With the next major update 1.1.4 on March 27, a lot of changes are coming to Destiny 2. The PvP will be fundamentally revised. The sandbox will also be extensively adjusted: namely the balance of classes and weapons in Destiny 2. The most important changes in detail.
In light of the upcoming update 1.1.4, Bungie’s community team recently asked Guardians what aspects of the next update they would like to hear more about – and the response was clear: players want concrete information about the upcoming sandbox changes. Bungie keeps its word and now goes into detail about the upcoming adjustments to the sandbox.
This is how the Crucible is changing
Massive PvP innovations are coming to Destiny 2 in March 2018. The Rumble mode returns with 8 players, bigger than ever. The Iron Banner introduces the 6vs6 mode and undergoes some changes in the process. The Crucible is set to come back to life.
To promote variety, the Rumble, Mayhem, and Iron Banner modes will be in a weekly playlist, rotating through.
The game pace is also expected to be significantly increased. Although the Time To Kill will not be reduced, Bungie is tweaking other factors to make the Crucible more dynamic:
Respawning and revives will be tuned across all game modes
- Player respawn timers for all Quickplay modes have been reduced to 2 seconds
- Player respawn timers for “Survival” have been reduced to 7 seconds
- Revive locks in “Countdown” have been reduced to 7 seconds
- Players no longer lose their revive tokens upon dying
The respawn timers for Power ammo will be adjusted everywhere
- Power ammo respawn timers in “Iron Banner” have been reduced by ~50%
- Power ammo respawn timers for all Quickplay modes have been reduced by ~30%
- Power ammo respawn timers in “Survival” have been reduced by ~40%
- Power ammo respawn timers in “Countdown” have been reduced by ~25%
The amount of ammunition will be adjusted in relation to these timers and the respective weapon type.
- Almost all weapons will either maintain their current amount of ammunition or receive a buff. Swords and rockets will be slightly reduced in power to align with other weapons.
Enemy players now drop their Power ammo when eliminated.
- The ammo is now available to all players – regardless of which group they belong to. However, it will only remain on the ground for a limited time before disappearing.
All these changes are meant to ensure that the currently prevailing team shooting does not overshadow other play styles. Now, quick reflexes, fast thinking, and movements of individual players or smaller groups should be rewarded and encouraged. Players should also have more opportunities to utilize their Power weapons.
Another important change pertains to competitive PvP matches: with the update 1.1.4, there will be no radar in all competitive modes and the Trials of Osiris. This should also help to curb team shooting and promote individual actions.
This is how the Guardian classes are changing in Destiny 2
The adjustments to the individual Guardian classes aim to provide players with more heroic moments by buffing things like speed, mobility, and the number of Supers. Players should feel more powerful again. The return to Space Magic is clearly in focus with these changes. The following aspects will be adjusted:
- All three glide options as well as Catapult and Directional Air Navigation will be tuned and receive a buff to make them unique and faster again.
- The mobility stat will be expanded and tuned entirely anew. Everyone will move faster, and the maximum mobility will be increased.
- The maximum ground speed of players will be increased, resulting in an overall speed increase – regardless of how it is achieved.
- Arcstrider, Sentinel, and Striker will move at the same faster pace while their Super is active.
- The Arcstrider’s Super will be strengthened. It now has faster attack animations, faster dodge animations, and increased range for all attacks.
- Previous nerfs to the Titan’s shoulder charge will be reversed. This attack can again be used as a movement option.
- The Dawnblade focus of the Warlock will be upgraded. The energy consumption for throwing the sword will be reduced, allowing for an additional throw. Eternal Flame now grants an extended Super duration. All airborne precision kills while Super is active will be removed. Also, the cooldown for Icarus Dash has been reduced, and the grenade and melee energy gained from Heat Rises per kill will be increased.
- The Hunter’s invisibility when dodging and using smoke grenades will be adjusted. Thus, dodging will no longer nullify aim assist or projectile tracking in PvP (unchanged in PvE). dodging will still nullify aim assist and projectile tracking – but only for the duration of the actual dodge. Furthermore, the duration of invisibility when dodging and using the smoke grenade will be increased by 1 second.
- The Supers of all Guardians will now charge faster. They now charge 1:40 faster and receive a cooldown reduction of 25%.
- Mods that reduce the cooldown for grenades, melee, and class ability will be strengthened such that the cooldown is now up to 2x faster. This change is NOT a substitute for Mods 2.0, whose release has been delayed.
This is how the weapons are changing in Destiny 2
To increase the impact of Power weapons and the frequency of their usage, several weapon archetypes and some specific perks will be buffed. A primary goal is to make shotguns, sniper rifles, and fusion rifles more important in the game. But other weapon types like hand cannons or pulse rifles will also receive boosts. This is how the weapons will change with the upcoming update:
Pulse Rifles
- The PvE damage of all pulse rifles will be increased
- The fire rate for adaptive and high-impact pulse rifles will be increased
- The base damage of adaptive, rapid-fire, and high-impact pulse rifles will be increased
- Precision multiplier for lightweight pulse rifles will be increased
- Precision multiplier for adaptive pulse rifles will be reduced.
- This keeps the precision damage basically unchanged, so the buff mostly enhances body shots, although it is still a general increase in precision damage.
Scout Rifles
- The PvE damage of all scout rifles will be increased
- The base damage for high-impact scout rifles will be increased
Hand Cannons
- The PvE damage of all hand cannons will be increased
- The precision multiplier for precision hand cannons will be increased
- The precision while hip-firing will be improved on consoles
- The aim assist on consoles will be improved
Sidearms
- The PvE damage of all sidearms will be increased
- The precision while hip-firing will be improved
- The precision of the aim assist will be increased
- Increased inventory (you can carry more reserve ammo)
- The minimum range will be increased
- Aaim assist movement bonus will be implemented
Submachine Guns
- The PvE damage of all submachine guns will be increased
- The optics have been set to 1.3x
- Increased inventory (you can carry more reserve ammo)
Linear Fusion Rifles
- The PvE damage of all linear fusion rifles will be increased
- The precision multiplier will be increased
- The aim assist will be improved
- The flinch multiplier will be reduced
Shotguns
- The PvE damage of all shotguns has been increased
- Increased inventory (you can carry more reserve ammo)
- Improved aim assist on Suros precision shotguns
Sniper Rifles
- The PvE damage for all sniper rifles will be increased
- The precision multiplier will be increased
- Improved aim assist
- Increased inventory (you can carry more reserve ammo)
Grenade Launchers
- The explosion radius will be increased
Auto Rifles
- The range and aim assist stats for precision auto rifles like Uriels Gift will be reduced. The base damage will remain unchanged.
Some weapon perks are also being revised
- Rangefinder, Kill Clip, and Rampage will receive increased PvE damage. Rampage will also have its duration increased.
- Dragonfly will have increased damage, increased radius, and stronger visual effects.
- Grave Robber now refills half instead of a third of the magazine.
- The damage of Time Payload will be split into 55 explosive / 45 direct. Previously, direct damage was higher.
- The explosion damage of Explosive Rounds will be reduced in PvE. This reduction will be compensated by an increase in damage for all base weapons in PvE. Weapons with explosive rounds will not deal less damage.
What do you think of these changes? Are they enough to bring you back to Destiny 2 at the end of March?
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