In Destiny 2, tough nerfs are coming for the popular swords, but also buffs for rocket launchers and more. Additionally, Guardians will have a harder time with mouse and keyboard. Here’s what you need to know about weapon changes in Season 13.
In Destiny 2, the new Season 13 is set to arrive on February 9. Bungie is keeping the details a big secret, but we already know many of the upcoming changes.
The latest TWaB from January 28 (via Bungie.net) discusses a plethora of buffs and nerfs for your weapons.
The popular swords are facing tough changes, and Guardians using mouse and keyboard will find it harder to shoot, but a few juicy buffs are also included. MeinMMO will show you the winners and losers of the sandbox changes in overview.
These weapons are the winners in Season 13
Rocket Launchers:
- Damage is increased by 30%.
- However, exotic rocket launchers will receive individual tuning.
- At the start of Season 12, the ammunition reserves were recently increased.
- For over a year, rocket launchers have largely been in the shadows. They are meant to be relevant for your power slot again. Will they be as powerful as during the cluster meta?
Fusion Rifles:
- They will receive better range at which damage decreases.
- At 0 range, they will be 6% better – up to a maximum of 16% better at 100 range.
- Camera movement will be reduced by 9.5% when you fire the fusion rifle.
Grenade Launchers:
- Projectiles from one-shot grenade launchers will now automatically explode upon contact with an enemy character.
- This also applies to breach-loading grenade launchers (special ammo) when you hold down the fire button.
- According to Bungie, it was very cumbersome to fire the grenade and then hold down the trigger to arm the grenade while the projectile bounces. This resulted in very low usage – since the nerf from the pinnacle, you basically only see wave-form grenade launchers in the special slot.
This is where visual recoil is reduced: The camera movement while shooting is too high for some weapons, making follow-up hits or staying on target difficult. These weapon types (in addition to fusion rifles) are meant to be easier to control in Season 13:
- Submachine guns have 24% less camera movement
- Pulse rifles have 7% less camera movement
- Machine guns have 9.5% less camera movement.
Adjustments for Exotics
Some exotics will be adjusted, but these are more minor changes or bug fixes.
- These weapons will no longer lose their damage bonus when you summon your ghost: Tarrabah, Falkenmond, Pikass – but when you switch weapons, you will still lose the buff as intended.
- Borealis and Hard Light will receive a new, short reload animation when they switch elements.
- Duality will get a buff of 1.25 meters to effective range (hip fire and aiming). The buff will now max out at 5 stacks (previously 7) and will receive a larger damage bonus.
- Sturm will reload every special weapon on a kill (as long as you have reserves).
- Merciless now correctly increases its fire rate with non-lethal hits.
Brace for these nerfs
Swords:
- Damage is reduced by 15%.
- Swords are the most popular weapon class for the power slot – according to Bungie, 65% of all players regularly use the (overpowered) bladed weapons.
- For the exotic The Lament, the nerf shouldn’t matter much, but the legendary sword Falling Guillotine is now receiving a nerf for the second season in a row.
Sniper Rifles:
- Flinch when shot is increased.
- If you aim with your scope, it will shake more and it will be harder to move the crosshair onto the enemy.
At a later point in Season 13, Arbalest will also be adjusted. The linear fusion rifle for the kinetic slot is causing a lot of trouble in PvP due to its high aim assist.
What’s important for players with mouse and keyboard
Depending on your input method, weapons behave differently in Destiny 2. If you play with mouse and keyboard, the recoil is approximately 40% less than when playing with a controller. According to Bungie, this leads to the stability value being “largely ignored”. However, that should change.
In Season 13, recoil will increase for all Guardians playing with mouse and keyboard. Instead of 40% less recoil compared to controllers, it will now be only 20%.
These weapons will receive more recoil:
- Auto Rifle
- Scout Rifle
- Pulse Rifle
- Submachine Gun
- Hand Cannon
- Machine Gun
Why is this happening now? This is meant to prepare for crossplay. The big feature is planned for 2021 and will allow all Guardians to play Destiny together – completely independent of platforms like PS5, Xbox, Steam, or Stadia.
You can read more about this here on MeinMMO: Destiny 2 is going for crossplay in 2021: What’s planned and what it means for you
Guardians are wondering since the announcement of the feature how Bungie will achieve a balance between platforms and input devices. The TWaB states that Bungie is closely monitoring the changes and will specifically address player feedback in future updates.
What do you think of the presented changes? Especially the nerf for the popular swords and the adjustments for mouse and keyboard are likely to spark a lot of discussions. Please share your opinion in the comments.
