This is probably the most glaring issue with weapon balance at the moment, and strangely hardly anyone is talking about it.
The Ravager is a really nice addition and feels well balanced, but my word do the plasma pistol and pulse rifle have issues.
It’s pretty obvious at this point that the only reason they’re in the game is because the plasma pistol is too iconic to be removed, and the pulse rifle fills the void of blue plasma weapon i.e plasma rifle.
In terms of actual utility they are absolutely useless. The plasma pistol is just far too situational to warrant being picked up, and even then using it amounts to gambling on landing an EMP bolt - one miss and you’re practically guaranteed to be killed.
The Pulse rifle has high damage, but it’s just impossible to land shots, which is always the challenge with balancing tracking weapons. The slow projectile speed coupled with weak tracking just means you end up spamming shots into nothingness, while commando users absolutely annihilate verything on sight.
Weirdly, as much as 343 themselves have even spoken about plasma being extra effective against shields, the pulse rifle is just as effective against health which makes this trait completely negligible.
Please 343. You have to find a way of balancing these weapons so that they justify their place in the sandbox.