Since Destiny 2’s debut in 2017, players have sought the same two kinds of perks on their weapons: damage and reload. Bungie nerfed damage perks last year, and it will change reload perks in only a few weeks. To compensate, the studio also announced some buffs to old perks, and said that new perks are coming in season 11.
The idea behind reload perks is that players “reduce weapon downtime” in the heat of combat. The less time spent reloading, the more time spent shooting at enemies. Bungie broke down how exactly reload perks work in this week’s blog. Each weapon has a reload stat, and perks increase that stat up to a cap of 100. But most reload perks also have a small multiplier on them, so as to increase speed even at the cap.
Bungie plans on adjusting each of Destiny 2’s reload perks next season. Outlaw — which requires a single precision kill, and is the most popular reload perk — is now a bit slower than before. It won’t be as effective on weapons that already take a while to reload.
Feeding Frenzy, the most powerful option, now requires multiple kills for super fast reloads, instead of just one — but it will still be faster than Outlaw after three kills.
Rapid Hit, which only requires headshots rather than precision kills, won’t be as powerful as the others, but should still feel noticeable after several headshots.
Drop Mag, which deletes any bullets left in the magazine on reload, is getting a very small nerf, and is now as fast as Outlaw.
By nerfing reload perks, Bungie hopes to make other options viable as well. The studio will buff Dynamic Sway Reduction, Pulse Monitor, Hipfire Grip, and Sneak Bow in various ways, to make them more desirable.
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Season 11 will also have new perks exclusive to seasonal weapons, with plans to bring them forward in future seasons. Two returning Iron Banner weapons will also roll with two new perks. Bungie hasn’t given any information about these perks — other than the names of the Iron Banner ones: Iron Grip and Iron Gaze.
Next season, Bungie will also buff some currently low-use weapons. Slug Shotguns are getting a hefty 30% damage boost in PvE. Bows are also getting a damage increase against minor enemies, and high-Impact pulse rifles will deal slightly more damage in PvP.
For the fall, Bungie plans to change the ease of use for some sniper rifles, since Revoker and Beloved account for 86% of sniper kills in the Crucible. Various hand cannon subfamilies will also see changes, like aggressive hand cannons. The studio is also taking a look at adaptive auto rifles, with plans to tune them around other members of the auto rifle family.
Finally, the studio mentioned plans to make more regular changes to weapon balance. It’s unclear if this is a direct result of weapon sunsetting freeing up developer resources, or if it’s simply a new initiative from Bungie.
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