Rate of fire buffs for the highest impact hand cannon would not make it too strong, seeing as it'll still kill in 3 shots.

Its just a little hard to hit the second and third shot at long range other than that its a great gun i think the fire rate is just fine i go ham with that gun

I think it's fire rate is fine as well tho I wish some of the bullets wouldn't disappear into the ether when the reticle is on your target

It wouldn't make sense though. Just use a different hand cannon if you don't like the slow fire rate

I'm not saying it should happen. Fact of the matter is no hand cannon should fire faster than its supposed to. That's why the last word has been a problem for like a year and a half. I'm just saying it wouldn't break the game if a timur's lash fired like an ace of spades.

A fire rate buff isn't in order, but a slight impact buff would balance it nicely. It really should be a 2 shot kill.

No it should not that would break it. For people like me who use that weapon and drop 20-30 kills a match that would be child's play.

We already have 2 shot kill handcannons. Last word and hawkmoon. The water star is a 3 shot kill at short ranges and there's about a billion fatebringer class handcannons that get 3 shot kill at mid range. The Hakke Gaheris-D also has the same target acquisition with better ttk. It's extra range and stability are great, but it's nothing more than a glorified scout rifle. If you want a mid long range 3 shot kill, there are much better weapons. It just seems incredibly redundant.

That argument is irrelevant. The weapons you listed can 2 shot if certain prerequisites are met, none of them can reliably do it. You can't predict when hawk moon will two shot and if you are two shot killing with last word then you are either lucky or have practiced hard and have steady hip fire accuracy. The water star can kill in 3 shots yes but 2 of them have to be headshots. All hand cannons can kill in 3 shots. Making a hand cannon that can predictably kill in two shots is not only an invitation for everyone pvp player to start using the same weapon but it's a blatant game breaking change. First curse may be underpowered right now but that is absolutely no excuse for regressing back to a two shot/burst kill meta. I personally love that gun, it's my favorite gun in this game alongside necrochasm, but in terms of balance the perks need to be looked at instead of lazily making it a 2 shot kill. Not to mention you named no 91 impact class hand cannons. The fatebringer and water star archetypes are not the same as first curse. I've gone and repeatedly dropped back to back 30+ kill games with first curse and a fusion rifle. It's all a matter of playstyle but I still think the gun needs a perk adjustment.

Hawkmoon has a 42% chance of being a 2 shot kill. The first curse is currently capable of a 2 shot kill if the other guy isn't spec'd for armor. Hardly seems gimmicky or irrelevant.

It's irrelevant because 42% isn't 100%. If first curse killed in two headshots 100% of the time are you actually going to sit there and say that isn't ridiculously overpowered? You can't count on hawkmoon to reliably 2 shot because reliably is 100%. First curse currently has the potential to lay waste to an entire 6 man team without you manually reloading under the right circumstances. This is exactly why the crucible is a mess. You can't just give weapons bonus damage. Look at thorn, the last word, hawkmoon, and the second iteration of red death. All of them received free bonus damage by way of a perk or aggressive ballistics and this made them best in class. The only way to balance bonus damage is by making you earn it by meeting certain requirements. That's why perks like crowd control and reactive reload are balanced and why luck in the chamber and final round weren't. They gave you free bonus damage as opposed to earning it by getting a kill. With a name like first curse and with its specific flavor text I think a perfect perk adjustment would be each precision kill with this weapon refresh the first curse perk and refill the magazine. The gun is already the greatest hand cannon in the game for dps and uptime in pve but this change would give people a reason to use it. A hard hitting marksman hand cannon that never runs out of ammo as long as your aim is precise. You can say it's underpowered in pvp but it's fine, have you ever thought that it's not meant for pvp in the first place?