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EDIT: The percentage in the title should be 40%, not 55%--my original calculations compared a 140 RPM hand cannon to a 150 RPM scout rifle, which isn't quite fair.
So you took some time to grind out the Oxygen SR3. You did it because it reminded you of the vendor Hung Jury, or because explosions sounded fun, but now that you have it, it feels a bit... well, underwhelming. If you browse the subreddit for any amount of time, you’ll find that other people tend to share that opinion. But... why? The short answer is that within 40m, all other primary ammo weapons out-damage scout rifles and are more forgiving. They have better target acquisition, snappier handling, and perhaps most importantly, they generally kill red bars in one shot instead of two. In other words: Scout rifles simply don’t feel good to use in most of D2‘s content.
It’s possible to map this “feeling” out using objective comparisons. You have to start by defining the ideal role that each weapon type is asked to play in D2.
What’s the scout rifle niche?
Bungie’s weapon philosophy for Destiny 2 has been pretty clear: Each (primary ammo) weapon type has a niche that they are expected to fill. It’s easiest to characterize this as a range:
- Sidearms and SMGs should melt within 15m, but face damage falloff beyond that.
- Hand cannons and auto rifles should cover the short- to mid-range (5m-40m).
- Pulse rifles should feel best at slightly further distances (10m-50m).
- Bows and scout rifles are expected to be lethal at 20m-70m.
The actual ranges for some of these weapons may not fall exactly within these windows, and there’s variation within RPM archetypes for each, but you can use these ranges as a general guide. Destiny ensures that ranges are reinforced using two limiting factors; firstly, the damage done by the bullet begins to drop once the weapon passes a certain distance threshold. Secondly, the scopes can provide low magnification (good for short-range encounters, not great beyond a certain distance) ranging up to high magnification (good for long-range encounters, but not helpful if the enemy is close to you). Between damage falloff and scope zoom, you’ll find that the gun will generally be the most effective when you’re at the right range.
With very few exceptions, scout rifles have relatively high zoom scopes in comparison to other primary weapon types. In Destiny, higher zoom factors also tend to decrease weapon handling stats, making it difficult to center your scope and land shots with a scout rifle against moving targets that are within 20m-25m.
What about damage?
There are many things that make a gun feel good, but one of the basic principles of an FPS is that a gun should feel powerful commensurate with its ease of use. If it’s tough to use, it should deal more damage than similar weapons that are easy to use. Scout rifles and hand cannons fill similar roles, but hand cannons are generally easier to use thanks to unobtrusive scopes and forgiving aim assist.
So... let’s compare hand cannons to scout rifles and see where they land. Since we’re comparing primary weapons, and since those are typically used to clear rooms of adds, it’s only fair to measure damage against red bar enemies. I chose the acolytes in Cargo Bay 3 (the lost sector on Titan) for comparison, and used energy weapons with no mods applied for more consistent results. The actual damage values will vary area-to-area, so the more important thing to watch for is the damage ratio between weapon types.
Hand Cannons
- 110 RPM: 466 body, 1,677 head
- 140 RPM: 433 body, 1,296 head
- 150 RPM: 391 body, 1,254 head
- 180 RPM: 354 body, 1,059 head
All hand cannons began seeing damage falloff around 35m, but continue to out-damage scout rifles in the same RPM archetype up to 40m.
Scout Rifles
- 150 RPM: 280 body, 981 head
- 180 RPM: 249 body, 798 head
- 200 RPM: 224 body, 784 head
- 260 RPM: 202 body, 682 head
In this lost sector, acolytes have roughly 760HP. This means that any 110/140/150 RPM hand cannon can one-shot headshot thrall and acolytes in this sector, and two-tap any if the first shot is a body shot. Any 150/180/200 RPM scout rifle can also one-shot headshot the same under similar conditions, but all of the scout rifle archetypes require either three or four body shots to kill. This generally remains consistent across all PvE locations when you are at or above the power level requirement.
This is perhaps the most important reason your shiny Oxygen SR3 doesn’t feel great: If you miss one or more headshots on an enemy within 40m, you’d have been better landing body shots only with a 110/140/150 RPM hand cannon.
This tradeoff goes beyond that, unfortunately. If you’re firing at targets that are within 35m, you’re losing a significant portion of your potential damage per shot. Comparing a 150 RPM Nation of the Beast Jack Queen King 3 hand cannon to a 150 RPM Cut and Run, you’ll find that the hand cannon does 32% 28% more damage on a headshot and 55% 40% more damage on a body shot than the scout rifle. The difference is slightly lower when you compare a 180 RPM like Trust to the Oxygen SR3, but it’s still significant. This is the second reason your shiny Oxygen SR3 feels unremarkable: Even if you do land your headshots, you’re doing roughly 25% to 30% less damage per shot than you would with a hand cannon in a similar archetype.
Shouldn’t you choose your weapon based on the encounter?
Given that weapons fill a specific niche, you should choose your loadout based on what sort of enemies you’ll be facing and in what environment they’ll spawn. In Destiny 2, it’s actually very rare to find an enemy in a line of sight that extends beyond 50m--in fact, there are no encounters in Last Wish, Crown of Sorrows, or the Menagerie that ask you to engage lanes that are that long (with the exception of Shuro Chi in Last Wish, but there you’re asked to move too quickly to take advantage of that line of sight). Only in the Throne Room in the Leviathan will you be asked to aim down sights at something more than 50m away, and there you’ll need to use a weapon with snappy handling and/or a high rate of fire to shoot the skulls.
The two timed dungeons currently in the game--The Whisper and Zero Hour--feature encounters that extend up to roughly 40m. In fact, out of all of the end game content currently in Destiny 2, only two missions have significant sections that allow for engagements extending beyond 50m; it’s no coincidence that the Shattered Throne and Scourge of the Past are also the only ones that see consistent use of scout rifles and sniper rifles. Given the damage tradeoff, however, it’s still more productive to run a bow or sniper rifle than it is to use any 180/200/260 RPM scout rifle.
This is the third reason your Oxygen SR3 is disappointing: Bungie created a weapon type without creating encounters that fit it.
How can Bungie make scout rifles feel good in D2?
Heck if I know. If you bump up their damage and/or reduce the penalty for landing body shots, they begin to encroach on bow territory. My personal opinion is that this would be fine, but I’m not an expert. They can begin designing longer-range encounters, but this would mean that we use scout rifles in new content; old content would be left behind. Given the way that the game currently engages with the player, I’d be happy to see increased handling stats and lower zoom scope options that open up the 10m-20m range to scout rifle users. You’d still be at a roughly 30% damage disadvantage when compared to a hand cannon in the same range, but at least you’d be able to navigate chokepoints without having to switch weapons.
Bottom line, though, is that it’s not just the Oxygen SR3 that doesn’t feel good in this sandbox. A lack of engagement range variety, coupled with a severe damage disadvantage, creates an environment that simply isn’t a good fit for scout rifles.
EDIT: Yep, I listed damage values for a 140 RPM hand cannon (Nation of Beasts) in the 150 RPM slot, which brought the percentages up. I've corrected that by switching out the damage values for the Jack Queen King 3, which brought the difference down from the 55% I list in the title to 40%--still quite the difference. Sorry for the miscalculation!
Several have asked why I didn't compare pulse rifles to scout rifles. The main reason I went with hand cannons is personal--I was a huge scout rifle fan in D1, but now that love is mainly reserved for my hand cannons. I always knew something felt off with scout rifles in D2; the original damage testing was just for my benefit. I've seen several posts saying that the Oxygen needs to be buffed, and I wanted to share these results just to point out that scouts feel bad because of their TTK in comparison to easier-to-use weapons; no buff to Dragonfly will change that part of the gun.
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