Vex was a monster though. I never did find a way around it. -though to be fair, I was still a new player at the time and didn't have much of an arsenal to work with. But yea, anyway - I remember that I couldn't even survive long enough to learn the maps. So many people had the Vex, and the thing would zap me before I could even return a shot, run away, or make any kind of response whatsoever. I remember that I really did spend more time dead than alive. It bothered me, but the thing that really got my goat was the commonly known cheese at the time of just pushing Atheon off the side of the map. The idea of getting systematically murdered by folks who had received such a powerful weapon for cheating the game drove me out of PVP. For a long while at least, until I beat the PVE side of things, got more established with my options for gear, and learned the general idea of how I like to play. *Edit* You made many excellent points in your OP though, and I wonder if I could now (with my level, experience, bolstered arsenal, and improved familiarity with the maps) combat the Vex if it were returned to its original performing stats.