In March, Season 10 is coming for Destiny 2. Bungie is revising the weapon balance and sandbox. Let’s take a look at the changes.
Outlook for Season 10: The currently running Season of Dawn is slowly coming to its end and finale. With the ever-nearing Season 10, Destiny’s developer officially presented some of the planned changes.
These changes aim to revise the current weapon balance and could shake up the sandbox significantly. Bungie introduces how fusion rifles, shotguns, snipers, and automatic rifles will change. But three top exotics are also being addressed.
These exotics are changing in Season 10
Izanagi’s Burden: The powerful sniper Izanagi’s Burden is receiving 2 changes:
- The perk “Outlaw” is swapped for “No Distractions”
- The reload speed no longer affects the animation of “Honed Edge”
Bungie reports that the weapon has basically become standard in the endgame since the changes to auto-reload and the catalyst of Izanagi in the game. There is always enough ammunition, the best burst damage in the game, and you are also at a safe distance.
Lord of Wolves: The shotgun Lord of Wolves fires rapid volleys and can even switch between two modes. One fire mode is changing:
- “Release the Wolves” now significantly reduces the weapon’s precision when active.
According to Bungie, the alternative fire mode has now become standard. Due to the changes to precision, the regular shot should be used more often, and “Release the Wolves” will become a close combat option for large enemies.
The Last Word: The hand cannon The Last Word is undergoing a series of adjustments:
- “Fan Fire” now adjusts the precision when firing from the hip.
- The precision of hip/sight was adjusted from 67.95/67.95 to 68.27/52.2
- The non-precision of hip/sight was adjusted from 50.01/50.01 to 38/38.
- The sight no longer grants additional effective range (damage drop).
- The stability for mouse and keyboard input has been reduced.
- The effective range has been reduced.
- The type of target acquisition when firing from the hip has been adjusted to improve the experience.
Bungie wants to highlight the hipfire aspect of the cowboy-style revolver again. Especially on PC, the weapon has been dominant due to its ideal TTK and often fired with sights.
This is how the weapon balance will change in March
Several weapon categories will also be worked on in the upcoming Season 10. Especially special weapons will be the focus of the adjustments. They are to be better coordinated with each other in the new sandbox.
The changes to sniper rifles: The changes that snipers received in Shadowkeep will mostly be reversed:
- The damage for large and stronger enemies was reduced to the values before Shadowkeep (~-20%).
- The precision multiplier for adaptive sniper rifles was reduced from 3.25x to 2.95x.
- The base impact of rapid-fire sniper rifles was reduced from 100 damage to 90 damage.
In many PvE activities, snipers have an advantage over close combat weapons due to damage and safety; this should be better balanced. Sniper rifles should also show noticeable differences between the various archetypes due to the changes.
What will happen to shotguns: A general problem with aim assistance is being fixed for shotguns:
- The aim assist for non-bullet shotguns has been adjusted to no longer consider precision placements.
- The angle of the cone now adjusts to the respective base of the sub-archetype instead of the range value.
- The sight no longer adjusts the effective range for this weapon archetype.
Due to aim assist, shots aimed at the center of the body have been misdirected towards the head and thus missed. After this adjustment, further adjustments will be presented.
What happens with fusion rifles: The functionality of aim assist is also being revised for fusion rifles. The maximum range is also being adjusted:
- The aim assist for fusion rifles has been adjusted to no longer consider precision placements.
- Previously, aim assist could cause the player’s volley to deviate from the intended target vector and largely miss.
- The damage drop for this weapon archetype is now limited to 0.5x (previously 0.75x).
- The effective range and the influence of the optics stats (sights) for this weapon archetype have been generally reduced.
- Highest time:
- Highest time now adjusts the impact for the rapid-fire sub-archetype when active.
- The reload time now adjusts to the rapid-fire sub-archetype (0.85) when active.
Fusion rifles are seen by many players in PvP as too dominant and annoying. These adjustments aim to ensure that the currently most used type, such as Erentil, no longer stands out as strongly.
What happens with grenade launchers: The power weapons among grenade launchers are being revised as follows:
- Grenade launchers with aggressive frames are now rapid-fire frame grenade launchers.
- The damage of rapid-fire frame grenade launchers has been reduced to compensate for their fire rate (0.8x). However, they now have larger reserves.
- Previously, grenade launchers with aggressive frames fired faster than adaptive ones while inflicting the same damage.
- The damage for large and stronger enemies from power weapon grenade launchers has been reduced by ~10%.
In their current state, the rapid-firing grenade launchers have been the boss killers in many PvE situations. The changes aim to distinguish the archetypes from each other and ensure greater loadout diversity.
What happens with automatic rifles: Fully automatic rifles will receive a damage buff:
- Piercing frame: 22/35.2 Standard/Precision (previously 22/33)
- Precision frame: 17/27.2 Standard/Precision (previously 17/25.5)
- Adaptive frame: 15.75/25.2 Standard/Precision (previously 13.75/22)
- Rapid-fire frame: 13.4/20.1 Standard/Precision (previously 12.5/18.75)
With these small adjustments, automatic weapons should have a better chance in PvP and step slightly out of the shadow of their semi-automatic competitors. You should also benefit from the changes in PvE.
These changes are still waiting for you in Season 10
The Nightfall will get tougher: In the PvE activity Nightfall, an additional difficulty level is to provide a new challenge. This will be called Pinnacle and is intended to “even bring the most competent guardians to their limits,” said the Destiny developer.
Bungie will later go into more detail about this change and other activities for PvE.
Furthermore, two more major revisions for the upcoming Season 10 have been announced:
What do you think of the extensive changes to weapon balance and nerfs? Are you looking forward to variety or are you already mourning your beloved firearms?
