Destiny

[Edword]

We can pre-load the download while servers are down as well.

Weapon Tuning notes

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.

[volcomsocal]

Originally Posted by Edword

We can pre-load the download while servers are down as well.

Weapon Tuning notes

Fabian strategy - finally getting some love. I'll actually try it out again for the first time in about 11 months.

Universal Remote - I was so sick of seeing people use that gun in PvP, it was beyond ridiculous. I'm glad it got nerfed to hell.

Dreg's Promise - this gun really needed a buff, and I'm glad they addressed it. But I believe they didn't buff it enough.

Touch of Malice - now this one really pisses me off. They are saying that people were using this gun outside of KF (where supposedly it "doesn't belong"), and sidestepping it's health-drainage effect by using Blessing of Light. But now BoL no longer affects this gun. I have 2 major problems with this. First, using BoL while wielding ToM DURING THE ORYX FIGHT was common strategy. People didn't only use it while inside the Aura of Immortality. And second, so what if some people used it outside of the raid? How is that a major problem? How is it game-breaking? I couldn't possibly imagine an overwhelming majority of Destiny players that actually used this gun outside of KF. This is a cheap blow to the incredible perk of this gun and now completely changes the strategy used in KF. Luckily, KF won't be that important to most players now. But I sure do feel bad for the newer players who haven't experienced this weapon's true power yet. This gun is very one-dimensional, so I just don't get where they're coming from.

Aim Deflection - this is getting a needed buff. Nice.

Immobius - I absolutely love this shotgun. It's my go to on my Titan in PvE. The added 60% stability will make this strong gun even better. The added 2% damage to this shotgun, and all other high rate of fire (and middle-low rate of fire) shotguns is a welcome buff, but I was hoping for a lot more ever since they drastically nerfed shotguns almost a year ago.

Cascade - nice to see they buffed this perk by automatically adding some bullets back to the mag after a melee kill.

-------------------------------

There are still some small bugs that they didn't address, like fixing the UI on certain weapon perks. For instance, if you hover the mouse over a perk that is supposed to give you less ammo in the mag, the UI actually says it'll give you more (by showing an "up" arrow instead of a "down" arrow). Another bug that has been annoying me forever is how on the character screen, that down arrow is always shimmering, telling you that you have a new item (like a new ship or shader) on the next page, but you really don't. C'mon man! Fix it Bungie!

Anyways, I mostly like what I see.

[Edword]

Originally Posted by volcomsocal

Touch of Malice - now this one really pisses me off. They are saying that people were using this gun outside of KF (where supposedly it "doesn't belong"), and sidestepping it's health-drainage effect by using Blessing of Light. But now BoL no longer affects this gun. I have 2 major problems with this. First, using BoL while wielding ToM DURING THE ORYX FIGHT was common strategy. People didn't only use it while inside the Aura of Immortality. And second, so what if some people used it outside of the raid? How is that a major problem? How is it game-breaking? I couldn't possibly imagine an overwhelming majority of Destiny players that actually used this gun outside of KF. This is a cheap blow to the incredible perk of this gun and now completely changes the strategy used in KF. Luckily, KF won't be that important to most players now. But I sure do feel bad for the newer players who haven't experienced this weapon's true power yet. This gun is very one-dimensional, so I just don't get where they're coming from.

I personally think TOM became useless after the April update anyways. It wasn't really needed to do decent DPS.

And I also think they might have made this change to prevent it possibly affecting the new raid. I feel like there will be some opportunities where Bubble Bros and TOM would make an encounter "too easy".

[volcomsocal]

Originally Posted by Edword

I personally think TOM became useless after the April update anyways. It wasn't really needed to do decent DPS.

And I also think they might have made this change to prevent it possibly affecting the new raid. I feel like there will be some opportunities where Bubble Bros and TOM would make an encounter "too easy".

I guess, but then what's the point of this gun? It's now literally only useful for the Sisters. In the Oryx fight, you have that Aura of Immortality once every 5 minutes or so. Do they really expect us to switch exotic loadouts every time we get inside that Aura? True, the gun isn't as important ever since the April update, but they made an extremely one-dimensional gun even less useful. It might as well stay in year 2 attack-values and not be allowed to move forward through infusing in year 3.

EDIT: seems like the best strategy for the two titans in the middle now, is to use Sleeper Simulant. But I guess everyone else can still run ToM when they have the AoI.

[volcomsocal]

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.

Armor

***General***
Fixed a bug causing +1 armor perks to sometimes fail to function
Class items can now accept shaders
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 where 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
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

[volcomsocal]

Just installed the new update and finally pre-ordered RoI.

New load screen and theme music is up!!!

[Scottie]

PSN has also added the new trophies.

[SirMontyPython]

Originally Posted by iScottie

PSN has also added the new trophies.

Doesn't matter, got my platinum [emoji13] [emoji106] I'm looking forward to Rise of Iron!!

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[Scottie]

Mountain Climber
Complete the "King of the Mountain" mission.

The Young Wolf
Complete the "Rise of Iron" quest.

Student of History
Activate all Iron Lord Artifacts.

Sing the Iron Song (Hidden Trophy)
Play the Rise of Iron theme on the bells in the Iron Temple.

Supremacy
Complete the "Glory and the Taking of It" quest.

Eye for an Eye
Complete the "Kovik's Sin" quest.

Forging Ahead
Complete an encounter in the Archon's Forge.

Spliced
Complete the "Wrath of the Machine" raid.

Splicer God
Complete the "Wrath of the Machine" raid on heroic difficulty.

[volcomsocal]

Via Bungie's Twitter, the scheduled maintenance is extended for 2 hours. It'll be finished at 6pm Pacific.

[TTBHG]

Originally Posted by volcomsocal

Via Bungie's Twitter, the scheduled maintenance is extended for 2 hours. It'll be finished at 6pm Pacific.

Looks like the east-coasters don't get to play tonight with the start of the NFL season commencing at 8:30. That sucks.

[volcomsocal]

Originally Posted by TTBHG

Looks like the east-coasters don't get to play tonight with the start of the NFL season commencing at 8:30. That sucks.

Yeah, that sucks for you guys. I was gonna squeak in an hour and a half of gaming before the Carolina/Denver game. But now I'll just play Destiny after the game. I'm curious if they have added anything new, like when we had the blades of Crota in patrol before the Dark Below dropped.

[Grim Reaper]

Anybody else having server issues? I'm unable to sign in.

[volcomsocal]

Originally Posted by volcomsocal

Via Bungie's Twitter, the scheduled maintenance is extended for 2 hours. It'll be finished at 6pm Pacific.

^^^^^^

[Scottie]

Another two hours...

[volcomsocal]

I'm still watching the football game, so I haven't seen it myself. But I just saw on Reddit that any old IB weekly bounties that you were holding onto for marks/quick IB rep, are gone. I'm pretty irritated with this.

EDIT: the gunsmith now sells armor materials.

[Edword]

Guess they don't want us to use those bounties quick when IB drops. I feel like IB will drop on the 27th, that way PvP only players have an option to level up for Trials on the 30th.

[volcomsocal]

Go visit Variks in the Reef if you want some free planetary materials and special/heavy weapon ammo. This update is treating the game like it's a weekly reset. That's why the heroic strike modifiers are different too....along with the name of the heroic strikes now.

[Grim Reaper]

Originally Posted by volcomsocal

^^^^^^

I didn't notice that you posted the info about it.

[TTBHG]

Originally Posted by volcomsocal

I'm still watching the football game, so I haven't seen it myself. But I just saw on Reddit that any old IB weekly bounties that you were holding onto for marks/quick IB rep, are gone. I'm pretty irritated with this.

EDIT: the gunsmith now sells armor materials.

I had all three weekly bounties completed on all three characters. That's a huge kick in the balls.