In Destiny 2, the changes to the Exotics have been postponed by two months. Bungie wants to conduct more tests and avoid problems like those with the Prometheus Lens.
Last week, Bungie released an updated roadmap with endgame innovations that are set to be released in Spring 2018. This roadmap indicated that the developers had to postpone some content to later dates because they could not keep the original schedule. These postponements also affect the sandbox changes to the exotic weapons and armor pieces.
Originally, the Exotics were supposed to be revamped in March, but that will not happen. The new date is somewhere in May when Season 3 begins.
How are the Exotics being revamped?
Currently, many exotic items feel too weak, and their utility is limited. Many Exotics serve little purpose beyond being infusion material. Therefore, most will be revamped to make them worth hunting again, making it worthwhile to play with them.
In mid-February, Bungie’s Jon Weisnewski discussed some goals for making the Exotics even more exotic:
- Exotics should provide players additional and/or increased power.
- The focus of the revamps is on the Exotics that are currently rarely used, making them more popular.
- Moreover, the Exotics should not lose their existing identity. There will be no complete overhauls; rather, they aim to build upon the existing gameplay of these items and significantly improve it.
In other words, the Exotics should become more powerful. However, how this will look for individual weapons is not yet known. So far, we only know that
- the Graviton Lance will be more effective in PvP by firing only two instead of three bullets per burst. Additionally, recoil will be less, aim assist will be higher, and explosions will be stronger.
- the Sunshot will become more explosive.
- and the Tractor Cannon will undergo cool revamps, as Community Manager dmg04 mentioned in the reddit forum.
However, there will also be substantial changes to all other exotic weapons, except for the Merciless, Telesto, Wardcliff Coil, MIDA Multi-Tool, The Colony, Legend of Acrius, and Vigilance Wing.
Why are the Exotic changes being postponed?
Since Bungie is not just tweaking some numbers, but also improving the mechanics of numerous Exotics, the developers have a lot to do. According to Game Director Christopher Barrett, they want to ensure that the changes meet high quality standards, which is why they are giving artists the necessary extra time.
dmg04 also talks about why the changes are taking so long. They want to invest more time in internal tests in different game modes to avoid the “Prometheus Lens” problem this time.
In early December, the Prometheus Lens was released, which was completely overpowered in PvP. Shortly thereafter, a hotfix was implemented that weakened the Exotic too much. It then took several weeks for Bungie to resolve the issue.
Such design flaws should be avoided with the upcoming Exotic changes. They are thoroughly testing both in PvP and PvE environments, such as Nightfall Strikes and Crucible modes. Furthermore, the testers are always in contact with the developers to provide feedback on what feels good, what is overpowered, and what isn’t working.
dmg04 also emphasizes that they want to use these tests to prevent new bugs from sneaking in with the Exotic changes that could harm other aspects of the game.
However, Bungie is confident that the planned changes will be good. Sandbox Design Lead Josh Hamrick responded to a Twitter user who mentioned he hasn’t played Destiny in 4 months but would return if he sees great content: “The future is bright, and I am confident that we will see each other again soon,” said Hamrick.
Currently, Bungie is not only working on the Exotics but also on the overall sandbox balance. In this regard, dmg04 wrote that he just came from a playtest and that things felt quite amazing. Especially sniper rifles and shotguns will undergo some changes that will make them much more significant in the power slot.
Indeed, in the past weeks, several Bungie developers frequently mentioned that they just came from internal tests and are looking forward to the new changes. Let’s hope that players will be pleased with them in May.
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