Bungie Is About To Rebalance A Bunch Of Destiny 2 Guns

Bungie has been buzzing for a while now that it'll release a big weapon rebalancing patch for Destiny 2. We now have some details about what the developer is planning, with a number of the upcoming tweaks coming in a mid-season patch planned for July 6. Shotguns and some hand cannons are getting tweaked to be less dominant in the Crucible, and other special weapons should be more viable--at least in certain situations.

The upcoming changes were laid out in a This Week at Bungie blog post, which gives a broad-strokes look at the update without drilling too deep into actual patch notes. There are quite a few changes coming, though, including tweaks to perks and a few Exotics, as well as some particular gun archetypes.

Bungie says it's looking to adjust special weapons in general, so that all guns in the secondary slot for players are viable in specific situations, but not all the time. The idea is that, if you're up close, a shotgun is a great choice; at a range and without incoming fire, you're free to snipe. But get caught out of position using the wrong type of gun, and you should be at a distinct disadvantage. Right now, a lot of weapons feel more or less essential to Crucible play--if you're not carrying a shotgun, in a lot of situations, you're probably going to get busted by someone who is.

As things stand, shotguns--and especially Aggressive Frame shotguns--are pretty dominant in PvP. Bungie's looking to make other brands of shotgun a little more useful by making aggressive shotguns a little less likey to drop players in one shot unless you're really close and playing well, while making more shotguns effective to kill players in two shots at slightly longer ranges:

• Increased Aggressive Frame Shotgun cone angle from 4.0 to 4.25 degrees.
• Reduced Shotgun damage falloff min by 2m.
• Increased Shotgun damage falloff max by 2m.
• Note: Slug Shotguns are unaffected by this change.

Meanwhile, hand cannons that fire 120 rounds per minute, otherwise known as Aggressive Frame hand cannons, have pretty much dominated the meta for a while now. Bungie wants to tweak them so other guns, including scout rifles, assault rifles, and pulse rifles, are also good bets in the Crucible:

• Reduced precision damage multiplier from 1.8 to 1.6, preventing a 10% damage bonus from allowing two-tapping in PvP.
• Reduced aim assist minimum falloff distance by 1-2m depending on the Range stat.
• Reduced damage minimum falloff distance by 1m (this reduces their damage falloff advantage over other Hand Cannons to 1m (as usual, this is 1m before the zoom scalar).

Meanwhile, last season's Exotic scout rifle, Dead Man's Tale, has been a go-to gun in all branches of the Crucible, edging out a lot of other weapons because of how strong, fast, and accurate it is when firing from the hip (provided, that is, you got its Exotic catalyst). Bungie is nerfing DMT a bit to make it less dominant, removing the damage drop-off scalar that made it as effective shooting from the hip as aiming down the sights:

• Removed hip-fire damage falloff scalar (was 1.8x to match zoom).
• Aim Assist cone angle hip scalar reduced from 1.5 to 1.2.

Those are the major changes, although other tweaks are happening for a lot of other weapons that are less precise. Bungie wants to adjust all special weapons for Crucible play, and we might be seeing more of those changes in the future rather than next week. Some perks are also getting fixes and adjustments--and one, Drop Mag, is getting disabled for a time while Bungie tweaks it, so no new guns will drop with the perk for a while. There's also the suggestion that Bungie means to decrease the amount of Special ammo available in Crucible matches, to lessen the reliance on special weapons like sniper rifles, trace rifles, fusion rifles, shotguns, and breech-loading grenade launchers.

Other changes are coming to a bunch of Exotics that see a ton of use. The Exotic grenade launcher Anarchy, which has become a de facto boss damage gun for all high-level activities, is probably going to see the biggest nerf.

"Anarchy has done too much too well for too many years (without even counting the boost it's gotten this Season, which is due to the sweet Grenade Launcher artifact mods), so we're making changes that make it great at a couple roles rather than being the jack of all Grenade Launchers," Bungie wrote.

You can read the full rundown of changes on Bungie's blog, as well as more details about what else is coming in the July 6 patch and what Bungie hopes to do with guns in the future.