I love that word ‘ Nerfed’ but for Destiny players looking to rain glorious victory down upon their enemies with Thorn by their side or a pack of wild Gjallarhorns wiping out everything in their path with wolf pack rounds, well it looks like those highly sort after exotic weapons will be getting some what downgraded powerwise.
All this coming before the Destiny 2.0 launch that starts with ‘The Taken King’ on September 15th.
In a blog post posted to Bungie.net by Sandbox Designer Jon Weisnewski, titled ‘Destiny Weapon Tuning 2.0’ he goes on to say:
” Hello everyone!
This update has been a long time coming, but I’m very happy to be here again to talk about some pending weapon changes. This time around, we’re hitting a lot of stuff so I hope you’re wearing your reading pants.
First and foremost, I want to personally acknowledge the community for their resounding feedback on a variety of the items that we plan on addressing here. At times, we looked into rolling out one or two of these changes in advance of the 2.0.0 update; addressing Shotgun perks when Felwinter’s Lie became popular, addressing Thorn when it became the popular choice for Trials of Osiris. We heard your voices and we felt your pain, but plucking a few meatballs out of this massive plate of spaghetti proved to be very risky. These changes are all very dependent upon each other to be successful, and after careful consideration we decided the best road ahead was to present them all together as a full update.”
It seems to me that when people cotton on to a certain weapon it becomes the popular choice by higher level players that stick exclusively with these load outs to rain terror on the crowd, some fire teams go as far as only allowing new players to join if they have certain exotics regardless of their gameplay quality or skill.
Now I’m a funny one when it comes to Destiny, I played it religiously when it first released but none of my friends have the game on PS4 so after many hours pumped into team strikes with random people and many a crucible battle under my belt I’ve fallen on hard times to progress any further.
A mere level 30 titan, I still boast an exotic helmet named an insurmountable skullfort my nearly fully upgraded Ice Breaker that silences crowds from a far, 65 hours clocked and 9297 kills do date, but as it goes now I just die.
So I’m all on board for levelling the fairness a bit making it easier for newer players joining or existing players that casually jump in and out like me.
Some of the details i’ll post below and for the full list of changes be sure to check the link posted at the top of the page cause it could drag on a bit with certain details that might go straight over your head like they do mine but a lot have changes have been brought to all base weapons in the game, ill focus on a few of the exotic weapons and the changes they’ve undergone.
“Necrochasm
We’ve heard (and share) the resounding feedback for Necrochasm. Not only has this weapon been considered a weak reward for the monumental effort it takes to acquire it, the base archetype (high Rate of Fire Auto Rifle) happened to be tuned down with 1.1.1 at almost the exact same time it became available. The following changes combined with the Auto Rifle base changes have made a positive impact in internal playtests. I personally shrieked with joy when I got my first ever double kill in Skirmish from the Cursebringer explosion.
Changes:
- Increase base Stability to 60 (was 40)
- Increase magazine size
- Cursebringer perk will always trigger on a precision kill
- Cursebringer explosion has increased radius and deals more damage”
One popular weapon that seems to have been downgraded from the go making it more of a slot filler than an essential item on a fire team, hopefully now things will change, I like the sound of Cursebringer’s explosion radius dealing more damage.
“Thorn
Thorn has had an interesting journey. It started as a weapon that was perceived as an unworthy reward for one of the most contentious exotic bounties in the game, and has slowly dug its way into players’ flesh as one of the most popular exotics among the Destiny population.
We want to preserve the functionality that makes Thorn such a compelling weapon, but its effective range and lethality are one of the most hotly contended items by the PVP player base. The base changes to Hand Cannons and weapon stats address Thorn’s range.
Changes:
- Reduce base damage of Thorn’s Mark of the Devourer DoT (Damage over Time) to roughly 1/3 of what it was in PVP and PVE
- Allow DoT to stack up to 5x across multiple landed projectiles
This is a net buff for Thorn’s DoT, but reduces the lethality of the weapon in PVP”
1/3 of the damage over time gone, uh oh Thorn fans, what will that mean?
Its all speculation at this point until people get a hands on but I’m sure if the community speaks Bungie will listen and give a response, after all thats what they’re doing now isn’t it? Responding to complaints and acting accordingly.
“Ice Breaker
We’ve all done it. Hunker down in the back of the map with your lunch box, picnic table, a sci-fi paperback, and Ice Breaker. Kill all the enemies, wait for more to show up, kill those ones too, put a few shots on the boss, make a sandwich, finish the strike, and then collect your reward-that-isn’t-Hawkmoon and move on. The recharging ammo of Ice Breaker has become a staple for the PvE game. 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. 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. We are going to amplify that tension by increasing the recharge duration by a few seconds.
Changes:
- Increase recharge time for Ice Breaker rounds to 1 every 8 seconds. Was 1 round every 5 seconds”
This one affects me directly as I love this weapon, not that I’m a distance player at all, I sprint around like a headless chicken with a shotgun trying to melee attack victims before they realise I’m there, I like the points for catching objectives and defending over my K/D ratio, once it mattered, but if you play the game properly you tend to find you’ll always end on a positive with more points.
Viva la Icebreaker as the heavy artillery, see a guy trying to sneak in whilst getting those last catch points and the shotgun can’t do a thing? Take his face clean off and go back to your job as a Guardian.
“Gjallarhorn
If Destiny had a nuke it would be the “Ballerhorn.” We definitely intended to have a high damage Heavy Weapon that was ideal for PvE destruction. 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. 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.
We strive for Destiny to be a place where a single weapon or strategy does not dictate how, or with whom, you spend your time. In the new world Gjallarhorn is still worthy of its legacy as an exotic Heavy Weapon, but we hope it promotes inclusive behavior rather than exclusivity.
Changes
- Reduce damage of Wolfpack Rounds”
Oh holy Gjallarhorn will you still be so sort after? Probably.
They touch a lot more details about reducing base stats of certain load outs but end by saying:
“This covers most of the weapon changes that address what you currently know about the game. We still have some surprises and twists we don’t want to spoil that you’ll get to experience when The Taken King is released. We play tested these changes every day, multiple times a day, in all activities, using all kinds of weapons. We feel pretty good about them.
However, the total amount of time we as a studio can spend on a given build of Destiny is a shred of a fraction compared to the first hour this update hits all of you. As always we are excited (and slightly terrified, to be honest) to see what comes of this update in your hands. We are reading forums, watching streams, listening to podcasts, at all times devouring your impressions in an effort to make this game better. We’re even reading the comments (shudder). Heck, some of us might even be the random Guardian in your pick-up Fireteam.”
So hopefully this informs some of the NerdStash crew into the coming Destiny updates and what changes the game are going through and like I said be sure to check out the complete blog on Bungie.net as it makes for a great read if your intrigued by the finer details about how the game performs.
Feel free to add me on PSN: FI5H5TICK5_AGAIN and lets raid and play, I’ve never played a raid as of yet so I’m looking to break the level 30 barrier I’m stuck at.
Happy Sunday Nerds!
Caleb
