In its weekly blog post developer Bungie gave Destiny 2 fans some highlights from the upcoming balance patch that will accompany next season’s update. Within the patch notes preview were a lot of nerfs (and a handful of buffs), but the one that stood out is a big nerf to sniper rifles.
According to Bungie, Destiny 2 players have grown to rely too heavily on sniper rifles for their long distance utility. Players spent too much time sitting back and picking off enemies from afar and could do so with ease thanks to the damage output of sniper rifles in Season of Dawn.
To curb that use, Bungie will be nerfing Destiny 2 sniper rifles back to their pre-Shadowkeep numbers, which amounts to a 20% damage nerf. On top of that, the precision modifier has been lowered on adaptive sniper rifle frames and rapid fire snipers have had their base damage reduced.
Alongside the overall sniper rifle nerfs, Bungie also targeted one of the most popular DPS weapons in Destiny 2: Izanagi’s Burden. First, the Season 10 update will swap out Izanagi’s Outlaw perk with ‘No Distractions’ to better favor the DPS nature of the weapon. But the bigger change is that the reload stat will no longer affect the speed that Izanagi’s Burden can chamber its Honed Edge bullet.
Without playing the update first-hand, it’s hard to know how these changes will impact the use of sniper rifles in Destiny 2, but content creator Ehroar has provided a video showing just how significant these nerfs are. He breaks down the new damage numbers and DPS of each sniper rifle archetype compared to what they are now, and overall it does not look good.
It may sound like a broken record to talk about Destiny 2 and unnecessary nerfs, but that is also a running theme with Bungie as of late. Weapon types and specific weapons get overused in certain content and Bungie decides that a nerf is necessary. Usually the patch includes some rationale behind the change, but it does little to ease players’ frustrations at seeing some of their favorite weapons nerfed.
Where sniper rifles in Destiny 2 are concerned there is already a debate in the Destiny 2 community as to why the weapon type is favored. Most disagree with Bungie’s assessment and see these nerfs as a way to change up play styles rather than create balance.
Destiny 2 Season 10 starts next month.