the access to ranged power damage was the only thing that made rifle a good choice over hammer.
Exactly why I chose rifle over hammer. Sadly, I need to get close, almost hammer-range close to use 3-5 effectively..
Which leave us with 1 & 2 as true ranged option.
This is just my thought—At this point, it looks like they want to keep rifle ‘short-ranged’ for engineer, whatever the cause. The traitline for firearms says it out loud. They even make the new legendary rifle more pleasing to see on engin(using jump-shot with the predator is cringy for some people).
That being said, it’s fine as long as it’s not outclassed horribly as it is now.