Major balance changes coming to 14 Destiny 2 exotics, including Vex, Whisper and Sleeper

The patch will arrive alongside next month’s Bungie 30th Anniversary Pack.

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Bungie has long since learned that in the absence of major content drops, the next best thing is a big fat balance patch. Destiny 2’s forthcoming major expansion, The Witch Queen, won’t land until 22 February 2022, but players will have the celebratory30th Anniversary Packto help alleviate the longueurs of this extended season. The pack launches on 7 December, bringing with it a bunch of nostalgically-themed gear and a new dungeon activity that will reward the infamous exotic rocket launcher Gjallarhorn. Today, Bungie alsoannouncedthat a slew of nerfs and buffs are coming to the combat sandbox as part of a major balance patch.

Before we get into the really spicy stuff, let’s start with a few changes aimed at entire weapon archetypes:

With those appetizers out of the way, let’s get into the entrée: exotic weapon changes. 14 weapons are being touched, mostly in the form of buffs to underperformers, though a few terrors are being brought down also. Let’s start with a gun many players are still hunting for.

Vex Mythoclast

Reaction:Bungie admits it overcorrected when it buffed Vex, and these seem like reasonable changes aimed at moderating its power in PvP without gutting the gun in PvE. Certainly, combined with the right armor and mods (hello Path of Burning Steps and Font of Might) Vex is still going to be strong as hell. If you can get it to drop, that is.

Fighting Lion

Reaction:Bungie sought to avoid Fighting Lion becoming “extraordinarily oppressive” after the recent switch to infinite primary ammo, and now seems confident that the weapon can remain niche but viable. Theoretically it’s all good news for the denizens ofr/FightingLion, the gun’s own dedicated subreddit, although the users still seem to be grousing about the PvE blast radius.

Arbalest

Reaction:This sounds low-key but has the potential to make a major impact on endgame PvE content. As noted, Linear Fusion Rifles are already meta thanks to Particle Deconstruction, and being able to stun Barrier Champions from a distance is huge, as Eriana’s Vow has proved. The buff also fits with the gun’s flavour of being the ultimate shield-breaker.

Sleeper Simulant

Reaction:Woof! More linear fusion love, this time for the daddy. Sleeper is already good, but these changes will see it ascend to greatness, particularly as Bungie insists it will also benefit from the global 10% damage buff to all LFRs. Sleeper is going to give One Thousand Voices serious competition as the exotic heavy weapon of choice.

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Suros Regime

Reaction:I had hoped for more for the venerable auto rifle. This essentially fixes the fact that one of its firing modes was almost strictly worse than the other. I’d rather have seen a buff to the Regime’s healing effect. Oh well.

Cryosthesia 77K

Reaction:It’s a veritable cornucopia of buffs for a sidearm which Bungie admits it shipped neutered because it was scared of how angry players were about the freezing effects of Stasis in PvP. With that issue largely dealt with, this looks like a major rework that will at least no longer mean that Cryo is outperformed by a Vulpecula with the Headstone perk. I can see this being pretty good, if you can get over the intrinsic dislike of sidearms.

Malfeasance

Reaction:Bigger booms are always better. This Taken-hating handcannon has long been on the cusp playability (it’s actually very good paired with Lucky Pants on Hunter), and larger explosions will no doubt push it further. I’d still really like to see an exotic catalyst so it can make Orbs of Light, though.

Leviathan’s Breath

Reaction:It’s understandable that drawing the only heavy bow in the game was a little sluggish, but this bastard felt like you were trying to pull back a tectonic plate. Archer’s Tempo will help, but whether that’ll be enough to displace the DPS kings we’ll have to see.

Whisper of the Worm

Reaction:In its various forms Whisper has been one of the most nerfed and buffed guns in Destiny, but these changes look likely to bring it back into the DPS conversation with a bang. Improved damage, ammo conservation, and ease of use are exactly what the heavy sniper needs to compete.  The return of the king? It really could be.

D.A.R.C.I.

Reaction:The other exotic heavy sniper is even less used than Whisper, and like its sister it’s getting a substantial suite of buffs. Particularly notable is the damage boost, which I have to assume has been calibrated to make D.A.R.C.I. legitimately viable. Much will depend on the kind of bosses we’re facing next season being suited to sniping, but one to test for sure.

Dead Man’s Tale

Reaction:Bungie notes that all these changes are aimed at improving the controller experience, which has seen a vertiginous drop-off after a previous nerf. Nonetheless, M+K is not entirely unaffected, and it’s somewhat surprising to see one of the best primaries in the game getting better. I recommend locking down a roll with Vorpal Weapon before the Presage mission goes away next season—that perk is being buffed to do +20% damage on primaries.

Heir Apparent

Reaction:I mean, yes, wow, sure, this seems like a change which needs to happen. I’m somewhat shocked that what Bungie calls a “date error” went unresolved for so long, but it sure does explain why Heir Apparent users were essentially unkillable in PvP after picking up power ammo.

Lorentz Driver

Reaction:Lorentz is an incredible weapon even without the bonus energy, which always felt like a delicious but unnecessary cherry on an already explosive cake. I think PvP mains were expecting a more substantial nerf, but to be honest I’m glad they’ve been ignored.

Traveler’s Chosen

Reaction:A seemingly small but also unexpected couple of nerfs for the little sidearm that could. I hope the change to how stacks scale doesn’t make it feel much weaker in PvE, as I have a soft spot for Traveler’s in ability spam builds.

Phew. There’s a lot to unpack there, and most importantly a lot of new builds to test once the patch goes live—which is actually what I want. Juicing things up further are a few changes coming to general weapon perks, which for our purposes let’s call desert:

And that’s your lot! Bungie’s sameblog postalso contains a code which you can redeem to unlock the ‘Be True’ emblem, which has been created to show support for Transgender Awareness Week. The code is ML3-FD4-ND9 and it can be redeemed now righthere.

With over two decades covering videogames, Tim has been there from the beginning. In his case, that meant playing Elite in ‘co-op’ on a BBC Micro (one player uses the movement keys, the other shoots) until his parents finally caved and bought an Amstrad CPC 6128. These days, when not steering the good ship PC Gamer, Tim spends his time complaining that all Priest mains in Hearthstone are degenerates and raiding in Destiny 2. He’s almost certainly doing one of these right now.

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