Destiny 2

Prison of Elders

• New! Prison of Elders Challenge Activity: Challenge of the Elders (Recommended Light 320)
  
• Elder's Sigil Passage Tickets can be picked up directly from Variks
• Prison of Elders Weekly Bounties have been added and can be picked up from Variks
• New! Added Level 41 Prison of Elders playlist (Recommended Light 260)
  
• Prison of Elders now has a Level 41 difficulty available, this version has a chance at having Taken enemies
• Combatants within the Prison of Elders will now provide credit towards applicable Vanguard bounty requirements
  
• Keys are no longer required to open the Prison of Elders chest
  
• Keys can now be used directly from inventory to provide House of Judgement faction reputation
  
• Variks' inventory has been updated
  
• Tokens of Flight, Identity, and Judgement are no longer needed to purchase items
• Tokens can still be used directly from player's inventory to provide House of Judgement faction reputation
• Armor & Weapon Cores are no longer needed to purchase items and can now be used directly from player's inventory to provide House of Judgement faction

PvE Activities

• Increased Special Ammo drop rate in all PVE activities to offset the reduced Inventory for Shotguns and Sniper Rifles
  

Strikes

• Added the following Strikes:
  
• New! "Blighted Chalice" strike is now available in the normal & heroic strike playlists
• The "Winter's Run" strike now has a Taken variant available in the normal & heroic strike playlists
• Reputation gains have been increased for completing Strikes
  

Weekly Nightfall

• Increased Activity Level of Weekly Nightfall Strike (Recommended 320)
  
• Eververse drops will no longer replace the normal Nightfall rewards but will be an additional reward when received
  

King's Fall

• Increased the drop rate of armor and weapons inside the King's Fall raid for both Normal and Heroic difficulties
  

Patrols

• Reputation gains have been increased for completing Patrol objectives
  

General

• The player's Resurrection mechanic has been adjusted:
  
• Reduced the radius of Resurrection interaction prompt to 1.5 meters (was 2 meters)
• Increased the base time to Resurrect by 0.25 seconds
• Overshield has been adjusted so that it takes precision damage modifiers (previously it did not)
• Reduced Resurrection time bonuses from exotic armor (Crest of Alpha Lupi, Light Beyond Nemesis) to 30% (was 40%)
• Added additional frames of invincibility at the end of the Resurrection animation to make the handoff from locked state to movement more consistent
• Players can now highlight (R-Stick Click) player ghosts, allowing a user to inspect & target emotes at a downed player's ghost

Hunter

Nightstalker

• Fixed an issue where summoning the Ghost while evading would interrupt Shadestep

Warlock

Voidwalker

• Melee: Energy Drain
  
• Increased grenade recharge bonus scalar (by +100%)
• Reduced grenade recharge duration to 2 seconds (was 5 seconds)
• Reduced bonus recharge provided by mastery (i.e. The Hunger) to 2 seconds (was 6 seconds)
• Life Steal: Now triggers when damaging an enemy with Energy Drain
• Soul Rip: Now triggers when damaging an enemy with Energy Drain
• Passives
  
• Embrace the Void: Now triggers the energy drain effect and restores a significant portion of health when killing an enemy

Sunsinger

• Melee: Scorch
  
• Flame Shield: Now increases the cooldown of Scorch (by +33%)
• Flame Shield: No longer maximizes player armor for its duration
• Flame Shield: Removed + 1 Armor stat
• Solar Wind: Now reduces the cooldown of Scorch (by +66%)
• Solar Wind: Added +1 Recovery stat
• Brimstone: Now reduces the cooldown of Scorch (by +66%)
• Brimstone: Explosion damage increased (by +86%)
• Super: Radiance
  
• Increased grenade energy regen by 1-3 grenades (depending on discipline)
• Song of Flame: Increased allies' grenade regen (by +60%)
• Fireborn: Reduced Radiance duration when Fireborn is active (-28%)
• Passives
  
• Sunburst: Now guarantees an Orb of Light on kill

Stormcaller

• Melee: Thunderstrike
  
• Rising Storm: Now immediately awards a flat amount of super, grenade and melee energy (instead of boosting regen based on intellect, discipline and strength over time)
• Super: Stormtrance
  
• Landfall: Damage reduced (by -17%)
• Landfall: No longer blinds nearby players
• Passives
  
• Pulsewave: Added +1 Recovery stat
• Feedback: Removed +1 Armor stat
• Transcendence: Reduced bonus time in Stormtrance (by -17%)
• Transcendence: No longer removes the cost of actively throwing Arc lightning
• Electrostatic Mind: Increased the damage nearby enemies take when Stormtrance is active (by +100%)
• Electrostatic Mind: Reduced the super recharge bonus when near allies (by -25%)

Auto Rifles

• Increased damage per bullet of low Rate-of-Fire Auto Rifles, like Suros Regime, An Answering Chord, Anguish of Drystan (by +2.3%)
  
• Reduced damage per bullet of high Rate-of-Fire Auto Rifles, like Doctrine of Passing, Arminius-D (by -2.5%)
  
• Improvement to hip fire accuracy
  

Pulse Rifles

• Increased damage per bullet of low Rate-of-Fire Pulse Rifles, like The Messenger, Spare Change, Lyudmila-D (by +3%)
  

Hand Cannons

• Increased Hand Cannon inventory ammo
  
• Adjusted Hand Cannon ammo stats so that initial spawn and respawn ammo are consistent
  

Shotguns

• Reduced the total Ammo Inventory for all Shotguns by roughly 5-7 rounds (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s Magazine and Inventory stats)
  
• See Crucible Section

Snipers

• Reduced the total Ammo Inventory for all Sniper Rifles by roughly 5-7 rounds (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s Magazine and Inventory stats)
  
• See Crucible Section
  
• Increased base zoom distance on the lowest Zoom scopes
  
• Medium to long range scopes remain untouched
  
• Added 2 frames of zoom time to sniper zoom
  
• Reduced Snapshot perk's zoom time benefit to 20% benefit (was 30%)
  
• Reduced Stability across all Sniper Rifle stats so that re-acquiring a target after firing requires more care
  
• Zen Moment: Removed perk from all Rare and Uncommon Sniper Rifles
  

Fusion Rifles

• Increased Stability base stat (40% recoil reduction); this means that lower stability Fusion Rifles will get affected more than higher stability rifles
  
• Fixed bug where some outlying fusion rifle scopes had unintended increased zoom that was removed in Year Two.
  

Sidearms

• Fixed an issue where ammo persisted through deaths when switching Secondary weapons

Machine Guns

• Fixed an issue where players were able to get a free magazine of Machine Gun ammo from ammo crates
  
• Reduced the total Ammo Inventory for all Machine Guns (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s magazine, rate of fire, and inventory stats)
  

Swords

• Fixed an issue with the sword guard ability that prevented it from blocking incoming damage correctly
  
• Fixed an issue where the damage element would disappear from the HUD for swords after summoning the Ghost
  
• Sword Heavy attacks now have improved damage networking
  

Exotic/Legendary Weapons

All King's Fall Primary Weapons

• Increased reload speed on all King's Fall Raid primary weapons
  

Anguish of Drystan

• Increased Stability base stat (by +12%)
  

Black Spindle

• Fixed a bug with barrel upgrades where Field Choke and CQB Ballistics did not upgrade correctly
  
• Increased Optics base stat to reflect global Optics changes
  

Dreg's Promise

• Projectiles now track based on Aim Down Sights target lock. This plays similar in functionality to the "Tracking" Rocket Launcher perk with faster lock time but no audio "beeps"
  
• Increased projectile Tracking strength
  
• Reduced Rate-of-Fire base stat to compensate for increased Tracking
  
• Reduced Damage (by -40%) to compensate for increased Tracking
  
• Reduced Damage falloff to match Sidearm range
  

Hakke Sniper Rifle

• Replaced Zen Moment perk on Legendary Hakke Sniper Rifle for Performance Bonus perk
  

Hawkmoon

• Fixed an issue where the tooltip incorrectly displayed Holding Aces twice
  
• Increased Range base stat (by +10)
  

Hereafter

• Increased Optics base stat to reflect global Optics changes
  

Icebreaker

• Increased Optics scope zoom (to +6x)
  
• Reduced Handling base stat to the lowest value for Sniper Rifles
  
• Reduced Target Acquisition base (by -25%)
  
• Fixed an issue where ammo persisted through deaths when switching Secondary weapons
  

Last Word

• Removed bonus damage applied from The Last Word perk
  

Lord of Wolves

• Reduced ammo inventory to reflect base Shotgun ammo changes
  

MIDA Multi-Tool

• Removed high caliber rounds from intrinsic behavior
  

Omolon Sniper Rifle

• Replaced Zen Moment perk on Legendary Omolon Sniper Rifle for Battle Runner perk
  

Patience & Time

• Increased Optics base stat to reflect global Optics changes
  

Queenbreaker's Bow

• Reduced ammo inventory to reflect base Sniper ammo changes
  

Quillim's Terminus

• Reduced Ammo inventory base stat (by -15)
  
• Reduced Stability base stat (by -9)
  

Stillpiercer

• Increased Optics base stat to reflect global Optics changes
  

Suros Regime

• Increased Range bonus granted by Focus Fire perk to 45 Range
  
• Spinning Up now activates (4 shots) later in the magazine
  

Telesto

• Fixed an issue where projectiles did not correctly attach and detonate against Ward of Dawn
  
• Projectiles will now correctly attach to friendly bipeds and detonate, but will not cause damage to friendly targets
  

The Chaperone

• Fixed an issue in which precision damage was clamped and not scaling up to the intended amount
• Precision damage now correctly scales when The Roadborn perk is active
  

Thorn

• Reduced Thorn DoT to 4 ticks (was 6)
  
• Reduced the amount of damage players receive per tick in Crucible (by -50%)
  
• Reduced severity of poison screen effects for the victim to preserve combat effectiveness while poisoned
  

Vex Mythoclast

• Reduced Damage base stat to compensate for improved Stability (by -13%)
  

1000 Yard Stare

• Reduced Ammo inventory base stat
  

Perks

• Eye of the Storm: Improved feedback on reticle to better see perk activation/de-activation
  
• Icarus: Increased the inaccuracy reduction provided by the perk to 75% reduction (was 66%)
  
• Aggressive Ballistics: Reduced Stability stat to -20 (was -10)
  
• The First Curse: Fixed an exploit where the perk could be kept active indefinitely by refilling the magazine using Sealed Ahamkara Grasps
  
• Rescue Mag: Fixed an issue where the perk triggered on stowed weapons. Perk now only activates when the weapon is in hand
  
• Fixed an issue with some weapon perks that use kill count that prevented them from being extended or deactivated correctly in the Crucible

General

• The following Year 1 Armor Exotics have been converted for Year 2:
  
• ACD/0 Feedback Fence
• The Glasshouse
• Eternal Warrior
• Khepri's Sting
• Lucky Raspberry
• ATS/8 ARACHNID
• Sunbreakers
• Purifier Robes

Exotic/Legendary Armor

• Increased the tracking amount of the Scatter Grenade when wearing the Nothing Manacles
  
• Reduced the Golden Gun upkeep penalty for Achlyophage Symbiote
  
• Reduced bonus Ammo Inventory granted by Machine Gun Ammo Armor Perk (by -33%)
  

General

• The following changes have been made to address the abundance of special and heavy weapon kills in the Crucible. We will be continuing to monitor usage in both PVE and PVP.
  
• Players begin games with Special ammo.
• Swapping between Special weapons during Crucible matches now no longer retains ammo between weapons.
• Ammo spawn conditions have been changed for all modes except Elimination and Mayhem:
• Special ammo spawns after 3 minutes, then respawns every 2 minutes (each crate has its own timer)
• Heavy ammo spawns after 5 minutes, only once per match
• Reduced the total Ammo Inventory for all Sniper Rifles by roughly 5-7 rounds (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s Magazine and Inventory stats)
• Reduced the total Ammo Inventory for all Shotguns by roughly 5-7 rounds (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s Magazine and Inventory stats)
• Reduced the amount of ammo granted by Crucible-specific Heavy Ammo bricks to grant 0.375 of inventory (was 0.5)
• This change affects all Machine Guns and only a handful of Rocket Launchers (Truth is one of the affected Rocket Launchers).
• Reduced bonus Ammo Inventory granted by Machine Gun Ammo Armor Perk (by -33%)
• Increase Special Ammo drop rate in all PVE activities to offset the reduced Inventory for Shotguns and Sniper Rifles
• Sparrow, Pike, and Interceptor kills will now report unique score values instead of the generic "Vehicle Kill"
  
• The "Ace" Elimination medal now requires wiping the enemy team in 20 seconds or less
  
• Year 1 Shaders have been added back into the list of possible rewards for completing Crucible matches
  
• Increased Legendary item drop rate for completing Crucible matches
  
• Increased Reputation gains completing Crucible matches
  

Quests & Bounties

• Fixed an issue where players were incorrectly receiving credit for the quest "Draw From the Void" outside of the Crucible
  
• Fixed an issue where some score-based quests and bounties were not progressing properly at the end of a match
  
• The Crucible bounty "Trial Run" will no longer appear for players who are below level 40, as they cannot compete in Trials of Osiris
  

Playlists

Control

• Maps added: Asylum, Firebase Delphi, The Anomaly, The Burning Shrine, and The Cauldron
  
• Maps removed: Bastion, First Light, and Skyshock
  

Elimination

• Revive timers now start at 7 seconds and increase by 7 seconds each time players are revived
  

Inferno Rumble

• Reduced score to win from 2000 to 1500
  

Mayhem Rumble

• Reduced score to win from 35000 to 25000
  
• Fixed an issue where the Playlist tooltip indicated an incorrect Fireteam size requirement
  

Iron Banner

• Lord Saladin's inventory has been updated with items at Ranks 3-5, some with re-rolled perks
  
• Rank package rewards have been adjusted:
  
• Increased Rank 3 package Artifact to 320 Light
• Increased Rank 5 package Ghost to 320 Light
• Rank 5 packages can now reward items from the current event
• Iron Banner Armor and Weapons can now be earned at Rank 0 at the end-of-activity
  
• Removed Legendary Engrams from the possible end-of-activity rewards list, creating a greater chance to receive Iron Banner specific items
  
• "Iron Domination" daily bounty now requires completing a match with a personal score of 1500 instead of winning a match with 2500
  
• "Iron Versatility" bounty now only requires 7 Heavy Weapon kills to complete
  
• Fixed an issue where players below Rank 5 could roll a reward they were ineligible for, resulting in no reward being given
  
• Fixed an issue where the Iron Banner ship was missing a part of its frame
  

Trials of Osiris

• Fixed an issue in which weapons in the Lighthouse chest did not have the appropriate equip requirement of being Level 40
  
• "His Eye Upon You" bounty may now be repeated daily with easier requirements:
  
• Reduced the match completion requirements to 7 matches (was 10 matches)
• Reduced the Fireteam kills requirements to 50 kills (was 75 kills)

Maps

Cathedral of Dusk

• Adjusted Rift spawn settings to push players closer to the front line and reduce the frequency of spawning at the far back of the map
  

Crossroads

• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck out of environment if they fell off behind capture point "B"
  
• Fixed an exploit where players could hide in a spot outside of the normal play area
  

Frontier

• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck on concrete sacks near capture point "B"
  
• Fixed an exploit where players could reach an unintended advantageous position
  

Memento

• Adjusted Rift spark location for better balance
  

Pantheon

• Adjusted Rift spawn settings to push players closer to the front line and reduce the frequency of spawning at the far back of the map
  

General

• An additional page of Vault Space has been added to all accounts, bringing the capacity counts up to 108 weapon, 108 armor, and 72 miscellaneous slots
  
• Mystery Bags can now be previewed before opening to look at the list of potential contents
  
• Year 1 ships have been added to the Crucible & Vanguard Reputation rank up packages
  
• Reputation Buffs have been added to Vanguard, Crucible, and House of Judgement Reputation rank up packages
  
• Abandoned Quest Kiosk has been added to the Reef
  
• 12 new Eververse Emotes have been updated to new Spring 2016 Season (northern hemisphere)
  
• Winter Season Emotes have been moved into a Winter 2015 Emote Mystery Bag
  
• Fixed an issue in which Crimson Days ghosts could not be previewed
  
• Fixed an issue in which Raid ghosts could not be previewed
  
• Fixed an issue in which Legacy Special Weapon Engrams did not decrypt properly [Edited 04/13/16]
  

Sterling Treasures

• Players are guaranteed to receive up to three Sterling Treasures per account by doing these actions after the weekly reset:
  
• Logging a character into the game
• Completing the Level 41 Prison of Elders
• Completing a match in the weekly featured Crucible playlist
• Items found Inside:
  
• Taken Gear (Vanity)
• Chroma
• Reputation Buffs

Chroma

• Chroma allows players to customize illumination (White, Yellow, Blue, and Red) on special items
  
• Chroma can be applied to many armor sets:
  
• "Spektar" Armor Set can be found within the Sterling Treasure boxes
• These specialized sets can be found in the Crucible/Vanguard reputation packages:
• "Spektar Pandion" Titan Superior Gear
• "Spektar Aspriet" Hunter Superior Gear
• "Spektar Haliaetus" Warlock Superior Gear
• These specialized sets can be found in their respective reputation packages:
• "Spektar Heliopause" Dead Orbit Gear
• "Spektar Infinite" Future War Cult Gear
• "Spektar Kallipolis" New Monarchy Gear
• Chroma can applied to many weapons:
  
• These Fallen weapons can be found in House of Judgement reputation packages:
• "Hand of Judgement" Scout Rifle
• "Stolen Pride" Hand Cannon
• "Crow's Eye" Sidearm
• "Soulstealer's Claw" Auto Rifle
• "Aegis of the Reef" Pulse Rifle
• These Queens Faction weapons can be found in Prison of Elders:
• "Final Duty" Pulse Rifle
• "Her Revenge" Hand Cannon
• "Her Memory" Auto Rifle"
• "Lethe Noblesse" Scout Rifle
• "Queens Choice" Sidearm
• "Techeun Rage" Fusion Rifle
• "Her Champion" Shotgun
• "Her Fury" Sniper Rifle
• "The Nightmare" Rocket Launcher
• "Bane of the Taken" Machine Gun

From the desk of Senior Designer Jon Weisnewski:

Greetings internet friends! Did we miss each other? I hope so. We’re back once more to talk about weapon and gameplay tuning that is headed to Destiny once the April update goes live. Designer Greg Peng and I have been working hard turning knobs, digesting data, playtesting, and then playtesting some more. As with all of these updates, I imagine some of these changes will be anticipated… and some not. I’m sure you’ll discuss this at length. Shaxx and I will be waiting for you in the Crucible on April 12.

BASE WEAPON CHANGES

AUTO RIFLES

High Rate-of-Fire (RoF) bullet hoses have been leading the pack in terms of competitive viability. Low RoF auto rifles are slightly behind their faster firing brethren. We’re tipping the scales ever so slightly on these weapons to try and create more options.

Goals:

• Auto Rifle is optimal at close to medium range
  
• Legendary low RoF Auto Rifles are a viable competitive choice
  
• High Rate of Fire auto rifles are viable but not best in class
  

Changes:

• Low RoF (Suros Regime, An Answering Chord, Anguish of Drystan): 2.3% increase in base damage
  
• High RoF (Doctrine of Passing, Arminius-D): 2.5% reduction in base damage
  
• Improvement to hip fire final accuracy
  

PULSE RIFLES

As with the auto rifles, the lowest RoF pulse rifles aren’t quite as effective as the faster firing models. The damage increase here doesn’t reduce bursts to kill against high Armor players in PVP, but it will provide more damage per burst which will help when team shooting and getting clean up kills.

Goals:

• Pulse Rifle is optimal at medium range, but can still effectively engage enemies at close or medium-long range
  
• Legendary low RoF pulse rifles are a viable competitive choice
  

Changes:

• Low RoF (The Messenger, Spare Change, Lyudmila-D): 3% increase from previous base damage
  

HAND CANNONS

Hand Cannons were running lean on ammo inventory during PVP streaks and lengthy PVE encounters. We are increasing their ammo inventory amounts by a bit to not leave you scrounging for white bricks too often, but not so much that you don’t need to worry about making shots count.

Goals:

• Hand Cannons are optimal at close to medium range
  
• Rewards agility under fire, precision targeting, and snap shots
  
• Hand Cannons have enough ammo to last longer streaks in all activities
  

Changes:

• Increase ammo inventory for all Hand Cannons
  

FUSION RIFLES

The changes made in the last patch were somewhat more in depth than a blanket stability reduction: changing the ADS/Hip bolt spread paradigm as well as charge rate/damage tradeoffs. Rather than continue to play with nuance, this time we’re just going to do a blanket stability improvement.

Goals:

• Fusion Rifles are optimal at mid-range, where targets are easier to track but they’re not close enough to attack while charging up
  
• Require combat foresight and the ability to predict a target’s movement to use successfully
  
• Low Stability does not make Fusion Rifles overly difficult to use.
  

Changes:

• Fusion rifles are more stable across the board. The maximum stability for a fusion rifle has not changed much, but the baseline minimum stability is much stronger (40% recoil reduction), and we linearly ramp up from there.
  
• Fixed bug where some outlying fusion rifle scopes had unintended increased zoom that was removed in Year Two.
  

SNIPER RIFLES

The intent for Sniper Rifles has always been lethality at a distance using a measured approach. There are a few scopes and models of Sniper Rifles that are pushing the limits of “distance” and allowing for pretty effective twitch combat shooting at what many would consider medium range. These changes aren’t intended to remove that style of combat, but they are intended to put the player at slightly longer ranges for that style to be as effective as it is currently.

Goals:

• Sniper Rifles are optimal at long range, and difficult to use for medium to short range combat
  
• Sniper Rifles reward thumb skill with high damage against precision targets
  

Changes:

• Increase base zoom distance on the lowest range sniper scopes. Medium to long range scopes are untouched
  
• Increase base zoom distance on Sniper Rifles that did not have Optics enhancing scope nodes: Hereafter, Black Spindle, Patience & Time, Stillpiercer
  
• Add 2 frames of zoom time to base Sniper handling
  
• Reduce Snapshot perk to 20% benefit to base zoom time (down from 30%)
  
• Reduce Stability across all Sniper Rifle stats so that reacquiring a target after firing requires more care
  
• Addressed a bug where Zen Moment was not providing perk benefit to Sniper Rifles
  
• Zen Moment removed from uncommon and rare sniper grids
• Legendary Hakke Sniper Rifles trade Zen Moment for Performance Bonus
• Legendary Omolon Sniper Rifles trade Zen Moment for Battle Runner

AMMO ECONOMY

We’ve heard pretty consistent feedback about the prevalence of special and heavy ammo in The Crucible. Data shows an uptick in Special weapon time equipped starting around December.

A while ago, the PVP design team made some changes to ammo spawns in 3v3 gametypes, and they’ll have some more changes to PVP ammo in 2.2.0. In addition to game mode ammo rules, we want to put some limits on how much ammo players get and horde during a PVP match.

Goals:

• Special and Heavy ammo is a valued commodity over the course of a Crucible match
  
• Players should be mindful of ammo conservation
  
• The choice to use a Special weapon should be based on recognizing a strategic opportunity
  
• Using Ice Breaker or Sidearms to “charge up” your ammo reserves for other weapons is not intended
  

Changes:

• Swapping special weapons in PVP now completely removes special ammo until more is found on the map
  
• Reduce the total Ammo Inventory for all Sniper Rifles by roughly 5-7 rounds (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s Magazine and Inventory stats)
  
• Reduce the total Ammo Inventory for all Shotguns by roughly 5-7 rounds (exact amount depends on a given weapon’s Magazine and Inventory stats)
  
• Increase Special Ammo drop rate in all PVE activities to offset the reduced Inventory for Shotguns and Sniper Rifles
  
• Reduce the fraction of ammo granted by purple bricks in PVP. This change affects all Machineguns and only a handful of Rocket Launchers (Truth is one of the affected Rocket Launchers).
  
• Reduced bonus Ammo Inventory granted by Machinegun Ammo Armor Perk by 33%
  

PLAYER RESURRECTION

Ally resurrection is a huge strategic factor in high intensity PVP and PVE. In the safety of cover or during a lull in combat it is an obvious helping hand to extend to your dead buddy. However, when an ally meets their end smack in the middle of a frantic firefight it should be with great peril that one risks their safety to bring them back. There are a number of elements in place that help players assess the risk/reward of sticking their neck out to revive a friend: time to resurrect, interactive prompt distance to Ghost, and resurrection overshield.

Right now these elements can be used in a variety of ways (and in combination with exotic armor) to greatly reduce the risk of bringing back a downed Fireteam member in the heat of combat. The downstream result of that starts to trend towards a trivialized death penalty and recklessness during the activities that have been built to require precision gameplay.

Goals:

• Resurrecting a player in the heat of combat should require the reviving player to put themselves at risk
  
• Revive sniping in PVP should not be limited to a handful of Sniper Rifles
  

Changes:

• Reduce interactive radius of resurrection prompt by .5 meters
  
• Increase base time to resurrect by .25 seconds
  
• Re-prioritize Overshield so that it takes precision damage modifiers (previously it did not) which allows more Sniper archetypes to get res-kills
  
• Only a few PvE combatants deal precision damage so aside from a few exceptions this only affects the PVP mechanic
• Adjust resurrection invincibility frames so that the moment a player can move and take damage are more consistent in most networking conditions
  
• Reduce resurrection time bonus on exotic armor (Crest of Alpha Lupi, Light Beyond Nemesis) to 30% (down from 40%)
  

WEAPON PERKS

Eye of the Storm

• Perk now improves error angle in addition to projectile accuracy so players can see the hip reticle contract as the perk activates
  

Icarus

• Airborne inaccuracy reduced by an additional +9% (was 66% reduction, now 75% reduction)
  

Aggressive Ballistics

Aggressive Ballistics is a barrel perk that adds the highest damage increase to the weapon when selected, and can also roll on a handful of exotic and legendary primary weapons. This perk in particular has made balancing a few archetypes very tricky – bringing up the base damage to a certain threshold will make these weapons with Aggressive Ballistics abnormally lethal for that archetype. This change affects Aggressive Ballistics on all weapons.

• Changes:
  
• Damage increase now asks for a -20 stability trade off (from -10)

EXOTIC & LEGENDARY WEAPON TUNING

MIDA Multi Tool

Holy ****!!

Ignoring popularity, we think MIDA is fairly balanced in the global scale of weapons but I’m sure many non-MIDA users are starting to get tired of seeing that name come up in their death screen. Considering the popularity of the weapon we wanted to preserve how it feels to use but thought it was best to make it a little less horrible to be on the receiving end.

• Changes
  
• Remove high caliber rounds from the intrinsic behavior

SUROS Regime

Since we added the Spinning Up perk to this weapon, it has become the dominant playstyle for Suros users. The base damage increase of this archetype made Spinning Up pretty deadly, so we pushed out the perk activation by 4 shots. We are hoping to make the Focus Fire option a little more enticing by adding a base Range increase on the node. When selecting Focus Fire along with other Range enhancements on the grid players can now push the weapon to a max Range stat.

• Changes
  
• Selecting Focus Fire grants +45 Range stat
• Spinning Up now activates (4 shots) later in the magazine

Hawkmoon

Although Hawkmoon still has the highest damage to magazine ratio for Hand Cannons, the last round of changes left the weapon feeling inaccurate. It is getting a Range increase to help effective range and accuracy.

• Changes
  
• Increase base Range stat by 10

The Last Word

In 2.0 we reduced the effective range of The Last Word, but the hip fire accuracy and damage increase provided by The Last Word perk are still pretty strong when working together on this weapon. For the players who have mastered hip fire precision shooting, this weapon can cause 2 hit precision kills which is a very fast kill time on a full auto weapon. To keep the time to kill in line with other exotic primaries, we are removing the damage increase granted from hip fire. The Last Word perk still grants generous Stability and Accuracy when firing from hip.

• Changes
  
• No damage bonus is applied from The Last Word perk

Thorn

Thorn is back and better than ever! (Just kidding!) This pass on Thorn maintains the power fantasy of using the weapon in all activities, but makes it significantly less difficult to fight against in PvP.

• Changes
  
• Reduce Damage Over Time (DoT) tick damage to the absolute minimum in PvP (1 HP base damage)
• Reduce DoT duration in PvP to 4 ticks (down from 6)
• Reduce intensity of poison screen effects for the victim to preserve combat effectiveness while poisoned

Ice Breaker

Like Thorn, even though this weapon is “on the bench” in terms of current power level, many people are using it to great advantage to work around ammo restrictions. This is predominantly occurring in high-skill PvP matches, so these changes are targeted at that skill level: aggressive snipers using Ice Breaker for medium range quick sniping will be more affected. For casual players, these changes are targeted at reinforcing Ice Breaker's intended role as a slow paced, long distance combat tool.

• Changes
  
• Increase scope zoom Optics to 6x
• Reduce base Handling stat to the lowest value for Sniper Rifles
• Reduce base Target Acquisition by 25%
• “Death swapping” in PVP no longer allows ammo to persist between swapped weapons

Dreg’s Promise

When it was released in House of Wolves it was one of two total Sidearms in the game. In the current range of Sidearm options, Dreg’s Promise is rarely used so we wanted to give it some attention.

• Changes
  
• Projectiles track more aggressively: On fire, targeting locks onto the enemy in your reticle. Damage reduced (40%) and rate of fire reduced to compensate
• Damage falloff reduced to match Sidearm archetype range

Lord of Wolves

• Changes
  
• Reduce ammo inventory to reflect base Shotgun inventory reduction

Queenbreaker’s Bow

• Changes
  
• Reduce ammo inventory to reflect base Sniper inventory reduction

Telesto

• Changes
  
• Fixed bug that caused Telesto projectiles to despawn when impacting friendly players and Wards of Dawn. Telesto rounds now attach and detonate on friendly targets but do not cause friendly fire.

The Chaperone

• Changes
  
• Fixed a bug that was clamping precision damage on shotguns

1000 Yard Stare

This weapon has one of the highest adoption rates for any gun we’ve ever released. I think there are a number of factors that contribute to this, but the end result is a pretty remarkable spike in weapon usage.

This is an interesting situation. We don’t like punishing a relatively-balanced weapon just because it is popular, but we also want players to feel like they have options. For now, the safest way to reduce this spike is to preserve the feeling of the weapon, preserve the talent grid rolls that many players are no doubt happy with, and just pull a few rounds out of the Inventory.

• Changes
  
• Reduce base Ammo Inventory stat

Quillims Terminus

The Raid Machinegun is one of the most lethal and ammo-rich heavies in the game. As such, it has become the default choice for most people who have it. Data!

Not to keep banging the same drum, but it is important to us that players feel like they have options and that there isn’t a single ultimate weapon per archetype.

• Changes
  
• Reduce base Stability stat by 9
• Reduce base Inventory stat by 15

King’s Fall Weapon Set

• Anguish of Drystan
  
• Increase Stability stat by 12%
• All King’s Fall primaries
  
• Increased reload speed

Nightfall

• Reduced the chance for ghost shells to be awarded from completing the weekly in favor of other rewards
  

Raid: King's Fall

• Fixed an issue that allowed players to become immune to the Totem room damage by using a sword's block ability
  
• Totems will now kill players under the totem after an extended period of time
• Fixed an issue on the aura holder when exiting 3rd person, the camera forward would get reset back facing the direction of the players feet
  
• Fixed an issue where the Ogres would teleport when they had issues path finding around previous dropped bombs
  

General

• Bounties have been moved to the top of Shaxx's vendor screen
  
• Players now start without special ammo in all 3v3 modes
• See developer comments from Derek Carroll
• Fixed an issue where the quest step to "Complete a match with 6+ Auto Rifle kills" was not properly registering
  
• The temporary fix applied previously has been removed once again to allow this quest to be turned in properly
• Fixed an issue where the text display for Nova Bomb score bonuses was incorrect
  
• Damage Referee has been enabled in the Control playlist for the Crucible
• See developer comments from Paul Lewellen

Playlists

• New Rotating Playlists
• See developer comments from Jeremiah Pieschl
• Freelance 3v3 featuring Skirmish, Salvage and Elimination - only accessible by solo players, no fireteams
  
• Freelance 6v6 featuring Control, Clash and Rift - only accessible by solo players, no fireteams
  
• Inferno 3v3 featuring Inferno Skirmish, Inferno Salvage and introducing Inferno Elimination!
• Inferno 6v6 featuring Inferno Control and Inferno Clash

Iron Banner

• Iron Banner returns on February 23rd, 10AM to February 29th, 1AM PST
  
• Iron Banner armor pieces from Rank 5 packages will now be granted immediately, instead of appearing once you return to Orbit
  
• Increased the base win rep amount by +20% (50 to 60)
  
• Waypoints have been added to Lord Saladin when the Rank 3 and Rank 5 packages are available
  
• Players can no longer recycle into Iron Banner matches after the event has ended
  

Trials of Osiris

• Reduced the postgame wait time by 15 seconds
  
• Adjusted loot tables to make rewards more consistent and less likely to have a non-payout match
  

Maps

Crossroads

• Fixed an issue where some players are able to perch in an advantageous position on a giant tree root
  

The Timekeeper

• Removed dynamic objects and moved overtime objective to help it play better in Elimination