Destiny Auto Rifles a little less useful now

Despite all of the negative press, Destiny still has a surprisingly large active player base. It might not be as high as Bungie would’ve hoped, but their continued support could entice some burned players to return. Especially those who loved their scout rifles, because they’re finally useful.

In a small hot fix that will go live today, Bungie is balancing one of my main issues with Destiny. I loved Scout Rifles, but compared to a nice, equally powerful Auto Rifle it just wasn’t good enough. Auto Rifles were often the go to weapon of choice, making loot drops even more frustrating. That’s changing, if only sightly.

Scout Rifles and Hand Cannons get a little buff, while Auto Rifles and Shotguns suffer a little nerf. It’s tiny, so I’m not sure how effective it’s going to be.

Auto Rifles

• Base Damage decreased by 2%
• Reduced Precision Damage multiplier from 1.50 -> 1.25 (head shot bonus)
• Stability decreased by 4% – 17% (driven by stat value)

Hand Cannons

• In-air accuracy now increased

Scout Rifles

• Base damage increased by 6%
• Damage vs. Combatants increased by 6% – 25% (based on tier)
• Improved target acquisition, plus additional recoil tuning.

Shotguns

• Decreased base damage at maximum range (falloff) by 20%
• Shot Package Perk now has a slightly wider cone of fire
• The Rangefinder and Shot Package perks are now mutually exclusive

It’s a tiny fix that may or may not change much. Bungie is busy preparing a larger patch that will address overall class balance and exotic weaponry, which many players have claimed are often worse than their more common weaponry.

It’s good that a month after launch, Bungie is still regularly updating and tweaking Destiny in order to keep their players happy. The only problem is that most of these changes aren’t really encouraging me to return.

Last Updated: October 14, 2014