Bungie's inconsistent weapon nerfing philosophy with Trials
In their latest TWAB on 10/13/2022, Bungie wrote, "This gun has been dominant in PvP for much of the last Season, topping the [b]Trials[/b] usage and kill charts week in and week out," with regards to No Time To Explain. Additionally, in regards to Auto Rifles, they also write, "Auto Rifles see strong usage in most PvP activities - around 25%, but that drops to around 13% in endgame PvP (e.g., [b]Trials of Osiris[/b])."
Seeing as how weapon usage/popularity in Trials of Osiris/endgame PvP is clearly a metric Bungie is now using to decide what should be adjusted, why haven't more dominant weapons been adjusted based on this, or better yet, special weapons in these modes in general? Why are a few dominant primary weapons being addressed first instead of the dominant special weapons that continually plague these 3v3 modes? It's not like the nerfs to Jade Rabbit or NTTE are going to be limited to 3v3, yet Bungie admits they're as a result of their high usage in 3v3 modes. Nor do primary weapons have any OHK potential like all specials do.
Special weapons like Beloved (and now more recently Defiance of Yasmin), Forerunner, Lorentz/Arbalest, Main Ingredient, and other fusion rifles, sniper rifles, and shotguns, in general, have continually topped and dominated the Trials Report kill list week after week, yet almost nothing is being done about them (I know the flinch changes are coming for snipers and LFRs and the Precision Frame fusion recoil direction nerfs, but this won't tone down their usage at all). Special weapons should not be your primary weapon in PvP yet they're all so dominant and oppressively strong in a mode like Elimination that you're forced to use one as such.
If I had the data, I almost guarantee you that from my Trials experience, somewhere around ~90% of the first kills in each Trials round are from some form of special weapon, be it a sniper or Arbalest headshot or fusion rifle/shotgun rush. Getting the first kill is such a massive advantage for your team that there are almost zero reasons to try to use your primary to do this unless you're out of special ammo. Specials are now primaries, and primaries are relegated to either being clean-up weapons if your special fails to OHK, or you're out of special ammo.
Something either needs to be done about the potency and ease of use with special weapons in PvP, yet another change is needed to their PvP ammo economy, or some combination of both, as we can see that no matter how much Bungie limits players to spawning with "only" 2 shots (which is, in effect, nearly 2 guaranteed kills), players are not going to stop using them as primaries. Currently, according to Trials Report, sniper rifles as a whole are the #3 weapon in terms of overall kills, making up 10% of this week's total kills so far. [b]10%[/b] of ALL Trials kills this week are from a [i]single special weapon[/i] class.
So what should be done about this? In my opinion: Trials, Survival, and Elimination (not Control or any other 6v6 game mode) should force all players to spawn with 0 special ammo, forcing them to use and challenge with their primary weapon instead of crouching with a sniper rifle, mindlessly aping with a shotgun/fusion, or using wallhacks with Khepri's Sting and Arbalest for cheap and easy first picks. Halfway into a round (45 seconds), a special ammo crate with 2 shots worth for [i]one[/i] player only should spawn in the middle of the map, where heavy ammo spawns, forcing the teams to contest it if they want to gain the advantage of having a special weapon. And even then, only a single player on your team is going to get the special ammo, so you'd better decide who is best with a sniper, shotgun, fusion, etc., and make it worth it because if they die, it's all gone. Forcing teams to contest each other in a heavily trafficked area of the map unless they want to give up a major advantage will prevent camping and passive/slow gameplay, and encourage primary gunfight challenging for an objective, just like heavy ammo or the overtime capture zone.
Simply put, there is far too much special ammo in Trials and other 3v3 modes, even after the ammo economy nerfs, and absolutely nothing has or will change, no matter how much you nerf the weapons. I don't want them to be useless from nerfs, as that will not fix anything and will harm PvE, but currently, as it stands these "competitive" modes are really a joke and a test of whoever can use their special weapons and spam abilities more effectively. This is the exact opposite of the gunskill sandbox Bungie intended on creating by toning down abilities (only to immediately do an about-face on this with the 3.0 Light subclass refreshes).
My proposed changes will be limited to the 3v3 PvP competitive modes only, will not require nerfs of the weapons themselves (thus unnecessarily hurting their PvE viability yet again), and will hopefully encourage more primary gunplay and less reliance on special weapons and abilities (although these are a different story). What do you all think of this?
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