The prevalence of new Exotics in PvP introduced in The Final Shape has Destiny 2 players worried about the extent to which Bungie could nerf them in a future update.
In the past, Bungie has flip-flopped on how it approaches balance changes. While it can and has made adjustments to specific items in the past that only affect a particular area of the sandbox – leaving them unchanged everywhere else – the Destiny developer has also done the exact opposite.
That being the case, Guardians are uncertain about what form any future balance patches could take and have been voicing their worries on Reddit.
In a thread drawing attention to the concerns, the author wrote, “It’s wild seeing how something being broken in PvP makes PvE players incredibly scared,” pointing out the inconsistency using Titan’s Shoulder Charge ability as an example:
“When Shoulder Charge damage was an issue, they changed damage dealt to guardians without hurting PvE effectiveness,” the post explained before continuing, “However, when the issue was mobility in PvP, the way they chose to tackle the issue was to inflict a short cooldown by making Shoulder Charge consume a small bit of melee energy.”
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Having Shoulder Charge use melee energy made it much harder to upkeep in PvE. This latter approach impacted how viable the ability was in both PvP and PvE, despite the nerf being targeted solely at PvP. Given this history, Guardians are scared the same approach will be taken with the dominant Speaker’s Sight.
“Just look at Young Ahamkara Spine. An Exotic that was broken in PvP and decent in PvE, got nuked to be trash in both, came another response, adding “Players are rightfully scared of the nerf hammer. Bungie doesn’t use it like a scalpel, more like a blunt club.”
Notable PvP streamer GernaderJake has drawn attention to the incredible potency of Speaker’s Sight in the Crucible when used in specific loadouts, claiming that Trials of Osiris will “become completely unplayable” if not addressed. Jake later stressed: “I DO NOT want this nerfed in PvE,” emphasizing the importance of keeping any future nerfs strictly to PvP.
Bungie hasn’t indicated that a balance patch is on the way for Destiny 2, though it does traditionally make sandbox changes multiple times per season, so players won’t be waiting long to learn how everything shakes out.