‘Destiny’ Weapon Balance And Gameplay Changes For April Update Detailed By Bungie
Bungie’s final Destiny preview before the April update hit Wednesday. The developer covered some significant changes coming to the weapon balance and gameplay mechanics. Most notably, the ammo economies are being tweaked once again for the PlayStation and Xbox shooter while revive mechanic changes will make reviving teammates riskier.
The reveal of Destiny changes in the April update came via a Twitch livestream by Bungie. The update will arrive Tuesday, April 12, with the official patch notes dropping sometime before then.
Revive mechanic changes
Reviving requires players to be closer to the downed player to revive. Revive also takes a little longer, and you can no longer sprint revive. The overshield strength is not as strong as before.
In Trials of Osiris, the revive mechanic has changed. The first time a player dies, the revive timer is seven seconds. The second time is 14 seconds, the third is 21 seconds, and so on.
These changes were to make revives more risk versus reward.
Destiny players came up with ways to get around the removal of Special Weapon ammo during 3v3 matches. Now players will spawn with Special ammo at the beginning of a match. However, Special ammo crates will spawn three minutes into a match and then every two minutes after. The goal is to decrease the amount of Special ammo in Destiny Crucible.
Meanwhile, Heavy ammo will only spawn once during a match. It will come in at the five-minute mark during a match and will not spawn again. The exception to the rule is the Mayhem gametype; it will continue spawn frequently in that mode.
Crucible Rewards
Crucible will be more rewarding. Legendaries will drop more often as end-game rewards. There will also be ways to receive items up to the new Light level of 335. One way will be to complete a weekly bounty from Lord Shaxx. Trials of Osiris will drop 335 armor and weapons from the Mercury chest. Trials of Osiris bounties will drop armor and weapons up to 330 Light.
Iron Banner will now only drop Iron Banner gear. The Legendary armor and weapon drops have been removed. Bungie is also guaranteeing a level 320 Ghost and Artifact drop for players who reach Iron Banner rank 5. Additionally, the Iron Banner bounty that required achieving 2,500 points in a match has been reduced to 1,500 points and match completion.
A Sterling Treasure chest is guaranteed by completing one match of the weekly Crucible activity.
General Weapon Changes
High rate of fire Auto Rifles base damage is coming down a little bit. Low rate of fire Auto Rifles will be coming up a little bit.
Low rate of fire Pulse Rifles base damage is coming up a little bit. Two burst headshots from the lowest rate of fire Pulse Rifle can kill an enemy with low armor.
Hand Cannon ammo inventory is being increased. This doesn’t increase the amount of ammo in a magazine, just the total amount a player can carry.
Fusion Rifles will receive a “blanket stability increase.” This will cause the projectiles to have a much tighter grouping than before to make the weapon class more effective.
Sniper Rifles with short zooms have had their zooms increased further to make close range engagements more difficult. Ambush, Shortgaze, and Long view have all been changed with increased zooms. Bungie has also added two frames of zoom time to decrease snap scope shots. The snapshot perk has also been decreased from 30 percent to 20 percent. Stability has also been decreased slightly across the board.
The sidearm exploit has been removed as well. Switching from the weapon will cause you to lose all Special Weapon ammo.
Meanwhile, the total inventory amount for Shotgun, Machine Gun, and Sniper ammo have been reduced. PVE ammo bricks for Special and Heavy Weapon ammo will drop more frequently to offset the inventory reduction.
Individual Weapon Changes
Suros Regime’s “Spinning Up” perk kicks in a little bit later now. It will take effect four bullets later. Meanwhile, the “Focus Fire” option will get a range boost.
Hawkmoon’s effective range has been increased. This will help with accuracy too.
The Last Word damage has been reduced for the namesake perk. This will increase the time to kill for headshots when firing from the hip.
Thorn is still a Year One weapon. Minimized Damage over Time in PVP reduced the duration of the pulse from six to four. The intensity of the poison effect on the screen has also been reduced. No more kills with only two or three body shots from the Thorn.
Icebreaker is still a Year One weapon as well. It was making it difficult to tune the Destiny ammo economy. Now players will lose all Special Weapon ammo when switching from the Icebreaker.
Dreg’s Promise projectiles now track based on ADS lock. You will get a lock-on indicator when aiming down sights, but there is no audio cue when this happens.
Telesto projectiles will attach to friends or a friendly Ward of Dawn but will not damage them. This can result in turning a player into a Telesto bomb.
Quillum’s Terminus and Harrowed Quillum’s Terminus will have less inventory. All other King’s Fall weapons have received increased reload speed.
Warlock Changes
The three Warlock sub-classes will not go untouched in the Destiny April Update. Sunsingers have had their Flame Shield protection stats and frequency reduced. Bungie has improved the other melee options to balance this out. Fireborn time has been reduced, but Firebolt grenades have been left untouched.
Stormcallers will have to budget their supers going forward. The Stormtrance super will no longer seem like it lasts forever. Additionally, the Landfall perk will no longer blow up bubbles and it will no longer blind players. Additional changes to the sub-class will be revealed via the upcoming Destiny patch notes.
Voidwalkers will see no changes to the Nova Bomb. Instead, Bungie plans to enhance the class’ melee and grenade abilities via increasing the time they recharge. Voidwalker melees will also feel more “responsive,” as the energy drain effect will proc immediately.
[Image via Bungie]
