Destiny 2 Dev Insights: Global Changes

Bungie released the Weapon Tuning Preview for the Destiny 2 Renegades expansion. There are numerous changes, including meta-defining updates. We have multiple articles on the preview, with each focusing on a specific section of the sandbox. For this article, we will look at the Global Updates Bungie is making. These include changes to New Gear Bonuses, Stasis Freeze, Disorient, and more.

Destiny 2: Weapon Tuning Global Updates

All information is per the Destiny 2 Weapon Tuning Article released by Bungie yesterday.

HUD Buff Priority

The vital buffs will be moved to the front of the queue to help players.

Artifact’s New Gear Bonus

Gear Tier will no longer scale New Gear Bonus. New Gear Weapons all receive 5% increase. Incoming damage reduction from New Gear armor grants 2% per piece, for a total of 10%. All Exotics will count as New Gear.

Stasis Freeze

Some weapons have had their damage against frozen targets adjusted.

• Eriana’s Vow and Leviathan’s Breath bonus damage increased to 10% was 5%.
• Fixed an issue with Forerunner, Micro-Missile Pulse Rifles, and New Malpais not dealing increased damage to frozen targets.
• Fighting Lion and Alethonym get the increased bonus damage to frozen targets.

Disorient

Bungie is adding a universal disorient to function like a subclass verb. The change makes it more consistent and predictable, while presenting more opportunities for disorient in the future. There are two exceptions to the change:

• Helm of Saint-14
• Touch of Malice’s Darkness Bolt vs Players

Ammo System

The Destiny 2 ammo system is getting some updates, notably seeing the return of ammo scout mods on the helmet. Scout mods will generate a brick for your teammates whenever your bar completes. Each scout mod increased the ammo given in the brick. Other changes to ammo are:

• Ability assists in generating the ammo meter progress
• Granting buffs to teammates provides ammo meter progress if they secured a kill while buffed.
• Glaive projectile kills correctly scale by the Ammo Generation Stat.
• Machine Guns and Lord of Wolves correctly gain the right ammo from Scavenger mods.
• Increased some Exotic Weapons’ ammo per brick.
  • Truth
  • Heir Apparent
  • The Colony
  • The Prospector
  • DARCI
  • Salvation’s Grip
• Heavy Burst Slug and Rapid Fire Shotguns increased ammo per brick.
• Micro-Missile Pulse Rifles reduced ammo per brick.
• Reduced weapon perks, ammo generation bonuses
  • Air Trigger
    • Base trait from 30 to 20
    • Enhanced trait from 40 to 30
  • Field Prep
    • Base trait from 30 to 20
    • Enhanced trait from 40 to 30
  • Envious Arsenal
    • Enhanced trait from 20 to 10
• The lifetime of dropped ammo bricks is increased from 30 to 60 seconds.

Final Thoughts

The HUD buff priority change is a welcome one. Often, Destiny 2 players are left wondering what the timer is on their buffs, or if they have the buff to begin with. Regarding the New Gear change, these are moves in the right direction. Overall, new weapons should not have increased damage to make players use them.