In the upcoming 2.0 update, Bungie will be making some big and sweeping changes to the main damaging component in Destiny, the weapons. These changes will affect how you play cooperatively and in PvP, as well as change some of the most powerful weapons in the game including everybody’s favorite rocket launcher, Gjallarhorn.
In what Bungie is calling a weapon’s rebalancing, the company is taking a long, hard look at each of the weapons inside Destiny and making some weapon choices more viable while nerfing some of the bigger-perks carrying exotics. The first change will be to auto rifles. Bungie feels, as they put it, that “Auto Rifles needed to be reevaluated from the 1.1.1 update.” The company will be boosting the initial base damage auto rifles have but will add a quicker fall off.
Other weapons will also be getting retuned so to speak, but the bigger news is in the fact some exotics will be getting some much needed attention, including Hard Light, Nechrochasm and No Land Beyond. For example, Hard Light is getting a stability increase (up from 65 to 80), an increased bounce count for Hard Light projectiles and those same projectiles will not be affected by damage falloff.
This is where some of you will shout out in anger, but, some of Destiny‘s hard-to-obtain weapons are getting nerfed as well. Gjallarhorn, Ice Breaker and Thorn fall under this nerfing. Icebreaker’s ammo recharge has long been sought after by PvE and PvP players alike and Bungie knows this. So while the company isn’t taking away that perk, it’s increasing the recharge rate from 1 bullet per 5 seconds to 1 bullet per 8 seconds. This will apparently be done to build a bit of tension while playing, at least according to game designer Jon Weisnewski.
“We don’t want to completely destroy that, because a really great thing happens when all of a sudden you need Ice Breaker and you’re still waiting on that next round to show up,” he said. “In that moment there is an interesting tension at play; you need to think about how you spend your next few seconds while it recharges.”
As far as Thorn is concerned, besides taking into account the hand-cannon tweaks, users will find that the DoT (damage over time) Mark of the Devourer to pack less of a lethal punch; a decision that many who have been on the receiving end of Thorn will find to be a happy change.
Now comes the big one. Gjallarhorn, one of the most sought after weapons in the game, will be taking a hit as well. Weisnewski spoke of how not having the weapon caused other players to avoid running raid or nightfall strikes with these Gjallarhorn-lacking players.
“What we did not intend, and what we unfortunately saw, was pick up Raid and Nightfall groups gating participation based on whether or not players had this weapon,” he said in the blog post. “Gjallarhorn was so strong that for many people it had become the only answer to getting through tough encounters, and therefore they were less willing to spend time with other players that didn’t have it.”
As such, Gjallarhorn’s Wolfpack Rounds perk, tracking cluster missles that spawn upon rocket detonation, will be seeing a damage reduction of an unspecified amount.
The company is also nerfing the base weapon stats of weapons as to avoid “PVP lethality across all weapons [getting] exaggerated due to high performance guns that don’t have any flaws or quirks” and when players collect and grow weapons over time, the feeling that all the weapons start to feel like the same gun.
While I welcome the idea that Bungie is trying to create opportunities for weapon load-outs that don’t require Gjallarhorn, I know a number of players who won’t be happy with the move. Where do you sit on this update and nerfing? Let us know in the comments below or on any of our social media accounts.
[button type=”link” link=”https://www.bungie.net/en/News/News?aid=13147″ variation=”btn-danger” target=”blank”]Source: Bungie[/button]Last Updated on November 27, 2018.
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