Destiny 2 players will likely have a hugely different damage meta after Lightfall is released later this month. Bungie is nerfing the nearly ubiquitous linear fusion rifles (with Exotics being unaffected) and lending a hand to the damage potential of grenade launchers and machine guns, as outlined in a blog post today.
Linear fusion rifles in the Heavy slot have been a go-to choice for a little over a year now, after Season of the Lost’s Particle Deconstruction mod showed how deadly they could be—even when the season ended. Players can expect a hefty damage reduction to them with the next expansion, though.
“Linear Fusion Rifles outperform other Heavy weapons for boss damage by a wide margin and have had plenty of time in the sun,” senior design lead Chris Proctor wrote in the blog post. The changes aim to water them down enough so other options can compete, but Heavy Exotic LFRs will be unaffected by the change since they “don’t do enough to justify using one over a Legendary.”
LFRs will deal 15 percent less damage to Champions, minibosses, bosses, and vehicles, according to the weapons blog, but Sleeper Simulant and Queenbreaker are unaffected. Since the blog post touches mostly on Heavy weapons and both Special LFRs are Exotics, Lorentz Driver and Arbalest likely escaped the nerf.
To help crown a new successor to LFRs, Bungie is buffing machine guns in both PvP and PvE. Machine guns will deal 10 percent more damage and will receive more ammo reserves, which should help their case in higher-end content. Bungie said the damage buff would apply “across the board in PvE,” meaning Exotic machine guns such as Xenophage, Grand Overture, and Thunderlord will presumably also be included in the changes.
The buff to ammo reserves will scale based on the hidden Inventory Size stat, which determines how many rounds a weapon has in-game. Due to the arcane nature of the stat, though, Proctor broke down what that means in practice: “You can take this to mean that low reserves Machine Guns get a big boost, while large reserves Machine Guns get a smaller boost,” he wrote.
Heavy grenade launchers will also see changes. They are “substantially below some other Heavy options for damage,” which puts them in dire need of some firepower to compete against the most efficient options. Bungie is buffing their damage to Champions, minibosses, bosses, and vehicles by 20 percent, and damage against minors will see a 40 percent buff. Bungie will also improve blast radius and projectile collision, making it easier to land shots. Proctor explicitly said Parasite would not receive the damage increase, which has made Anarchy fans hopeful that the old grenade launcher could see more time in the sun after the significant nerfs pushed it into obscurity.
In addition to the shakeup of the damage meta, Bungie is also tweaking several Exotics to make them more competitive and also bringing Rewind Rounds to weapons from outside the Vault of Glass raid after Lightfall lands. The upcoming expansion is slated to drop on Feb. 28.
