Be somewhere your enemy wants or needs to be. Wait until there’s enough of them that they feel confident. Any other time they’ll just run away. Or just do this:

I run one character, and I've only unlocked one on the new subclasses. I can run Blade Barrage or Golden Gun. I find that I can use either one effectively in PvE, and I have REALLY enjoyed the update to Golden Gun that allows me to fire as many times as possible so long as I'm getting kills (within the time limit).

Honestly, it's super frustrating for me (no pun intended), so I would appreciate any tips.

My advice is to pop a few shots off at the enemy to initiate an engagement. Ideally against two or more enemies to give them confidence to push on you. Pull back around a corner, then pop it.

I run one character, and I've only unlocked one on the new subclasses. I can run Blade Barrage or Golden Gun. I find that I can use either one effectively in PvE, and I have REALLY enjoyed the update to Golden Gun that allows me to fire as many times as possible so long as I'm getting kills (within the time limit).

PvP is a different story. In the Crucible, one of two scenarios typically plays out:

1. I pop my super and get killed during the animation before I get a shot off.

2. In order to prevent the first scenario, I pop my super early, hoping to surprise the enemy that's just on the edge of my radar, only to have the time-to-super run out before I close the distance and find the enemy.

I wish I were joking when I say, yeah, that's generally how it goes with Gold Gun. It's such a recognizable sound that anytime you pop it, everyone runs. Or as you said, the animation takes SO LONG, that you're dead before you get to shoot.

I go back and forth between golden gun and spectral blades. When using golden gun, I use the 3 shot mode just to have the longer duration. It usually seems like at most, I'll get 2 kills out of each GG because everyone runs away, so 6 shots is unnecessary.

Remember that no Super requires you to be standing still while they activate. Trick is to jump while you do it.

What I usually do is activate as I'm jumping around a corner, so that I have it active as soon as I'm in the open and catch those fools while they're still scattering.

Looking forward to giving a these strats a test drive as I slog along in the Crucible step of my Thorn quest.