It was supposed to be a short, dry sandbox blog that Destiny 2 published yesterday. But it immediately got players excited. Not only because it brings additional benefits to some popular Exotics, but also because it announces the “most generally positive change” in a long time. MeinMMO tells you what has got the Guardians so excited.
What did Bungie announce in the latest blog? First of all, it is now definitely confirmed that the new Arc 3.0 abilities will go live in Season 18. With this, Bungie integrates the last abilities upgrade and completes the overhaul of the three Light classes. Bungie shows its players first details in the showcase on August 23.
But the “This Week at Bungie” blog had even more good news to offer. We have already analyzed it, summarize its highlights here and say which weapons you should definitely grab before Season 18.
Season 18 brings general buffs for unpopular weapons
On August 23, at the start of Season 18, scout rifles and heavy grenade launchers will initially receive a general damage bonus. Lightweight bows and 360 auto rifles get a nice boost. And glaives also hit harder, as they are buffed in melee combat and can also activate the melee perks of exotic armor in Season 18.
- They then trigger with the Titan exotic “ACD/0 Feedback Fence” and with the Warlock exotics “Karnstein Armlets” and “Necrotic Grip”.
That alone sounds like a lot of Arc fun with fists and toxic, necrotic glaives. But Bungie packed even more into its Season 18 update. So Destiny 2 finally gets significant improvements for several, somewhat neglected, exotic weapons:
- Including the bows “Wishender” and “Ticc’s Divination”, the hand cannon “Sins of the Past”, the shotgun “Legend of Acrius”, the grenade launcher “Lion’s Roar”, and the auto rifle “Workhorse”.
- Additionally, intrinsic champion perks for exotic weapons from Season 18:
- The exotic bow “Le Monarque” and the exotic machine gun “Thunderlord” receive intrinsic perks against Overload champions.
- The exotic hand cannon “Sins of the Past” can stop Unstoppable champions.
- And the prettiest bow in Destiny 2 “Wishender” receives anti-barrier arrows.
Momentum for some dusty exotic weapons
Bungie ensures with this update that you should definitely consider pulling out a few dusty Arc Exotics.
Just the weapon upgrade for the Arc exotic “Thunderlord” could become a really strong endgame option in Season 18. If perhaps even a catalyst is introduced that brings a few more rounds into the magazine, this machine gun would dominate and electrify the game and your enemies.
But the exotic shotgun “Legend of Acrius” could also become the star of the new meta in Destiny 2. Here Bungie packs the additional perk “Rifled Barrel” into the catalyst, which means a damage bonus of an enormous 50% for three consecutive shots after a successful melee. With the Titan Exotics “Synthoceps” or the Hunter Exotic “Hand of the Liars”, that would be a really nasty combination for any of your opponents.
Comeback of the “King of Grenade Launchers”: Then there was this briefly mentioned note at the end that Bungie is giving heavy grenade launchers a damage boost of 10% against Majors, i.e. enemies with a yellow health bar, in Season 18. That sounds like a good reason to bring more “Anarchy” back into Destiny 2. With the necessary momentum from the Arc 3.0 upgrade, bosses could again be brought to their knees in a chain of devastating Arc strikes.
Just that has some Guardians already on reddit dreaming about fantastic new build combinations with Arc and the synergies with old Exotics.
Damn. There are many great changes here. Glaives that work with melee Exotics and exotic weapons that work with anti-champion perks? […]
writes the player kallemacd via reddit
A few additional perks are also available: Bungie was not satisfied with the origin perks of Gambit and Iron Banner yet. So they have reworked both.
- The Gambit origin trait “Invader Tracker” is renamed to “Gun and Run”. In Season 18, it is supposed to increase your sprint speed on multi-kills.
- And the Iron Banner origin trait “Cloak of the Wolf” grants you improved radar in Season 18 and helps you disappear from radar when you are at low health.
The current raid exotic “Collective Obligation” from the “Oryx’s Vow” raid is being significantly improved so that it can finally shine in its exotic glory. Until now, it has been hardly relevant in the game. Bungie wants to change that and is putting a few stronger benefits into the pulse rifle for Season 18.
- The timer of the exotic perk “Empty Riddle” will be increased to 15 seconds in PvE activities. (PvP remains at 10 seconds) and the cooldown will be completely removed.
- You will also receive a 20% damage bonus against PvE combatants when Empty Riddle is active and will need fewer hits to fully charge the perk.
- Kills against weakened targets recharge it instantly, as well as when you are afflicted by a Leere debuff from an enemy.
These are the most important changes for PvP
In PvP, there are criticisms and changes that many players have already demanded and are now very welcome. Finally, in Season 18, the muzzle on the exotic shotgun “Lord of Wolves” is coming. This should put an end to the howling and also the overly advantageous combinations with certain exotic armor pieces. Overall, Bungie wants to turn “Lord of Wolves” into a well-behaved and more practical PvE Exotic.
To keep it obedient in PvP, it will receive the following adjustments:
- In PvP you only have 10 shots instead of 15. (PvE unchanged) and deal ~20% less base damage. So only 35 per body shot in PvP, 44 when the exotic perk is activated)
- When the exotic perk “Release the Wolves” is active, the burst, the shots per trigger, is reduced from 10 to 5, and a burst delay of 60% is added.
- Enemies in PvE will have to take 20% more damage from “Lord of Wolves”.
In addition, the Western-style scout rifle “Tale of a Dead Man,” the Hunter’s exotic chest “Omnioculus,” and the Stasis aspect “Whispers of Chains” will receive a dampening tweak in PvP.
- Bungie nerfs the exotic perk of “Tale of a Dead Man.” From Season 18, it will no longer increase damage against players but instead grant increased reload, aim assist, and range per stack. The catalyst will also deal 20% less damage per bullet but will have a fire rate of 180 with maximum stacks. In PvE, you still get the extra damage – nothing changes there.
- For the exotic “Omnioculus” and the Stasis aspect “Whispers of Chains,” Bungie reduces the damage reduction in PvP to take away some of their team dominance.
In the future, Bungie plans to equip more Exotics with intrinsic traits against champions and also to give more attention to the burst rifles. Additionally, there are still a few other updates in Bungie’s latest announcement. If you need more information, you can find it on bungie.net.
What do you think of the changes? Could Destiny 2 also win over the German community with this? Feel free to leave us a comment about how you think about the changes and what the best adjustment is for you.
If you are still considering which Exotics are suitable for Arc 3.0, then this article is interesting for you:
