Post by CaptainSlayer on Jul 17, 2015 7:37:44 GMT -5
If you continue to lament the random number generator’s stubbornness about giving you a Gjallarhorn, Bungie is going to puts some salve on that burn. Destiny’s best weapons are going to be rebalanced come this fall.
Bungie’s sandbox designer Jon Weisnewski says that the team has noticed an unfortunate side effect of Gjallarhorn’s strength. Some teams are using possession of it as a pass/fail for allowing people to join raids and nightfall strikes.
“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,” Weisnewski writes. “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.”
It’s not the only exotic that is getting some heavy tweaks in the 2.0 update. Thorn, the bane (or blessing) of many a Crucible player will see its damage-over-time reduced. Icebreaker, the go-to exotic for strikes, is also getting hit with a nerf bat.
In fact, many of the standby exotics are getting tuned down a bit. Some, like the comedic No Land Beyond, will be getting dialed up to make them more useful. Here’s the full list:
Black Hammer
Increase ammo inventory to 18 rounds
White Nail perk now pulls ammo from your inventory
Gjallarhorn
Reduce damage of Wolfpack Rounds
Hard Light
Increase base Stability to 80 (was 65)
Increase bounce count for Hard Light projectiles
Hard Light projectiles are not affected by damage falloff
Hawkmoon
Add a stack limit to Luck in the Chamber and Holding Aces so that only 2 of the bonus perks will ever stack on one round. This should prevent Hawkmoon from 1-hit killing full health players in PVP
Add 2 rounds to Hawkmoon’s magazine when Holding Aces is unlocked
Luck in the Chamber damage bonus reduced by 3 percent
Icebreaker
Increase recharge time for Ice Breaker rounds to 1 every 8 seconds. Was 1 round every 5 seconds
The Last Word
Reduce Range stat to 10 (was 20), reduce Stability to 20 (was 30).
Reduce effective range while in ADS.
Increase accuracy and precision damage aim assist scale when firing from the hip. “Get three coffins ready.”
Fixed bugs with Hipfire damage bonus applying incorrectly
Necrochasm
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
No Land Beyond
Increase weapon handling speed for faster time to aim, ready, and stow
Adjust sights to fix overlap/parallax issue while aimed
Increase time decay of The Master to 8 seconds
Add an additional 20% Precision Damage bonus while The Master is active
Thorn
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
Weapon types are also getting tuned up for the 2.0 patch. Here’s what to expect:
Auto Rifles
Increased base damage
Damage falloff starts closer to the player
Minor reduction in base stability
Damage boost of 10 percent in PvE
Pulse Rifles
Reduced base damage for medium rate of fire weapons by 2.5 percent
Minor reduction in base stability
Increased magazine size
Scout Rifles
Increased base damage for medium and high rate of fire guns
Increased magazine size
Firing from the hip will be less accurate
Damage boost of 5 percent in PvE
Hand Cannons
Damage falloff starts closer to the player
Minor reduction in accuracy while aiming down sights to limit snap-shot reliability at long range
Firing from the hip will be less accurate
Reduced magazine size
Reduce zoom so that aiming down sights favors width over depth
Shotguns
Perks that increase lethality at range will be less effective when weapon already has high range stat
Reduced Shot Package accuracy buff by 30 percent
Rangefinder adds a 5 percent base range increase on ADS (was 20 percent)
Precision damage multiplier reduced by 10 percent
PvE damage reduced 10 percent
Fusion Rifles
Slow charging, high impact guns have decreased range
Projectile speed slightly reduced to force players to lead targets beyond medium range
Improved accuracy at short range
Reduced accuracy at long range
Sniper Rifles
The perk Final Round will only affect precision damage
Rocket Launchers
Minor increase to blast radius
The perk “grenades and horseshoes” to have reduced proximity detonation
Finally, while there will be some reduction to stat perk benefits on year one weapons, big changes are coming to The Taken King. Weapons will feature a stat perk upgrade column.
This introduces the concept of weapon specialization and trade-offs to customizing your weapon. Because these are upgrade nodes, you can tweak them at any time (provided you’ve unlocked that part of the grid), but you’ll see decreases in some areas while others are buffed by perks.
You can read the extensive blog post about upcoming weapon changes on Bungie’s website.
Bungie’s sandbox designer Jon Weisnewski says that the team has noticed an unfortunate side effect of Gjallarhorn’s strength. Some teams are using possession of it as a pass/fail for allowing people to join raids and nightfall strikes.
“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,” Weisnewski writes. “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.”
It’s not the only exotic that is getting some heavy tweaks in the 2.0 update. Thorn, the bane (or blessing) of many a Crucible player will see its damage-over-time reduced. Icebreaker, the go-to exotic for strikes, is also getting hit with a nerf bat.
In fact, many of the standby exotics are getting tuned down a bit. Some, like the comedic No Land Beyond, will be getting dialed up to make them more useful. Here’s the full list:
Black Hammer
Increase ammo inventory to 18 rounds
White Nail perk now pulls ammo from your inventory
Gjallarhorn
Reduce damage of Wolfpack Rounds
Hard Light
Increase base Stability to 80 (was 65)
Increase bounce count for Hard Light projectiles
Hard Light projectiles are not affected by damage falloff
Hawkmoon
Add a stack limit to Luck in the Chamber and Holding Aces so that only 2 of the bonus perks will ever stack on one round. This should prevent Hawkmoon from 1-hit killing full health players in PVP
Add 2 rounds to Hawkmoon’s magazine when Holding Aces is unlocked
Luck in the Chamber damage bonus reduced by 3 percent
Icebreaker
Increase recharge time for Ice Breaker rounds to 1 every 8 seconds. Was 1 round every 5 seconds
The Last Word
Reduce Range stat to 10 (was 20), reduce Stability to 20 (was 30).
Reduce effective range while in ADS.
Increase accuracy and precision damage aim assist scale when firing from the hip. “Get three coffins ready.”
Fixed bugs with Hipfire damage bonus applying incorrectly
Necrochasm
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
No Land Beyond
Increase weapon handling speed for faster time to aim, ready, and stow
Adjust sights to fix overlap/parallax issue while aimed
Increase time decay of The Master to 8 seconds
Add an additional 20% Precision Damage bonus while The Master is active
Thorn
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
Weapon types are also getting tuned up for the 2.0 patch. Here’s what to expect:
Auto Rifles
Increased base damage
Damage falloff starts closer to the player
Minor reduction in base stability
Damage boost of 10 percent in PvE
Pulse Rifles
Reduced base damage for medium rate of fire weapons by 2.5 percent
Minor reduction in base stability
Increased magazine size
Scout Rifles
Increased base damage for medium and high rate of fire guns
Increased magazine size
Firing from the hip will be less accurate
Damage boost of 5 percent in PvE
Hand Cannons
Damage falloff starts closer to the player
Minor reduction in accuracy while aiming down sights to limit snap-shot reliability at long range
Firing from the hip will be less accurate
Reduced magazine size
Reduce zoom so that aiming down sights favors width over depth
Shotguns
Perks that increase lethality at range will be less effective when weapon already has high range stat
Reduced Shot Package accuracy buff by 30 percent
Rangefinder adds a 5 percent base range increase on ADS (was 20 percent)
Precision damage multiplier reduced by 10 percent
PvE damage reduced 10 percent
Fusion Rifles
Slow charging, high impact guns have decreased range
Projectile speed slightly reduced to force players to lead targets beyond medium range
Improved accuracy at short range
Reduced accuracy at long range
Sniper Rifles
The perk Final Round will only affect precision damage
Rocket Launchers
Minor increase to blast radius
The perk “grenades and horseshoes” to have reduced proximity detonation
Finally, while there will be some reduction to stat perk benefits on year one weapons, big changes are coming to The Taken King. Weapons will feature a stat perk upgrade column.
This introduces the concept of weapon specialization and trade-offs to customizing your weapon. Because these are upgrade nodes, you can tweak them at any time (provided you’ve unlocked that part of the grid), but you’ll see decreases in some areas while others are buffed by perks.
You can read the extensive blog post about upcoming weapon changes on Bungie’s website.
[source: www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/07/17/the-king-of-destiny-exotics-gets-taken-down-a-few-notches-this-fall.aspx]
