So, one thing that has me hung up at the moment is thus, a large portion of pvpers use pulse rifles, mostly red death, nirwins mercy and now no time to explain (guilty as charged) and to me at least, this in itself is an imbalance, but really, why so many pulses?
I see most posts that complain and outright state that pulses are OP get slammed, badly. Is this just folks defending their new favorite weapons, or are they on the right track? If 80%+ of crucible uses pulse rifles, doesn't this show up that imbalance? If the common consensus is 'just use a pulse rifle yourself' doesn't that indicate a bad balance?
Honestly, I can't make my mind up here, I've started to use high stability PRs and tlaloc (depending on the map/team) and it certainly doesn't make me a godlike scrub, but the proliferation of pulses, and the general consensus on countering PRs is to use one yourself (to a much lesser extent, scouts are offered up as a viable counter too) confuses me.
To conclude, I'm not saying PRs are OP, they definitely aren't weak, but I can't come to a strong formulated answer to 'are PRs OP?' So come forth, educate a scrub. I'll also save you some time looking up stats: I'm terrible, and should feel bad.
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Even before 2.0, pulse rifles were the best option besides the three exotic HCs. Since they nerfed all HCs' range, TLW isn't viable except at close range, Hawkmoon is still good, but doesn't have the range to make it so elite, and Thorn isn't Y2, it only makes sense the pulse rifles are the best right now. Scouts do have an advantage if the range is far enough (most maps don't have many spots where this comes in to play), but HCs and Autos both have less range than pulse rifles, and aren't any better than a pulse at close range, so the pulse rifles give more versatility the are good at a longer mid range without compromising killing speed up close. I use a variety of guns in crucible, I nearly always do better with pulse rifles. I just hope they don't adjust them too much in their next weapon rebalancing; they are so close to having it right.