Future 2’s Unique Hint Rifle Divinity has been the spine of lots of gamers’ arsenals for finish recreation content material ever because it was first launched again within the Shadowkeep enlargement in 2019. Yesterday, Bungie lastly introduced a long-awaited nerf to how highly effective it’s, and whereas many are welcoming the change, it’s additionally reignited a months-long controversy initially sparked by one of many recreation’s high gamers.
There are two issues that make Divinity a ridiculously useful gizmo for Future 2’s most difficult content material like raids. First, it weakens enemies by 30 %, letting gamers deal a bunch of additional harm for an prolonged time frame. Second, it expands the critical-hit goal space, making it straightforward for a complete group to land increased harm pictures, even when their goal isn’t spot on. Because of this, Divinity is the go-to Unique for many actions, and even gamers who haven’t but obtained the uncommon weapon have most likely benefited from another person on the group utilizing it.
So it’s not shocking that Bungie determined Divinity was overdue a recall. “We’ve been taking a look at Divinity for some time now, and have examined a wide range of modifications in Season 19 over the previous couple of months, touchdown on lowering Divinity’s weaken from 30% to fifteen%,” Future 2’s weapon group wrote in a weblog put up yesterday, previewing a bunch of upcoming steadiness modifications. Right here’s the developer’s expanded reasoning behind the choice:
We don’t imagine that Divinity in its present type is definitely a steadiness downside, i.e., it’s not essentially too sturdy in isolation. That stated, Divinity is extremely dominant in endgame PvE as a result of it trivializes aiming precision weapons and has a particularly excessive uptime for weaken. Crucial problem is that Divinity granting 30% weaken sucks the air out of the room for all different weaken sources (reminiscent of Tether and Tractor Cannon), and we don’t wish to energy creep previous Divinity to make them fascinating.
TL;DR: Bungie needs gamers to utilize Future 2’s full suite of weapons and talents. Divinity was crowding out different help skills and tools that do comparable issues, so Bungie has decreased its effectiveness to carry these different instruments—just like the Hunter’s Tether and the Tractor Cannon Unique—again into play. Like each massive choice in Future 2, nevertheless, it’s inflicting no small quantity of concern amongst sure elements of the group.
The controversy dates again to a now notorious Twitter thread by a participant named Saltagreppo, whose raid group is three-time world’s first champions (i.e. even amongst Future 2’s high gamers he’s in a category of his personal). “The gun is principally necessary for many Boss encounters and it makes aiming a non issue, which may be very unhealthy for the sport for a number of causes,” he wrote on September 8. Saltagreppo went on to say the gun undermined the talent hole in finish recreation content material, after which supplied potential options reminiscent of making gamers select between increased harm or simpler crits. “The entire level is that Div shouldn’t be each one of the best and best possibility,” he wrote.
The thread didn’t go over nicely with some gamers, who thought it was too targeted on the distinctive issues of a really small proportion of elite gamers. They aren’t “bored” with Divinity. The truth is, they actually like the way it makes fast work of sure raid bosses that may in any other case trigger an evening’s work to finish in frustration. A perpetual pressure inside Future 2 is that some gamers like feeling tremendous highly effective, making the most of damaged builds, and hammering on the newest loot exploit. Others don’t. Particularly those who like competing in raid races and PVP modes like Trials of Osiris. A longtime suspicion among the many former group is that Bungie spends an excessive amount of time catering to Future 2’s high gamers and content material creators who’re taking part in dozens of hours every week.
In order quickly as Bungie introduced the nerf, which to be clear is a pretty mild one, it seemed like proof to some players that Saltagreppo had ruined the social gathering for everybody else. Nevertheless, the studio made clear that this alteration was deliberate far sooner than the controversy on Twitter. “The Div change was deliberate earlier than the spirited debates on social media started,” Future 2’s group lead tweeted yesterday. “It’s tremendous to offer your constructive suggestions to Bungie, however don’t harass anybody in the neighborhood for having a special opinion.”
On Reddit, gamers shared clips from earlier podcasts the place the builders talked about that the problems with Divinity had been already on their radar, even when they weren’t but able to announce any particular modifications. However that didn’t cease some from nonetheless making an attempt in charge Saltagreppo for the nerf, or for merely being a signifier of Future 2’s 1 % in what’s arguably an ongoing lowkey class conflict between completely different elements of the group. In fact, when you’ve got Divinity within the first place, not to mention are posting about it on a message board, you’re already a part of Future 2’s elite. The weapon stays one of many extra concerned Exotics to amass, with a number of quest steps, together with discovering hidden rooms within the Backyard of Salvation raid itself. And even with this buff coming later this yr in Season 19, it’ll nonetheless be well-worth getting. It simply gained’t be as overpowered because it has been for the final three years.
