@Nick
I think it is. While removing RL on AoMr or AoB looks obvious, it just seems to be a nerf for AoLT.
You can still hope for a vault or lucky drop to get one. On high difficulties, I think it happens quite often.
The easiest way for AoLT tough, is to go for melee. Also, if you find a plasma shotgun and a nano mod, like I did once, you can praise to the RNG :D it's a freaking secondary !
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About combat knives, currently, they are indeed only useful in AoB (and for killing AoD without taking damages... which, imo, shouldn't be the case.). Since they are a "ranged melee weapon", and can be modded, I think they are quite fine as they are. If I played AoB more often, I think I would use them more.
But I wouldn't be against a revamp of melee weapons, so that it's not always chainsaw & scythe. So, yes, why not create some cool melee weapons ?
Here's one funny I just got: a soul stealer weapon. When you melee kill something, it stores one soul as ammo. Then, you can use it's alternate attack to shoot a lost soul on an opponent. Wouldn't be that cool ? Would also sinergize well with melee build, by allowing to block enemies lines of fire before rushing on them. I'm sure other things could be added: fast-attack or throwable weapons, a (unique) vampiric blade... UC's weapons shouldn't always be the best choice.
I tried rockets in city of skulls once or twice.. well, for me, it'll still be one BFG shot + shotty. Nice to learn it can work, tough.
Oh, and of course CatEye, it a gun mastery.
But I wonder about Bullet dance, which I didn't even try... probably not that bad, but since pistols weakness is clip size, I don't understand the point of this mastery at all. Also, I don't know what is meant by "firing extra bullets at half the time cost". does it increase the firing time ? would be even worse...