In Destiny 2, Guardians hate it when they find two useless perks on their new weapons after a hard Trials round or the Grandmaster. Bungie is changing this and explains why they don’t want to make Master weapons even stronger.
What Guardians hate: Destiny 2 has given players new reasons to grind in PvE and PvP endgame. The fresh and particularly strong weapons from the Trials of Osiris and the Grandmaster are very well received. To make it even more interesting, only these weapons can drop with exclusive perks.
But exactly these special perks are something no Guardian wants on their weapon. A roll of the rare items is basically ruined when you see these traits:
- Speed (Trials): +100 to aim assist, handling, and reload speed, plus reduced recoil and spread. However, these incredibly powerful bonuses only apply when you are the last living Guardian in your fireteam.
- Bottomless Grief (Grandmaster): Every kill reloads the magazine. But this only works when all your friends are dead.
- If you’re thinking that these are great traits for solo Guardians, you’ll be disappointed. The perks only trigger when you’re in a fireteam and the teammates are defeated.
Both perks are really strong, but the required conditions make them simply unattractive. In the Trials, the round is usually lost for most with fewer players. And you don’t really enjoy the kills in the Grandmaster when you’re about to wipe because you’re the last one standing.
In Destiny 2, we refer to the last two slots of weapons as “perk slots”. Here, you can find things like faster reload, more damage, or stackable effects. In contrast, we have weapon attachments, which refer to the magazine, scope, or barrel.
The hated God-Roll killers are set to change soon
Starting from Season 14, which begins on May 11, 2021, the hated perks are changing. This was announced by the Destiny developer in their weekly blog post “This Week at Bungie” (via Bungie.net). The condition that you must be the last living Guardian is completely removed, but the bonuses will also change as compensation.
This is how the perk “Speed” (eng. Celerity) is changing:
- Grants a permanently active increase of +20 to the stats reload and handling.
- As a master version, weapons from the Trials have “Speed” as the 2nd and alternative perk in the right slot. You can freely choose whether you want the randomly rolled perk or prefer to opt for “Speed”.
This is what happens with “Bottomless Grief” (eng. Bottomless Grief):
- Grants a permanently active magazine increase of +30. This does not mean that the bullet count always increases by 30. The exact increase of the magazine depends on the weapon and archetype.
- As a master version, weapons from the Grandmaster have “Bottomless Grief” as the 2nd and alternative perk in the left slot.
Bungie also mentions that the changes for master weapons do not apply retroactively. You will therefore need to farm the weapon again for the replacement perk.
“Bad things can happen” – Bungie on strong weapons
Guardians are wondering why such bonuses even need to occupy a perk slot. It would make the hard-to-get weapons much more attractive if “Speed” or “Bottomless Grief” were automatically added as additional traits on the guns. Guardians know such “intrinsic” abilities from adept or raid weapons from Destiny 1.
In the TWaB, Chris Proctor, the “Weapon Feature Lead” at Bungie, addressed this. He actually finds the idea of such intrinsic bonuses really cool and it would make the Master weapons even more special. However, there are also three reasons that clearly argue against it.
That’s why it doesn’t work:
- For performance reasons, only a limited number of perks can be active at the same time. Many legendary weapons are already at the limit with all the simultaneous effects. If you were to add more perks without removing any, “bad things” could happen and the perks might not work correctly anymore.
- According to Bungie, additional perk slots in the long run could lead to the notorious “power creep” returning. They first introduce a 3rd slot for Trials weapons, then for raid weapons, then in a future season for all legendary guns, and eventually all weapons would be too powerful. None would stand out anymore.
- If only Master weapons received a new perk slot, many players would feel excluded. Because Master weapons are quite rare and only obtainable by truly dedicated Guardians. Proctor says: “We believe this would feel really bad for players who constantly die to Master weapons, where ‘Speed’ can stack with perks like ‘Reckless’ and ‘Rampage.'”
What do you think about the planned changes? Has one of the two perks already ruined a God-Roll for you? Do you think that Master weapons should only be prestige items or is it okay if the strongest players receive even stronger toys? Here’s more on the topic: The best weapons in Destiny 2 are only for the best players – unfair or right?
