Greetings Guardians! The Patch 2.0 has finally arrived, after several months of hype and teasing from Bungie. So let's just dig right in and get to the analyzing. You can view the official patch notes on the Bungie website.
Player Character
The base level of Players has been increased from 20 to 34 and the Light and Level system are now completely separate. This means that there will be no more "Forever 29" or "Forever 31" because now we leave up based on XP which can be earned from various activities, so now our level is a more appropriate reflection of the amount of time and effort we put into the game.
Light isn't going away entirely, and it's still an important, even more important aspect of Destiny. Light is now calculated by the average of all of our gear's Attack and Defense values. This means that weapons now contribute to our overall Light. Ghost shells, class items and Artifacts (a new item) now contribute to our Light as well.
Speaking of Attack and Defense values, those have been modified a bit as well. Attack Power on all weapons has been renormalized, so all of those 365 weapons will no be 170 attack. This isn't a nerf, it's just a reworking of the way the system is structured, so don't worry. Defense values on armor are now on the same scale as well. In addition to this, Ability damage and Health are being calculated based on Light, with Weapon damage being effected by both Light and Attack values.
Classes
Yes, that's right. Bungie is finally addressing class balance with Update 2.0! Although the changes here aren't many, there's a few that will have a pretty huge effect on overall gameplay, especially in the Crucible.
There's a few general, all-around changes to class structure. To start with, Intellect, Strength and Discipline now only affect abilities in set increments and the exact duration of their effect is now conveniently displayed. This will make it much easier to customize our class builds exactly the way we want them. Recovery stat times have also been slightly renormalized to make a "more compelling character stats choice." All Pulse grenades now have a univeral range of 8 meters, which is a slight buff for the Thermal and Void versions, and a slight nerf for Arc, with fuse times also being reduced universally.
There's also been some slight tweaking to specific subclasses. For Defender, Ward of Dawn has been tweaked so that Razor's Edge (Arc Blade) and Shockwave (Fist of Havoc) can no longer penetrate the bubble. This is a nice change and will make Defender more viable in PvP.
Gunslinger Golden Gun damage has been increased to 360 (from 350) to "consistently kill opponents in the crucible." Not sure what that is about... Of all the subclasses, Bladedancer received the most tweaks, with its cap on maximum Orbs of Light increased to 6 and a slight nerf to Blink. The ability activation delay for Blink has been increased from 0.26 to 0.33 seconds and the visuals have been changed to better indicate the direction of the blink. This should make tactics like Blink shotgunning slightly less effective. Blink Strike also does Arc damage (this was a glitch, I believe) and Flux Grenade now tracks less aggressively. Arc Bolt grenade also had its range decreased by 11% to 8 meters and had its damage reduced by 25% to 75. Over all, these changes should eliminate some of the grievances that a lot of players have with Bladedancer.
There is a general nerf specific to both Warlock subclasses that deals with the Ram exotic helmet. The Armor Bonus perk now gives 3 armor instead of 5. This should mitigate the power of this exotic quite a bit, but it remains to be seen just how much this will effect it. As for Sunsinger, there is a fix to Orb generation, which will have some effects in PvP, but in terms of damage, perks, or anything else, nothing was changed.
Weapon Tuning
Perhaps one of the more significant changes implemented in this patch is the massive Weapon tuning, which affects nearly all weapon types in the game and multiple Exotic weapons directly. There is also a long list of weapon perks that have been readjusted. One of the most-anticipated changes with this retuning is the universal buff for Auto Rifles. I will be doing a completely separate article on this later, so for now, please refer to the official break down.
Exotic Armor
There have been several changes to Exotic armor pieces. In general, many (but not all) Exotic armor pieces will recolor with the use of a shader. This is a very welcome change, as now we will no longer have to let our Exotics dictate which shaders we use. An Insurmountable Skullfort now gives an additional Melee charge for Storm Fist and Sun Strike (from Sunbreaker). This will eventually apply to Defender Melee, but it is currently glitched. Spine of Young Ahamkara gains a second Grenade charge for Tripmine and now has an increase on its bonus Tripmine duration perk. And finally, Heart of Praxic Fire now grants bonus agility when in Radiance. Those are all of the changes for Exotic Armor pieces for now. There will be more in the future with reworked Year 2 Exotics.
More coming, check back later...
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