Destiny 2 Sandbox Update 1.1.4 Details Revealed in Weekly TWAB
“This Week At Bungie” blog post highlights a few changes coming to the Destiny 2 Sandbox in Update 1.1.4.
Another “This Week At Bungie” has gone live, and this time the developers at the studio behind Destiny 2 have come together to talk about a sandbox update coming to the game on March 27. This sandbox update will be part of the larger Update 1.1.4, which seeks to address the concerns players have been experiencing and expressing over the last six months.
Headlining these changes to the sandbox are a host of improvements and buffs coming to a few of the subclasses, updates to the flow of PvP, and some tweaking of weapon damage. Let’s take a look at what’s on offer and pull it apart.
Crucible Changes
Ask anyone about Crucible in Destiny 2 and sooner or later the discussion will shift to “team-shooting”. The idea behind team-shooting is that the time-to-kill is so long that the only way to effectively kill another player is to take them down as a team. The changes mentioned in the TWAB hope to address these concerns once Update 1.1.4 goes live.
- Respawn and Revive were tuned in all game modes
- Player respawn timers for all Quickplay modes have been reduced to 2s.
- Player respawn timers for Survival have been reduced to 7s
- Revive lockout time in Countdown has been reduced to 7s
- Players no longer lose Revive Tokens on death
- Power Ammo respawn timers were adjusted across the board
- Power Ammo respawn timers in Iron Banner have been reduced ~50%
- Power Ammo respawn timers for all Quickplay modes have been reduced ~30%.
- Power Ammo respawn timers in Survival have been reduced ~40%.
- Power Ammo respawn timers in Countdown have been reduced ~25%
- Ammo counts have been adjusted in relation to these timers, and in relation to weapon type.
- In almost all cases weapons either retained the same ammo count or received a buff. Swords and rockets were brought down to stay in line with the rest of the weapon offering.
- Enemy players now drop their Power Ammo on death.
- This brick is now networked to all players regardless of faction. Secure the power ammo to keep it from your foes or steal off your enemy’s ghost, but be quick because these bricks don’t stay in the world forever.
- Competitive changes
- Tracker removed from all Competitive and Trials game modes
You might note that there is no mention of increased damage output in this section, instead focusing on ammunition and player spawns. Weapon damage and balancing is listed below, though it’s not clear if this will affect PvE and PvP.
Class Changes
Finally, there are changes coming to Dawnblade to make it more competitive in Crucible, although it’s frustrating that in-air accuracy is still a problem. The in-air penalties are only negated when you activate Swift Strike, meaning you need to be in melee range and then you can shoot accurately while jumping – which doesn’t make sense. The reduction in the Icarus Dash cooldown is a nice adjustment, though depending on how long it takes to recharge, I don’t see someone using Attunement of Sky over Attunement of Flame.
The Arcstrider also gets some much-needed love, hopefully bringing it back up to its Bladedancer cousin’s power. An increase of speed to all functions will see the Arcstrider becoming a nightmare to deal with for players who can’t keep up with the agility achievable by this Hunter subclass.
A new addition worth noting are the changes to cooldown-based mods. This is a temporary fix while Bungie continues to work on the larger Mod 2.0 update due out later this year. And finally, Supers recharge faster, so hopefully we might be able to get two Supers in per match as opposed to a measly one.
- Arcstrider, as a whole, is performing well in PvP but mostly due to its neutral game perks. We’ve made the following changes in an effort to get the Super to be a more competitive option:
- Faster Attack Animations.
- Faster Dodge Animations.
- Increased range of all attacks.
- Arcstrider, Sentinel, and Striker all move faster, and at the same speed as one another, while in their Supers.
- The players’ ground speed cap has been increased, allowing for faster total movement speed, regardless of how you may get there.
- The mobility stat range has been expanded and completely retuned as well. In short, everyone gets faster and the high end is higher.
- All three glides plus Catapult and Strafe Lift have been retuned and buffed to make them faster and more unique.
- The previous Shoulder Charge changes are being reverted, allowing Shoulder Charge to be used as a movement mode once again.
- Dawnblade has been improved:
- Reduced cost for throwing swords, allowing for one additional throw
- Increased super duration extension gained from "Everlasting Fire"
- Removed all in-air accuracy penalties while "Swift Strike" is active
- Reduced the Icarus Dash cooldown
- Increased the Grenade and Melee energy "Heat Rises" gives you per kill
- Invisibility on Dodge / Smoke Updates:
- Invisibility on Dodge no longer breaks Aim Assist or Projectile Tracking in PvP (unchanged in PvE)
- Dodging still breaks both Aim Assist and Projectile Tracking, but only for the duration of the actual dodge
- Increased the duration of Invisibility on Dodge by 1 second
- Increased the duration of Smoke Bomb Invisibility by 1 second
- Supers recharge faster for everyone!
- Supers now recharge 1:40 faster, a cooldown reduction of 25%.
- Mods that reduce Grenade, Melee and Class Ability cooldowns have been buffed to allow for up to 2x faster cooldowns.
- This is NOT replacing Mods 2.0, which was recently delayed. More information is available below.
Weapon Changes
Here we are, the aforementioned weapon changes. Bungie has specified that these weapons will be receiving damage increases in PvE, and while the word “PvP” is never used, there’s a good chance these adjustments may be reflected in Crucible combat. If that is the case, this could usher in a change to the time-to-kill that the community has been crying for since September of last year. Six months without a weapon balance is simply too long.
As for the actual changes, it seems as if damage, speed, and handling are all receiving buffs – except for Auto Rifles. Console players will be pleased to see that Hand Cannon hip-fire and ADS accuracy is being addressed, so hopefully they become more enjoyable to use in Crucible.
It will be interesting to see how the community reacts to these buffs when they hit Destiny 2 in Update 1.1.4, and how the meta will shift in response. As it stands, for PvE play, Auto Rifles are the best option for raw DPS, but this might rock the boat.
- Pulse Rifles
- Increased PvE damage for all pulses
- Increased rate of fire for adaptive and high-impact pulses
- Increased base damage for adaptive, high-impact, and rapid-fire Pulses
- Increased precision multiplier for lightweight pulses
- Decreased precision multiplier for adaptive pulses
- This keeps precision damage close to where it is now, putting most of the buff into body shots, though it is still an increase in precision damage overall.
- Scout Rifles
- Increased PvE damage for all scouts
- Increased base damage for High-Impact Scouts
- Hand Cannon
- Increased PvE damage for all Hand Cannons
- Increased precision multiplier for precision hand cannons
- Increased hip fire accuracy on consoles
- Increased ADS accuracy on consoles
- Sidearms
- Increased PvE damage for all sidearms
- Increased hip fire accuracy
- Increased ADS accuracy
- Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
- Increased minimum range
- Added an ADS movement bonus
- SMG
- Increased PvE damage for all SMG’s
- Set Optics to 1.3x
- Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
- Linear Fusion Rifle
- Increased PvE damage for all linear fusions
- Increased precision multiplier
- Increased aim assist
- Reduced flinch multiplier
- Shotgun
- Increased PvE damage for all shotguns
- Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
- Increased aim assist for Suros precision shotguns
- Sniper Rifle
- Increased PvE damage for all snipers
- Increased precision multiplier
- Increased aim assist
- Increased inventory size (allowing more reserve ammo to be stored)
- Grenade Launcher
- Increased blast radius
- Assault Rifles
- Decreased range and aim assist stats for precision autos (Uriel's Gift). Base damage is not changed.
Weapon Perk Changes
- High Impact Reserves
- Increased PvE damage
- Kill Clip
- Increased PvE damage
- Rampage
- Increased PvE damage
- Increased duration
- Dragonfly
- Increased damage
- Increased radius
- Stronger visual effects
- Grave Robber
- Reloads .5 magazine instead of .3
- Timed Payload
- Splits damage 55 Explosive / 45 Direct instead of previous split which was more direct damage
- Explosive Rounds
- Decreased PvE Explosive Rounds damage
- This decrease has been compensated for with an increase in PvE damage for the base weapons - your weapons with explosive rounds will not do less damage after 1.1.4
Invisibility and Dodge Changes (Nightstalker)
The changes to the Nightstalker Invisibility and Dodge mechanics make it so you have to be more precise with your positioning and use of the Dodge skill. It seems as if Bungie is giving Hunter’s less leeway with their dodge and invisibility utility.
- Currently:
- Initiate Dodge or Throw Smoke
- Dodging temporarily kills Aim Assist and Projectile Tracking (allowing you to actually Dodge things)
- Smoke just immediately jumps to…
- Initiate Invisibility
- For the duration of Invisibility Aim Assist and Projectile Tracking remain disabled.
- Dodge Finishes
- Invisibility Expires
- Aim Assist and Tracking are re-enabled
- Initiate Dodge or Throw Smoke
- Coming Soon in 1.1.4 (PvP Only!):
- Initiate Dodge or Throw Smoke
- Dodging temporarily kills Aim Assist and Projectile Tracking (allowing you to actually Dodge things)
- Smoke just immediately jumps to…
- Initiate Invisibility
- Dodge Finishes
- Aim Assist and Tracking are re-enabled
- Aim Assist and Tracking are re-enabled
- Invisibility Expires
- Initiate Dodge or Throw Smoke
Note: Nothing changes for PvE except that they also get the one-second duration increase to Invisibility.
Overall, there seems to be some good changes coming to weapons, subclasses, and Crucible mechanics in Update 1.1.4, and speculation aside, we’re only going to know how this feels when we get our hands on it and see each part working together. Here’s hoping Exotics will also be receiving some love, despite the fact they’re currently a “stretch goal” for the March 27 update. You can read the notes in full over on the Bungie Blog.
It will be interesting to see how the Destiny 2 community responds to these changes, especially on the back of the recent Ubisoft announcement of The Division 2.
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