I've already had this on the back of my head ever since the M9 was introduced, and after playing quite a few pistol games in the past days, I must report that the M9 blows all other semi-auto handguns out of the water.
All other handguns have either one or more of the following:
- Small magazine
- High recoil
- Low fire rate
OTOH the M9 has a decently large mag (outlasts all high-caliber handguns, Luger and TACOPS/1911), does decent damage (outguns Px4), has virtually no recoil (making followup shots much easier), is incredibly spammy (outspams everyone else except Px4 and Luger), plus laser hipfire accuracy (on the same level as TACOPS/1911)
All of these combined makes it the weapon of choice for pistol mode, and boy is it ever. In my experience around 70% of the players use the M9. In practice, the gun basically fires in full-auto if you spam fast enough
Attachments somewhat closes the gap between the M9 and the others, but not by much. The closest I can think of are both the P30 and Px4 with extended mags, but the M9 still outperforms them in other aspects
My ideas for nerfing are the following:
- Increase hipfire spread (up to P30's level)
- Reduce damage (something like 32 up close and 20 at range)
- Reduce fire rate (down to TACOPS/M1911's level)
You can combine either two of the three options, but all three at once might be overdoing it
After nerfing, perhaps we can give it an actual extended mag (+3 rounds) instead of extra reserve ammo
The other option will be buffing the other handguns to better compete with the M9, although this would take much more effort and I haven't come up with any ideas yet