I Was Right About The Upcoming 2.0.0 Update Changes. Kinda.

What an exciting week it was to be a Destiny fan. Bungie finally gave Destiny players some concrete(ish) information around the upcoming changes to weapon balance coming up in the 2.0.0 patch, and it wasn’t exactly what everyone was expecting.

If you follow the scene, a lot of people (myself included) expected a handful of popular weapons such as The Last Word and Thorn to see some nerfs. We expected to see other weapon classes to get buffed across the board to level the playing field but I don’t think anyone predicted some of the changes that we actually saw come from Bungie at all.

There are so many changes inbound so this will be a highlight of some of them. Aimed with information from Bungie themselves, let’s take a quick look at how the changes are set to pan out in line with my predictions on the importance getting these adjustments right.

The key component that I think a lot of people were looking for in any changes to the game were changes that would allow for a wider array of weapons to be used competitively. Buffing weapon classes as a whole was definitely something I saw coming.

Auto Rifle fans rejoice!

Many people in the community love auto rifles and will be happy to see that they are going to finally see some adjustments to help them be more of a valid option. The increase to base damage is actually very key in this weapon class being able to stand ‘toe-to-toe’ with other heavy hitters. Sometimes buffs come in the form of nerfs elsewhere. Hand cannons will not be able to ‘snipe’ in the way they have been able to so previously and this will also help in seeing a rise in auto rifle usage.

Having said that, Bungie have said they will not be in line with how they worked before and I think that’s correct. There is no point in nerfing something overpowered and overpowering something else. The idea here is balance and we see that exemplified by the range and stability reductions. Understanding optimal ranges will allow this class to shine once more, while keeping it in check with others.

Looking at hand cannon as a weapon class, we see here that it isn’t quite the same picture as we saw for auto rifles but this was to be expected. Hand cannons currently function in a way outside of that of what they were designed to do. At times it’s more than possible to go head-to-head with scout rifles that should have superior ranges and accuracy. In PvE this is also an issue because weapons like Fatebringer are just so powerful and have better base damage stats than scout rifles (not to mention perks). These reductions in range and clip size now mean players have to think more carefully about the places they pick their fights and I do agree with the concept of these changes.

“One pull at at time..”

All the other weapon types are getting tweaked, too. You can read more about those on Bungie’s page. It’s clear that the new age of Destiny that Bungie wants us all to be excited about is one of perhaps ‘fairer’ warfare. Shotgun range will see a definite nerf and longer range gun play is set to take center stage. There were many changes to how exotic weapons will also be tweaked, and an in-depth look at those will be coming soon, so stay tuned for that. One thing’s for sure though. Everything is set to change – big time!

What do you think these blanket changes will do to the game? Sound off in the comments or fire those shots directly to me at @Black2DaFutureZ – opinions of any shape and size are welcome. I also stream pretty regularly so follow me there or on twitch.tv/black2dafuturez for updates on stream times.