Time for something new and improved...
What's changed in Destiny's 2.0.0 re-balance? Rather a lot, actually. A hell of a lot, in fact. But these are the big 10 adjustments you should be aware of first.
Auto rifles
Increased base damage.
Damage falloff starts closer to the player to emphasize the AR's role as a close to medium-range weapon.
Small reduction in base stability. Landing shots at optimal range is unaffected, but repeated precision hits require more weapon control to land consistently.
Boost damage by 10% against AI combatants.
Hand cannons
Damage falloff starts closer to the player to limit long range lethality.
Small reduction in ADS accuracy, targeted at making long range snap-shooting less reliable.
Reduction in final accuracy when firing from hip. Fast firing from hip is less reliable.
Reduction in magazine size for all base inventory stats.
Reduction in base Optics (zoom) for all Hand Cannons. ADS now grants more width in favor of depth.
Scout rifles
Increased base damage for medium to high rate of fire scout rifles. Does not affect time-to-kill in PvP on a Guardian with full health.
Increased magazine size for all base inventory stats.
Reduced Final Accuracy when firing from hip. Fast firing outside of ADS will be less accurate.
Damage bosted by 5% against AI combatants.
Shotguns
Shotgun perks that enhance lethality at range should be less effective when combined with a high initial Range stat. Shot Package accuracy buff decreased by 30%. Rangefinder adds a 5% base Range increase on ADS (was 20%).
Reduced Precision Damage multiplier on Shotguns by 10%.
Reduced damage against AI combatants by 10%.
Gjallarhorn
Damage of Wolfpack rounds reduced. Intent is to reduce Gjallarhorn's status as 'the one true weapon', and thusly avoid situations in which Raid parties will not entertain players without it. Which is nice.
The Last Word
Range stat reduced to 10 (was 20), Stability reduced to 20 (was 30).
Reduced effective range while in ADS.
Increased accuracy and precision damage aim assist scale when firing from the hip.
Fixed bugs with Hipfire damage bonus applying incorrectly.
Thorn
Reduced base damage of Thorns Mark of the Devourer DoT (Damage over Time) to roughly 1/3 of what it was in PVP and PVE.
DoT can now stack up to 5x across multiple landed projectiles.
This is a net buff for Thorns DoT, but reduces the lethality of the weapon in PVP.
Ice Breaker
Recharge time for Ice Breaker's self-replenishing rounds increased to 1 every 8 seconds. Was previously 1 round every 5 seconds. The intent here is to add extra tension to those moments when Ice Breaker will utterly destroy the problem in front of you, but you're still waiting for that one.. bullet... to reload...
Hawkmoon
Added 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 Hawkmoons magazine when Holding Aces is unlocked.
Luck in the Chamber damage bonus reduced by 3%.
Necrochasm
Base Stability increased to 60 (was 40).
Magazine size increased.
Cursebringer perk will always trigger on a precision kill.
Cursebringer explosion has increased radius and deals more damage.
In other words, Necrochasm isn't the total, blistering disappointment it used to be. Hooray!
Balancing Destiny’s weapon roster is a lot like patching up a punctured bouncy castle, while standing on said fully inflated dirigible fortress, and wearing track spikes while you do so. Every time you take a step forward to repair or improve something, you’ll turn around to find something else busted up directly behind you. Alongside, no doubt, an unhappy child and a long, deathly ‘prhprhrphrhrrp’ noise. That’s just the nature of a massive, malleable shooter with eight billion guns (give or take), a ton of stat variants, and a huge PvP element. And when you have the same weapons and gear shared across a rich suite of vs. and co-op modes? Egad. Egad indeed.
The best approach to dealing with that unwieldy, inconsistently buoyant beast? Every so often you’re going to have to take the whole thing down, submerge it in a bowl of water (you have very large bowls), see where the bubbles come out, and deal with them all in one fell swoop.
Today is one of those days. With update version 2.0.0, Bungie has dropped a major, across-the-board rework of its weapon balancing, making notable changes to basically everything. Every class of gun has had fundamental changes made, and for the first time we have a raft of tweaks addressing specific, popular, but rather problematic Exotics. Thorn and Gjallarhorn, your great reckoning is finally at hand.
The broad overview? Auto rifles have been pitched yet further into the medium-range comfort zone, shotguns have had a reduction in the effectiveness of their range-boosting perks, scout rifles are now resolutely long-range weapons, and hand cannons are no longer pocket snipers. And you’re going to have to work a bit harder to get the best out of snipers and fusion rifles too. So hurrah.
In all, it sounds like a very sensible, well thought out, and long-needed set of changes that is inevitably going to make a lot of crybabies go purple with impotent range because they think that the removal of their unfair advantages is itself unfair. But who cares? Destiny is going to be even better in the long-run, and that’s what counts.
And even more excitingly, Bungie is teasing that the released notes only relate to the guns and systems we know about. Apparently there’s more being tweaked and reworked to take into account September’s major Taken King expansion. With the sheer amount of content also set to come along with that add-on, in a couple of months we should be playing a Destiny almost unrecognisable evolved from its form at original release.
You can get the (many) complete details over at Bungie’s full blog post on the update, but the 10 biggest changes are handily laid out in the gallery above. Enjoy!
