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30 June 2022
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THIS WEEK AT BUNGIE - 6/30/2022

This week at Bungie, we are getting ready for Grandmaster Nightfalls.

This year, and this Season, has been flying by. We hope that you can find moments of peace in your world this week, and do not forget we have a bunch of mental health resources here just in case things are feeling a little too heavy. We listed this last week as well, but your mental health is important Guardians, so another reminder never hurts.

This week is another light week for the TWAB, but we will be talking about the midseason weapons preview, Prime Gaming Drops, a fun final message (for this month!) from the Pride Strike Team, and a quick reminder that Grandmaster Nightfalls are starting up next week!

So, hold onto your Ghosts, Guardian, and let's get into it!

Tune Those Weapons

First up, we want to talk a little bit about the midseason weapons preview.

Today we are talking about a few changes coming to some of our weapons, exotics, and airborne effectiveness (AE) as well. We may have some opportunities in the near future to answer more questions, so we do ask that you continue to keep us updated on your thoughts and ideas over on socials and in the forums.

So, without further ado, here is the Senior Design Lead, Chris Proctor:

Chris Proctor: G'day, Chris Proctor here. We've spent a lot of playtest time in Season 18, and decided to bring some of the changes into an earlier release.

We expect these changes to shift the PvP meta a little for the month or so before Season 18 launches, and we have another set of changes coming then (smaller of course since we moved some of them to Solstice).

TL; DR

Buffs
  • Airborne Effectiveness:
    • Improved baseline airborne accuracy and aim-assist for all Primary weapons.
    • Added a static airborne effectiveness buff to some existing perks.
    • Raised the base AE stat on several Exotic weapons.
  • Tuned up some underperforming Primary weapon subfamilies in PvP.
  • Increased pellet Shotgun damage in PvE.
  • Increased ammo per Special brick for Glaives, Forerunner and Eriana's Vow in PvP.
  • Linear Fusion Rifles no longer receive increased flinch in PvE (will still receive increased flinch in PvP).


Nerfs
  • Tuned down some overperforming Exotics in PvP.

Airborne Effectiveness (AE) on Primary Weapons

We were cautious about making weapons too easy to use while airborne at Season 17 launch, preferring to take some time to evaluate and then buff accordingly, rather than having to nerf. We've seen this play out in the game for several weeks now and are confident that we can safely, significantly decrease the airborne accuracy and aim-assist penalties on Primary weapons.
  • Reduced airborne penalties for all Primary weapons—these changes are roughly equivalent to increasing the base AE stat of Primary weapons by ~15 at low stat values
    • Reduced airborne accuracy penalty at low AE by 20%-40% dependent on weapon type.
      • Auto Rifle, Pulse Rifle, Scout Rifle, Submachine Gun - 40%.
      • Hand Cannon, Sidearm - 20%.
      • Bow - 30%.
    • Reduced airborne aim assist penalties for the above weapon types and changed the stat scale to provide more benefit to each point
      • Reduced airborne auto-aim (bullet bending, M+K and controller) penalty by 20%.
      • Reduced airborne magnetism (reticle stickiness, controller only) penalty by 40%.
  • Some perks now give a static AE stat buff in addition to their other effects.
    • Air Assault: +10 AE at all times in addition to +60 (for 70 AE total) when at low health.
    • Extended Mag: +10 AE.
    • Steady Rounds: +7 AE.
  • Raised the base AE stat on several Exotic weapons (listed in the Exotics section below).

Weapon Archetypes

Hand Cannons:
  • Precision (180 RPM) Hand Cannons have languished for quite a while, and we took some time to soften their time to kill in PvP. In playtesting we find this makes them a lot more competitive, particularly with their innate +25 bonus to AE.
  • Increased body shot damage from 37 to 40, crit moves from 57 to 60.
  • Can now kill in 2 crit 2 body against Guardians, kills in 1.33s in body shots.

Auto Rifles:
  • Precision (450 RPM) Auto Rifles have fallen behind other AR subfamilies, partly because they were more reliant on hitting a higher proportion of crits to reach their optimal time to kill.
  • Increased body shot damage from 19 to 20, precision multiplier moves from 1.6 to 1.5 (crit damage stays the same at 30).

Scout Rifles:
  • While we don't want Scout Rifles to be too effective (we generally don't want long range weapons to compete with short range weapons for ease of use or time to kill) there's some room to make Scout Rifles a little better in PvP and add some Primary weapon competition to snipers at longer ranges, so we've adjusted two of the Scout Rifle subfamilies: Precision and High-Impact.
  • Precision (180 RPM).
    • Increased body damage from 34 to 38, crit moves from 54.4 to 60.8.
    • Can 2 crit 2 body against 197 HP (health + shields) or lower, kills in 1.33s in body shots against 190 HP or lower, 1.67s against higher resilience's.
  • High Impact (150 RPM).
    • Increased body damage from 38.2 to 42, crit moves from 66.9 to 73.5.
    • Can 2 crit 1 body against 189 HP or lower, kills in 1.60s in body shots.

Shotguns:
  • Pellet Shotguns felt like they could use some love in PvE.
  • Increased pellet Shotgun PvE damage bonus from 10% to 25%.

Linear Fusion Rifles:
  • The flinch increase on Linear Fusion Rifles was fairly effective, but since it was global it hurt their usability in PvE—we've made a change that applies this increased flinch to damage coming only from players instead.

Glaives:
  • When scavenger mods were disabled in PvP, Glaives were no longer able to get enough ammo for a kill from a single brick, we've corrected that issue.
  • Increased ammo per Special brick from 1 to 2 in PvP.
  • Damage scalars on Trace Rifles (Killing Tally, Ager's Scepter in Will Given Form mode), Eriana's Vow and Fighting Lion were not functioning as intended—the fix for this will restore that functionality for most weapons, but an update to Fighting Lion will come later, currently planned for Season 18 launch (note that this issue may also have affected other weapons or perks).

Exotics

  • Lorentz Driver is still oppressive to play against, and we wanted to address this more thoroughly.
    • Reduced aim assist stat from 32 to 22.
    • Reduced suction against players.
    • Removed the universal 2x flinch nerf from the previous change, since we've changed flinch for all Linear Fusion Rifles (see above)—this change also applies to Arbalest.
  • Gjallarhorn is much too dominant as a Heavy weapon choice in PvP and Gambit, due to proximity detonation making it very easy to use, and Wolfpack Rounds finishing Guardians who should be far enough away to be safe.
    • Primary rocket no longer has proximity detonation.
    • Wolfpack Rounds now deal half-damage to players.
  • The Last Word has reached a usage level on controller where it warranted some adjustment—with this change it will be a little harder to land crits while hip-firing, and it will be less deadly at extended range.
    • Reduced hip fire precision aim angle by 50%.
    • Precision aim angle dictates how far off of the head you can be aimed and still have aim assist grant you a critical hit instead of a body shot.
    • Reduced damage and aim assist falloff distance by 3m.
  • Forerunner was getting 3 ammo per Special brick in PvP—technically enough for a kill, but this was unforgiving, we've bumped it up a little. At the same time, it was getting full ammo from a single Special brick in PvE, which gave it extremely high uptime.
    • Increased ammo per Special brick from 3 to 4 in PvP.
    • Reduced ammo per Special brick from max to ~16 in PvE.
  • Eriana's Vow was getting 1 ammo per Special brick in PvP, not enough for a kill.
    • Increased ammo per Special brick from 1 to 2 in PvP.
  • We're evaluating the airborne effectiveness stat on Exotic weapons, keeping in mind that they can't equip the Icarus Grip mod, and decided to bump several up to be more competitive.
    • SUROS Regime from 23 to 31.
    • Whisper of the Worm from 9 to 20.
    • Monte Carlo from 21 to 29.
    • Forerunner from 22 to 27.

Prime Gaming (Mic) Drop

Some of you may remember back in the day (early Destiny 1) where you could only swap out one of your emotes, and the other three remained the same. Now in Destiny 2, we get to have four emotes all at once and honestly, this month's Prime Gaming (mic) Drop is going to fit it perfectly with the others.

Don't know what I'm talking about? Well, here's the quick summary: Sign up for Prime Gaming, link your Bungie.net account, get the sweet cosmetics listed below, with more rewards coming in future months. Seems simple, right? Well... it is! Lined up for this month, we have a clean Sparrow, a ship and Ghost, and the best mic drop you've seen this side of the Tower.

Pride Strike Team

Hi friends! We are back with the Pride Strike Team for the final update in June. This week we are talking a little bit about our Pride in the Park event!

As the Bungie Pride Strike Team got together to plan our Pride month events, it became clear that we needed an event that not only represented Bungie culture of "stronger, together" but also represented Bungie's commitment to Pride and community. A handful of cross-disciplinary members from the Pride Strike Team got together and quickly assembled a fun event in Bellevue Square Park with catered food, games, and most importantly: Bungie people! The event was such a smashing success that we're already planning to revisit it next year and keep Pride alive as a part of Bungie's company culture!

And once more as we wrap up Pride month, we wanted to share our Be True emblem. Share this code, wear your emblem with Pride, and we will see you over the next few months as we share more of our Pride year-round.

Grandmasters, Your Time Has Come

Grandmaster Nightfalls are returning next week, bringing some of our most challenging PvE content back into the mix. Next week will be your chance to finish up your Conqueror title (possibly gild it!) and earn some awesome loot. We also wanted to remind you that if you get error-coded out of a non-matchmade Nightfall (any level), you will now rejoin after logging back in. While in this state, you won't be able to change builds or equipment in the game, the app, or on any third-party websites. Good luck out there, Guardians!

PLAYER SUPPORT REPORT

The Vanguard has pretty okay mental health coverage, all things considered.

Another week and another report from our magical Player Support Team! They have a handful of issues to report on and some of you were asking about your GCX emblem; good news, that's in here too!

This is their report.

Known Issues List | Help Forums | Bungie Help Twitter  

GCX CHARITY EMBLEM DISTRIBUTION

Earlier this week, emblem rewards were distributed to players who donated to the GCX St. Jude charity celebration. Players who donated can locate the emblems under Collections > Flair > General.

KNOWN ISSUES

While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help forum:
  • Investigator and Gumshoe rare armor sets are incorrectly appearing as available to unlock for Armor Synthesis when not yet acquired in Collections.
  • Arc Siphon does not successfully count as an Arc mod for activating secondary perks on Arc Charged with Light mods.
  • Dialogue for Nessus patrols may not successfully play on patrol activation.
  • Rahool displays incorrect error messages when players attempt to acquire certain items with a full inventory.
  • Players who haven't picked up their Prime Gaming items from Amanda Holliday's inventory for several drops can't view her inventory anymore.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum. 

Leg Day!

How about them movies?

Bruno: I think a lot of us Guardians still have nightmares about Rhulk's kicks. This is a reminder to never get to close to him and a way to keep alive meme that will never die.

Ivan: I am impressed how well music connects with the action in this #MOTW. I wish my guns would be more loyal to me when I'm trying to land headshots. ;)

Movie of the Week: Your Light Dances Away

Movie of the Week: 'Loyal' by twist Ft. Babs

Cosplay, Knitting, and Legos, Oh My!

Hippy: Y'all already know my love of cosplay, I talk about it enough and probably a smidge too much, so when I saw this particular build of Atraks, it was a no brainer. That being said, LEGO is always a good time, and I couldn't pick just the one, so I've got a b-b-b-bonus round once more, just because.

Sam: Something about Guardians and knitting and I'm just a little puddle of love over here right now, don't mind me.

But real talk, this Season has been pretty dark, in more ways than one, so seeing sweet Crow frustrated with knitting (which as a crochet-main myself, knitting is so much harder IMO) just made my heart warm up.

Art of the Week: Atraks Cosplay Goes Hard

Art of the Week: Newfound Family

Bonus Art of the Week: LEGO Caiatl

My first TWAB in the books, we did it! This past week has been pretty jam-packed on the website, between our Tech Blog, a Community Focus, our Consumer Products NERF article, and this week's TWAB—goodness gracious we have been writing a lot!

As for next week, we do have some Bungie Day plans, but I really don't want to spoil the surprise so you're just going to have to wait. Oh! Don't forget to please keep sharing your #ShredsOfLight cosplays over on socials. The number of times we have giggled in a meeting because of one of your wildly creative cosplays is too many to count. Stay crafty, (get it, because cosplay, heh), Guardians.

*high fives*
Sam

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