Bungie have given us a glimpse into the future with a little preview of the patch notes for Update 2.5.2. While these are only preview notes, they do offer us a little glimpse into how the game is changing leading into Solstice of Heroes. We’re going to unpack these notes a bit, and add some details that you might not have thought about. Let’s begin.
Lord of Wolves
Firstly Bungie is reducing the amount of ammo that Shotgun scavenger perks can give Lord of Wolves when in the Release the Wolves state. This will bring the weapon more into line with other Shotguns, making it much fairer on those Guardians who don’t have it, and changing up the meta of the Crucible in the process.
Second, the effective range of Lord of Wolves is being reduced. Right now it’s 28, making it slightly higher than other Shotguns. Bringing this down is going to make the weapon much less viable in the Crucible, so you shouldn’t see Guardians running around with it equipped all the time, ready to slide and melee you. Bungie has noted that this decrease is going to be more aggressive when the weapon is in the Release the Wolves state. I can see a lot of Guardians being pissed about this, but fair is fair.
Tribute Hall
It’s no longer going to be required of Guardians that they wear full Leviathan gear when trying to progress the Triumphs, “The Emperor’s Gladiator” and “Scoundrel in Uniform”. I think the issue here was that most guardians don’t have a full set, and won’t get one to complete this Triumph any time soon, so Bungie have made it a bit easier. Instead, the number of gear pieces worn from the Leviathan set will multiply progress towards the Triumphs. I think this is a much fairer way of doing it, and I hope to see it implemented in similar future Triumphs.
Iron Banner
This is probably my favourite change. The quest for Iron Banner has been adjusted for when the event returns in future seasons. I don’t think these changes will take effect during Season of Opulence, but I could be wrong.
In the future the grenade kills required for the quest will be reduced by 50 percent, and an ally’s grenade kills will be worth as much as standard kills. Similarly, the sword kills required is being dropped by 25 percent, and an ally’s sword kills will be worth the same as yours. Both of these changes make the quest far less of a grind, and much easier to finish within a season. Right now it’s pretty damn tough, and getting sword kills isn’t always easy.
Menagerie/Chalice
From next Tuesday onwards your first completion of a Heroic Menagerie run will drop a sword. This is brilliant, because it’s super tough to get these swords otherwise. any subsequent completions have a 25 percent chance to drop a sword, which I think is pretty good considering how hard it’s been to pick one up from the activity to date. One big change I think we’ll see moving forward is a lot more swords in the Crucible.
General
An issue where bounty completions wouldn’t send a notification is being fixed. I don’t think I need to say much more about this, it’s really bloody annoying when you’re trying to complete a bounty and it doesn’t ping when it completes. It’s an issue that’s seen me shoot way more enemies than necessary in the past.
Apparently the fix to notifications of completion will also sort out an issue that’s seen some Guardians not spawn into the Crucible. I used to do coding for a living and I can tell you that this could be a legitimate connection, but whoever wrote the patch notes could also have misinterpreted what was meant by the developers. Either way, if you’re going into the Crucible, you should definitely appear now.
These notes are mostly made up of Guardian requests, which is definitely a good thing. As Bungie move forward as a an independent developer they’re getting better at listening to Guardians and acting on what is needed by the community. They’re still ruining our fun when one weapon becomes dominant in the Crucible, but that’s what keeps the game interesting.
Let us know what you think about these preview patch notes in the comments.
