Tomorrow, the last season in the “The Witch Queen” DLC of Destiny 2 officially starts. Season 19 brings new content and many changes, including to exotic weapons. However, one change left players scratching their heads in disbelief, as it is possibly the most pointless weapon change in the FPS history of Destiny 2.
What changes are we talking about? Bungie announced many changes to perks, abilities, and weapons in the latest blog post, which will come into play with the upcoming Season 19. Some of these are quite bitter, while others are extremely bizarre.
- The exotic grenade launcher “Witherhoard” will have its duration cut drastically. Instead of 7.5 seconds, its puddle will last only a measly 4.5 seconds starting Season 19.
- The weakening effect of the support exotic “Divinity” will be reduced from 30% to 15%. Only the wielder of the weapon retains the full 30%.
- The exotic rocket launcher “Gjallarhorn” still howls, but the impact and detonation damage of the primary rocket has been reduced by 25%, without affecting the wolfpack rounds.
- However, the strangest adjustment is made by Bungie to the exotic sniper rifle “Whisper of the Worm”. Its base aerial effectiveness will be increased from 20 to a whopping 80.
With these changes, the nerfs to Gjallarhorn and Witherhoard still make sense. Both exotic weapons have long been at the top of the usage rates in their respective weapon slots.
Gjallarhorn left little room for other exotic rocket launchers and also provides legendary rockets with more firepower.
The nerf to Witherhoard, as bitter as it is for many players, slowly turned the weapon into a lite version of the former raid exotic “Anarchy”. Next season, probably the already known but reworked artifact mod “Break and Clear” will offer you some damage relief.
However, with the bizarre jumping buff for the exotic sniper rifle “Whisper of the Worm”, some guardians had to take a second look.
Bungie announced that they want to make primary weapons in the air slightly more accurate, as sniper rifles are particularly hard hit by aerial effectiveness. Nevertheless, the adjustment of the Whisper sniper is currently one of the most pointless and inexplicable in the FPS history of Destiny 2.
That’s why the Whisper adjustment is pointless
Guardians have long wanted Bungie to improve their sleek exotic sniper rifle, which has been collecting dust for too long. Although it belonged to the best top weapons with the highest damage output of all power weapons and had excellent handling in Year 1 of Destiny 2, Bungie made changes that rendered the weapon nearly useless in the heavy weapon slot.
This is why there was excitement when the weapon’s name appeared in the announcements for Season 19. However, the buff Bungie wants to give to Whisper ultimately from Season 19 is not understandable for many.
No one uses the weapon in PvP: Bungie might aim to encourage players to start using the weapon more often in PvP by changing the base effectiveness from 20 to 80. However, this is likely to provide little benefit, as some players note in a reddit thread.
- The Whisper is a sniper rifle that requires heavy ammunition, which is rare in PvP.
- Moreover, the weapon plays quite sluggishly and cannot score a one-hit kill even with a body shot.
Therefore, some believe that despite the new, gigantic aerial effectiveness, the logical choice will still be a regular sniper rifle with more readily available special ammunition.
And how is it in PvE? In PvE, the weapon is still used more frequently. But even there, no one has been bouncing around like a wild sniper rabbit in front of the end bosses. Especially when it comes to shooting accurately and repeatedly at a critical point. Quite the opposite.
- Accuracy is important since the exotic perk “White Nail” replenishes the magazine on three rapid precision hits. Even minor bumps from teammates can become a problem.
- The exotic is really good only with a catalyst. Here, the reload speed increases by +27 when aiming for three seconds and grants, while staying in zoom, a momentary bonus range and precision damage.
This means that “Whisper of the Worm” demands accurate and steady precision shots from players due to its perks and not wild “bouncing around.” Therefore, it is astonishing and confusing for many why Bungie is now changing this value so significantly. In principle, the buff does nothing good for the weapon.
What does “aerial effectiveness” mean?
Since Season 17, every guardian has to pay attention to the weapon value “aerial effectiveness.” It calculates the precision of projectiles and grants you a small or large correction using a more precise aim assist cone in the air, ranging from 0 to 100.
A value of 100 means no penalties for accuracy in the air, meaning when you jump, and the same aim assist. In return, lower values grant you less and less aim assist in the air.
The effects are clearly noticeable, as you may find that you kill nothing while jumping, even though you’ve hit the head precisely. In this case, your weapon’s terrible base accuracy in the air could be to blame.
Jumping in Destiny 2 is now less fun: Previously, guardians jumped around wildly and still landed precise hits. However, this has changed with aerial effectiveness. Therefore, especially PvP players in the community repeatedly demand the complete removal of the restrictive weapon value.
That’s why the changes might still make sense: Even though the change currently causes players to shake their heads, it might make more sense at a later point.
Next year, Bungie will launch the next DLC “Lightfall” which will bring the guardians to Neomuna and this city and new location is literally “Cloud City.” Guardians will swing through the air with lassos there. Hence, a future aerial DPS meta might be something Bungie is already hinting at in this last season before Lightfall.
What do you think about the buff to the “Whisper of the Worm”? Will it make you want to play the weapon again? Or can you also not understand the hefty jumping buff. Our comments are open to you as always.
All the changes announced in the last blog that you can expect in Season 19 are summarized here:
