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Destiny weapon changes inbound-Part 1: Normal weapons

• Anson Chan
• July 17th, 2015

(If you’re more interested in seeing how Bungie will change certain Exotic weapons, read Destiny weapon changes inbound-Part 2: Exotic cases.)

With just a little over a month left before Bungie releases The Taken King expansion for Destiny, it was inevitable that there would be a major patch hitting Destiny sometime soon. Today, Bungie released the details on what they plan to be doing to your favorite (or most hated) classes of weapons.

Auto Rifles

Damage is increased across the board, effectiveness in PvE is increased by 10%, range is reduced, and stability is lowered. The rational behind this is to ensure that auto rifles are the close range weapons they are meant to be.

Pulse Rifles

Slight decrease in stability across the board in exchange for an increase in magazine size. Medium pulse rifles will deal slightly less damage, but the change is so slight (2.5%) that most encounters in the Crucible will be unchanged.

Scout Rifles

Near trivial increases to base damage for all but the slowest firing scout rifles in the Crucible. Essentially, this means that you have an easier time stealing kills. Magazine sizes are increased across the board in exchange for a decrease in hip fire accuracy. Scout rifles will likely become the most versatile PvE weapons with a 5% increase in damage.

Hand Cannons

Less range, less accuracy from both aimed and unaimed fire, and a lower magazine size across the board will make it harder for hand cannons to encroach into scout rifle territory. That being said, the lower magazine sizes will make it easier to get an effective poor man’s Hawkmoon.

Shotguns

All range increasing perks are much less effective, whether it be Shot Package (reduced by 30%) or Rangefinder (reduced by 75%). Furthermore, precision damage is lowered by 10%, along with a 10% decrease in damage in PvE.

Fusion Rifles

High impact fusion rifles have less range and all fusion rifles have a slower projectile speed. Shorter range fusion rifles are to receive an increase in accuracy while longer range fusion rifles will lose some accuracy. These changes are intended to make sure that fusion rifles have a place as mid ranged special weapons.

Sniper Rifles

The only change is that the Final Round perk (increased damage on the last bullet in the magazine) only affects precision damage. This should make it impossible to abuse the perk in the Crucible for instant kill body shots, although it does disproportionately affect it’s utility in PvE.

Rocket Launchers

Rocket launchers are rocket launchers, so all of them will receive a slightly increased blast radius. On the flipside, the Grenades and Horseshoes perk (essentially gives your rockets proximity detonation) has a reduced detonation range. This means that while the perk does allow for fire and forget scenarios, you will have to have slightly better aim to take advantage of the proximity detonation.