I suppose, at least, I can’t say it’s one step forward, two steps back, but I suppose that would depend on your point of view and opinion.
It’s pretty easy to be disenfranchised with Destiny and Bungie.
Still, the latest acts by the sandbox team and Bungie’s own statement of intent, paints a picture of a developer totally disconnected from the reality of their game. From the upcoming balance changes for Destiny 2, we’ve got…
Whisper of the Worm:
- White Nail pulls ammo from reserves rather than creating it
- Reserve ammunition increased to 18 (without ammo reserve perks)
I have this gun, but I don’t use it. I mean, I do, but only for specific jobs and specific purposes. The funny thing, however, is that it’s actually not that great anymore. Titans and D.A.R.C.I., or a Warlock with D.A.R.C.I. and Lunafaction Boots deals more damage… yet, in Bungie’s own words:
“[…]An Exotic that can generate an infinite amount of Heavy ammo is still a gigantic outlier and renders many weapons irrelevant for certain encounters. While Exotics are intended to be powerful and novel, bypassing the ammo economy can tend to force us to adjust enemies to compensate. This effectively results in Sniper Rifles as a whole being punished because of Whisper’s unique ammo ability. As a result, we’re removing the ammo generation ability so that we can increase the effectiveness of all other Snipers that don’t have an endless ammo supply. “
This is an interesting concept, but in regards to damage, again, D.A.R.C.I. is a better option that accomplishes the job of nuking any given bullet sink into the ground. Perhaps, though, Whisper of the Worm isn’t the best place to attempt to highlight this disconnect. How about instead we look at…
Ace of Spades:
- Memento Mori now ends if the weapon is stowed
- The PvP damage bonus of Memento Mori was slightly reduced to prevent two-tapping Guardians while Vengeance (One-Eyed Mask) was active
- Specifically, you need four resilience to survive this
- Memento Mori is active for six shots again (up from five)
Memento Mori is powerful, but I think we can see the real cause here as for why Ace of Spades was nerfed. They say it right there:
One-Eyed Mask.
Perhaps I’m a little bit biased, but I feel like the Ace of Spades two-tapping Guardians that consistently and breaking the flow of battle significantly would be the major cause of issue. So, why is it the wall-hacking, damage enhancing, you really shouldn’t take any other choice as a Titan going into Crucible exotic not taking the nerf and the symptom, the Ace of Spades is?
I feel like it’s a massive disconnect. The sort of disconnect that creates the situation where this is even necessary in the first place:
Super-Generating Exotic Armor:
- Skull of Dire Ahamkara, Orpheus Rigs, and Phoenix Protocol now receive Super energy back with diminishing returns, making it rarer to get a full Super back
- Shards of Galanor and Ursa Furiosa had their Super gain caps reduced to be in parity with other Super Exotic changes
- Gwisin Vest had its energy reduced from 15% to 8% for killing one to two Guardians
- Still scales up similar to before when killing three or more Guardians
- PvE energy return remains similar to before
Now, the community hates these changes in particular I think, but I’m gonna be honest with you, the fact this was even allowable in the first place is hilarious. Contrast Destiny 2 with Halo in any of its iterations: you could easily throw twenty or more grenades in the span of time it takes you to cooldown a grenade or melee ability without a ‘Greatly Enhanced X’ perk on your exotic armor.
Instead, for the life of Destiny 2, we’ve been able to spam room-wiping abilities that are relatively insane to the quaintness of a few grenades chucked here and there.
I know I’m not particularly offering any suggestions here, but I think looking at a live game like Destiny offers a chance to segue into talking more about Destiny 2, as well as taking a look at developers who seem consistently disconnected with reality. I mean, really, two words: enhancement cores.
God you have people at Forbes writing about enhancement cores, help me.
