Summary
Bungie teases a new sandbox upcoming coming toDestiny 2on May 6, revealing a few changes coming to exotic armor and weapons like Lord of Wolves. It’s an exciting time forDestiny 2fans as May 6 aims to be a very important date to keep an eye on, bringing a new reset to the game and now a major update.
May 6 is also a special day for players as Bungie will be revealing the first-ever details for Codename: Frontiers, the next chapter of the franchise. Kicking things off will be theEdge of Fate expansion forDestiny 2and Bungie is set to reveal the upcoming expansion next week, likely a release date as well. Just this week, players finished a community event in the game, unlocking a cinematic featuring the Drifter and teasing even more story details. As fans continue to wait, the latestblog post from Bungiehighlighted big sandbox changes coming toDestiny 2next week.
A big sandbox update is scheduled to arrive on May 6 and with the weeklyDestiny 2blog post, Bungie provided a few previews of what players can expect. As expected, there appears to be numerous weapon and gear changes, including various exotics, like Alethonym, Truth, Two-Tailed Fox, and Riskrunner all getting buffs. Lord of Wolves is seeing a nerf to its hip fire damage in PvE activities, whileSundered Doctrine’s unique exotic known as Finality’s Augerwill likely be much smoother to use after a bunch of quality of life improvements.
In terms of exotic armor, theHunter’s Radiant Dance Machines are seeing more changesafter previous tweaks. Specifically, the exotic performs differently for Mouse and Keyboard players versus controller users, something which Bungie is keen on addressing. Lunafaction Boots are also being adjusted and the Lion Rampant is seeing a buff to help it become less niche than it currently is.
In addition to these exotic changes, this update also takes aim at another weapon that has already seen numerous changes. Even after pastchanges to Redrix’s Estoc pulse rifle inDestiny 2, Bungie is once again poised to make adjustments as the weapon continues to be an issue in middle and lower skill lobbies. Instead of targeting Redrix’s Estoc directly, Bungie announced changes to all weapons with the Legacy Frame Origin Trait, reducing the ADS damage fallout scalar by 0.1, putting them in line with High Impact style pulse rifles.
Destiny 2 Update 8.2.6 Exotic Gear Changes Preview
Lord of Wolves
Lord of Wolves has been an absolute beast within the realm of PvE for many months now. Both Atheon and Templar have been shaking in their proverbial boots whenever Guardians readied their weapons for DPS phases.
While we found Lord of Wolves wasfaroutperforming where we wanted it to be, we decided to let this ride for most of Heresy for a fun little “meta” time period.With Rite of the Nine arriving soon, it is time to rein it in.
Riskrunner
Riskrunner has long been a low-zoom outlier as far as SMGs go, so we wanted to bring it more in line with other options alongside the buff it will be getting to range as part of the Adaptive SMG changes listed above.
Truth and Two Tailed Fox
Rocket Launchers rarely compete in Crucible as viable Heavy options against LFRs and LMGs but giving them more ammo from crates is not a decision we would make lightly. To test the waters, we have selected two Exotic Rocket Launchers that will get additional ammo from Heavy crates in PvP.
Alethonym
Creating an ammo brick drained all of the weapon’s energy which prevented the player from creating two special ammo bricks when at 100% energy. We’ve adjusted the cost of the special ammo brick to 50% to allow the player to create another special brick if they desire.
Finality’s Auger
We’ve added some quality-of-life changes that should make using this weapon an overall smoother experience.
Hunter
Radiant Dance Machines
The goal of the RDM’s rework was to introduce a new style of gameplay into PvP, centered around aggressive, close-range play with Primary weapons. While this has happened in practice, and we have received a large amount of feedback that the playstyle itself is fun to use, we need to verify that at its peak it is still in band with the other playstyles that exist in high-end Crucible gameplay.
Unfortunately, due to differences between the input devices, the current tuning for RDM continues to remain problematic on mouse and keyboard (MnK) while being significantly less effective on controller (The Last Word excluded, which has been addressed in the tuning specifically below). The usage reflects this, with RDMs seeing 45% higher usage on mouse and keyboard. MnK already benefits from having significantly higher aim assist, accuracy, and stability while hip firing than controller does, and stacking those benefits with the ones from RDM is allowing some weapons to perform outside of their intended bounds.
Long term, we want to investigate moving the two inputs to be more equal in terms of hip firing efficacy at base, but for now, we are going to significantly reduce the benefits granted by RDMs. We believe these values will still allow players to engage in hip fire combat, albeit at a more limited range window and with additional investment needed in the form of perks or mods to achieve a similar level of strength.
In addition, so that Hunter’s don’t have all the hip firing fun, we are going to grant the hip fire range and accuracy benefits for Primary weapons (post-reduction) to an Exotic each on Warlock and Titan, which will be discussed below.
Titan
Lion Rampant
Lion Rampant has long been a niche Exotic, and since it already dealt with hip firing effectiveness, we thought they would be a great candidate for this buff. For a second buff, we are also allowing the Airborne Effectiveness bonus provided by the Exotic to be active even when ADS, so it is no longer limited to hip firing while airborne.
Note: The description will be updated to reflect the new functionality in a future patch.
Warlock
Lunafaction Boots
Lunafaction Boots similarly sees low usage in Crucible, and when it does it is almost always to show off an extremely long-range Slug Precision Shotgun or Fusion Rifle kill. While those instances are funny, we don’t believe they are generally acceptable for PvP play, so we have reduced the range benefits while standing in an Empowering Rift for Crucible only. In its place, we have added the benefits to hip firing Primary ammo weapons, which are always active.
Destiny 2
WHERE TO PLAY
Dive into the world of Destiny 2 to explore the mysteries of the solar system and experience responsive first-person shooter combat. Unlock powerful elemental abilities and collect unique gear to customize your Guardian’s look and playstyle. Enjoy Destiny 2’s cinematic story, challenging co-op missions, and a variety of PvP modes alone or with friends. Download for free today and write your legend in the stars.An Immersive StoryYou are a Guardian, defender of the Last City of humanity in a solar system under siege by infamous villains. Look to the stars and stand against the darkness. Your legend begins now.Guardian ClassesChoose from the armored Titan, mystic Warlock, or swift Hunter.
