650+ hrs player here.
Personally I don't think anything should be nerfed, we do however need a lot of buffs. But we do need to keep in mind how any balance changes would affect the main campaign as much as the DLC.
Firstly, the combat shotgun desperately needs buffs. I would be more than happy with a range buff once the tier 3 upgrade is purchased, and I think the explosion upgrade needs to be much bigger and stronger, and ignite the enemies affected by it. It has such little utility that it's actually a useless upgrade. A damage buff would be appreciated as well for the tier 4 upgrade.
The pulverizer is niche but is easily outclassed by most of the arsenal. The speed buff I heard will have its duration increased but I think that doesn't completely solve the issue, I think it should also build the boost faster. The flail pairs great with it because of how fast it charges the gun compared to the other melees, but that's also what makes it situationally weak, so I think the other melees should grant more charge than they currently do. Likewise I think enemy kills should charge the pulverizer more, especially heavy enemies. And finally, shield bash and spear slash executions currently DONT charge the pulverizer... like why??? Dropping armor could also be an interesting option, currently the tier 3 upgrade doesn't really do anything for its DPS so I think it either needs more utility or just more oomph.
The cycler is controversial but when the world's best TDA speedrunner is insisting that it sucks, you better believe it. The damage just isn't competitive and for some reason, it doesn't charge during spear orbit, which is odd. It's synergy with gauntlet and heaven splitter is something people like to bring up but this is not providing more DPS than just switching to SSG. The chain faltering is neat but seldom actually useful as opposed to just using your melee+SSG or accelerator to accomplish the same thing only better. Its only real advantage is the range which the majority of the arsenal severely lacks. I think buffing the damage at full charge could go a long way, and making the shock spread more reliable because sometimes it just doesn't work or doesn't prioritize the right enemies to spread to.
The Impaler is not great. It does well in the campaign in early levels and bc of how cheap it is, but it falls short in mid-late levels when you have more options available, and headshots make or break its reliability. And it's honestly almost useless once you have the spear, except against Marok. I think that chrono strike could really use a buff, maybe make it break through wall projectiles like the spear throw? And also dashing hell surge projectiles doesn't grant salvo empowerment, which really should change.
The Grenade Launcher is fine and I'm not really sure it needs buffs, but it's not really competitive as an option because of how inconsistent it can be. Maybe a very slight increase in RoF could go a long way.
The Ravager needs its movement nerf from the DLC patch removed. It's not doing anything in the DLC since the spear still nullifies any movement debuffs, and it's only hindering its utility in the base campaign where it's already not a great weapon due to the shields lack of mobility compared to the spear. The Ravager likewise is a very dedicated option bc of how long it takes to charge (assuming you're using slow burn, which is the only upgrade that warrants any discussion), and contrary to popular opinion, it's really not doing much more DPS than SSG or Accelerator. It's highly situational and again, its slow buildup requires some dedication before it becomes actually useful. So yes, it needs a buff, but only for the latest movement nerf to be removed. Any other nerfs to it would make it more useless than the pulverizer.
Now for the runes, there's only 2 that are really going to pull any results anymore, which are fissure and holy swarm. I think fissure is technically capable of dealing the most damage since it's basically a wide shotgun blast that falters, meaning if you activate it against a super heavy right in front of you then it'll do more damage than nearly anything else in the game. It's also great vs armor, it has a steep range drop off though and I think it should reward more armor than it does. Holy swarm is similar in that results close range are much better, and it's also great vs armor, but you'll usually get some insane damage off even at mid range. It can be somewhat inconsistent though, but I think it's in a good place. The turret (which was meant to be in C tier, my bad) is awful and really needs to be touched up. The range isn't great so for starters it should have at least 2x range, and it'd be nice if it would auto-aim at the nearest enemy if none are in front of you. The damage I think is fine enough, but the health drop upgrade is so terrible it's genuinely laughable. It needs to drop at least 5x as much health as it currently does, at nightmare sliders it only drops 6 health (like wtf???), and maybe drop armor too? Heaven splitter I think got too heavy of a nerf but it did need a nerf from before, just not as big as it got, so I'd say meet it in the middle of where it currently is.
Other than that, I think everything else is in a pretty good spot. The flail and gauntlet are very situational as opposed to the mace but I'm not really sure how you could change them to be better without overtuning their balance in the base campaign.
Thoughts?