Pistol users really do get the shaft compared to other weapon types. I mean, for one thing, they have pretty much the most restrictive Trait selection short of MAD. Bullet Dance stops you from getting Hellrunner, so if you want survivability you HAVE to tech into TaN and the other two Pistol masters block TaN. Not to mention Bullet Dance blocks Eagle Eye, something most pistol users need pretty bad due to the drop off in accuracy via range.
However, we can overlook all that. Sometimes not even taking a Master trait can be the best path, letting you spec as you want on basic and advanced traits. Son Of A Gun, Eagle Eye, and Son Of A Bitch seem to build well together. +6 minimum damage, +6 accuracy, 60% faster firing? Seems legit.
The other thing pistols really fail at tho is having decent gear. Compared to every other weapon type, it really falls apart FAST. Obviously the basic pistol is not supposed to be super useful, pretty much existing to last exactly one floor and then be retired forever. The problem is, pistol users likely NEVER get a better gun. Every other weapon type has a guaranteed drop for a higher quality piece of gear before the Anomaly (Chain gun and Rocket Launcher in the Arena, Chainsaw in the Chained Court, Combat Shotgun in the Military Base) AND every other weapon type (except rocket launcher, which instead has a free replacement at The Wall) has at least one extremely useful basic assembly that is fairly simple to find (Gatling Gun, Chainsword, Piercing Blade on that free Chainsaw, Elephant Gun as long as you have Shottyman, and the omnipresent Tactical Shotgun).
Meanwhile, pistols NEVER have an improved weapon drop, and their two basic assemblies are basically crap. Speedloaders look good on paper, and are decent if you are dual wielding, but with a single pistol you can simply equip an 10mm chain to accomplish the same thing without mods. This falls apart even further with Gun Kata, since you should never need to manually reload in any case (and Sharpshooter specifically blocks Dualgunner). Likewise, HP pistols are pretty bad since they take the biggest problem pistols have (frequent reloading) and make it worse by LOWERING your clips size (never understood using a Bulk mod to lower your clip size anyway). It's not until you can take a level of Whizkid and make yourself a Stormbolter that pistols finally get a weapon capable of keeping up with the other classes.
I'm not just ranting without reason. I'm aware KK is looking at ideas to work on in the next iteration of the game and I thought this specific issue needed to be addressed. Anyway, I can think of a couple of relatively simple fixes that might help ease the pain of trying to do an only pistols game.
First, what about making the Combat Pistol a guaranteed drop in Hell's Armory? It'd be simple enough to replace one of the weapons there with a guaranteed Combat Pistol, giving pistol users access to a better weapon right around the time they hit their Mastery and start looking for a good weapon to mod.
Second, maybe ease up on the trait requirements a bit for some of the Pistol masteries? Not the blocked stuff, I understand that is a balance issue. Instead, what if for instance Sharpshooter only required 3 SoG 2 EE and one additional trait? It would allow Technicians to either pick up some early defensive traits (Hellrunner or Ironman) OR start on their late game traits (also Hellrunner, but Whizkid if they want to mod stuff, Finesse if they want Juggler, or Intuition since they're taking Eagle Eye anyway). Not sure if you can really lighten up the other two, but being able to dual wield makes their early game a bit stronger before their Master trait anyway.
Last idea would be to improve the selection of basic Pistol assemblies. This could be as simple as changing how HP weapons effect clip size (isn't sacrificing two mods enough of an offset cost for this?) or as complicated as adding a few more basic assemblies that would be on par with the other basic assemblies. Specifically, if the Combat Pistol now always drops on Hell's Armory, an assembly that takes a Combat Pistol and two mods could be done, similar to the Tactical Shotgun. Maybe:
Tactical Pistol
Combat Pistol + AP
Damage: 4d3/4-12
Average Damage: 8.5
Damage Type: Bullet
Accuracy: +7
Base Fire Time: 1.0 second
Base Reload Time: 1.4 seconds
Clip Size: 15
Ammunition: 10mm ammo
Alternate Fire: Aimed shot
Alternate Reload: Dual reload
How to get it: Combat Pistol +AP
Quote on pickup: Time to start a WAR
The result is slightly higher average damage, accuracy, and reload speed than a standard Combat pistol. The buff in stats is *slightly* more than if you'd simply AP modded a combat pistol (4d3 instead of 3d4 and .4 faster reload). The main problem would be it might be broken if further modded with a P mod, but I think that would still be less powerful than most modded shotguns.
Anyway, just thought I'd bounce some ideas around out here for whatever they're worth. I know I'm not super experienced at this game, but I've read thru the board extensively and these are common gripes. Hopefully something I've came up with here is helpful