Destiny Update 2.0 Will Bring Major Changes to Exotic Weapons

Along side the heavily anticipated The Taken King DLC will be Destiny update 2.0 and with it will come some major changes to weapons and in turn, likely change the way you play the game. Bungie has heard our complaints loud and clear and auto rifles will once again become more powerful and finally useful again.

Auto Rifle:

Increase base damage
Start damage falloff closer to the player to emphasize its role as a close to medium range weapon
Small reduction in base stability. Landing shots at optimal range is unaffected, but repeated precision hits require more weapon control to land consistently
Boost damage by 10% against AI combatants

Along side tweaks to the auto rifle and other normal weapons in your arsenal, Bungie is making major tweaks to exotic weapons like Gjallarhorn, Thorn, and Ice Breaker. After the jump, the full break down of weapons in Destiny Update 2.0.

From Bungie:

We reduced the base stat value of a few targeted stats across various weapon types. Specifically, we focused on the stats for a given weapon type that typically enhance performance the most and made those starting values slightly lower. This means brand new Auto Rifles will have slightly less starting Stability, brand new Shotguns slightly less starting Range, etc. You still have lots of options to grow those stats as you spend time with a weapon. Also, this change is only being made to weapons newly available in The Taken King, so your base stats for everything from launch through House of Wolves remain consistent.

Normal Weapons

Auto Rifles

Increase base damage
Start damage falloff closer to the player to emphasize its role as a close to medium range weapon
Small reduction in base stability. Landing shots at optimal range is unaffected, but repeated precision hits require more weapon control to land consistently
Boost damage by 10% against AI combatants

Pulse Rifles

Reduce base damage of the medium RoF by about 2.5%; PVP: Bursts-to-kill (all precision hits) is 2 or 3, depending on victim’s Armor stat
Small reduction in base stability. A burst should still land all shots at optimal range, but three precision hits will require more weapon control to land consistently
Increase magazine size on for all base inventory stats

Scout Rifles

Increase base damage for medium to high Rate of Fire Scout Rifles; PVP: Does not affect TTK in PVP on a Guardian with full health
Increase magazine size for all base inventory stats
Reduce Final Accuracy when firing from hip; Fast firing outside of ADS will be less accurate
Boost damage by 5% against AI combatants

Hand Cannons

Start damage falloff closer to the player to limit long range lethality
Small reduction in ADS accuracy, targeted at making long range snap-shooting less reliable
Reduce final accuracy when firing from hip; Fast firing from hip is less reliable
Reduce magazine size for all base inventory stats
Reduce base Optics (zoom) for all Hand Cannons; ADS now grants more width in favor of depth

Shotguns

Shotgun perks that enhance lethality at range should be less effective when combined with a high initial Range stat: Reduce Shot Package Accuracy buff by 30%; Rangefinder adds a 5% base Range increase on ADS (was 20%)
Reduce Precision Damage multiplier on Shotguns by 10%
Reduce damage against AI combatants by 10%

Fusion Rifles

Slow charging, high Impact Fusion Rifles have decreased Range values; Makes it more difficult to max out Range for these weapons
Projectile Speed for Fusion Rifles is slightly reduced; Emphasizes the need to lead a targets outside medium range
Improve Accuracy for short range Fusion Rifles
Reduce Accuracy for long range Fusion Rifles

Sniper Rifles

Final Round on Sniper Rifles buffs precision damage only, not base damage; This change only affects this perk when combined with Sniper Rifles

Rocket Launchers

Slight increase in base Blast Radius.
Grenades and Horseshoes proximity detonation reduced.

Unlike the last weapon balance update, we’re taking this opportunity to address a few of our Exotic Weapons in tandem with the changes to the base weapon behavior. Fair warning: Some of these changes are intended to make you feel better while killing with the weapon, and some are intended to make you feel better while being killed by the weapon.

Exotic Weapons

Hard Light

Increase base Stability to 80 (was 65)
Increase bounce count for Hard Light projectiles
Hard Light projectiles are not affected by Damage Falloff

Necrochasm

Increase base Stability to 60 (was 40)
Increase magazine size
Cursebringer perk will always trigger on a precision kill
Cursebringer explosion has increased radius and deals more damage

The Last Word

Reduce Range stat to 10 (was 20), reduce Stability to 20 (was 30).
Reduce effective range while in ADS.
Increase accuracy and precision damage aim assist scale when firing from the hip. “Get three coffins ready.”
Fixed bugs with Hipfire damage bonus applying incorrectly

Thorn

Reduce base damage of Thorn’s Mark of the Devourer DoT (Damage over Time) to roughly 1/3 of what it was in PVP and PVE
Allow DoT to stack up to 5x across multiple landed projectiles: This is a net buff for Thorn’s DoT, but reduces the lethality of the weapon in PVP

Hawkmoon

Add a stack limit to Luck in the Chamber and Holding Aces so that only 2 of the bonus perks will ever stack on one round. This should prevent Hawkmoon from 1-hit killing full health players in PVP
Add 2 rounds to Hawkmoon’s magazine when Holding Aces is unlocked
Luck in the Chamber damage bonus reduced by 3%

Ice Breaker

Increase recharge time for Ice Breaker rounds to 1 every 8 seconds. Was 1 round every 5 seconds

No Land Beyond

Increase weapon handling speed for faster time to aim, ready, and stow
Adjust sights to fix overlap/parallax issue while aimed
Increase time decay of The Master to 8 seconds
Add an additional 20% Precision Damage bonus while The Master is active

Black Hammer

Increase ammo inventory to 18 rounds
White Nail perk now pulls ammo from your inventory

Lord of Wolves

Tripled recovery boost bonus for allies granted by Lord of Wolves

Gjallarhorn

Reduce damage of Wolfpack Rounds

For better or worse, some of our favorite weapons will either be reduced in powerful like the Gjallarhorn or slower ammo replenishment in the case of Ice Breaker. With every negative however, there are positives as well like less incentive in PVP for players to camp across the make with Ice Breaker and boosts to Hard Light and Black Hammer.