Destiny 2 outlines its mid-season balancing, with hints to S23 changes

There’s always a big new set of changes on Destiny 2‘s horizon, and the transition over to Season 23 will be much the same from the looks of it. According to Bungie’s latest This Week in Destiny [TWID] blog, the removal of Legendary Shards won’t be the only major shift for the game’s Season 23 meta. Specifically, just about all of the game’s many weapon categories will be getting shifted around, and the process will be completed over the course of two major balancing patches, one of which is coming ahead of the new season.

TWID points out that the first round of changes will be released as part of the upcoming Season 22 patch. Update 7.2.5 will introduce significant changes to a variety of Exotic armor pieces, with the Hunters’ Young Ahamkara’s Spine getting a big nerf. Young Ahamkara’s Spine, specifically, is a hotly contested topic on the game’s subreddit. Some users feel that the Exotic will be effectively useless after the nerf hits, which isn’t a great sign. Thankfully, the rest of the TWID is filled with better news, overall.

Good news for Destiny 2 auto rifle fans

The full list of changes announced for update 7.2.5 is comprehensive indeed, with some of the notable highlights being the following:

• SMGs get increased recoil
• Auto rifles get reduced range and ADS damage falloff scalar, as well as slight damage buffs to select sub-categories
• Pulse rifles get reduced ADS damage falloff scalar
• Fusion rifles get a slightly reduced minimum damage cap
• Sniper rifles get decreased body shot damage and substantially increased critical multipliers
• Shotguns get decreased airborne accuracy penalties
• Perfect Float perk gets better base duration and increased extension duration
• Kickstart gets nerfed from 20 to 15% damage bonus

These are, of course, massively truncated. On top of that, Bungie has gone into substantial detail with the developers’ explanations as to why particular changes are being made. The really interesting bits are what comes beyond update 7.2.5, however, with the release of Season 23.

More specifically, the TWID has revealed that Bungie will be delivering the following changes in Season 23:

• Glaive projectiles and sniper rifles deal more PvE damage across the board
• Pulse rifles and auto rifles deal more damage against minor (red health bar) combatants
• Revision Zero and Vex Mythoclast deal massively increased damage against Champion enemies

These tweaks, though fairly undefined as it currently stands, could elevate auto rifles and pulse rifles, in particular, into relevance. As the two weapon categories have historically been overshadowed by hand cannons, SMGs, and other assorted weapons, it’d be a lovely change of pace. The full extent of these tweaks won’t be known until Season 23 hits, however. By that point, the relatively minor tweaks delivered in update 7.2.5 should mature as well.