This weeks Bungie Blog was very informative.. sort of. The heavy ammo issues will still be taken care of near the end of February and Bungie asks all guardians to stay patient.
Destiny Expansion II: The House of Wolves:
The next expansion is coming up sooner rather than later. Speculation was that we would see the next expansion sometime in March, but that isn't going to happen. they did say what quarter it would be released in. Here is an excerpt taken from their blog.
Fair enough. Since we’ve started throwing around soft deadlines for game updates, we might as well set your expectations that Destiny Expansion II: The House of Wolves will be released sometime in the second quarter of this year.
We’re keeping all other details under wraps for now. There is a special team here that's dedicated to creating some new ways for you to play Destiny. They’re also making the game you know a better reflection of what we’ve learned about you since you’ve started playing. While they do their thing, we'll walk the fine line between making you a part of the process and providing them with a safe place to explore possibilities and do their best work.
The first expansion was received with mixed feelings among fans. For what guardians had to pay for the expansion . . . the content didn't add up to the price tag. It felt like they took a part of the original game and made it a so called "expansion," however, GameFragger thinks this next one will be an actual expansion.
Pulse Rifles:
Here is where GameFragger gets excited. There are some changes to weapons coming that will even them out, or so they hope.
Statistics don’t lie. Neither do you. Just yesterday, to enlist you in helping us prove this point in advance, we poked the Internet bear. They sent out the following tweet.
Responses ranged from, "Is this a trick question?", "None of them are good though" and "I don't use pulse rifles." GameFragger thinks the same thing. This week we received a couple Bad Juju's and our response was like those of other guardians. We like them, but we have other weapons that can wreck enemies a little better.
In response to the "trick question," Bungie announced they'd be making some changes. They said,
Today, we’re serving up some weapon tuning philosophy, prepared by Sandbox Designer Jon Weisnewski. He’s a weapons specialist at Bungie - one member of a team that seeks to find balance in the chaos. Your guns are on his workbench, and he’s excited to share with you some thoughts from his process.
Here are potential changes to the weapons we all know and love. Jon Weisnewski, the SandBox Designer gave all guardians potential changes we can see in upcoming updates.
Auto Rifles:
Goals:
- Auto Rifle is optimal at close to medium range
- Damage, Stability, and Range are tuned such that players desire Stability for reliable close quarters damage, or Range for better accuracy at a distance
Changes:
- Reduce base damage of Auto Rifles by 2.5% (averaged across Rate of Fire stats, higher RoF took less of a reduction than low RoF)
- Reduce effective range values so that damage falloff and accuracy are a stronger factor in combat decisions
- Range reduction is less severe in the higher stat values, so now your range stat is more critical to long distance engagements
Pulse Rifles:
Goals:
- Pulse Rifle is optimal at medium range, but can still effectively harass enemies at close or long range distances
- Rate of Fire sets a pace for players to both track moving targets, and then deliver precision damage in bursts
Changes:
- Increase base damage of Pulse Rifles by 9.7%. DPS is now more in line with other primaries
Hand Cannons:
Goals:
- Hand Cannon is optimal at medium range
Hand Cannon is optimal when shots are paced, becomes less effective when fired quickly
- Rewards agility when under fire, precision targeting, and snap shots
Changes:
- Reduce effective range
- Damage falloff starts closer to the shooter, and follow up shots are less accurate at long ranges
- Slight reduction to initial accuracy
- This is unnoticeable at close to medium range, but underscores the range intentions when used from far away
Fusion Rifles:
Goals:
- Fusion Rifles are optimal at mid-range, where targets are easier to track but they’re not close enough to attack while you charge up
- Requires combat foresight and the ability to predict a target’s movement to use successfully
Changes:
- Blast pattern on a Fusion Rifle burst cone is a little wider
- Close to medium range volleys are largely unaffected, but at a distance the projectiles are less likely to land hits on a single target
- This reduces the reliability of landing a one hit kill at far range, and makes the weapon better at spreading damage into a group
- Initial starting ammo is reduced across all ammo stats. This is change primarily affects The Crucible:
Starting a Crucible match, you’ll have less Fusion Rifle ammo in reserve
In PvE activities we persistently track your ammo. We only use initial ammo values if you are logging in for the first time, or starting a Crucible match
Shotguns:
Goals:
- Shotgun is the most optimal at very close range
- Complements melee attacks and other close quarters class builds
- Offensively closing on an enemy with a Shotgun is a risk/reward timing game
Changes:
- Increase damage by 2x (100%) against all non-Guardian combatants (aliens)
- Reduce high end range values - damage falloff starts sooner, so Crucible players with long range shotguns need to be a little closer for successful one hit kills
- (Like the Fusion Rifle) Initial starting ammo is reduced across all ammo stats in the Crucible:
Starting a Crucible match, you’ll have less Shotgun ammo in reserve
In PvE activities we persistently track your ammo
We only use initial ammo values if you are logging in for the first time, or starting a Crucible match
Scout Rifle, Sniper Rifle, Heavy Machinegun, Rocket Launcher
For the most part, these weapons have not been changed as a part of this update. However, changes to the Destiny arsenal mean that untouched weapons may now seem different in side by side comparisons. You may discover new reasons to start using some of these weapons as part of your combat strategy.
GameFragger's weekly adventure:
Once again we did our weekend raid in the Vault of Glass. Don't worry, I only got ascendant materials and no machine guns, which I'm happy with. The raid went pretty smooth, however, there were some hiccups along they way. Before we venture into VoG, I'd like to mention a few things. Weekly nightfalls were easier for us and the loot we got is WAY better than The Vault of Glass. Almost everyone last week got exotic drops (of course I was the exception) from completing the strike.
Here is my problem with nightfall strike. Although the nightfall strikes are level 30 the VoG is way tougher to complete. I'd say 90% of the time (based on zero statistical analysis) you get the lame chatterwhite shader as your trophy for completing VoG. Anyway, back to our weekly raid highlights.
The Gorgons Pt. 2:
So we get to this part thinking once again this will be a piece of cake. We were wrong, dead wrong. We all managed to get to the chest just fine and a few of us reaped the rewards. Then all of us decided to go batcrap crazy and fail time after time. Maybe if we split into groups of threes? Wipe. Can all of us make the easy jump up to the rocks? Half could, half could not. Wipe. Once again we instituted the whisper only rule vs the Gorgons. It didn't work. So once again five left the party and one person did it in 30 seconds. Maybe next week we will all be able to do it.
Cliff Jumping:
We are now at the part right before the Vault of Glass. All we need to do is jump to the ledge on the other side. General rule of thumb in our parties: Don't stand close to the edge, especially if you are AFK.
Daltg: "Be right back."
Me (TH3KILLA77): "Pushing him off the edge!"
Jbest: "Why am I dead?"
At this point all of us except Jbest75 had made it to the other side. For some reason he could not make the jump. After the countless attempts, what did we do? We held a prayer circle. It must have worked . . . er not really, because it still took him a few tries. We finally made it to the Vault of Glass.
The Vault of Glass:
There is always one person that can't make it to the middle platform to rain hellfire on the boss. In this case I'm talking about myself. At least four times (I'm being a little generous) I missed the wide inviting platform. I love it when the team wipes and no one can explain what happened. My favorite is when the shield bearer dies in the portal and guy after guy goes in thinking they'll be the hero. What happens? You have five dead guardians and one person on the outside keeping the portal open. When it was all said and done, however, it didn't take us a few days to finish the raid. Next week, hopefully we can finish VoG quickly and move onto Crota's End! They don't know it yet, but we are doing it. I put it in writing.