Destiny 2 developer Bungie has revealed a number of PvP changes coming in the major sandbox update releasing later this month. This, along with a plethora of weapon rebalancing tweaks, is aimed at improving the Crucible in Destiny 2.

Bungie said in its weekly blog that the two major points of fan feedback developers are trying to address in this Destiny 2 update are (1) the game's slower time to kill and (2) its focus on "team shotting." The strategy is a twofold change to the weapon, ability, and class sandbox as well as changes to the Crucible itself. Our prior article about weapon tweaks already covered the major sandbox changes coming - now let's get to the Crucible changes.

  • Respawn and Revive were tuned in all game modes
    • Player respawn timers for all Quickplay modes have been reduced to 2s
    • Player respawn timers for Survival have been reduced to 7s
    • Revive lockout time in Countdown has been reduced to 7s
    • Players no longer lose Revive Tokens on death
  • Power Ammo respawn timers were adjusted across the board
    • Power Ammo respawn timers in Iron Banner have been reduced ~50%
    • Power Ammo respawn timers for all Quickplay modes have been reduced ~30%
    • Power Ammo respawn timers in Survival have been reduced ~40%.
    • Power Ammo respawn timers in Countdown have been reduced ~25%
destiny 2 crucible changes
  • Ammo counts have been adjusted in relation to these timers, and in relation to weapon type.
    • In almost all cases weapons either retained the same ammo count or received a buff. Swords and rockets were brought down to stay in line with the rest of the weapon offering.
  • Enemy players now drop their Power Ammo on death.
    • This brick is now networked to all players regardless of faction. Secure the power ammo to keep it from your foes or steal off your enemy’s ghost, but be quick because these bricks don’t stay in the world forever.

Bungie says all these changes are focused on "rewarding quick reflexes, thinking, and movement" instead of clumping together with a team. The developer also said that, while these changes appear to accomplish that within Quick Play in playtesting, they did not do enough for the Competitive modes. In order to push the gameplay in that playlist further into accomplishing those goals, players will have their Motion Tracker removed in all Competitive playlists.

These are all solid changes coming to Destiny 2, but we will have to wait and see if it's enough to make Destiny 2's gameplay exciting again. The changes should mix up the way The Crucible plays, but there is a sense that they won't lower the time to kill and will only prioritize power weapons over anything else. We'll find out for when the Sandbox update releases March 27th.

Destiny 2 and its Curse of Osiris expansion are available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: Bungie