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Genre: Shooter, Role-playing (RPG), Adventure

Destiny 2

Destiny Update 09/08/16
2.4.0 - The one preparing for Rise of Iron.

In advance of the launch of Rise of Iron, we are preloading content. These changes will alter the Destiny Sandbox, update the player experience, and prepare the world of the game for the next story we are about to tell.

Weapons
Read our detailed review of weapon change philosophies.
Auto Rifles
  • Reduced the maximum magazine size for highest rate of fire auto family (all weapons in the Doctrine of Passing family)
  • Increased damage to middle rate of fire Auto Rifles by 1.5%
Pulse Rifles
  • Increased rate of fire for Häkke pulse rifle Lyudmila-D
  • Increased damage for middle rate of fire family pulses (Nirwen's Mercy) by 2%
Hand Cannons
  • Fixed an issue where the hand cannon Zaouli's Bane's rate of fire stat would display incorrectly
  • Fixed an issue where the Taken King Vanguard and Armsday Hand Cannons (Down and Doubt 00-0, Kumakatok HC4) stats would display incorrectly
Shotguns
  • Immobius: decreased spread on Titan class Shotgun (0.1 zoom factor increase), increased base stability (60% increase)
  • Increased high rate of fire and middle-low rate of fire Shotgun damages by 2%
  • Reduced spread angle penalty on Shotguns with the perk Full Auto, Invective was not affected

Sniper Rifles
  • Reduced damage on the middle-high impact (1000-Yard Stare family) of Sniper Rifles by 6.95%
    • Middle-high impact snipers can no longer reliably kill high armor guardians in super
    • No Land Beyond is not affected by this damage reduction
  • Reduced Target Acquisition for LDR 5001/Y-09 Longbow Synthesis to bring in line with other snipers in the middle-high rate of fire family
  • Increased the starting strength for aim deflection (aka Flinch) when players take damage while scoped in from 30% starting to 50% starting
    • With every subsequent hit, the strength of deflection increases until you hit 100% max deflection
  • Overall Sniper ADS aim deflection multiplier increased to 1.9x (was 1.85x)
  • Fixed an issue where Eirene UI stat bars showed an incorrect rate of fire
Sidearms
  • Unified damage for all Sidearm types
    • Increased damage for existing Häkke Sidearm families by 3% for lowest rate of fire and 7% for higher rate of fire
    • Decreased damage for non-hitscan Sidearms by 5% for Vestian Dynasty and Queen's Choice
  • Minor extension of damage falloff point for Sidearms across the board (+0.5meter)
  • Minor increase of stability for Sidearms across the board
  • Added damage bonus in PvE (20-30% dependent on combatant tier)
  • To accommodate two new faster firing Sidearm families releasing in Rise of Iron, all current Sidearm rate of fire bars will be slightly shorter
    • This is to allow more bar space to display rate of fire differentiation
    • Does not change the actual fire rate, just the stat bar representation
Fusion Rifles
  • Accelerated coils correctly reflects damage reduction now on the UI stat bars
    • No change to gameplay effect, UI only
  • Fixed an issue where stat bars on Techeun Rage displayed incorrectly
Rocket Launchers
  • Extended damage falloff distance on Cluster Bomb perk's explosions (should more reliably damage enemies now)
  • Grenades and Horseshoes perk proc radius reduced (1.3->1meters), Truth is not affected
Machine Guns
  • Increased damage on highest rate of fire Machine Guns by 4%
Weapon Perks
General
  • Magazine perks now give range bonuses
    • Removed impact stat bonuses that had no effect on base damage and only on the UI bars
    • Armor Piercing Rounds: adds +4 range, reduces -4 handling
    • High Caliber Rounds: adds +3 range, reduces -5 handling
    • Skip Rounds: adds +5 range, reduces -3 handling, adds +5 inventory
Take a Knee
  • Now activates after 0.5 seconds of crouching
  • Added flinch reduction (25%) and increased aim down sights speed by 25%
Exhumed
  • Added an extra +5 seconds (15 seconds total) of effect time
Cascade
  • Functional change: melee kills automatically reload a portion of the magazine
Surplus
  • Now increases carried ammo capacity
Grave Robber
  • Increased proc chance to 25% (was 20%)
Guerilla Fighter
  • Increased stability and range bonuses by 200% (think of it as bonus Hammer Forged and Perfect Balance when the perk activates)
Unflinching
  • Decreased efficacy of the perk from 25% flinch reduction to 15% flinch reduction
Firefly
  • Possible fix for crash related to special effects triggered by the Firefly perk
Exotic Weapons
Universal Remote
  • Exotic Perk range bonus reduced by 75% (no longer guarantees maximum shotgun range)
  • Increased rate of fire (decreased damage as a secondary effect)

Fabian Strategy
  • Kills with this weapon now automatically load a portion of the magazine
  • Increased base range by 16%
  • Increased base stability by 44%
Thorn
  • Reduced base range by 25%
Dreg’s Promise
  • Increased damage by 8%
  • Increased magazine size by 3
Touch of Malice
  • Touch of Malice’s self-damage infliction now removes Blessing of Light
No Time to Explain
  • Added intrinsic perk Headseeker
Boolean Gemini
  • Added intrinsic perk High Caliber Rounds
Sleeper Simulant (Updated 9/13/16)
  • Fixed an issue where some enemies that were not designated as bipeds (i.e. vehicles, large objects, certain bosses), were unintentionally able to be damaged more than once by a single Sleeper Simulant shot
    • Against bipeds, the behavior remains unchanged (multiple enemies can still be damaged by ricochet behaviors)
Armor
General
  • Fixed a bug causing +1 armor perks to sometimes fail to function
  • Class items can now accept shaders
Exotic Armor
MK44 Stand Asides (Updated 9/13/16)
  • The activation window for Shoulder Charge when using MK44 Stand Asides has been reduced (-4 seconds)

Classes
Titan
Striker
Shoulder Charge (Updated 9/13/16)
  • Time to charge Shoulder Charge has been slightly increased. (+1 second)
  • Shoulder Charge attack speed and target tracking has been slightly reduced

Activities
Public Events
1st Daily Public Event Gold completion:
  • 1x Legendary Engram(once level 40; upgrade engram before)
  • 15x Destination Materials
  • 15x Legendary Marks
  • 5x Motes of Light
  • Very low chance of Exotic Shard
  • 4k XP – core, subclass, gear
  • 25x Vanguard Rep
Repeated Gold Public Events:
  • 200x Glimmer
  • Chance of 2-5 Destination Materials
  • Chance of 1-2 Motes of Light
  • 1.5k XP
  • Green/Blue Engram
  • 25x Vanguard Rep
Repeated Silver Public Events:
  • 100x Glimmer
  • Chance of 2-3 Destination Materials
  • 750 XP
Repeated Bronze Public Events:
  • 50x Glimmer
  • Chance of 1-2 Destination Materials
  • 500 XP

Quests
  • Quest menu has been changed and renamed to Progress
  • Record Books have been moved from the Materials on the Inventory menu to their own location in the Progress menu
  • Quest, Bounty, and Reputation displays have been adjusted

Crucible
General
  • Legendary Engrams have been removed from the Crucible PGCR, so Crucible Legendary Weapons will drop significantly more often
  • Fixed an issue where Crucible activity tooltips were showing the wrong icon
  • Beowolf, Cicero and Gilgamesh Shaders can once again be acquired by completing Crucible matches
  • Fixed some reward logic associated with vanity items from Shaxx Weekly package
  • The Crucible Quest "Factions" New Monarchy will no longer ask the player to earn points in the Salvage playlist
  • Crucible Quartermaster Weekly bounties have been removed
  • Free Sterling Treasure from Weekly Crucible and Postmaster will be discontinued
    • Sterling Treasure is still available from Prison of Elders and Eververse
Game Types
General
  • 3v3 gametypes gives slightly less Heavy Ammo per brick
Trials of Osiris
  • Trials of Osiris for Year 2 has ended. Trials of Osiris will resume in Rise of Iron on 9/30
Elimination
  • Heavy Ammo now only appears at one central location in Elimination matches
  • Fixed a bug where the Heavy Ammo could persist through rounds if the Heavy Round ends before it can spawn
Salvage
  • Reduced initial Relic Capture spawn delay, from 15 to 10 seconds
  • Reduced time between Relic spawns, from 25 to 15 seconds
  • Reduced countdown time on enemy probe, from 45 to 30 seconds
  • Increased interaction radius on enemy probe, from 3 to 5 meters
  • Increased successful sabotage score from 150 to 200 points
  • Changed scoring so that now only the interacting player gets points for a successful sabotage
Rift
  • Added an overshield on player spawn to cut down on spawn-camping
  • Extended runner damage resistance when picking up spark by a few seconds
Maps
Rusted Lands
  • Added invisible physics to stop players from escaping intended playable area
Vertigo
  • Added invisible physics to stop players from escaping intended playable area
Pantheon
  • Rotated lower Heavy Ammo crate to keep ammo from falling off the map
Crossroads
  • Added invisible physics to stop players from escaping intended playable area
Blind Watch
  • Moved Elimination tiebreaker zone indoors to avoid bias towards Bravo

Items
  • Banshee-44 has remembered where he was keeping his stores of Armor Materials, and now sells them for Glimmer (Updated 9/13/16)

UI
  • Fireteam and players in current game session list have been combined and will display 12 players without needing to change pages
  • Clan Roster has been added, but will not be immediately available
  • The Inventory menu has been modified to add Ornaments
  • Abandoned Quest Kiosk menu pagination now allows users to view more than the first page

Destiny Weapon Tuning - Rise of Iron
From the desk of Greg Peng.

With every new Destiny expansion, we find an opportunity to try to holistically address Sandbox balance. We learn from our success and mistakes, scrutinize player activity from our vast reserves of player data, and come up with a plan of execution. With an expansion, we can change the balance landscape not only by modifying old guns, but also by creating new ones to fill missing roles and satisfy player desires.

The changes in 2.4.0 will go hand in hand with the weapon ecosystem of Rise of Iron.


Exotics

Fabian Strategy
Doubling down on a Titan’s role to hold the front line, Fabian Strategy users will now be able to hold down the trigger to melt enemies until there are none left.
  • Kills with this weapon now automatically load a portion of the magazine
  • Increased base range (+16%) and stability (+44%)

Thorn
Since we are bringing back Thorn for Rise of Iron, it was worth re-evaluating its place in the weapon ecosystem. What are Thorn’s strengths?
  • Damage over time (which provides location information and health recovery delay)
  • Fastest family of Hand Cannon fire rate
  • Effectively best in class level range with Send It

To avoid a repeat of year one, we decided to remove one of those elements from the equation.
  • Reduced base range by 25%

Universal Remote
An exotic shotgun not gated by the special ammo economy was already a dangerous tool, but as players honed their mastery over the strong mobility options that Destiny has to offer, a hair-pulling combination was born. A range reduction helps bring the efficacy of these sorts of tactics down a bit.
  • Exotic Perk range bonus reduced by 75% (no longer guarantees maximum shotgun range)
  • Increased rate of fire (lowers damage as a secondary effect)

Dreg’s Promise
Fitting in with the retune of Sidearms (see below), Dreg’s gets a little bit more love.
  • Increased damage by 8%
  • Increased magazine size by 3
Touch of Malice
It is intended that Touch of Malice still shine best in King’s Fall, but outside of the Raid, clever players figured out how to avoid Touch of Malice’s single drawback by imbuing themselves with the Blessing of Light - but the Darkness has been boiling stronger within the gun...
  • Touch of Malice’s self-damage infliction now removes Blessing of Light
Boolean Gemini
This super versatile weapon receives another tool in its kit.
  • Added intrinsic perk High Caliber Rounds

No Time to Explain
I’m going to respect the spirit of the weapon with this one.
  • Added intrinsic perk Headseeker


Sniper Rifles
Snipers are being utilized extremely effectively in both the Crucible and against the Minions of the Darkness. However, one family of Sniper Rifle stands out from the rest – the mid-high impact family of sniper rifles (of which 1000-Yard Stare and Y-09 Longbow Synthesis belong).

Let us evaluate the benefits of the family:
  • Decent magazine sizes combined with strong impact provide for strong DPS
  • Strong target acquisition and when combined with Hidden Hand can reach the upper echelon normally reserved for lower impact Sniper Rifles (Weyloran’s March)
  • Ability to take down a guardian while in their super state
  • High body-shot damage with a rate of fire still fast enough that the two tap body-shot is still viable

The resulting Sniper Rifle has all the strengths of other families but without the drawbacks. To spread the power a bit, we touched two elements:
  • Reduced damage on the mid-high impact (1000-Yard Stare family) of Sniper Rifles by 6.95%
    • Mid High impact snipers can no longer reliably kill high armor guardians in super
    • No Land Beyond is not affected by this damage reduction
  • Reduced Target Acquisition for LDR 5001/Y-09 Longbow Synthesis to bring in line with other snipers in the same family

As a result, the slowest firing family of Sniper Rifle (Black Spindle) should be your key tool to take down Supers, balanced by lower magazine size, fire rate, and aim assist.

Aim Deflection (aka Flinch)
“You get the drop on an enemy sniper, reducing him down to a pixel of his life. Right before you pull the trigger for the last bullet to exit your scout rifle’s chamber, you see the glint and hear the sound of your head turning to mush. You raise your fist in the air and release a silent scream so as not to wake the baby.”

With these changes, we want to give your primary weapon a better chance at contesting sniper rifles.
  • Increased the starting strength for aim deflection (aka Flinch) when players take damage while scoped in from 30% starting to 50% starting
    • With every subsequent hit, the strength of deflection increases until you hit 100% max deflection
  • Overall Sniper ADS aim deflection multiplier increased to 1.9x (was 1.85x)

Bugs
  • Fixed an issue where Eirene UI stat bars showed an incorrect rate of fire


Auto Rifles
With new Auto Rifles being introduced in Rise of Iron, playtests revealed a decrease in the importance of reloading – high rate of fire Auto users had enough bullets for multiple encounters. We do not want players feeling starved for ammo, but creating an opening for opponents to attack is an important part of the “combat dance” for Destiny.

Middle rate of fire Autos also received a small damage boost to help with damage falloff, but the resultant damage does not drastically change its time to kill.
  • Reduced the maximum magazine size for highest rate of fire Auto Rifle family (all weapons in the Doctrine of Passing family)
  • Increased damage to middle rate of fire Autos (1.5%)


Shotguns
While strong against combatants, fast firing Shotguns have generally experienced low up time in PvP. The following changes are meant to sweeten the value proposition, starting with everyone’s favorite Titan class weapon.
  • Immobius: decreased spread on Titan class shotgun in ADS (0.1 zoom factor increase), increased base stability by 60%
  • Reduced spread angle penalty on Shotguns with the perk Full Auto, Invective was not affected
  • Increased high rate of fire and middle-low rate of fire shotgun damages by 2%


Pulse Rifles
With high rate of fire Pulse Rifles being strong contenders in the crucible, we put our lens on the mid and low rate of fire models, nudging them slightly forward while still maintaining Pulses around the three burst kill.
  • Increased rate of fire for the Hakke Pulse Rifle Lyudmila-D
  • Minor increase (2%) to damage for middle rate of fire family Pulse Rifles (Nirwen's Mercy)


Sidearms
When evaluating player loadout data across the game, we can see that Sidearms are being underutilized. With 2.4.0 we aim to change that, pushing Sidearms to shoot further, faster, and more predictability.
  • Unified damage for all Sidearm types
    • Increased damage for existing Häkke Sidearm families by 3% for lowest rate of fire and 7% for higher rate of fire
    • Decreased damage for non-hitscan Sidearms by 5% for Vestian Dynasty and Queen's Choice
  • Minor extension of damage falloff point for Sidearms across the board (+0.5 meters)
  • Minor increase of stability for Sidearms across the board
  • Added damage bonus in PvE (20-30% dependent on combatant tier)
  • To accommodate two new faster firing Sidearm families releasing in Rise of Iron, all current Sidearm rate of fire bars will be slightly shorter
    • This is so we have more bar space to display rate of fire differentiation
    • Does not change the actual fire rate, just the stat bar representation


Rocket Launchers
While super satisfying, Cluster Bombs are not always super reliable. At times, the bombs land inches out of their effective range and hit for single point damages.

Grenades and Horseshoes is by and far the most popular Rocket Launcher perk. While decreasing the chance that a rocket misses, it also removes or reduces many of the interesting combat prediction elements that make the weapon archetype interesting to play.

By making Cluster Bomb more reliable and Grenades and Horseshoes less effective, we hope to mix up the Rocket Launcher perk selection and inject a bit more technique into the archetype.
  • Increased effective range on the explosions for the Cluster Bomb perk
  • Grenades and Horseshoes perk activation radius reduced (1.3->1 meters)
    • Truth is not affected by this change


Machine Guns
The high rate of fire family of Machine Gun really hits the fantasy when it comes to face melting crowd control weapons. Increasing their DPS will also help them shine in other scenarios as well (i.e. boss battles).
  • Increased damage on highest rate of fire Machine Guns (4%)


Hand Cannons
You will only find small bug fixes for 2.4.0 for this weapon category. However, as a preview to Rise of Iron, newly minted low rate of fire hand cannons have a higher maximum possible range stat, giving players a distinct reason to choose that type of weapon.
  • Fixed an issue where the hand cannon Zaouli's Bane's rate of Fire stat would display incorrectly
  • Fixed an issue where the Taken King Vanguard and Armsday Hand Cannons (Down and Doubt 00-0, Kumakatok HC4) stats would display incorrectly.


Fusion Rifles
Again, only small bug fixes. You can stop making that joke now.
  • Accelerated coils correctly reflects damage reduction now on the UI stat bars
    • No change to gameplay effect, UI only
  • Fixed an issue where stat bars on Techeun Rage displayed incorrectly


Perks
After months of collecting player feedback and analyzing usage data, we decided upon a list of perks that could benefit from a refresh. We also decided to reduce the effectiveness of Unflinching, which otherwise would have negated the aforementioned sniper flinch changes without tradeoff. Finally, classic magazine perks like Armor Piercing Rounds now give additional range bonuses.

Take a Knee
  • Now activates after 0.5 seconds of crouching
  • Added flinch reduction (25%) and increased aim down sights speed by 25%

Exhumed
  • Added an extra +5 seconds (15 seconds total) of effect time

Cascade
  • Functional change: melee kills automatically reload a portion of the magazine

Surplus
  • Now increases carried ammo capacity

Grave Robber
  • Increased activation chance to 25% (from 20%)

Guerilla Fighter
  • Increased stability and range bonuses by 200% (think of it as a bonus Hammer Forged and Perfect Balance when the perk activates)

Magazine Perks
  • Magazine perks now give range bonuses
    • Removed impact stat bonuses that had no effect on base damage and only on the UI
    • Armor Piercing Rounds: adds +4 range, reduces -4 handling
    • High Caliber Rounds: adds +3 range, reduces -5 handling,
    • Skip Rounds: adds +5 range, reduces -3 handling, adds +5 inventory
Unflinching
  • Decreased efficacy of the perk from 25% flinch reduction to 15% flinch reduction
As a final note, sometimes there are bugs that require a more careful roll-out than can be achieved through a small update. The stakes are much higher when the issues lie deep within the foundation of the Destiny engine. This bug has been an incredibly difficult one to fix and test – we hope that we got it this time.

Firefly
  • Possible fix for crash related to special effects triggered by the Firefly perk

That’s all for 2.4.0 Weapons Update Preview. I hope it’s been informative, and I’m looking forward to reading your questions and comments.

[Editor's Note: The full Patch Notes for Update 2.4.0 will also be published soon, during scheduled maintenance and deployment.]

Destiny Update - 08/16/16
2.3.1.2 - The one about Account Imports.

This update is only available for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles and enables the Account Import process on these consoles. Destiny will remain on Update 2.3.1.1 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 Legacy Consoles. Here is a detailed article containing a FAQ section that explains everything.

Technical
  • Players will be prompted with the Account Import dialog upon their first login to a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One console
    • Players will be unable to play until they accept the dialog and perform the Account Import
    • Performing the Account Import process splits account progression so that progression is no longer shared between console generations within a console family

Destiny Hot Fix – 07/28/2016
2.3.1.1 The one to reduce BEAVER errors.

As an immediate follow up to Update 2.3.1.0, we are deploying a Hot Fix to reduce player facing issues on PS4 and Xbox One. This Hot Fix will be deployed to Legacy Consoles soon. Stay tuned for announcements.

Edit: This Hotfix was applied to PS3 and Xbox 360 on 7/29/16

Technical
  • Fixed a network connectivity issue that was causing some players to be disconnected with BEAVER errors

Destiny Update - 7/26/2016
2.3.1.0 - The one to pave the road to Rise of Iron.

Before the launch of Destiny: Rise of Iron on September 20th, there are a few issues we are fixing. This update will also be the last scheduled deployment for Legacy Consoles, excluding emergency fixes for future game-breaking issues.

Classes
  • Fixed an issue where Solar-based Damage-Over-Time (DoT) effects were dealing half their intended damage
  • Fixed an issue where the Intellect stat was not generating the correct amount of Super energy
  • Fixed an issue where selecting the Electrostatic Mind perk removed the Super regeneration provided by the Intellect stat

Armor
Exotics
  • Fixed an issue that prevented the Apotheosis Veil helmet from being accessible in the Exotic Armor Blueprints kiosk

Activities
  • Fixed an issue that could cause weekly activities from ending earlier than the weekly reset
  • Fixed an issue that prevented Legendary Marks from being granted when finishing the "Paradox" and "Lost to Light" missions when they are the featured Daily Story Mission
  • Fixed an issue where players with a full Postmaster inventory did not receive the Moments of Triumph book
    • Players who did not receive their Moments of Triumph book can now find it in the Postmaster

Companion Update - 7/20/2016
We made a few updates to the Destiny Companion today. Effective immediately, you have the ability to set your in-game Emblem as your forum avatar. We also modified the way Recruitment and #Help works. These changes are also coming soon to both the Android and iOS apps.

To set your Avatar as your in game Destiny Emblem, go to the Settings menu under your profile page and pick which character you want to feature. Once selected, your Avatar will automagically display the Emblem currently equipped to that character. It may take a few minutes to update when you switch Emblems in-game or with the Gear Manager.



You'll also find improved functionality to enable you to form up into Fireteams. Recruitment works a little differently now. It has been moved from the forum menu to it's own section under Community. The UI has been updated as well, to make it easier to sort by console and choose the Activity you want to play. Go check it out!



The other change you may notice is that the #Gameplay tag in #Help is now #Game Issues. This was done to help indicate that #Game Issues is the best place to post about bugs or issues you have while playing Destiny.

If you have any feedback about these changes, or ideas for what you would like to see added in the future, please post in the Website or Companion App feedback forums.

Destiny Hot Fix – 06/23/2016
This patch is intended to eliminate some problems that players were encountering on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. This will result in the resumption of the regular schedule for Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris.

Technical
  • Fixed an issue that could occur when inspecting activities being played by a large number of friends
  • Fixed an issue that could prevent matchmaking into an activity that was being played by a large number of friends



Destiny Update - 6/14/2016
2.3.0 - The One about Hunters.

Classes
For a detailed review of Class changes in 2.3.0, read the full Class Balance Update Preview.

Titan
Sunbreaker
Super: Hammer of Sol
  • Hammer travel speed increased by 1.3%
  • Hammer detonation radius increased by 10%
  • Damage increased by 10% against AI combatants
Striker
Super: Fist of Havoc
  • Base damage increased by 50% and an additional 50% against AI combatants
Defender
Grenades
  • Spike Grenade: damage impulses per second reduced to 5 from 10
  • Spike Grenade: damage per impulse increased by 100%; total damage unchanged
Hunter
Gunslinger
Grenades
  • Swarm Grenade: increased arming radius 0.5 meters
  • Swarm Grenade: detonation damage increased by 7%
  • Tripmine: no longer attaches to targets; arms on impact then bounces and attaches to terrain
  • Tripmine: damage reduced by 3%
Super: Golden Gun
  • Base damage increased by 50% and an additional 30% against AI combatants
  • Deadeye: now increases golden gun damage by an additional 30%
Melee: Throwing Knife
  • Base damage reduced by 10%
  • Circle of Life: modified functionality: precision kills with Throwing Knife reduce the cooldown of Golden Gun
  • Circle of Life: no longer extends the duration of golden gun
  • Circle of Life: +1 armor removed
Passives
  • Scavenger: increased the amount of grenade and melee energy awarded by 33%
  • Chain of Woe: +1 recovery added
  • Over the Horizon: +1 recovery removed
Bladedancer
Grenade
  • Skip Grenade: tracking time reduced to 8 seconds from 12
  • Skip Grenade: detonation damage reduced by 13%
Double Jump
  • Blink: now incurs a -1 recovery penalty
Super: Arc Blade
  • Changed to be less about repeatedly swinging and more about decisive strikes with additional effectiveness:
    • Base duration increased by 2 seconds
    • Hit detection test range increased by 0.5 meters
    • Damage increased by 30% against AI combatants
    • Added a 0.8 second cooldown between Arc Blade swings while airborne
    • Energy cost per swing increased by 20%
    • Energy cost on hit decreased by 20%
    • Vanish: now causes the player to vanish on cast in addition to its normal functionality
    • Showstopper: damage radius extended by 1 meter
Melee: Blink Strike
  • Lunge distance decreased by 0.4 meters
  • Backstab: valid backstab angle reduced by 30 degrees
  • Escape Artist: invisibility effect delayed by 0.5 seconds
  • Fast Twitch: recharge reduced by 20%
Passives
  • Encore: killing an enemy with Arc Blade now extends its duration and grants a 150% increase to arc blade damage for a short time
Nightstalker
Grenades
  • Spike Grenade: damage impulses per second reduced to 5 from 10
  • Spike Grenade: damage per impulse increased by 100%; total damage unchanged
Super: Shadowshot
  • Now applies the suppression effect on impact
Melee: Smoke
  • Changed to be less frustrating to play against in PvP, but more effective in PvE
    • Impact damage increased by 34%
    • Impact suppression and damage over time duration reduced by 1 second
    • Jump suppression removed from initial impact status effects
    • Un-upgraded smoke cloud duration increased by 1 second
    • Envenomed: cloud duration increased by 1 second
    • Envenomed: Jump suppression removed from cloud status effects
    • Vanish in smoke: +1 agility removed
    • Snare: cloud duration increased by 1 second
Passives
  • Courage of the Pack: now increases recovery, armor and agility by 2 per stack
  • Courage of the Pack: now stacks 3 times
  • Lockdown: now increases smoke duration by 2 seconds (+2 additional seconds with the Snare upgrade)
  • Predator: now reduces the cooldown of the Shadowshot ability
  • Shadestep: moved to a single dodge on a 3 second cooldown
Warlock
Sunsinger
Grenades
  • Firebolt: increased arming time by 0.2 seconds
  • Firebolt: decreased victim search radius by 1 meter
Melee: Scorch
  • Flame Shield: 0.3 second delay added before the overshield activation
Passives
  • Viking Funeral: no longer extends the duration of Ignite effects
  • Viking Funeral: now weakens targets afflicted with Ignite effects, causing them to take 5% more damage from all sources, stacking up to 3 times.
Voidwalker
Glide
  • Blink: now incurs a -1 recovery penalty
Super: Nova Bomb
  • Base damage increased by 50% and an additional 50% against AI combatants
  • Lance: now increases Nova Bomb damage by an additional 25%

Weapons
For a detailed review of weapon changes in 2.3.0, read the full Weapon Tuning Update Preview.

General
  • Fixed an issue where the Year 2 version of "Thunderlord" was not available for some players in the Kiosk
  • Fixed an issue where incorrect UI bars were displayed on Red Spectre
  • Fixed an issue where Exotic machinegun stability was ignoring the base stats for recoil (Thunderlord, Super Good Advice)
  • Fixed an issue where Defiance of Yasmin did not have the adjusted zoom for sniper rifles introduced in 2.2.0 (5x) & increased the inventory stat by 10
Auto Rifles
  • Reduced damage of high rate of fire autos by 6% (Doctrine of Passing)
Hand Cannons
  • Increased initial accuracy and decreased accuracy drop for low range hand cannons
  • Made damage falloff curves steeper to better coincide with intended effective range of hand cannons
  • Small increase to PvE damage to all hand cannons (amount depending on enemy class)
Ammo
  • It now takes less time for your Ghost to automatically grab ammo for you when you’re running low on ammo
Exotics
  • Slight reduction to Hawkmoon stability (-5 stability)
Perks
  • Slight reduction to Counterbalance effectiveness (Reduces 80% of recoil angle instead of 90%)

Armor
Exotics
Twilight Garrison
  • Moved Tactical Air Support ability to a single dodge on a 3 second cooldown

Activities
Missions
  • The alternate ending to "Paradox" can now be completed at any time by selecting it from the Director on the Heroic difficulty
  • The alternate ending to "Lost to Light" can now be completed at any time by selecting it from the Director on the Heroic difficulty
  • The "Firewall" mission will now be available as soon as the player has turned in the required items to access it
Prison of Elders
  • The Level 41 Prison of Elders Arena activity tooltip now properly indicates remaining weekly Legendary Mark rewards. These weekly Legendary Mark rewards are shared with the Weekly Heroic Strike Playlist, and may be earned from either activity.
  • Challenge of the Elders “Variks grows impatient” point deduction now grows more severe the longer you are in a given section
    • Point Deduction = (50 x number of times he has grown impatient)
Strikes - Updated 6/20/16 to add missing notes
  • Heroic Strikes now include a randomly-selected group of three modifiers
  • One modifier will be applied from each of the following lists
    • Group 1: Small Arms; Specialist; Brawler; Catapult
    • Group 2: Airborne; Solar Burn; Arc Burn; Void Burn
    • Group 3: Juggler; Fresh Troops; Ironclad; Exposure; Chaff; Berserk
    • Trickle will not be applied to Heroic Strikes

Crucible
  • All weekly rotating activities in Crucible now feature weekly rewards
  • Fixed an issue where Trials of Osiris boon icons from House of Wolves persisted after deleting a Trials passage

Items
  • Three new Chroma colors have been added: Orange, Magenta, & Green
    • These have a chance to be found in Sterling Treasures or from dismantling the Spektar gear set
  • Fixed an issue where players who did not own The Taken King could purchase Sterling Treasures from Eververse
  • Desolate Class Items are now correctly listed as Guaranteed items instead of Possible on Sterling Treasure preview
  • Fixed an issue where Daily Heroic Story missions that were from House of Wolves were not properly awarding Legendary Marks
  • Fixed an issue where "The Road Unraveled" ship would be unobtainable from Future War Cult faction packages under certain circumstances
  • Fixed an issue where the "Kicks Dance" emote was not displaying proper announcement text
  • Fixed an issue where Variks would not sell the Dreadfang sword if the player obtained and dismantled the sword on all characters

UI
  • Fixed an issue where equipping the "Armor of Vows" New Monarchy ship caused a false Postmaster notification
  • Your friends are now displayed in the Director when hovering over activities they are currently playing - Updated 6/14/16 to add missing note

Destiny Weapon Tuning - June Update
Destiny Update 2.3.0 is scheduled to deploy tomorrow. The following is a preview of how it will impact weapon balance.

From the desk of Greg Peng:

Hi everyone! Sandbox Designer Greg Peng here. Pleased to meet you. I've been working with Jon Weisnewski on weapons since The Taken King (he’s my boss), and I'll be your gunsmith for the upcoming Rise of Iron. I am honored for this opportunity to step up as another representative for Sandbox.

For 2.3.0, our primary goal has been to address some of the most commonly voiced concerns from the Destiny community, and to continue to bring balance and improvements to our little piece of the Destiny universe.

Weapon Balance

Hand Cannons
After a shot has been fired from a weapon in Destiny, there is a short period where accuracy drops to simulate how weapon recoil affects re-acquiring a target. This helps dissuade players from spamming the trigger and emphasizes precise aiming. The degree of accuracy drop is controlled by the Range stat per archetype. Because of the increased importance of landing every shot, this effect is especially heightened on Hand Cannons.

It is our intention to reduce the necessity of rolling range perks on Hand Cannons in order for them to be considered usable. However, we also do not want to return to a world where Hand Cannons can contest Scout Rifles at long range.

Changes
  • Increased initial accuracy and decreased accuracy drop for low range hand cannons
  • Made damage falloff curves steeper to better coincide with intended effective range of hand cannons
  • Small increase to PvE damage to all hand cannons (amount depending on enemy class)

Auto Rifles
Doctrine of Passing. Soulstealer's Claw. Arminius-D. These names strike fear into opponent's hearts, not only due to their quick kill times, but also the amount of screen shake or "ping" they inflict upon their targets. The family of high rate of fire auto rifles currently leads the pack as most used, and so we will nudge it lower once again.

Changes
  • Reduced the damage of high rate of fire autos (Doctrine of Passing) by 6%

Ammo Economy
Running out of ammo? The recommended solution is to grab some fresh ammo that just dropped at the feet of a dead combatant. But we recognize that there are certain dire combat scenarios where gathering blocks is not a viable solution. In these cases, we currently detect that you're low on ammo, round up ammo from the field, and automatically deposit it in your backpack. As an improvement, we've significantly sped up the time this process takes.

Changes
  • It takes less time to automatically grab ammo from the battlefield for you when you’re running low.

Hawkmoon
With the recent Hand Cannon improvements, the Hawk was flying a bit too high. A minor stability reduction brings it into line, but may encourage a reexamination of one's barrel selection...

Changes
  • Slight reduction to Hawkmoon Stability (-5 Stability)

Counterbalance
There are some cases where a perk's effectiveness makes it seem like an absolute necessity to run. For many players this is currently true for Counterbalance; not only is it an extremely effective perk, but it nullifies the uniqueness of each gun’s recoil pattern. We hope these changes will let the personality of each gun shine through a bit more.

Changes
  • Slight reduction to Counterbalance effectiveness (Reduces 80% of recoil angle instead of 90%)

Bugs
  • Fixed incorrect UI bars on Red Spectre (no gameplay changes)
  • Fixed Exotic Machine Gun Stability where some weapons were ignoring their own base stats for recoil (Thunderlord, Super Good Advice)
  • Fixed Defiance of Yasmin to have the correctly adjusted zoom for Sniper Rifles introduced in 2.2.0 (5x), increased inventory stat by 10 to compensate


Sandbox Mythbusters

I’m hoping to also use this opportunity to clear up some common questions and misconceptions for how weapons in Destiny work. Knowledge is power!

What does Rangefinder REALLY do?
According to the description on the Perk: “Aiming this weapon increases its effective range.”

There are a couple ways to interpret this description. A common interpretation is that the Rangefinder increases the Range stat when a player goes into aim down sights (ADS). In reality, it is a bit more nuanced than a simple sentence can encompass.

Rangefinder impacts two primary things:
  1. Target acquisition falloff
  2. Zoom factor multiplier (1.1x zoom, 1.05x on shotguns)

So why do we call it “Rangefinder?” Well, Zoom itself is a huge component of damage falloff! We scale down damage falloff by the Zoom factor because enemies FEEL closer in zoom view, even though they can be quite far away. This is super important to keeping things feeling consistent.

What’s more, ADS accuracy and recoil are also calculated based on the zoom view. So with greater zoom, your bullets will also stay closer together, which is another element of extending the effective range of your weapon. Everything is relative!

What is Weapon Handling?
While we don’t display it in the UI like we do the other weapon stats, Weapon Handling is a stat that controls three things to make your gun feel heavier or snappier in your hands:
  1. Ready time – amount of time it takes to bring out your weapon
  2. Away time – amount of time it takes to put away your weapon
  3. ADS time – amount of time it takes to fully reach maximum zoom in ADS

Different guns have different Weapon Handling stats, but as a general rule of thumb, the longer range and more damage a weapon does, the lower the Weapon Handling stat.


That’s all for the 2.3.0 Weapons Update Preview. I hope it’s been informative, and I’m looking forward to hearing your questions and comments.

Destiny Class Balance - June Update
Destiny Update 2.3.0 is scheduled to deploy tomorrow. The following is a preview of how it will impact class balance.

From the desk of Grant Mackay:

Hello, this is Grant. You might remember me from the previous round of Warlock class balance changes. Well, I’m back and I’m excited to have the opportunity to talk about another round of changes, this time focused on Hunters.

So why are we changing Hunters?
On the Sandbox Design Team, we talk about build diversity a lot. We want to ensure that a number of different builds are viable for any given Class. It’s important to us that players have meaningful choices to make when customizing their characters.

We also want to make sure that the choices between the classes themselves are interesting. Ideally, we’d like to address any ability that feels underwhelming to use. We also want to address abilities that feel frustrating or unfair when used against you by another player.

Ultimately, balance is an ongoing effort to improve the game. We have a lot of data on class performance and the choices that people are making. We want to try and use that data to inform improvements to overall game health and keep things interesting. We’ve taken a design pass with this in mind for Titans and Warlocks already, so now it’s time for the Hunters.


Gunslinger

Grenades
The Tripmine Grenade has been a dominant grenade choice for a while. It’s possible that this because it was the grenade that did everything: set a trap, stick it to an opponent, miss an opponent and end up setting a trap anyway. The original intent with this grenade was to be used as a trap, not a sticky, so we moved it back in that direction. Conversely, we increased the Swarm Grenades damage and ability to detect opponents to improve that option.

Changes:
  • Swarm Grenade: increased arming radius by 0.5 meters
  • Swarm Grenade: detonation damage increased by 7%
  • Tripmine no longer attaches to enemies; instead arms on impact then bounces
  • Tripmine damage reduced by 3%

Golden Gun
Golden Gun was feeling a bit lackluster damage wise, so we boosted that and provided further damage gains to the Deadeye perk which wasn’t seeing a lot of use. The hope is that this brings it into a place where it is considered a valid option in comparison to Shadowshot for Strikes and similar activities.

Changes:
  • Base damage increased by 50% and an additional 30% against AI combatants
  • Deadeye now increases Golden Gun damage by an additional 30%

Throwing Knife
The Throwing Knife was creating some frustration, especially with the Incendiary Blade upgrade, so we nudged the damage down slightly. This will ensure that low armor players can’t be killed in a single headshot (with the extra burn damage from the Incendiary Blade upgrade). We also reworked the Circle of Life upgrade to be about building up your Golden Gun instead of maintaining it, since very few players where opting into the original incarnation.

Changes:
  • Throwing Knife base damage reduced by 10%
  • Circle of Life modified functionality: precision kills with Throwing Knife reduce the cooldown of Golden Gun
  • Circle of Life no longer extends the duration of golden gun
  • Circle of Life +1 armor removed

Perks
We took a look at some of the passives in the Gunslinger build and tried to improve some of the least used options. On the whole, we’re pretty happy with the various choices and build paths there, so these changes are minor.

Changes:
  • Scavenger: increased the amount of Grenade and Melee energy awarded by 33%
  • Chain of Woe: +1 Recovery added
  • Over the Horizon: +1 Recovery removed


Bladedancer

Mobility
Bladedancer mobility, particularly the ability to quickly relocate, is proving to be a bit too advantageous. We made some changes to try and reduce this. The Blink ability now has a recovery tradeoff and Blinkstrike doesn’t lunge as far.

Changes:
  • Blink now incurs a -1 Recovery penalty
  • Blinkstrike lunge distance decreased by 0.4 meters

Blinkstrike
The Backstab upgrade has been the source of some confusing behavior for a while, particularly when it appears to hit from the front. The valid region for Backstabbing should now be more solidly behind the target. Escape Artist had some visual issues that we tried to smooth out and Fast Twitch was too fast so we slowed it down.

Changes:
  • Backstab valid backstab angle reduced by 30 degrees
  • Escape Artist invisibility effect delayed by 0.5 seconds
  • Fast Twitch recharge reduced by 20%

Arc Blade
Arc Blade has a number of changes in this patch, many related to the mobility issue. We wanted it to be more about decisive strikes and not swinging frantically to try and cover ground, avoid enemy fire, or stay airborne for long periods of time. It will last longer but cost more to swing if you have no target. On the other hand it should hit the target you’re aiming at more consistently.

Changes:
  • Base duration increased by 2 seconds
  • Hit search range increased by 0.5 meters
  • Added a 0.8 second cooldown between arc blade swings while airborne
  • Energy cost per swing increased by 20%
  • Energy cost on hit decreased by 20%

Being effective against AI Combatants with the Arc Blade has traditionally been difficult so we upped the damage against those foes. The Encore perk will now provide a significant damage boost if kills are chained together, and the Vanish and Showstopper upgrades should now have more utility.

Changes:
  • Arc Blade damage increased by 30% against AI combatants
  • Vanish now causes the player to vanish on cast in addition to its normal functionality
  • Showstopper damage radius extended by 1 meter
  • Encore killing an enemy with Arc Blade now extends its duration and grants a 150% increase to Arc Blade damage for a short time.


Nightstalker

Grenades
The Spike Grenade was seeing very little use, likely due to how easy it was to escape the damage, so we’ve changed the rate at which it pulses to improve its output. The total damage dealt remains the same.

Changes:
  • Spike Grenade damage impulses per second reduced to 5 from 10
  • Spike Grenade damage per impulse increased by 100%; total damage unchanged

Shadowshot
Hitting another player with Shadowshot only to have them kill you with their Super before the effects kicked in was frustrating and confusing (often to both players involved) so we made it suppress when it hits.

Changes:
  • Shadowshot now applies the suppression effect on impact

Smoke
The Smoke ability received a number of modifications making it less frustrating to victims, but also adding some utility against slower opponents. The package of status effects delivered on impact could be overwhelming so we opened up more opportunities to escape. At the same time, the cloud will last longer and the initial impact of a direct hit will hurt more.

Changes:
  • Impact damage increased by 34%
  • Impact suppression and damage over time duration reduced by 1 second
  • Jump suppression removed from initial impact status effects
  • Base smoke cloud duration increased by 1 second
  • Envenomed cloud duration increased by 1 second
  • Envenomed Jump suppression removed from cloud status effects
  • Vanish in smoke: +1 Agility removed
  • Snare cloud duration increased by 1 second

Perks
A number of Nightstalker perks have had small changes, mostly to power up perks that weren’t being chosen as frequently. The exception is Shadestep. The ability to evade, shedding tracking projectiles and the aim of your opponents, was overwhelming all the other choices in the build. We don’t want it to be so easy to completely disengage or bewilder enemies so we’ve disabled the ability to perform two evades in rapid succession. Nightstalkers will only be able to Shadestep once before they have to wait for the ability to recharge, but it takes less time to recharge.

Changes:
  • Courage of the Pack now increases Recovery, Armor and Agility by 2 per stack
  • Courage of the Pack now stacks 3 times
  • Lockdown increases smoke duration by 2 seconds(+2 additional seconds with the Snare upgrade)
  • Predator now reduces the cooldown of the Shadowshot ability
  • Shadestep moved to a single dodge on a 3 second cooldown


Other Classes

Universal Consistency
But wait, this was about Hunters?! It turns out some of the things we wanted to change are in use by other classes and we want the game to be consistent. The Defender Spike Grenade got the same treatment as the Nightstalker version, and Voidwalker Blink ability received the same tradeoff as the Bladedancer version. The Twilight Garrison Exotic armor, which was creating similar problems to Shadestep, has been adjusted in the same manner.

Changes:
  • Spike Grenade damage impulses per second reduced to 5 from 10
  • Spike Grenade damage per impulse increased by 100%; total damage unchanged
  • Twilight Garrison moved the Tactical Air Support ability to a single dodge on a 3 second cooldown.

Super Damage
Tweaking the Super damage output on Hunters led us to investigate the damage output of the other classes. It turns out many of them needed additional love.

Changes:
  • Hammer of Sol damage increased by 10% against AI combatants
  • Fist of Havoc base damage increased by 50% and an additional 50% against AI combatants
  • Nova Bomb base damage increased by 50% and an additional 50% against AI combatants
  • Stormtrance damage increased by 10% against AI combatants

Sunbreaker
The Sunbreaker has been suffering a little since we ended their reign of terror, so we made some changes to make Hammers hit more consistently again. These adjustments may seem insignificant, but we remember the harsh rule of the Solar Overlords, so we’re making more targeted changes.

Changes:
  • Hammer of Sol hammer travel speed increased by 1.3%
  • Hammer of Sol hammer detonation radius increased by 10%

Sunsinger
As promised, we kept an eye on Warlocks after the previous patch. Sunsingers, while not out performing other classes, are still creating frustrating encounters. Most of these encounters are the result of a combination of build perks and the Firebolt grenade so we adjusted the target search radius and arming time. This means that from the moment the grenade lands players will have a split second longer to get out of the area in which the bolts fire and that area is slightly smaller, so there should be a little more counter play.

Changes:
  • Firebolt: increased arming time by 0.2 seconds
  • Firebolt: decreased victim search radius by 1 meter

Viking Funeral
The biggest change to Sunsingers is to the Viking Funeral build perk. This perk will no longer extend the duration of Ignite (damage over time) effects. Instead it now causes those effects to weaken the target to other sources of damage (but not the Ignite itself). This will reduce the frequency and duration of the damage over time effect, but should still allow the Sunsinger interesting build options involving Ignite.

Changes:
  • Viking Funeral: no longer extends the duration of Ignite effects
  • Viking Funeral: now weakens targets afflicted with Ignite effects, causing them to take 5% more damage from all sources, stacking up to 3 times.

Flame Shield
We added a minor delay to the activation time of Flame Shield. Ideally this makes it so that there is a window of opportunity (if only very briefly) for people to win melee trades against Warlocks running this upgrade.

Changes:
  • Flame Shield: 0.3 second delay added before the overshield activation


Thanks so much for reading. These are the changes you’ll find in the June Update that will impact many of the Sub-Classes you find in Destiny. This won’t be the last time we talk about the way different Guardians fight, so be sure to let us know how combat feels in the new Sandbox. Player feedback is a huge part of what we do!
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