Love them or hate them, buffs and nerfs were plentiful in this recent update for the upcoming Rise Of Iron expansion, and I for one agree with every change implemented.
Lat Friday morning hit, and to my surprise, so did a 12 gigabyte update. I naturally looked on the Bungie twitter, and found out that a large patch was being implemented, bringing the server down for maintenance until later that evening. These updates target everything from the user interface to weapon balance and the overall world. The details are as follows:
Weapons:
Auto Rifles:
-Reduced the maximum magazine size for highest rate-of-fire auto family (all weapons in the Doctrine of Passing family)
-Increased damage of middle rate-of-fire Auto Rifles by 1.5%
Pulse Rifles:
-Increased rate-of-fire for Häkke pulse rifle Lyudmila-D
-Increased damage for middle rate-of-fire family pulses (Nirwen’s Mercy) by 2%
Hand Cannons:
-Fixed an issue where the hand cannon Zaouli’s Bane’s rate-of-fire stat would display incorrectly
-Fixed an issue where the Taken King Vanguard and Armsday Hand Cannons (Down and Doubt 00-0, Kumakatok HC4) stats would display incorrectly
Shotguns:
-Immobius: decreased spread on Titan class Shotgun (0.1 zoom factor increase), increased base stability (60% increase)
-Increased high rate-of-fire and middle-low rate-of-fire Shotgun damages by 2%
-Reduced spread angle penalty on Shotguns with the perk Full Auto, Invective was not affected
Sniper Rifles:
-Reduced damage on the middle-high impact (1000-Yard Stare family) of Sniper Rifles by 6.95%
-Middle-high impact snipers can no longer reliably kill high armor guardians
-No Land Beyond is not affected by this damage reduction
-Reduced Target Acquisition for LDR 5001/Y-09 Longbow Synthesis to bring in line with other snipers in the middle-high rate-of-fire family
-Increased the starting strength for aim deflection (aka Flinch) when players take damage while scoped in from 30% starting to 50% starting
-With every subsequent hit, the strength of deflection increases until you hit 100% max deflection
-Overall Sniper ADS aim deflection multiplier increased to 1.9x (was 1.85x)
-Fixed an issue where Eirene UI stat bars showed an incorrect rate-of-fire
Sidearms:
-Unified damage for all Sidearm types
-Increased damage for existing Häkke Sidearm families by 3% for lowest rate-of-fire and 7% for higher rate-of-fire
-Decreased damage for non-hitscan Sidearms by 5% for Vestian Dynasty and Queen’s Choice
-Minor extension of damage falloff point for Sidearms across the board (+0.5meter)
-Minor increase of stability for Sidearms across the board
-Added damage bonus in PvE (20-30% dependent on combatant tier)
-To accommodate two new faster firing Sidearm families releasing in Rise of Iron, all current Sidearm rate-of-fire bars will be slightly shorter
-This is to allow more bar space to display rate-of-fire differentiation
-Does not change the actual fire rate, just the stat bar representation
Fusion Rifles:
-Accelerated coils correctly reflects damage reduction now on the UI stat bars
-Fixed an issue where stat bars on Techeun Rage displayed incorrectly
Rocket Launchers:
-Extended damage falloff distance on Cluster Bomb perk’s explosions (should more reliably damage enemies now)
-Grenades and Horseshoes perk proc radius reduced (1.3->1 meters), Truth is not affected
Machine Guns:
-Increased damage on highest rate-of-fire Machine Guns by 4%
Weapon Perks:
General:
-Magazine perks now give range bonuses
-Removed impact stat bonuses that had no effect on base damage and only on the UI bars
-Armor Piercing Rounds: adds +4 range, reduces -4 handling
-High Caliber Rounds: adds +3 range, reduces -5 handling
-Skip Rounds: adds +5 range, reduces -3 handling, adds +5 inventory
Take A Knee:
-Now activates after 0.5 seconds of crouching
-Added flinch reduction (25%) and increased aim down sights speed by 25%
Exhumed:
-Added an extra +5 seconds (15 seconds total) of effect time
Cascade:
-Functional change: melee kills automatically reload a portion of the magazine
Surplus:
-Now increases carried ammo capacity
Grave Robber:
-Increased proc chance to 25% (was 20%)
Guerrilla Fighter:
-Increased stability and range bonuses by 200% (think of it as bonus Hammer Forged and Perfect Balance when the perk activates)
Unflinching:
-Decreased efficacy of the perk from 25% flinch reduction to 15% flinch reduction
Firefly:
-Possible fix for crash related to special effects triggered by the Firefly perk
Exotic Weapons:
Universal Remote:
-Exotic Perk range bonus reduced by 75% (no longer guarantees maximum shotgun range)
-Increased rate-of-fire (decreased damage as a secondary effect)
Fabian Strategy:
-Kills with this weapon now automatically load a portion of the magazine
-Increased base range by 16%
-Increased base stability by 44%
Thorn:
-Reduced base range by 25%
Dreg’s Promise:
-Increased damage by 8%
-Increased magazine size by 3
Touch Of Malice:
-Touch of Malice’s self-damage infliction now removes Blessing of Light
No Time To Explain:
-Added intrinsic perk Headseeker
Boolean Gemini:
-Added intrinsic perk High Caliber Rounds
Armor:
-Fixed a bug causing +1 armor perks to sometimes fail to function
-Class items can now accept shaders
Activities:
Public Events:
-1x Legendary Engram(once level 40; upgrade engram before)
-15x Destination Materials
-15x Legendary Marks
-5x Motes of Light
-Very low chance of Exotic Shard
-4k XP – core, subclass, gear
-25x Vanguard Rep
Quests:
-Quest menu has been changed and renamed to Progress
-Record Books have been moved from the Materials on the Inventory menu to their own location in the Progress menu
-Quest, Bounty, and Reputation displays have been adjusted
Crucible:
-Legendary Engrams have been removed from the Crucible PGCR, so Crucible Legendary Weapons will drop significantly more often
-Fixed an issue where Crucible activity tooltips were showing the wrong icon
-Beowolf, Cicero and Gilgamesh Shaders can once again be acquired by completing Crucible matches
-Fixed some reward logic associated with vanity items from Shaxx Weekly package
-The Crucible Quest “Factions” New Monarchy will no longer ask the player to earn points in the Salvage playlist
-Crucible Quartermaster Weekly bounties have been removed
-Free Sterling Treasure from Weekly Crucible and Postmaster will be discontinued
-Sterling Treasure is still available from Prison of Elders and Eververse
Game Types:
-3v3 gametypes gives slightly less Heavy Ammo per brick
Trials Of Osiris:
-Trials of Osiris for Year 2 has ended. Trials of Osiris will resume in Rise of Iron on 9/30
Elimination:
-Heavy Ammo now only appears at one central location in Elimination matches
-Fixed a bug where the Heavy Ammo could persist through rounds if the Heavy Round ends before it can spawn
Salvage:
-Reduced initial Relic Capture spawn delay, from 15 to 10 seconds
-Reduced time between Relic spawns, from 25 to 15 seconds
-Reduced countdown time on enemy probe, from 45 to 30 seconds-
-Increased interaction radius on enemy probe, from 3 to 5 meters
-Increased successful sabotage score from 150 to 200 points
-Changed scoring so that now only the interacting player gets points for a successful sabotage
Rift:
-Added an overshield on player spawn to cut down on spawn-camping
-Extended runner damage resistance when picking up spark by a few seconds
Maps:
Rusted Lands/Vertigo/Crossroads:
-Added invisible physics to stop players from escaping intended playable area
Pantheon:
-Rotated lower Heavy Ammo crate to keep ammo from falling off the map
Blind Watch:
-Moved Elimination tiebreaker zone indoors to avoid bias towards Bravo
UI:
-Fireteam and players in current game session list have been combined and will display 12 players without needing to change pages
-Clan Roster has been added, but will not be immediately available
-The Inventory menu has been modified to add Ornaments
-Abandoned Quest Kiosk menu pagination now allows users to view more than the first page
Now lets sum up all the big, notable changes. First, the biggest controversy I hear about is the all around nerf to the sniper rifles. Snipers were still overused despite all the changes in the last 6 months. With the recent change to the flinch mechanic and damage output on the mid-impact snipers, we were not looking at some well-deserved logical balance Think of it this way, if you were aiming down a scope with a sniper and somebody gets the shot on you first, you should not be able to fire back accurately. Before patch 2.4.0, it was an annoying occurrence when you have the drop on a sniper and they miraculously turn around and get a perfect head shot on you winning the engagement.
Then we have the nerf to the exotic shotgun Universal Remote. This is an exotic shotgun you can equip in your primary slot. Needless to say, you never have a shortage of ammo. The nerf targets its range perk, which has been cut by 75%. Not the gun’s overall range, just the final range perk has been nerfed.
This is the largest patch we have seen since April and all the other changes and tweaks are relatively small, but needed. I am all for every one of these changes. Those that disagree are probably the ones who abuse these faults to their advantage. The only true disadvantage is that the big changes to sniping might encourage more shotguns instead of primary play, which I assume is the intent coming up to the Rise Of Iron Expansion. Stay tuned for more news and coverage of everything Destiny.
Source: bungie.net
