Destiny 2's Season of the Haunted launched alongside a major sandbox patch that reworked mechanics like in-air accuracy and flinch resistance, while also taking a look at underused and overtuned weapons in both PvP and PvE. With Destiny 2's seasonal model, Bungie has been capable of working on more frequent updates to the state of the game, and today's TWAB proves just as much by showcasing all the changes that will go into the upcoming mid-Season sandbox patch. This is a good way to always keep an eye on the game's balance across all game modes, and it's healthy for its longevity as well.
With Season of the Haunted's update, Bungie decided to take a look at some of the weapons that were performing too well in PvE, among which was Arbalest. This Kinetic linear fusion rifle has been dominating the endgame meta for a while now because it one-shots all elemental shields and Barrier Champions' shields, with Arbalest's catalyst also refilling the magazine whenever a shield is broken by the gun. Thus, Bungie nerfed the damage output of Arbalest against Destiny 2's Champions so that it wouldn't be too strong of a counter against them.
However, Destiny 2 players started noticing that the 25% damage penalty didn't apply just to Arbalest, despite Bungie's initial TWAB about it and the actual patch notes stating so. In fact, a Reddit user by the name of Kapuhsky and then another by the name of Kliuqard put together findings that prove this unintended nerf to all linear fusion rifles by comparing their damage numbers from Season of the Risen and the ones from Season of the Haunted. The difference is sitting at 25% less damage now compared to last season, which is the exact reduction in damage that was applied to Arbalest.
In the same thread, fellow players reported that Whisper of the Worm is, for some reason, also dealing 25% less damage to Champions compared to Season of the Risen, which shouldn't be happening. Still, linear fusion rifles are very good weapons right now, and even with this 25% unintended nerf, they can hold their own in endgame content. Bungie hasn't acknowledged this issue yet, and there is currently no ETA on when a Destiny 2 hotfix will drop for it.
It's worth noting that a currently active Destiny 2 glitch allows for double Special and Heavy ammo in PvP and PvE, so players can still benefit from this when tackling hard content. Linear fusion rifles currently require more ammo for Champion kills in PvE, and this glitch at least provides that until the bug is fixed, assuming it's not intended.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.