Destiny: Why Bungie Nerfed The Auto Rifle, And Other Upcoming Changes

Bungie has taken to their weekly updates to explain the latest active changes, as well as some upcoming changes, to Destiny. This week they discuss weapon balance.

Bungie has a very particular definition for weapon balance in Destiny. They do not want all weapons to be equally powerful. Instead, they do not want everyone to be doing the same thing, in other words, using the same weapons and strategies across the board. If players did start using the same weapon, it would mean said weapon is unbalanced and is due for some nerfing.

With this in mind, the Auto Rifle’s base damage was lowered 2 %. It beats out Scout and Pulse Rifles in some situations. While this would usually be considered a positive by players, for Bungie, it’s a sign that they made the weapon too powerful. Bungie’s intent was for it to be able to deal sustained damage at close and medium range, but be in effective at long ranges.

Subsequently, the Shotgun lost base damage at maximum range, and the Scout Rifles received a buff of 6 %. Scout Rifles were meant to be dangerous at long and medium ranges, so this buff will better reflect that. Shotguns, like Auto Rifles, are too effective at longer ranges, so they will be adjusted to be most powerful up close.

In an upcoming hotfix, Bungie promises buffs to the Mythoclast, to make this exotic feel like a proper reward proportionate to the effort needed to earn it. Atheon encounters are also to be adjusted, so that players will no longer be able to just bump a boss off a ledge to win.

Lastly, Bungie addressed concerns regarding optimizing internet troubleshooting. They had learned that some players were messing with port forwarding unnecessarily. Bungie shared a list of issues that can be resolved with port forwarding. If your issue isn’t listed here, messing with port forwarding will not help you:

Frequent BEAVER/FLATWORM/LEOPARD KTOs (Kicked To Orbit events)

Unable to hear voice chat from other players in your own Fireteam

Frequent empty Towers

Activities failing to find a game (resulting in ‘unable to find a match in time’ errors)

How has your Destiny gameplay experience been this week? Do you agree with the changes Bungie has outlined? What changes would you like them to enact in the future? Share your thoughts with us in the comments.

Image is of the common Auto Rifle Shingen-B.