In so many of the threads of nerfing/buffing/balancing you hear people talk about "Year 1 this" and "Year 1 that." "This weapon was better in Y1 because of XYZ". There's a problem with this though is there not? When Destiny came out the PVP mode was a side bar to the PVE content. A place where guardians could go to engage and [b]practice [/b]their skills against real people. Problem is that ALL of the weapons were tuned to Bungie's (original) idea of what they should be for PVE. There was actually ZERO balance in terms of PVP play. It was OK for a while but then people playing PVP started screaming about weapon effectiveness especially at ranges that overlapped other weapons. Enter Patch 1.1.1. Six full months after release and then 2.0 four months later. Quite possibly the 2 patches that have defined the 'nerf' mentality (Shotguns hit in both, snipers only Final Round Change in 2.0). That's when the nerfs started and likely around this time they also decided NOT to separate PVE and PVE weapon balance. So herein lies the problem. There really is no Y1 in terms of PVP balance. There was Y1/2 but that was before PVP became a true standalone mode with it's own legs but everything after that is nerfs and rotating meta. So in reality this Y1 that people speak about is really PVP play using weapons that were tuned to be powerful against PVE AI enemies not human controlled guardians. I end this with saying that this is my personal take and opinion on this. However this is based on what we know of release through Y1 and what was done within that time. Thank you for your time guardians.