Bungie has learned long that if the content doesn’t drop in the top five, the next best thing is an extremely fat balance patch. As soon as the new major expansion of Destiny 2, The Witch Queen, is going to go on the road until February 2022, but players will have the celebratory 30th anniversary pack to reduce the lengths of this extended season. The pack launches on 7 December. It brings back a bunch of nostalgically-inspired gear and a new dungeon activity that will reward Gjallarhorn, the infamous exotic rocket launcher. Bungie announced today that a slew of nerfs and buffs will be coming into the combat sandbox as part of a large balance patch. We’re starting with a few items aimed at all of the weapon archetypes before we get into that kind of thing.
The slug shotguns have reduced their PvE damage benefit from 30% to 20%, that won’t surprise anyone who has used the double-slug boss. Their unloved sheep are getting a boost of 10%. Linear Fusion Rifles get a 10% pvE buff to all damage, which seems nuts, given they’re already strong in the meta, but this changes are intended to shore up performance immediately after the Particle Deconstruction mod goes out next season. Caster Swords will pay 5 to 8 ammo for heavy attacks. This is long overdue and I suspect they will make him quite strong. Don’t sleep with the chain reaction earplug on Sola’s Scar. Bows are gaining ten times more damage against rank and file enemies (no red bars), which again feels disturbing given the amount of harm they get in Grandmaster content, but I don’t complain.
So we get into the appetizers. We’re going to change our tactics. In the end, 14 weapons are being attacked, mostly under the direction of buffs to underperformers, though some weapons are being brought down. Let’s begin with an arsenal many players still hunting for.
Vex Mythoclast
Reduced Aim Assist by 25 percent. Reduced the Linear Fusion Rifle mode Aim Assist Cone denominator from 1.1 to 1.05. Now requires three PvP kills to activate full Overcharge instead of two.
Reaction: Bungie admits it overcorrected when he buffed Vex, and these seem reasonable changes aimed at modifying its power in PvP without reducing the gun power in PvE. Certainly, with the right armor and mods (which scream “Stop Fire,” like “Patter of Stakers” and the Font of Mighty), Vex will still be strong as hell. If you want to go drop it.
Fighting Lion
The Thin The Herd buffs if you treat any damage. Increased the buff to reload stat from 50 to 70. You made seven drops.
Reaction: Bungie sought to avoid the fight of Lion being “extraordinarily oppressive” when the recent switch to re-infinite primary ammo changed, and now seems confident that it might remain niche but viable. Theoretically it’s all good news for the denizens of r/FightingLion, the gun’s dedicated subreddit, though the users still seem very excited about the PvE blast radius.
Arbalest
This has anti-stack-infrastructured approach.
Reaction: This sounds hard to understand and can impact the endgame PvE content. As well as the fact that Linear Fusion Rifles are already meta thanks to Particle Deconstruction, the ability to stun Barrier Champions from the distance is enormous, as Eriana proved. This buff is a perfect shield-breaker, as well as its potential flavour.
Sleeper Simulant
The increasing magazine size from 3 to 4, increased the PvE damage by 6%.
Reaction: Issoon! I like linear fusion for this time. Sleeper is already good, but these changes will lead to greatness, especially as the Bungie insists, you will benefit from the total reduction in LFR to 10 %. Sleeper will give the one thousand Voices a tough choice for the exotic heavy weapon of choice.
Suros Regime
Dual mode Receiver gives the following, including its current effects: +30 point, +3 zoom & go on to the second.
Reaction: I had hoped for more for a well-known auto rifle. This essentially fixes the fact that one of its firing modes was almost strictly worse than the other. I think I’d rather see the enhancement to the Regime’s healing effect. Oh well, here is a hive.
Cryosthesia 77K.
Removed the variable degnator completely. Now goes off after trigger and nullly press on triggers instead of release. Charged Shot moved to a special reload spot. The extra charge dreadfully brings on the sidearm that allows to take off the special reload. Once the Charged Shot is fired, the weapon’s back to standard Sidearm mode. It doesn’t cost your entire magazine. Charged Shot then causes a S/O, which freezes AI and slows players (direct hits still freeze)
Reaction: It’s a huge problem with buffs for a sidearm. Bungie admits it shipped neutered because it was scared of how angry players were about the cold effect of Stasis in PvP. With the problem getting much discussed, this looks like a substantial rework, that won’t let Cryo outperform an area with a headstone, at least. I can see that being pretty good if you don’t get over the intrinsic dislike of sidearms.
Malfeasance
The increase in explosion damage by 50 %.
Reaction: Larger booms are always better. This handcannon has been on the cusp for years since it’s very useful in wearing Lucky Pants on Hunter, and if we don’t know, bigger explosions will amplify it. I’d like a catalysant, so that it can do nothing but a gram of light.
Leviathan’s brace has a very heavy heart.
The catalyst grants the Archer’s Tempo perk over its other effects.
Reaction: It’s understandable that drawing the only heavy bow in the game was somewhat sluggish, but this bastard was really really looking like you were trying to pull back a tectonic plate. Archer’s Tempo will help, but if that doesn’t suffice, we’ll have to see the DPS kings.
I would like the fire of the enemy!
Reduced delay on activating Whispered Breathing from the catalyst to 2,1s. White Nail refill has changed. Was three from the inventory, but now does 2 from the inventory and 1 from the thin air. 10 percent increase in PvE damage.
Reaction: Whisper has been one of Destiny’s most nerfed and buffed guns, but these changes tend to get some light out of the DPS conversation with the reverberant. Improved damage, minimized abrasion, and improved reliability are exactly what the heavy sniper needs to compete. Why is the king back? It really could be.
D.A.R.C.I.
Recollection and accuracy reduction by 50% while the staff is working on an assistant. The assistant has a ‘Sure’ delay before deactivating when off target (was instant). Increase your damage in cvE by 20 percent.
Reaction: The other exotic heavy sniper is even better used than Whisper, and like its sister it’s getting a large variety of buffs. Particularly notable is the damage boost, which I have to assume has been calibrated so that D.A.R.C.I.’s legitimately viable. There’s a lot to think of from the type of people we are facing next season, so we need to try and re-think the situation.
Deadman is a story of dead people.
Steering distance of reticle friction is common with mouse and keyboard. Humans (non-respiratory effect) Improved accuracy (reduced effect on both the mouse and the keyboard)
Reaction: Bungie notes that these changes are meant to improve the controller experience, which seen a vertiginous drop-off after the previous nerf. Despite this, M+K isn’t very unhappy, and it’s somewhat surprising to see one of the best primaries in the competition getting better. I recommend placing down a roll with Prepal Weapon before the Presage mission goes out next season, to make sure that perk is being buffed for a 0 % damage in primary schools.
Heir Apparent
During the experiment, players increased resistance from 75 to 25 percent.
Reaction: I mean yes, hey, yes, no. Then it appears to be a change. I’m somewhat upset that what Bungie calls a date error has gone unresolved so long, but it is evident that this is partly why Heir Apparent users were, essentially, unkillable in PvP after picking up power ammo.
Lorentz Driver
Removed strength energy regeneration with a telemetry.
Reaction: Lorentz, even without the bonus energy, was in general like a cherry, otherwise not as delicious as an already explosive cake. I think many vP mains would expect a more substantial nerf, but for my honest, they’re glad they have been ignored.
Travelers Chosen
Now grants 10 % ability energy per stack on activation (was previously more generous on low stacks, less generous on high stacks, the average cost of 10 cpl is unchanged) The reduced stacks given on a Guardian defeat dropped from three to two.
Reaction: A couple of little, but especially unexpected nerfs for the small sidearm that could be, a maying. I hope that the change to the stacks scale doesn’t make it much less difficult in PvE, since I have a very nice spot for Traveler’s in ability to generate a spampage. Phew. There are a lot of things to unpack here, and in the future, a lot of new builds that should be tested after the patch goes live, which is what I’ve actually requested. Juicing things further, there are a few changes to general weapon perks, which we call desert: The game, in order to defend and retain the rights of the olympic.
Adrenaline Junkie: Will now work as Swashbuckler, and its melee equivalent; weapons kills are going to stand the perk up to 5x, but a grenade kill will grant the full 5x instantly. The amount of the perk has been lower to compensate. Vorpal Weapon: The damage buff granted depends on the type of ammo your weapon uses to prevent it from becoming a power weapon. Primary = 20 %. Special = 15 %. Power: 10 %. The blade will be hardened to take three thousand pounds to achieve max damage instead of five. Pulse Monitor: Now activates if you’re at 30% protection (at least 90 percent in advance)ie it’ll take substantially less damage to catch the perk.
That’s your job. In the same post on Bungie’s blog, you can redeem the badge for the ‘Be True’ emblem, which was created to support Transgender Awareness Week. The code is ML3-FD4-ND9 and can now be redeemed here.
