One of the best times to pick up Destiny 2 is when a new annual expansion or Season releases. Expansions often include one or more brand-new locations where the campaign is set, such as the Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City for the soon-to-be-vaulted Forsaken, whereas for Seasons the content is bite-sized and drops every week. This system proved to be effective for Destiny 2 as players can steamroll annual expansions in order to grow more powerful and acquire amazing stuff, but Seasons are about taking things slower and pacing everything out while providing sandbox patches that shape the meta.
Destiny 2's current Season is the longest the game has ever had, and thus Bungie can't have months of nothing new leading into the holiday season and the release of The Witch Queen expansion next year. That's why the 30th Anniversary Pack is coming in less than a month alongside a plethora of interesting things that range from a Dungeon to a six-player activity, as well as cosmetic items and the Destiny-famous Gjallarhorn. This is also the perfect time to shake up Destiny 2's meta, and Bungie is planning on nerfing Stasis and other abilities while buffing weapon perks, archetypes, and a bunch of Exotics.
Weapon Archetype Changes in Destiny 2
Weapon archetypes in Destiny 2 are the umbrella category a specific gun falls into. The latest "This Week At Bungie" post outlines which archetypes are changing with this December's 30th Anniversary Pack, and one of the most interesting alterations is happening with shotguns in PvE. Ever since their buff in Season 11, prior to Beyond Light and the Stasis era, slug shotguns became one of the strongest PvE weapons in terms of damage, and they dominated the meta in Season of the Splicer thanks to a hot-swap technique and Anarchy's passive damage.
When the upcoming patch drops, slug shotguns will see their damage reduced in PvE from a 30 percent bonus to 20 percent, and pellet shotguns will benefit from a 10 percent damage increase versus AI. This change should make slug shotguns less oppressive in the current PvE meta, shaping it in a way that makes pellet shotguns not a bad pick overall.
Linear fusion rifles are also getting a 10 percent increase in damage regardless of their rarity, which is great while Particle Deconstruction is still in the game and sets the archetype up for remaining a competitive choice next Season. This is great because power creep with Particle Deconstruction skyrocketed, and the result could be that fusion and linear fusion rifles will suffer when it goes away.
Other improvements are being made to bows, with their damage against basic enemies increasing by 10 percent; and to caster swords, with their ammo per heavy attack being reduced from eight to five. These minor tweaks are good for Destiny 2's meta because bows often feel like a subpar option except when stunning Overload Champions, mainly because it doesn't feel good to have to spam arrows. Caster swords are decent and their viability varies based on the content, but it doesn't make sense for them to cost so much ammo when The Witch Queen is introducing the glaive - another hybrid melee and projectile-based weapon.
Destiny 2's Coming Exotic Buffs are Great
With Exotics being such a big part of Destiny 2's gameplay, it doesn't come as a surprise that many of them will see a rework or buffs with the 30th Anniversary Pack. One of the biggest improvements is that Arbalest is getting an intrinsic Anti-Barrier Champion mod, which works great with the Exotic linear fusion rifle's perks. This Kinetic weapon has a perk called Compounding Force that makes its projectiles deal a lot of damage to elemental shields, which is already good in any Nightfall round with Match Game as a modifier. Then, it comes with Disruption Break to deal more Kinetic damage to enemies with broken shields. This applies to Barrier Champions as well, making Arbalest one of the best weapons in PvE once the change goes live.
Whisper of the Worm is likely going to be a top DPS pick again considering its Whispered Breathing perk will activate after 1.2 seconds instead of 2.1, its damage will increase by 10 percent in PvE, and the White Nail perk will pull ammo from thin air - in a reduced capacity. This is particularly relevant because Whisper of the Worm was once the best DPS weapon in the game before getting nerfed to a point where it was unusable. Sleeper Simulant is also getting a decent buff that will make it a better option because of an extra shot in the magazine and an extra six percent damage increase on top of the buff all linear fusion rifles will get.
Leviathan's Breath is very underused in Destiny 2 due to it being a Heavy slot bow, but it's quite a powerful weapon on its own and is now getting Archer's Tempo as an extra catalyst perk in December. Malfeasance will also get a buff that makes its explosions deal 50 percent more damage, which can be nasty if the hand cannon is paired with Hunters wearing Lucky Pants or Witherhoard, which increases the gun's damage by 25 percent. Another great buff is coming to Cryosthesia 77K, as the sidearm was intentionally shipped in a poor state due to Stasis being oppressive in PvP.
However, the gun is now going to see its variable trigger removed so players can fire on trigger press, and its charged shot will have a special reload mode. Any kill with the Cryosthesia 77K will grant access to the special reload and then shoot a freezing projectile with an AoE effect that slows enemy players in the Crucible. Sidearms are not really in a good state in PvE at the moment, and Crysthesia 77K was never great to begin with, but it was made even more redundant by Ager's Scepter much stronger abilities.
These changes are likely just a small part of what Destiny 2 players will see in the December patch, but they go to show Bungie is willing to experiment with its sandbox. Some of these changes might even lead to Particle Deconstruction being used less in the near future, and that may be great for increased build variety moving forward.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.