Good question. Day One, D1 player and dedicated vooper (fusion rifle player). Shotguns and fusion rifles are actually very different weapons that serve very different roles. The reason why you’re unclear about this is that Bungie is deliberately blurring the lines between them (an effort I believe will fail after this seasion when particle deconstruction goes away). Bungie is doing this because of pvp. Pvp players are very inflexible about what they’ll accept in terms of game play. Shotgun game play is popular. Fusion rifles are hated because most of them can OHK at ranges equal to many primary weapons. But instead of adapting, people demand nerf…so fusion rifles have spent most of the Destiny’s life being broken-and-unusable to placate Crucible players. This blurring is an effort to make them usable while still being accepted in Crucible play. Shotguns are short-range, “burst damage” weapons. IOW, they do a lot of damage in a short amount of time. In Destiny that means delivering a one or two-hit kill to Guardians in Crucible. In Pve play, it means rapidly taking down enemies…usually Tier 2s (Captains, Knights, Wizards) that have gotten too close. Shotguns are snappy, quick and feel good to use. Hence their popularity. Fusion rifles, are [i]rifles.[/i]. They are not, as a group, short range weapons. Standard fusion rifles are mid-range weapons. When tuned properly, mid-and-high impact fusion rifles have an effective range that is from about the back-end of AR range….through hand cannon range…to the short-end of pulse rifle range. So they can make short work of hand cannon users that don’t pay attention to using cover. They can also reach out and put down shotgun apes long before the can run you down over open ground. Their ability to challenge the “skill weapon” mythology of Crucible is why they are hated, and why Bungie gives in and is always breaking them. In pve standard fusion rifles are mid-range weapons that strip the shields from shielded enemies, and can reach out and quickly take down high-hit point enemies that are too da-blam!- to get close to (stomp attacks, ability spam, weapon spam). Linear fusion rifles are mid-to-long range weapons. They are basically sniper rifles with a charge up time. But their scopes are open. So you can use a linear fusion without losing situational awareness like you do with a sniper. Linear fusions are underused because Bungie left them broken by leaving most of them underpowered as heavy weapons. Lorentz and Arbalest see usage because they are special weapins and do damage competitive with other specials. Sleeper Simulant is also a very popular heavy weapon (because it was designed to actually be one) when Bungie isn’t needing its accuracy and its ammo supply. Linear would do very well as special weapons. Problem is Bungie doesn’t want to expend the resources to move them to that slot and retune the game. So the only way to make them usable were the ridiculous buffs they had to be given this season. The reason why you’re unclear on all this is that Bungie is trying to make standard fusion rifles usable in pve, but non-competitive in pvp…which isn’t working. High-impact standard FRs (charge time =1000) feel TERRIBLE. Plus their TTK at mid-range in pvp is non-competitive. So the only way to use it is to run around and pre-charge it for every fight, and basically announce your location to every opponent. But in pve it leaves you da-blam!- exposed and the long charge time isn’t practical against fast moving enemies. Faster charge FR have such a short range, that they are basically shotguns-with-a-charge up. [i]So why would I use it instead of a shotgun??[/i] Answer: you dont. So what is happening is that FR will disappear from high level pve play at the end of the season, and will be mainly used for Reservoir Burst and crowd control in basic content. The only FRs that are useable in pvp are god-rolled weapons with shorter charge times, but with maxed range that make them play like high-impacts used to. Linear fusions will go back to being ridiculously underpowered, so once again only the exotics will see any use. Which is sad, because they are one of the few weapon classes that feel like a weapon from the 28th Century, instead of like something from Call of Duty. Edit: Seriously Bungie? “Da-blam!-” isn’t safe and needs to be censored?? Edit 2: Roger that. Come on guys, tighten up the filters. The common use word for an unsafe condition isnt remotely offensive…