Could just be I’m not dying enough to hand cannons comparatively, especially from medium range, to really notice. It’s pretty clear though as someone who likes to use scout rifles just how much Pulses are able to out damage scouts, and they’re a fairly low risk weapon, so they can work their game reliably out to all but the longest map ranges, situations where they can usually just walk away or behind a wall if they don’t want to deal with a scout rifle matchup. It’s not something close-range advantaged situations really have to worry about it. Don’t like your CQC matchup once it happens? Too bad; it’s probably too late to do much but shoot back, try to act evasively, and hope they shoot poorly. You can’t just not fight as a reliable “answer” to the encounter like you can with a ranged engagement, which makes having scouts slightly better at only a very narrow part of the overall practical battlefield problematic. Sorry to rant. It bugs me.