Destiny 2: Player Pokes Fun at PvP Balance and Fusion Rifle Nerfs

Game Rant

By Anthony Taormina

Published Aug 1, 2017

Some obviously fake Destiny 2 tweets poke fun at Bungie's efforts to balance PvP in the first game and its treatment of the fusion rifle weapon class.

While there’s no question that Destiny 1 was a success by all conventional metrics, the game had its fair share of stumbles as well. PvP in Destiny was always a work in progress, and when it came to balancing the experience, Bungie made some questionable choices.

Luckily for Destiny 2, Bungie is planning to do things differently, by balancing PvP and PvE separately and implementing systems that allow the devs to tweak specific weapons not the archetype. At the same time, that doesn’t mean Bungie won’t make a few mistakes along the way, a fact that one longtime fan poked fun at in a series of fake tweets

Considering there have been a lot of concerns over Destiny 2 balance following the open beta, players are likely wondering how Bungie plans to address issues that pop up. The below fake tweets, however, make light of the situation.

Obviously, Destiny 2 will have plenty of balance patches (for both PvE and PvP) during its lifespan, and players should expect the game to evolve as time goes on. Even things seen in the beta have already changed, from ability cool down timers to the ammo economy in PvE.

That being said, the bit about fusion rifles is particularly funny because it rings so true. While sniper rifles and shotguns have wavered in terms of their dominance in PvP, fusion rifles have always taken a back seat. At one point, fusion rifles were a great secondary weapon choice, but one nerf is all it took to make them practically useless in PvP.

Fusion rifles became a running joke among the Destiny community, to the point that players regularly expected Bungie to keep nerfing the weapon class, despite its lack of utility. Whenever a forum post was made about hopes for PvP balance changes, the last line was usually, “And a nerf to fusion rifles.”

Of course, fusion rifle changes will likely be looked at differently now that the weapon class is part of the Power Weapon slot. Whereas the early Destiny 1 fusion rifle nerfs were to keep the weapon from being a one-hit kill at mid-range, now the weapon should be capable of dealing that type of damage. Maybe not forever in Destiny 2, but in the open beta fusion rifles were extremely strong.

Destiny 2 releases September 6, 2017 for PS4 and Xbox One, and October 24th for PC.