Tactical Nerfs Hit Sniper Rifles And ARs In Destiny 2 Upcoming Update

Destiny 2 Season 22 has reached its midpoint, which means weapon balancing updates will arrive later this month. Snipers will receive changes to increase their versatility and lower their power and the Ammit AR4 will be nerfed to be less effective at longer ranges.

In a blog post, Bungie outlined the changes that will be coming in update 7.2.5, on October 17. It explained that sniper rifles don't feel useful when in the air, so it lowered the airborne accuracy penalty by 20%. It also found that even body shots can deal heavy damage and wanted to push the sniper rifle further into high-risk, high-reward territory. Across every subtype of sniper rifle, the body shot damage will be decreased and the critical hit damage will rise, but the individual numbers vary from type to type. Notably this will affect even PvE numbers, but overall PvE damage will be boosted starting in Season 23.

A wide variety of changes also will come to auto rifles, especially the Ammit AR4. This AR is currently dominating the meta, partially because of its above-average zoom. Accordingly, Bungie will reduce the zoom from 17 to 15, making it easier to wield at close range and harder to deal damage from afar. Bungie hopes this will give more room for other, longer-range ARs in PvP. More generally, the ADS damage falloff scaler will be dropped from 1.7x to 1.6x in rapid-fire, adaptive, and precision auto rifles.

As for submachine guns, Bungie found that players saw little disadvantage in swapping stability for range. To compensate, recoil on every SMG will be increased by 10%. Pulse rifles, shotguns and fusion rifles are also receiving changes.

As for Exotic armor, Antaeus Ward no longer grants an improved slide, and its reflective vents require a full class ability to use. Your class ability energy is also drained proportional to the amount of damage you reflect. For Young Ahamkara's Spine, the Tripmine Grenade bonus health has been dropped from 100 to 70, the Tripmine Grenade also no longer has a 50% bonus damage resistance, and grenade energy is granted on ability kills rather than damage with abilities. You can read the full list of changes on Bungie's website.

In other Destiny 2 news, Exotic armor will be easier to get starting with the October 17 update. Bungie is also teasing what's to come in 2024, after the upcoming expansion The Final Shape.