Destiny's June Update Coming Tomorrow Rebalances Hunters and Weapons

A new update is coming to Destiny tomorrow, June 14. It focuses on balancing both weapons and the Hunter class.

On the Hunter side, Bungie said it wants to ensure there are numerous viable choices. "We also want to make sure that the choices between the classes themselves are interesting," it said in a blog post detailing the changes. "Ideally, we'd like to address any ability that feels underwhelming to use. We also want to address abilities that feel frustrating or unfair when used against you by another player."

The changes center around several choices Hunters can make that have been deemed too powerful or too ineffective. For instance, the Tripmine grenade is too good at everything, as it can be used to lay a trap or as a sticky grenade. As such, it's being tweaked so that it no longer attaches to enemies and does slightly less damage overall. The Golden Gun Super is getting a pretty significant damage boost (50 percent overall, plus 30 percent more against AIs), which is increased even further with the Deadeye perk (increasing damage an additional 30 percent).

Other changes include a damage decrease for the Throwing Knife, a tweak to make Bladedancers less mobile, and a buff for the Spike grenade. You can get an overview of all the Hunter adjustments here.

As for weapons, the changes are less for individual weapons, instead focusing on weapon classes. Hand Cannons will now suffer from less accuracy loss immediately after firing.

"After a shot has been fired from a weapon in Destiny, there is a short period where accuracy drops to simulate how weapon recoil affects re-acquiring a target," explains sandbox designer Greg Peng. "This helps dissuade players from spamming the trigger and emphasizes precise aiming. The degree of accuracy drop is controlled by the Range stat per archetype. Because of the increased importance of landing every shot, this effect is especially heightened on Hand Cannons.

"It is our intention to reduce the necessity of rolling range perks on Hand Cannons in order for them to be considered usable. However, we also do not want to return to a world where Hand Cannons can contest Scout Rifles at long range."

If you're low on ammo, it now takes less time for the game to gather up all nearby ammo on the ground for you. High fire-rate Auto Rifles are having their damage reduced by six percent, while Hawkmoon's stability is dropping by five. The full list of changes can be seen here.

The 2.3.0 update arrives for free tomorrow on all platforms.