when fired quickly
3- Rewards agility under fire, precision targeting, and snap shots
4- Hand Cannons cannot reliably compete with Scout Rifles at long range

1 and 4 cancel each other out, so we're left with 2 and 2 (which say basically the same thing). Hand cannons get #3, which is where end game content lives. Scouts are just plain inferior in everything other than clip size and long range. It's not enough, especially for challenging content.

It'll be interesting to see clip sizes of hand cannons after this all drops, as that is what could ultimately make or break things for me. But I expect to be using hand cannons over scouts still most of the time, much to my disappointment. I hope they continue to look at and tune things going forward. Depending on clip size, and short range scout nerfs, I may even be using a pulse rifle. ick! =)