3 days after playing with this new patch, the auto rifle buff didn't do jack**** for a lot of the auto rifles.
Shadow Price with the right roll (Rangefinger, Perfect Balance, Hidden Hand) is probably the one of the most decent "non-Raid, non-Faction" Legendary Auto Rifle in PvP thanks to the patch. Grim Citizen can work here too, but Shadow Price has a better base Aim Assist in comparison to Grim.
Genesis Chain is obviously the best "mid-ROF" auto rifle in the game, and that is the only mid-ROF auto that benefited from the patch.
Suros still can't do ****, and I thought the patch was suppose to help that gun return to glory
Doctrines, Arminius, Unbent, Assembly II, Soulstealer Claw, those high-ROF autos are still the best autos in the game.
As for pulses, there is definitely no flinch perks from any of the pulse rifles now. That being said, Clever & Grasp got screwed over in the patch. If you miss one crit shot with either of these guns, you're done PERIOD.
In terms of pulses, "god-roll, pre-Rise Of Iron" Hawksaw will eventually be the new pulse meta. If you end up with a Blind Pardition, B-29, PDX-45, or Aegis that has the same perk roll as the "god-roll Hawksaw," you are basically set in terms of the pulse meta.
Supposedly Parthian Shot has a better time-to-kill than the Hawksaw-type pulses now, but the Aim Assist is so bad that a Hawksaw will still out-gun a Parthian Shot at least 95% of the time. In terms of the same pulse-archtype, you would really need a "god-roll" Spare Change pulse rifle to actually stick to this pulse archtype BUT Spare's Aim Assist with god-roll perks still can't compete with a god-roll Hawksaw.
Speaking of which, the Hand Cannon meta seems to be back in full force EXCEPT for the Thorn (eat-a-**** Thorn lovers
). If you got the vendor Palindrome, use it to your heart's content. And you can go crazy with The Last Word too
As for the special weapons, sidearms are the new meta UNTIL they nerf the sidearms ammo in PvP like the nerfed all the other special ammo. Wormwood is the most preferred UNLESS you wanna sacrifice your exotic slot for Trespasser .
I hear people *****ing about the Truth having its magazine size decreased to 1, but frankly it does nothing to me. I only fire my heavy at least once at a time, so I can deal having to reload after every heavy usage (even with the slow reload speed). I've been using the Truth since year 1, so I can deal with all of its flaws........the slow reload is nothing to me. The Truth got a buff in terms of blast radius though, so I'll take that over normal magazine size.
So TL,DR summary of what I wrote, god-roll Hawksaw is the pulse meta still, high ROF autos are still the auto meta, Hand Cannons seem to be the top primary meta, Side Arms are the top special meta until a potential nerf, and Heavy & Scout Rifles had nothing done to it (minus the Truth).
