THIS WEEK AT BUNGIE - 8/11/2022

This week at Bungie, we have Sandbox updates.

Happy TWABsday, Guardians! First off, how is it already the second week in August? Secondly, how are we almost to the next Season?! Good news is you still have time to wrap up your Seasonal title (I am only missing one more triumph) and think about what you are going to wear for Arc 3.0. I can't choose between Geomag Stabilizers and Crown of Tempests, but sound off on socials and let us know what you're trying out first!

Alright, I think we should get into the actual TWAB now, so let's get to it, Guardians!

Weapons & Things

First up, we are going to jump right into the Sandbox changes, so let me hand it over to one of our associate designers on the Sandbox team, Mercules!

Hello everyone, Mercules here. We moved a good bit of the balance changes from Season 18 forward to the mid-Season patch of Season 17, so this will be a bit lighter of a weapons-Sandbox TWAB than usual. That being said, there are still some changes we're really excited about, so let's dive in!

TL;DR:

• Buffed some under-utilized weapon archetypes:
  • Scout Rifles and Heavy Grenade Launchers in PvE.
  • High-Impact Auto Rifles.
  • Lightweight Bows.
• Buffed multiple perks, fixed some bugged perks, and updated some perk descriptions to be more accurate.
• Buffed multiple Exotic weapons.
  • Added intrinsic Anti-Champion functionality to some.
• Reworked a couple of Exotic weapons whose functionality was causing issues.
• Updated the perk pools for Dares of Eternity weapons and gave them a new origin trait.

Global Changes

• Fixed an issue introduced in the 30th Anniversary update that caused too much Heavy ammo to drop when running double Special weapons.
• Several weapon stats were previously hidden, which made fully evaluating weapons difficult.
  • Airborne effectiveness, recoil direction, zoom, and aim assist are now visible in the weapon inspection screen.

Weapon Archetypes

• Scout Rifles - We felt they could still use a bit of love in PvE.
  • Increased damage of all Scout Rifles vs. Minor enemies (red bars) in PvE by 10%.
    • This change is in addition to the baseline damage buff given in the Solstice balance patch.
• High-Impact (360 RPM) Auto Rifles - This sub-family of Auto Rifles has good damage output but low ease of use, leading them to under-perform compared to other options in the same engagement ranges.
  • Increased base stability stat of all non-sunset High-Impact Auto Rifles by 6-12, depending on the weapon (numerically this may seem like a small change, but it noticeably changes the feel of the weapons).
• Lightweight Bows - This subfamily has languished compared to their higher damage counterparts for some time, in part due to difficulty hitting perfect draw shots, so we've made it a bit easier.
  • Reduced base draw time by 5% (from 612ms to 580ms).
  • Increased the "perfect draw" window (how long you can hold the drawn Bow before you begin to lose accuracy and damage, stability modifies this window).
    • From .30s to .50s on the low end.
    • From .55s to .80s on the high end.
• Hand Cannons - Fixed Dire Promise's zoom stat (got changed to 13 inadvertently, it's now 14 again).
• Glaives - Their interactions with some Exotic armor pieces can be confusing, so we've explicitly made some changes to align better with our stated goals.
  • Glaive melee attacks can now activate the Exotic armor perks on ACD/0 Feedback Fence, Karnstein Armlets, and Necrotic Grip.
• Breech Grenade Launchers - Concussion grenades can no longer roll in the magazine slot (blinding grenades are a better option in the same slot that serves the same purpose).
• Heavy Grenade Launchers - These don't see a ton of support in PvE, so we hope this makes them feel a bit better as a DPS or yellow-bar clearing option.
  • Increased damage vs. Majors and above by ~10% (excluding Parasite, which does not need to do more damage).

Weapon Pools

• Updated the perk pools for Dares of Eternity weapons and added an origin trait.
• Addressed an issue where playlist (Crucible, Gambit, and strike) weapons weren't randomizing individual perk column's perk counts correctly based on number of resets.

Perks

• The Gambit and Iron Banner origin traits were too specific to be generally useful, so they've both been redesigned.
  • Invader Tracker (Gambit Origin Trait)
    • Renamed Gun and Run.
    • Redesigned functionality to give a sprint speed increase on multi-kills.
  • Skulking Wolf (Iron Banner Origin Trait)
    • Redesigned to activate on kills while at low health (so it will work in all PvP now).
• Ambitious Assassin has fallen behind perks with similar functionality (such as Overflow)—we've adjusted this to have a higher potential than before.
  • Increased magazine overflow from 10% to 20% per kill on Primary weapons only (Special and Heavy weapons are still 10%).
  • Increased overflow cap from 50% to 150%.
• Wellspring had an internal cooldown to prevent it from activating too frequently—we no longer feel this is needed.
  • Cooldown has been removed, allowing for Rocket Launchers and Grenade Launchers to return more ability energy when defeating groups with a single shot.
• Perpetual Motion was triggering frequently enough to be annoying, so we disabled audio/visual feedback on perk activation.
• Lead from Gold wasn't respecting the functionality of splitting the Special ammo picked up when two Special weapons were equipped.
  • Now gives the correct amount of ammo to each weapon when two Special weapons are equipped.
• Concussion Grenades can no longer roll on breech Grenade Launchers.
• Veist Stinger was intended to grant ammo on weapons that support it, and charge/draw time on Bows only, this was inadvertently applying to Linear Fusion Rifles as well, making it too strong for an origin trait on them.
  • Fixed a bug where it was applying a charge time reduction to Linear Fusion Rifles—it will correctly only refill the magazine from reserves when it triggers on these weapons.
• Zen Moment has always had a description that confused players (Particle Repeater too). Their descriptions have been updated to say what they actually do.

Exotics

Buffs

• We've added anti-Champion functionality to several weapons, with the goal of giving more options for each Champion type, split across weapon slot and ammo type—we expect to do this from time to time in the future as well.
  • Le Monarque
    • Added intrinsic Overload to Poison Arrows.
  • Thunderlord
    • Added intrinsic Overload.
  • Malfeasance
    • Added intrinsic Unstoppable to explosions.
    • Added +25 to the base airborne effectiveness stat (28 to 53) to match other precision Hand Cannon's intrinsic bonus.
  • Wish-ender
    • Added intrinsic Anti-Barrier.
    • Increased number of hits vs most targets from 2 to 3 (more hits against vehicles, still 2 against players).
    • Increased damage vs. Champions, majors, and minibosses by 10%.
    • Draw time decreased from 828ms to 820ms.
  • Ticuu's Divination gets a free, small buff from the global lightweight Bow changes.
    
    • Draw time decreased from 612 to 580.
  • Legend of Acrius has fallen far behind other Heavy, short-range weapons and warrants a buff.
    • Catalyst now grants the Trench Barrel perk in addition to its other effects.
    • Different versions of the Exotic Paired Legendary Weapons didn't have matching stats, so we have brought them up to parity.
  • Calus Mini-Tool
    • Increased airborne effectiveness from 23 to 28 to match MIDA Mini-Tool.
  • MIDA Mini-Tool
    • Increased zoom from 13 to 14 to match Calus Mini-Tool.
  • Drang (Baroque)
    • Increased airborne effectiveness from 21 to 23 to match standard Drang.
  • Sweet Business
    • Increased airborne effectiveness from 27 to 32.
  • Fighting Lion's Season 17 5% damage buff was rolled back as part of a fix for a larger bug, this is being reintroduced and increased.
    • Now receives the intended buff, increased from 5% to 8%.
    • Increased the grace time for the instant reload effect of Thin the Herd from 5 to 6s.

Reworks

• Lord of Wolves - Lord of Wolves has long been a thorn in the side of PvP players, especially when paired with certain Exotic armor pieces. We have changed the amount of ammo it starts with, and reduced the damage dealt to players. This is part one of a larger rework aimed at making it a more viable PvE Exotic without increasing its effectiveness in PvP.
  • Decreased starting ammo in PvP from 15 to 10 (PvE unchanged).
  • Reduced the burst size (shots fired per trigger pull) from 10 to 5 shots when Release the Wolves is active.
  • Reduced the burst delay (the time between bursts) by 60% when Release the Wolves is active.
  • Decreased Lord of Wolves base damage by ~20% (now deals 35 per shot to the body in PvP, 44 with Release the Wolves active).
  • Increased damage in PvE by 20% to compensate.
• Dead Man's Tale - The Cranial Spike perk was causing issues with unintended damage scalars against players, and generally felt unpredictable both to use and to fight against. It also wasn't quite landing the "hip-firing cowboy rifle" fantasy as strongly as we wanted to, so we reworked it to lean more into fast-firing hip-fire.
  • Changed Cranial Spike's effects:
  • Cranial Spike no longer buffs damage vs. players, instead it grants increased reload, aim assist, and range per stack.
  • It still grants additional damage vs. PvE combatants.
  • Upon reaching max stacks of Cranial Spike, the catalyst will now increase hip-fire RPM by 50 (i.e., it will fire at 180 RPM) but will deal reduced damage per bullet (20% decrease).
• Collective Obligation - We are aiming to make the Exotic perk effects easier to activate and more effective in PvE.
  
  • Increased Void Leech timer to 15 seconds in PvE activities.
    • PVP remains at 10 seconds.
  • Removed the cooldown.
  • Added a 20% damage bonus against PvE combatants only while Void Leech is active.
  • Takes less hits to fully charge Void Leech.
  • Kills against debuffed targets instantly charge Void Leech.
  • Void Leech is also instantly charged when your character is affected by Void debuffs.
    • Does not work if hitting yourself with your own Suppressor Grenade.
  • Fixed a bug where Umbral Sustenance was activating with non-Void overshields.

Armor

• In Update 6.2.0.1 (more on this in version update in the Player Support section), we will be reducing the effectiveness of damage resistance used by Omnioculus and Whisper of Chains in PvP (PvE damage resistance is unchanged).
  • Tier 1: 10% to 2.5%
  • Tier 2: 15% to 5%
  • Tier 3: 20% to 7.5%
  • Tier 4: 25% to 10%

Things we are looking at addressing in the future (Season 18 mid-Season patch or Season 19):

• Reducing Shotgun spread randomness.
• Reducing Bow-swapping effectiveness.
• Increasing Trace Rifle ease of use.
• Introducing the full-auto setting.
• Reducing the ability of Snipers to shoot through flinch in PvP.
• Examining some small, targeted balance changes to certain PvP outliers.
  • Pulse Rifles with out of band effectiveness.
  • High Impact Scout Rifle ease of use.
  • Precision Fusion Rifle ease of use.
• Allowing Glaive interactions with some Exotic armors that buff melees.
• Fixing Glaive hit detection.
• Reworking some enhanced perks.
• Folding Spec mods into the base perks.

Player Support Team Reporting Their Reports

RIP Update 4.2.0

[Drum roll] Our Player Support team is ready to go and here to share some information about a few things they have on their radar. Can we also just say a super big thank you to the Player Support team? Because honestly, they are some pretty cool cats. 😊

Known Issues List | Help Forums | Bungie Help Twitter

DESTINY 2 PATCH NUMBER UPDATE

Starting on August 23, 2022, Destiny 2 patch numbers will be changing for all patches going forward, with Update 6.2.0 being released for Season 18. For context, Destiny's launch was known as Update 1.0.0 and The Taken King was 2.0.0. Work began on Destiny 2 before Rise of Iron was created, so to keep all numbers moving forward, Destiny 2's launch was internally known as 3.0.0. Every big expansion added to the update number since, with The Witch Queen internally known as Update 6.0.0.

To help alleviate internal confusion regarding what the public-facing patch numbers are, and to bring our internal and external patch numbers into parity, we are making this change for all patch numbers moving forward.

TEXT CHAT UPDATE

As of last week, text chat has been reenabled across all platforms. Players who observe other issues with this feature should report them to our #Help forum.

CLAIM YOUR (IN GAME) REWARDS

Players should make sure to claim all engrams and other rewards before the new Season begins. Any rewards not claimed from ritual vendors (Zavala, Shaxx, Drifter, and Saint-14) will be removed at the beginning of the next Season.

KNOWN ISSUES

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.

Shoot to Loot

Ivan: One, two, three, you got goosebumps! The amount of awesomeness of this video can only be matched by the amount of traps in Grasp of Avarice (infinity). Eric, thank you for such a gem!

Movie of the Week: Destiny 2--Grasp of Avarice (Violin/Guitar/Piano Cover)

Bruno: We all have favorite guns, mods and perks. And we all remember the moment we fell in love with them for whatever reason. I'm sure some of you will fall in love with the Shoot to Loot perk after watching this video. I didn't, though, because I already loved it!

Movie of the Week: Oh, no, my heavy ammo! Anyway...

This is why I use Shoot To Loot. pic.twitter.com/DbFyr9V8ua

— 🍷All The Players🍷 (@All_The_Players) August 2, 2022

Don't.....

Hippy: Look, I'm a simple Hippy; I see a reference to The Office, I hit like. Also, I'm pretty sure the fate of my soul is at stake if I say anything but adoring things about Telesto, the besto. So, in honor of that undying affection and loyalty we have to our overlor-... I mean, our favorite Destiny 2 weapon, here's a simple request to our loving and not-at-all-sentient piece of artillery, "Don't..."

Art of the Week: *Best The Office impression,* "Don't..."

Banshee when telesto#Destiny2Art #AOTW #DestinyArt @A_dmg04 @DirtyEffinHippy @Cozmo23 @Bungie pic.twitter.com/pomKHmDHI8

— MTeehanArt (@TeehanArt) June 20, 2022

Sam: As a fiber artist (crochet, knitting, embroidery), any time any of you create something digital, it just blows my mind. The details, the line work, and the geometry engraved into your art is truly magic of its own variety. This Garden of Salvation set falls right into that category, and it stopped quite a few of us in our tracks, so we knew we had to share it.

Art of the Week: Garden of Salvation

🔷 Garden of Salvation is done, and my biggest artwork I've ever done! 🔷@Bungie @DestinyTheGame #destiny #destiny2 #destinyart #destiny2art #aotw pic.twitter.com/e8ZJeapnHI

— Jamie (@jamiepurpleart) August 5, 2022

Ta-Daaaaa! This week's TWAB means we only have one more TWAB before the Season ends, then we jump into our Showcase on August 23. We do want to remind you that we are starting the vote for your Exotic ornament on August 16, so please go check out last week's TWAB if you missed the details on that. And if you are wondering when you are going to get some Arc 3.0 info, that is coming soon(ish) to a Bungie.net page near you! We know you want to know all the things, but soon Guardians, it will be here before you know it.

Stay crafty, Guardians!
Sam