Destiny 2: Mountaintop Finally Getting Nerfed in Beyond Light

In the latest This Week at Bungie (TWAB), Bungie gave players a look at the new sandbox changes coming to Destiny 2 in November…so let’s talk about what Bungie (and almost everyone who plays the game) has also talked about.

Hand Cannons

“We’re making changes to give hand cannon subfamilies more diversity, and more reasons to use each.”

Aggressive Frame (high damage, high recoil)
- Increased Rate of Fire from 110 to 120
- Broke out Aggressive Hand Cannons, allowing custom tuning of stats (e.g. damage falloff for 100 range in this subfamily now starts at 32 meters)

I…don’t understand Bungie’s thinking in this. If people already don’t use 110 RPM Hand Cannons, why would a difference of 10 (and really nothing else significant) change that? I hope that they decide to give Aggressives a bit more of a buff later on down the road.

Adaptive and Precision
- Range stat now has more impact on minimum damage falloff range for both archetypes
  - Damage falloff for 100 range now starts at 25 meters, was 20 meters
- Precision Hand Cannon (180 RPM)
  - Magazine scaled up by 37%
  - This also affects Exotics with that RPM

Well…the only real significant change here is the magazine increase on Precision Hand Cannons, though I still don’t really think that a mag increase will do a whole lot to get players to start using 180s again, there’s gotta be something else. This change also affects the Exotic Hand Cannon “Malfeasance”

Lightweight (folded into Adaptive)
- Moved all Lightweight Hand Cannons (150 RPM) to the Adaptive subfamily (140 RPM)
  - Includes Luna’s Howl and Not Forgotten
  - Does not include Sunshot

“At this time, Lightweight (150 RPM) Hand Cannons represent the majority of Hand Cannon usage in the Crucible. While we experimented with many different ways to even out Lightweights (150 RPM) and Adaptives (140 RPM), Lightweight Hand Cannons consistently retained a faster time to kill (TTK). As such, we opted to equalize their ROF (rate of fire). We selected 140 ROF as it is fairly balanced in the Crucible sandbox. It gives other weapon archetypes more time to breathe between shots, avoids an overabundance of Hand Cannons with faster TTK than other weapons, and pairs nicely with upcoming changes to 600 ROF Auto Rifles.”
Credit: Bungie

This…this does not make me happy. Lightweight Frame Hand Cannons are currently the most popular Hand Cannon frame due to the movement speed boost while the weapon is equipped. With Lightweights being absorbed into the Adaptive Frame, this means that those weapons will most likely have their movement speed buff removed.

Sniper Rifles

Adjusted how aim assist (AA) is affected by Sniper Rifle zoom level. Lower zoom scopes have less AA, higher zoom scopes have more, scopes with around 50 zoom are unchanged.
- Lowest-zoom scopes have a large reduction in AA cone angle
- Highest-zoom scopes have a small increase

Auto Rifles

Adaptive (600 RPM) archetype
- Damage per bullet reduced from 15.75 to 14.25

Scout Rifles

Increased how much each point of the AA stat widens the AA cone
At maximum, the AA cone is now 15% wider

Unfortunately, not much to say for Autos, Scouts, or Snipers 600 RPM Autos now deal less damage per bullet, Scouts and Snipers got some Aim Assist changes and that’s about it.

Rocket Launchers

Increased reserves by 1 or 2 rockets depending on inventory stat

Finally. Rocket Launchers (other than Wardcliff Coil) have been in a terrible state in Destiny 2 as they have had their magazine size dropped to 1 (in Destiny 1 some RL’s had more than a single rocket in the magazine). Hopefully this change will see an increase in Rocket Launcher usage.

General

Perks
- Outlaw – increased reload stat bonus from +50 to +70
Merciless
- Increased inventory stat from 36 to 55 (increases reserve ammo)
Mountaintop
- Reduced splash damage by 33%, increased impact damage such that total damage is 5% lower than before
- Reduced projectile velocity multiplier from the Micro-Missile perk from 1.4 to 1.2 (now 20% faster than other breech Grenade Launchers instead of 40%)
- Reduced in-air accuracy. Now has significant projectile error while in-air (around 7 degrees without the Icarus Grip mod, substantially less with)
Falling Guillotine
- Reduced heavy attack damage by ~24% to bring in line with other Swords
MIDA Multi-Tool and MIDA Mini-Tool
- MIDA Mini-Tool
  - Moved the “Mida Synergy” trait to the intrinsic, similar to how the (Baroque) version works
  - Added Hip-Fire Grip and Kill Clip
  - NOTE: There is an issue with the masterwork on this weapon that prevents it from being upgraded. This will be fixed in a later update
  - NOTE: The Gunsmith will begin selling a version of this weapon on November 10 with no infusion cap
Sturm and Drang
- Drang
  - Moved the “Together Forever” trait to the intrinsic, similar to how the (Baroque) version works
  - Added Accurized Rounds and Moving Target
  - NOTE: There is an issue with the masterwork on this weapon that prevents it from being upgraded. This will be fixed in a later update.
  - NOTE: The Gunsmith will begin selling a version of this weapon on November 10 with no infusion cap
Ruinous Effigy
- Transmutation Spheres
  - Reduced the damage of the aerial melee attack by 25%
  - Significantly reduced the damage of the drain effect on many combatants
Arbalest
- No longer strikes shields multiple times, but its efficacy against shielded targets has been increased
Jade Rabbit
- Armor Piercing Rounds swapped to High Caliber Rounds
- This fixes an issue that could prevent the exotic perk from triggering

Holy nerfs, Batman! Most of these changes won’t really affect the meta much, but there are 2 weapons that are getting major changes. Mountaintop and Darkdrinker–I mean Falling Guillotine. After 6 seasons, Mountaintop is finally getting a rework. The massive damage nerf will set the tube-launcher total damage back a whole…..5%. At least the splash damage and velocity are significantly less. Falling Guillotine and its heavy attack will also be the victim of a chunky damage nerf by nearly 1/4.

Adept Trials Weapons

“Beginning in Beyond Light, all existing Trials weapons have Adept versions. Our intent is for all new Trials weapons to have an Adept version in the future, with their infusion caps matching the Season they were introduced in. For our first round of Adepts, their infusion caps will be set to that of Season of the Worthy. Additionally, we will be introducing Adept weapon mods into the sandbox in Beyond Light, which can only be applied to Adept weaponry.”
Credit: Bungie

Adept Weapons
- Masterworking an Adept weapon grants additional stats
  - +10 for the primary stat as usual (the specific masterwork of the weapon)
  - +3 for all alternate stats
- Adept weapons can use either a standard weapon mod or a new Adept weapon mod earned from going Flawless
  - A unique Adept shader has been made for these weapons
  - NOTE: These shaders are not awarded as a consumable when dismantling an Adept weapon. As such, they cannot be applied to other pieces of gear.
Adept Weapon Mods
- These mods come in 2 varieties:
  - Weapon stat boosts, each of which grants +10 to a particular stat in a similar way to Masterwork stats
    - Example: Adept range (+10 range)
- Versions of some existing mods granting an improved bonus, but with a downside
  - Adept mag (+40 magazine, -20 handling)
  - Standard Backup Mag (+30 magazine)
Acquisition
- “To earn Adept weapons and Adept weapon mods, players must complete a Flawless Trials Passage and open the Flawless chest at the Lighthouse”
- Each week, a different Adept mod can drop from the Flawless chest
  - Adept weapon mods will be on a weekly rotation, so a given mod may not make its appearance until later in the Season
  - The mod is unlocked for use on owned Adept weapons when acquired
- Adept weapons will be available from the Flawless chest on a bi-weekly basis, alternating with armor drops
  - The first Adept weapon acquired on a given week is a Pinnacle drop
  - Adept weapons will be on a set rotation, so players may continue to earn alternate rolls on specific Adept weapons when completing Flawless passages throughout a given weekend

Well..that was a lot. Adept weapons are coming back, that’s cool. Adept weapons are only available to players who go flawless in Trials…less cool. To be fair, there really isn’t much incentive to go flawless in Trials right now, so I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be some reward for doing so, there absolutely needs to be Flawless exclusive rewards, but locking weapons and mods behind Trials with the state that it’s in right now? I’m not too sure that this is a great idea, but maybe Bungie has some big changes coming to Trials if they’re adding Adept weapons, so I guess we’ll see in November. Hopefully the return of Adept Trials weapons also means that Adept Raid Weapons can make a return in Destiny 2? Please, Bungie?

So that was a pretty hefty TWAB, but also pretty disappointing with basically just a huge list of nerfs and a couple of insignificant buffs for weapons that no one uses anyway. Hopefully they’ve got some more changes coming that they’re keeping to themselves until Beyond Light launches on November 10. What do you think about Mountaintop finally getting nerfed in Beyond Light?

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