Bungie released their plans for balancing exotic weapons, and today I’m going to pick out the ones you may want to take a second look at next season. This includes a long awaited update top Monte Carlo, which allows players to use the weapon like a Glaive, which is very exciting indeed. Stay tuned for the exotic weapons to use in Season 22 in Destiny 2.
Monte Carlo – We finally did it. It was mechanically the most complex catalyst we have ever done, requiring a host of custom animation work and a lot of things we have never done on a weapon before, but we hope you enjoy it!
Quicksilver Storm – Players have been reporting that it felt like the ammo was not being loaded into Quicksilver Storm at the correct time. We investigated and discovered a misalignment with the animation and the ammo loading that has been corrected. Fixed an issue where ammo was loading into Quicksilver Storm slightly too late in the reload animation.
Two-Tailed Fox – Reworked the catalyst perk, Third Tail. The performance of this weapon was just a little bit off, so we have changed it to fire the third rocket following the second rocket instead of at the same time, which helps it lean harder into the Three Tails fantasy. Two-Tailed Fox now fires a three-shot burst with the catalyst, instead of firing three rockets in a two-shot burst.
Verglas Curve – We have fixed an issue where, if Whisper of Fissures gets the kill, it does not count for Hail Barrage stacks. We’ve also buffed the weapons performance in PvP when using Hail Barrage. Whisper of Fissures detonations now generate Hail Barrage stacks if the Stasis crystal was created by this weapon. Shiver Quiver now activates when slowing enemies. We increased the slow stacks from 40 to 60 when hitting players directly with Hail Barrage arrows. This allows for a freeze if two Hail Barrage arrows hit the same player.
Tommy’s Matchbook – The previous setup wasn’t working as expected, so the new behavior gives the same end-result but front-loads more scorch onto the base behavior. Updated Scorch value. It was previously 14 + 7 (with the Ember of Ashes fragment equipped). Now it’s 15 + 5.
Touch of Malice – Touch of Malice is a strong weapon, but the usability of the gun was just too low in any content where it mattered. This was due in large part to how easy it was to unintentionally kill yourself. When we brought back Touch of Malice, we increased the amount of self-damage the final round dealt to the user because there are far more ways to self-heal in Destiny 2 than there were when the gun originally made its appearance in Destiny 1. But we believe we may have gone too far. To make it up to you, the final round now deals 20% additional damage in PvE. Additionally, we have reduced the damage it deals to the user, and it can no longer kill the user. This isn’t to say that you can’t die when you’re at low health, but the weapon itself will not be the thing that kills you. (It will just hold you at 1 HP if you continue to fire it for too long.) We also set up the Touch of Mercy perk to be a lot more useful and easier to activate, and we have fixed the ball of Darkness to correctly deal arc damage, blinding PvE combatants.
Increased final round damage in PvE by 20%.
Decreased the self-damage from the final round from 10 to 7.
Final round damage can no longer kill the user.
Increased the health awarded by the Touch of Mercy perk from 30 to 75.
Set up Touch of Mercy to work like Unrelenting. (Guardians and major combatants give more points towards activation, and we increased the time allowed between kills.)
Ball of Darkness now appropriately deals Arc damage and will blind combatants and stun Unstoppable Champions.
Wicked Implement – We took a conservative approach with this Scout Rifle out of the gate. We wanted to avoid creating a lousy experience for those on the receiving end of a long-range Primary weapon with the ability to slow targets in PvP. Now that it’s spent some time in the live game, we can give its intrinsic perk more uptime by making it easier to keep active. We also improved its utility by providing more opportunities to generate Stasis shards. With Headstone added to the catalyst and the ability to create tracking shards from destroying Stasis crystals, you can keep your mag full and your powered melee up more easily. Shard generation will continue to have a brief cooldown, as with all other shard sources.
The timing window for Creeping Attrition has been increased from 3.5 seconds to 4.5 seconds.
You can now also active Tithing Harvest by destroying Stasis crystals.
The Wicked Implement Exotic catalyst now also includes the Headstone perk.
Hand Cannons – We have heard the complaints that Hand Cannons feel underpowered in PvE, and we wanted to address that while also giving them a better use case to fit their hard-hitting fantasy. We decided that it made sense for them to be the “big game hunters” of Primary weapons, so we have massively increased the damage they deal to major combatants. Additionally, without investing in reload speed or perks that auto reload, Hand Cannons have often felt too punishing of missed shots or running out of ammo at critical moments. We buffed their baseline reload speed in a way that filters upwards to be a buff for all Hand Cannons (although it’s a smaller buff as you get to higher levels of the stat). We also built a new Hand Cannon subfamily for the first time in a while, adding Heavy Burst to the list of intrinsic traits. Warden’s Law will deal increased precision damage, but it comes with the challenge of needing to land two bullets on target instead of one, providing an extra reward for players who have great aim.
General
Increased reload speed at 0 stat by 15%.
PvE Damage
Increased damage against minor combatants (red bars) by 20%.
Increased damage against major combatants (orange bars) by 75%.
There are plenty of options for Exotic Hand Cannons including:
Ace of Spades
Thorn
Hawkmoon
Crimson
Lumina
Last Word
Sturm
Eriana’s Vow
Sunshot
Personally, I’d pick out SUnshot, Ace and Thorn.
Swords – At present, Swords don’t hold much value to players because, although they excel in ease of use and are ammo-rich, they require users to put themselves directly in harm’s way. Sword guard could mitigate this, but the guard’s duration is difficult to predict with incoming fire and disables the Sword’s primary means of offense, the full-charge heavy attack. The guard also mitigates a very small amount of damage when compared with our other existing defensive option, the Glaive. Further, while numerous sword-guard-related perks are already in place within the game, they don’t see much play. So, we decided to undertake a rework with the aim to increase the viability of blocking to advance on enemies, increase the value of sword-guard-related perks, as well as allow guardians to use their fully charged heavy attacks more often. Our intent is that Swords now occupy a niche where they provide both better staying power and survival.
Sword Guard
Energy now recharges after a short delay when used, but recharges much faster.
The delay before recharge and the recharge rate are both governed by the guard charge rate stat.
This delay ranges between 2.7 seconds and 1.05 seconds, decreasing with charge rate stat.
We’ve massively increased the rate energy returns after the delay to compensate, and they increase even more at higher charge rate stats. Even after the delay, Swords now return to full energy from empty faster than before this rework.
Full-power heavy attacks can now be used with any nonzero amount of Sword energy, rather than requiring full Sword energy.
We massively increased Sword guard damage resistance, >giving it between 82.5% and 95% damage reduction, depending on guard resistance stat.
This damage resistance value is sharply reduced against other players, like Glaives. Then it provides between 52.5% and 65% damage reduction, depending on guard resistance stat.
Sword guard no longer loses energy when taking damage.
As a result of the above, guard efficiency has been removed as a stat.
Sword guard duration is now increased across every guard type, with those with shortest durations benefiting most.
Sword guard talent nodes have had their stats squished down.
Combined with the above, even though their stats have been reduced, their damage reduction, charge rates, and guard durations are now increased across the board.
This allows origin traits and other Sword perks more room to increase these stats and allow performance beyond their previous maximum.
Sword guard talent nodes now visually affect the “charge rate” bar on the inspection screen when you hover over or select them, similar to other stat-affecting nodes.
Sword movement speed while blocking has increased from a 0.75x multiplier to 0.85x multiplier.
The Lament Exotic Sword has been special-cased so its charge rate and delay are unaffected, but it still benefits from the increased guard damage reduction and duration.
Let me know in the comments what you think.