Yesterday in the TWAB, Bungie laid out a whole bunch of sandbox changes coming to Destiny 2 in Beyond Light. While it may not be a full list and more could be coming, the general community reaction to what was listed here was…somewhat muted, as it contains a whole lot of nerfs and only some seemingly minor buffs.
I want to go through it all, and while I’m not the most technical of PvP dudes who can analyze every little bit of this, I still have some thoughts.
Hand Cannons
This is the most elaborate and complicated section of the changes, which involves changing or eliminating entire archetypes of hand cannons. In summary:
- 110 Rate of Fire Hand Cannons are now 120, range has increased
- Adaptive and Precision hand cannons have their range increased
- 180 Rate of Fire Hand Cannons now have a 37% larger magazine (including exotics)
- Lightweight Hand Cannons no longer exist and are now Adaptive
- 150 Rate of Fire Hand Cannons are now 140, a nerf to guns like Luna’s and Not Forgotten
- A single exotic Hand Cannon is staying at 150, Sunshot, meaning it’s been buffed by not being nerfed.
The idea is to merge all of these closer together to be more equal in power, mostly by Rate of Fire changes. But the range buff seems like a good thing, as that was a major complaint about the current state of hand cannons, and I am looking forward to seeing what guns like Malfeasance can do with 19 shots in the mag or whatever it’s going to be.
Sniper Rifles
No, you are not getting a PvE damage buff for snipers. Rather, low-zoom snipers have had their auto aim nerfed while high zoom snipers have gotten an increase. That’s it, no more changes, and something that will be almost exclusively PvP-based.
Auto Rifles
600 Rate of Fire Auto Rifles, aka Gnawing Hunger and Summoner, are getting their damage nerfed from 15.75 to 14.25. Before the original buff, they were 13.75, so they are still above that. No notes of any buffs to any other RoF autos, just this nerf.
Scout Rifles
Bungie explains that they can’t buff Scouts too much without making them too good, so the only change they’re making is a small buff to aim assist. You can’t see me, but I’m rolling my eyes.
Rocket Launchers
They are increasing reserves by 1 or 2 depending on inventory. Okay, now I’m starting to just get annoyed. No damage buff, not even a small one, and yes that is reserves not adding 1 or 2 to the magazine which is what everyone actually wanted to see out of a Rocket Launcher buff. This essentially does nothing and will change nothing. Irritating.
Outlaw
Got nerfed before, is getting buffed from +50 to +70 on reload. Cool.
Merciless
Increased inventory from 36 to 55. Merciless meta incoming?? Of course not. This is also a good time to recognize that zero changes are being made to fusion rifles in PvP or PvE, at least none listed here.
Mountaintop
It’s finally getting nerfed, on top of being sunset, as it would still dominate a ton of PvP modes if they did nothing to it. Splash damage has been cut by 33% and impact damage down by 5% so less one hit kills. Projectile velocity is down from 1.4 to 1.2 making it easier to dodge. In-air accuracy is lower. Good, I love it. Bury Mountaintop so deep it never sees the light of day again (I don’t know if all this is enough to do that, but we’ll see).
Falling Guillotine
Well, I think we knew this was coming. Heavy attack damage has been nerfed by 24% in order to make other swords viable. I still think this and other swords will be pretty meta for many PvE situations, but yeah, Guillotine was on its own plane, and I am not surprised to see it nerfed here.
MIDA/Sturm Drang
Banshee is going to be selling a non-sunset version of these when Beyond Light hits so those exotics won’t lose their synergy. They added a few perks to each of them.
uinous Effigy
The aerial slam has been nerfed by 25% and the drain effect has been “significantly” reduced on enemies. This has confused a ton of people as this did not seem like a weapon that was out of control in any significant capacity. The theory is that this may have something to do with new content and/or Stasis, and this is being nerfed pre-emptively because of some sort of interaction to come in Beyond Light. But yes, it does come across as weird and Bungie doesn’t explain this at all, like they do some of the others.
Arbalest
Doesn’t multi-pierce shields anymore, but it’s better against shields overall. No nerf to the Aim Assist stat which was everyone’s main problem with it.
Jade Rabbit
Fixed a bug that made its exotic perk not trigger. Armor Piecing Rounds were changed to High Caliber Rounds. Okay?
Yeah so, I don’t know. The only things in this entire list that seem like they’re getting somewhat major buffs are certain hand cannons after these changes. But everything else is either a big nerf or a buff so minor it’s laughable like rocket reserves or better scout aim assist. Again, there may be more changes coming, but I feel like this isn’t really what most players were hoping to see. I guess we’ll see how it works in practice, as they made these changes for a reason and after extensive testing, but I’m not seeing a ton to actually be excited about here.