Destiny 2’s Gambit Getting Some Significant Changes, Weapon Meta Shift With Next Update

The next Destiny 2 season is focused on The Drifter, the mysterious proprietor of the PvEvP mode Gambit that came with the Forsaken expansion. Since the mode’s launch, it hasn’t received all that many changes or updates. That’s all set to change with the Season of the Drifter and Joker’s Wild content coming early in March. Teased in this week’s weekly update, Bungie announced some of the changes that will be making their way to Gambit. This is just a quick peek though. Bungie promises even more details and additional quality-of-life changes for Gambit with the Season of the Drifter on March 5.

Destiny 2 Gambit Update

• Changed the third round of Gambit to a Primeval rush sudden death. This will speed up Gambit matches overall and add a change of pace to the final round.
• Overhauled how we choose the invader spawn location and increased the number of invader spawn points for each map. This should greatly reduce the chances of spawning very near or in direct line of sight of an enemy Guardian.
• Implemented Idle Protection which means that players that remain dormant for too long will not receive end-of-match rewards or Infamy points.
• The Triumph “Light vs. Light” can now be progressed by killing any Guardian using a Super, not just invaders. This makes attaining the Dredgen title a less daunting task.
• Adjustments to Blocker types by deposit tier:
  • • Small Blocker = Taken Goblin with less health than the previous Phalanx.
    • Medium Blocker = Taken Captain with more health than the previous Knight.
    • Large Blocker = Taken Knight with more health than the previous Ogre.

First up is a big change to how the pacing of the games will work going into the third round. Players often felt that Gambit matches went on too long, especially if the game went to three rounds. Now the third round will eliminate the mote banking mechanics and jump straight to a Primeval rush to finish out the game much faster if the first two rounds are a draw.

Bungie’s also reworking invader spawns to be less predictable and allow players to not start in direct line of sight with anyone on the enemy team. Idle protection should dissuade users from idling just to complete matches or get rewards without playing. The change to the Light vs. Light Triumph is a big change that should help a lot of stuck players finally get their Dredgen titles.

And finally, the blockers that spawn based on number of motes dropped will be changing, with different incentives at each tier. Small blockers will be weak, but will be able to shield other enemies. Medium blockers will be a bit tougher to kill, and finally the Large blockers should really be worth the risk of saving up 15 motes to bank.

Destiny 2 Weapon Meta Shift

While that may be all that they’ve announced so far for Gambit directly, a number of weapon changes are incoming that will significantly shake up the current meta of the game, allowing players to finally try to find new tools to use.

Linear Fusion Rifles are getting a bit of a nerf to be less effective overall. Right now they dominate as one of the most effective weapon classes due to high aim-assist, which means players are rarely venturing outside of them to use other items.

• Linear Fusion Rifle aim-assist values will receive an adjustment to reduce effectiveness at very long ranges.
  • • While Queenbreaker has high aim-assist values by default, we discovered an issue where it was not honoring aim-assist values that applied to other Linear Fusion Rifles of the same archetype. This resulted in Queenbreaker having over double the intended aim assist.
• Linear Fusion Rifles will receive a 10% damage increase in PvE to compensate for the above changes.

Shotguns, specifically the rapid-fire class with the full-auto perk, will be getting some big changes to also reduce their effectiveness. Right now they are one of the top-choice damage dealers for outputting a lot of quick damage against hefty enemies, and it also makes all of the other shotguns almost worthless. Bungie is trying to balance all of them so that players consider using other shotguns in addition to rapid-fire ones.

• Shotguns will receive a damage multiplier in PvE activities, effectively doubling their damage.
  • • The Legend of Acrius is an exception to this.
• Full Auto rate-of-fire bonus for Shotguns is now +10%, down from +100%.
  • • In addition, it no longer increases the Shotgun pellet spread.
• Default rate-of-fire values for have also shifted:
  • • Aggressives are 55 RPM, up from 45 RPM
    • Precisions are 70 RPM, up from 55 RPM
    • Lightweights are 80 RPM (they were erroneously stated to be 90 RPM previously)
    • Rapid-Fire 140 RPM, down from 200 RPM (they were previously natively 100 RPM, but due to the intrinsic full auto, actually had 200 RPM)
    • Also reduced base damage for Shotguns across the board to align with their new rates of fire on a per sub-archetype basis.
• Ammo reserves for Shotguns were re-evaluated due to the increased efficiency of having more damage per shot.

Along with the rebalance, they are adjusting the range values for shotguns in the Crucible to reduce their effectiveness at longer ranges. You’ll have to get up close and personal to get those kills.

Destiny 2 One-Eyed Mask Nerf

Finally, One-Eyed Mask, the Titan Exotic helmet, is getting some long-demanded changes to reduce some of its overpowered nature. They’ve balanced the perks in a way that maintain its power and abilities, but also bring it more in line with other general-use Exotics.

• The duration of the Mark of Vengeance has been reduced from 15 seconds to 8 seconds
• The way players refill health after a successful kill has changed. Before, it restored all of your health and the overshield refilled over time. Now, the health refills over time alongside the overshield. This should give a leg up when encountering situations where multiple people are fighting one person with the One-Eyed Mask equipped.
• Vengeance will no longer trigger for players in Super. This was making Supers far too potent.

All of these changes will be making their way into Destiny 2 when Update 2.2.0 launches with the Season of the Drifter on March 5. If previous content releases are anything to go by, we should start seeing the Joker’s Wild Annual Pass content making its way to players starting a week later on March 12. The update will also bring a long-awaited update to how players inspect their Hunter cloaks, allowing them to finally see their hoods while adjusting shaders.

[Source: Bungie]