Remember when Bungie made Destiny 2 raids way harder out of nowhere with the release of The Final Shape? Well, the studio's already making them a fair bit easier, with some Power advantages returning and weapon-limiting Surges getting the boot.
In its latest blog post, Bungie outlines just how much harder raids, and to a lesser extent dungeons, had become. In raids, due to the new Power caps imposed on even normal mode runs, you were taking 32% more damage and dealing 33% less – or 15% less when making use of the active Surge modifier. Dungeons made out much better, with Bungie claiming a 2% gain for outgoing damage that jumps to 28% with the Surge factored in. Incoming damage, however, also went up 17% in dungeons. "These are numbers specifically for regular combatants (Dregs, Acolytes, etc.). More difficult combatants may scale a bit differently," Bungie clarifies.
Surges are rotating, activity-specific buffs that increase the damage output of (usually two) specific elements by 25%. The current Surges for the new Salvation's Edge raid are Arc and Stasis, all but forcing players to use DPS weapons of those two elements. This change dramatically limited buildcrafting – just as it did when Bungie tried weapon-specific Surges many years ago, but I digress – and frustrated a whole bunch of raiders.
In next week's update, Surges are being removed entirely. Hooray! What's more, that 25% damage bonus is becoming the default for all weapons. Our raid DPS is about to go up on average, though we'll still be doing 15% less than before The Final Shape. Boo!
"This change will make outgoing damage in dungeons higher and reduce the difference in raids compared to before The Final Shape," Bungie says. "It does so while removing barriers to buildcrafting."
Incoming defensive changes are even more player-friendly. The Power cap is essentially being lifted when it comes to incoming damage, so you can still get up to 15 levels above the curve in normal raids and dungeons. This means you'll only be taking 3% more damage compared to pre-Final Shape raiding, and in dungeons you'll actually be taking 8% less damage than before. Here's hoping this addresses some of the complaints about the solo dungeon experience.
Our Destiny 2: The Final Shape review calls it "an incredibly well-executed expansion that nicely rounds off a decade-long journey."
