Destiny 2 is 'Nerfing' Two of Its Best Weapons in Forsaken

Game Rant

By Weston Albert

Published Aug 9, 2018

Destiny 2 will nerf two of its best weapons used for endgame PvE boss damage with the release of its Forsaken DLC and the game's upcoming major game update.

Two of Destiny 2’s best weapons may be a little less so once the game’s Forsaken expansion and accompanying game update launch in just under a month’s time. Those two weapons are the IKELOS shotgun and sniper rifle that players earn through the Escalation Protocol activity. The weapons are not getting a straight nerf so much as they are having some of their flexibility and utility taken away.

It’s all a result of the drastic changes Destiny 2’s weapon systems are about to undergo, including redesigned weapon slots, more impactful mods, and random rolls. With the news that Year 1 weapons would be carrying forward into Year 2 through Infusion, one of the more nuanced questions that developer Bungie has answered is that the element a weapon has going into the August 28 game update will be locked in permanently. With the overhaul of the mod system, elemental mods are going away, completely taking with it the ability for players to change the element of their favorite weapons on the fly.

destiny 2 escalation protocol ikelos sniper rifle box breathing nerf

While Bungie is okay letting players choose the elements of their favorite weapons going into the August 28 patch, the developer is specifically locking two endgame-level weapons to a specific element in the interest of balance. Both the IKELOS shotgun and sniper rifle will be locked to the Solar element. That means, if players have an Arc or Void version of those weapons come August 28, they will be changed to Solar.

The reason has everything to do with the go-to method for burning down bosses that fans have developed since the launch of this year’s Warmind expansion. Paired with the Tractor Cannon exotic shotgun that applies a debuff to an enemy hit with it causing all Void damage to be dramatically increased, the IKELOS shotgun and sniper rifle with a Void element equipped can burn down bosses insanely fast.

As a direct result, in order to block players from using this method with this particular weapon combination, Bungie is in effect, “nerfing” these two weapons by manually assigning a Solar element to those weapons. The IKELOS sniper rifle is also taking an additional hit with the nerf to the very powerful Box Breathing perk.

Destiny 2: Forsaken releases on September 4, 2018 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Source: Greg Peng (Twitter)