Destiny 2 is hobby and obsession for many players, successfully transitioning from a slow start to one of the best live service games still running today. Its PVE environment is constantly updating and challenging, and its PVP is competitive and engaging, albeit not free from the occasional PVP cheese spot.
However, while its PVE scene continuously demands that players rethink their builds on a regular basis as the challenges become different, Destiny 2's PVP is a bit more static, at least where weapons are concerned. Specifically, there's a big prevalance of shotguns and hand cannons in PVP, moreso than other weapon types.
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One Reddit thread set out to figure why shotguns and hand cannons are so ubiquitous in PVP as oppose to other guns, and two main theories have emerged from that thread. The first is that map size is the main factor. Most PVP maps in Destiny 2 are on the smaller side, to a point where weapons with a longer sightline are simply unnecessary, and overall less useful. Someone with one of Destiny 2's glitched Hawkmoons can easily evade a longer range rifle, or even tank hits from it, and close the short distance to win.
Hand Cannons and Shotguns aren’t just meta cause of stats: the maps are simply too small to encourage other weapons from
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This is further compounded by the lack of wide open spaces in Destiny 2's PVP maps. Often, there's a lot of cover for people to duck behind. Someone using a rapidfire weapon will get frustrated by this, since it takes more hits to kill. But shotguns and hand cannons require fewer shots fired to be effective, and with the above mentioned short distances, there's seldom a reason to go for weapons with a higher rate of fire. This is something that's a bit tough to address, and even with the overhauls coming to PVP and Trials of Osiris, it's unlikely the maps will be changed much.
Another main reason for the dominance of shotguns and hand cannons is the movement options available to all classes. In other shooters it can be hard to get in close, but there are myriad ways to do so with Destiny 2. Players have ideas for overhauls, just like there are ideas to overhaul Destiny 2's armor affinities, but to change the movement abilities would also change the fundamentals of Destinny 2 itself.
It is possible that this meta will shift, but again, since the determining factors are the maps and essential movement abilities of classes, it's unlikely to shift too far. Still, with changes coming to the Void subclass among others in the Witch Queen update, maybe there will be a greater overhaul than is currently known.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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