Yesterday Bungie provided an update for weapon balancing coming in Season 23, and revealed some of the exotic weapons it’s worth getting if you don’t already have them. Today I’m going to go through the update in detail, plus we’re going to have a look at how to get these weapons, so when you’re planning for season 23 you’re going to be in the best position to take advantage of these exotic changes in Destiny 2.
Without further delay, lets dive into the list.
Vex Mythoclast
Although Vex Mythoclast received both a range buff and a PvE damage buff in Season of the Witch, we believe it has additional room to grow in PvE and find a unique role. We have increased damage against minor and boss combatants and are going to be experimenting with a different style of anti-Champion gameplay. Instead of having an intrinsic anti-Champion perk, we are massively increasing the damage that the Linear Fusion Rifle mode deals to all Champions. This places it in the unique space of being more of a Swiss Army Knife and less of a specialist. We envision it as a weapon you can take into an activity, regardless of which Champion type is present, and still have it be an effective tool—especially when it’s utilized in concert with other anti-Champion abilities.
Increased damage versus:
- Minor (red bar) combatants by 10%.
- Bosses by 25%.
- Champions by 200% when in the Linear Fusion Rifle mode.
To get Vex Mythoclast you’ll want to run the Vault of Glass raid, found in the Legend section via the Director, and it’s a random drop from Atheon, the final boss.
Revision Zero
As a second part of our anti-Champion experiment, we are also increasing Revision Zero’s damage versus Champions, although by a much lower amount, since the weapon also retains its intrinsic anti-barrier.
Increased damage versus Champions by 100%.
To get this one you’ll want to run Operation Seraph Shield, and it’s a reward from the end of the mission. You can access this from the Exotic Mission Rotator, and it’s currently on a 3 week rotation. Revision Zero is also craftable with a selection of catalysts.
Thorn
This is one of my favourite weapons in the game, it’s a classic from Destiny 1 and it’s going to be excellent in PVE and PVP next season, so it’s well worth getting. It also has some unique interactions with Necrotic Grip, the Warlock Exotic Gloves.
Here’s the update from Bungie.
In Season 23, Thorn will be getting both a catalyst to bring its strength up in PvP and a change to the base behavior to make it more fun to use in PvE.
Picking up a Remnant can overflow the magazine, up to 40 rounds max.
Catalyst:
+20 range
+10 stability
Getting kills or picking up a Remnant grants additional range, handling, and mobility.
To get Thorn you can purchase this from the Exotic Kiosk in the Tower, the Monument to Lost Lights and you can buy it for materials.
Class Exotic Glaives
We have also done some tuning on the class Exotic Glaives introduced in The Witch Queen. The below changes are for all three Glaives, to make using their Exotic functionality both more forgiving and more understandable:
Grant 1 ammo when you activate the perk, so you can use it even if you are out of ammo.
No longer passively drains shield energy when you special reload to activate the perk.
No longer deactivated by reloading or stowing the weapon.
EDGE OF INTENT (WARLOCK)
Edge of Intent seemed like it was begging for some Solar 3.0 interaction instead of the previous generic healing effect. A larger area of effect (AoE) helps it reach more nearby allies, too.
Changed the effect of the healing turret projectiles to grant cures and provide restoration.
Increased the AoE radius to 8 meters to benefit more nearby allies.
Increased its magazine size from 4 to 5.
EDGE OF ACTION (TITAN)
We wanted to make the baby-bubble more effective in endgame content, so it now provides some benefits to weapons just for passing through it, even if you do not remain inside.
Passing through the bubble now grants bonus reload speed, handling, and a small amount of stacking bonus damage in addition to the overshield.
Reduced the health of the bubble from 8000 to 2400 to account for the increased uptime and improved effects.
EDGE OF CONCURRENCE (HUNTER)
The Glaive changes mentioned above already made this quite solid, but we felt that Lightning Seeker presented a fun opportunity for an Arc 3.0 interaction.
Lighting Seeker now jolts targets on impact.
Reduced the direct hit damage of Lightning Seeker to account for the free ammo granted.
I have a full guide for how to get these on the channel.
Winterbite
We did not want to leave Winterbite out of the Glaive improvement pass, so we made it a little stronger and a little bit less lethal to the user.
Increased the detonation damage of the large projectile by 25%.
The self-damage blast radius has been halved, and the self-damage has been reduced.
To get Winterbite you’ll want to complete the Lightfall campaign and then do the follow up exotic missions. You can find a full guide for how to get Winterbite on the channel, just search Winterbite and you will find it.
That’s some examples of Exotics to get, but it’s worth highlighting the changes coming to Osteo Striga, especially if you use that weapon on a regular basis as a big nerf is coming.
There are some general changes coming to a few weapon types including
Auto Rifles
Auto Rifle DPS is generally in a pretty good place, but they were lagging slightly behind when it came to damage against minor combatants.
Increased damage against minor (red bar) combatants by 10%.
Pulse Rifles
Pulse Rifle DPS in PvE is comparable to Scout Rifle damage, but in the new sandbox they are more closely aligned with Hand Cannons and Auto Rifles in terms of range. As such, we have increased their damage against minor and major combatants to move them closer to the other mid-range options, and we will continue to monitor them to see how this changes their effectiveness.
Increased damage against minor (red bar) and major (orange bar) combatants by 12.5%.
Sniper Rifles
We’re continuing our trend of moving Sniper Rifles up by small amounts at a time, to make sure we do not upset the encounter balance in PvE.
Increased Sniper Rifle PvE damage with a flat buff of 15%. (This also applies to Exotic Sniper Rifles that use Heavy ammo.)
Given these changes it’s worth looking at Whisper of the Worm again.
Osteo Striga
Osteo Striga has been, quite frankly, far too powerful for the ease of use it provides when it comes to add clear in PvE. It has more range than most other SMGs, does not require kills, and does not rely heavily on precision aim to activate one of the strongest AoEs we’ve ever had in Destiny. In addition, the lingering poison damage has benefited from the damage scalar that SMGs get in PvE content, which was intended to buff SMGs direct impact damage. This scalar, which is one of the highest scalars of any weapon type in the game, is pushing the poison damage to such an extreme level that it’s been difficult for any other weapon to compete in the add clear role. While it is likely that this change will not move the needle on Osteo Striga by a substantial amount, it will at least be slightly less of an outlier compared to other add clear weapons. To preempt the argument, buffing other weapons up to the same level would be power creep to an extreme degree and very unhealthy for the game as a whole, so it is not something we are going to explore.
Removed the SMG damage bonus scalar that was affecting the poison damage. This brings Osteo Striga poison down to match standard Necrotic Grip poison, though as an Exotic, it will still deal 40% bonus damage against minors.