Welcome back, Guardians! Not sure about you guys but, I for one am still recovering from all the news that E3 has dropped on us. Unfortunately, there were no new and exciting things that came out from Bungie at the E3 conference. On the plus side, there was a surprise patch and updates from Bungie via their website that caught most of us by surprise. First off we’ll dive into the patch notes, follow up with Xur, Challenge of Elders, and finish up with Trials and Iron Banner news.
Patch News – 2.3.0 The One about Hunters
On Tuesday, Bungie hit us with this 2.3.0 patch which from the title made it seem like the patch was focused on updating the Hunter class. Don’t let that fool you, although the Hunter was the main focus, both Titan and Warlock classes received updates as well. In addition, all classes got a PvE boost to some of their abilities, and some weapons have been altered in attempts to try and balance the Crucible. Click here to view the full patch notes.
Hunter Updates are…
-Grenades- -Swarm Grenades get an increased arming radius and 7% more detonation damage -Tripmine Grenades will no longer attach to targets, will arm after attaching to the terrain. Tripmine damage reduced by 3% -Skip Grenades tracking time reduced by 4 seconds, detonation damage reduced by 13% -Spike Grenades impulse reduced to 5 per second while damage per pulse has been increased by 100% (total overall damage has been unchanged) -Melee updates- -Throwing Knife base damage reduced by 10%. Circle of life perk changed to reduce cooldown time of Golden Gun. Armor bonus has been removed also. -Blink Strike lunge distance reduced by 0.4 meters, backstab angle has been reduced by 30 degrees. -Fast Twitch perk recharge reduced by 20% and Escape Artist perk’s invisibility effect was delayed by half a second. -Smoke’s impact damage was reduced by 34%, while jump suppression has been removed completely. Other changes have been made in smoke duration by a second. -Super Abilities- -Golden Gun : Base damage increased by 50%, plus an additional 30% in vs PvE. -Dead Eye perk increases Golden Gun damage by an additional 30%. -Arc Blade: base duration has been extended by 2 seconds and hit detection range has been increased by 0.5 meters. Overall PvE damage has been increased by 30% but the energy cost has been modified heavily. Cost per swing has been increased by 20% while cost on hit has been reduced by 20%. Also swinging your Arc Blade while airborne has been added with nearly a second cooldown timer. The Encore perk has also been modified to not only increase duration but grants a 150% damage boost after getting a killing blow. -Shadowshot: will now apply the suppression effect on impact instead of post impact.
Titan Updates are”¦
-Sunbreakers: Hammer of Sol- – Hammer travel speed increased by 1.3%, detonation radius increased by 10%, and PvE damage increased by 10%. -Striker: Fist of Havoc- -Base damage increased by 50%, plus an additional 50% damage increase in PvE. -Defender- – Spike grenade update same as Hunters nightstalker. Warlock updates are”¦ -Sunsinger- -Firebolt grenade arming time increased and search radius reduced. -Scorch melee added a short delay before over shield activation. -Viking Funeral perk no longer extends ignite effects but instead weakens targets causing them to take 5% more damage from all sources (stacking up to 3 times). -Voidwalker- -Nova Bomb base damage increase by 50%, plus another 50% damage bonus against PvE targets. Lance perk increases damage of Nova Bomb by an additional 25% For the weapons rebalancing, they have decided to target the fast rate of fire auto rifles and hand cannons for updates.
-Xur Inventory-
Guardians, you can locate Xûr at the Tower near the Vanguard class vendors (Middle Tower, downstairs past Shaxx). His inventory this week consists of the Helm of Inmost Light, Radiant Dance Machines, The Impossible Machines, and Thunderlord.
Titans this week have the option of picking up the Helm of Inmost light which is a huge bonus for the Striker subclass. This armor’s perks suggest that it is a PvE exotic, but with its exotic ability unlocking death from above and headstrong make it somewhat useful in PvP as well. With the recent updates, this helmet will be great again in PvE content granting your super the ability to be aimed and having bonus survivability. Especially with the 2.3.0 patch I would not let this helmet pass you by if you don’t already own it.
Hunters have the chance to pick up some pretty unique boots this week. The radiant Dance Machines grant you the ability to move quicker while aiming down your weapons sights. If momentum is an issue for your hunter then grab these. Overall the great things about these boots are that they provide extra ammo for the sniper rifle/machine gun, perfect stat roll, and the ability to select extra armor based on your subclass. For those wanting to look cool with the addition of the new Chroma colors, these will go great with the green. If you are tight on strange coins feel free on passing on these shiny green boots.
If you love the stormcaller subclass these gauntlets are a must have in your inventory. The biggest reason why that is its perk “Lightning Rod” makes the Landfall perk activate for free. This creates a bolt of lightning to strike the ground beneath you sending out a massive damage pulse to all enemies within that area. By having these equipped it allows you to select the other two talents within the subclass. One is “Superconductor” which doubles your stormtrance electrical chaining capabilities. The other being “ionic Blink” which allows you to teleport (blink) around the map making it harder for you to be killed while in your stormtrance. In addition, some of its other perks are increased melee attack speed and two types of weapon loaders.
The weapon this week is the Thunderlord, a heavy machine gun that has higher than average rate of fire, solid impact, decent range, good stability and a fast reload when Feeding Frenzy is activated. This Arc damage weapons biggest perk is the ability to fire faster and more accurate the longer the weapon is being fired. This makes precision shots extremely easy while unloading all 49 rounds of the magazine. Extra selectable perks with this weapon include Flared Magwell (increased reload speed), Perfect Balance (reduced recoil), and Field Scout (higher ammo capacity). The only other Exotic heavy weapon that has Arc damage is the Bolt-Caster sword. If you have yet to unlock this exotic pick it up to make those Arc burn strikes extremely easy to burn through.
-Challenge of the Elders Hints-
This week’s Challenge of the Elders grants extra bonus points for any melee kills generated. With that being said the modifiers this week are Fresh Troops and Trickle. This will increase the number of enemies you will face per wave and unfortunately, increase the cooldown time of your abilities. For the weapon of choice, I would lean towards using the Monte Carlo since it helps to reduce your melee cooldown timer. This weapon will also shave some health off your enemies to enable a nice finishing punch.
For the Titan, I would recommend the Striker class combined with the Mk. 44 Stand Asides exotic boots. Equipping these boots increases the overall charge duration of your shoulder charge. Extra bonuses grant you a tighter turn radius while sprinting allowing you greater survivability based on mobility. I would also select Overload, Transfusion, and obviously Shoulder Charge in the Striker subclass nodes to help increase your overall score.
Hunters, get prepared to get your Bladedance on. Since the Bladedancers super kills with a melee you get extra points. So to help keep your Super as active as long as possible I recommend equipping the Mask of the Third Man helmet, while selecting Encore and Fleet Footed. In addition to those two perks, I would recommend also selecting Fast Twitch to even further reduce your melee cooldown timer. The only downfall of this build is that it lacks a little bit of survivability so be careful when activating your Super ability. With the recent changes from the 2.3.0 patch activating your arc blade will really rip up your enemies especially in the arena, but make sure you land those strikes on your targets rather than swinging wildly.
Warlocks, it is a little up to your playstyle of choice but I found that using the Stormcaller subclass to be more effective.I’m not too worried about the super ability of the subclass, I’m more concentrated on what lets me melee ability cooldown trigger more often so I don’t have to two or three punch an enemy to death. The Stormcaller subclass has a couple of perks which reduce your Thunderstrike melee timer a lot more than your other two subclasses. These perks are Perpetual Charge which grenade kills recharge melee, and melee kills recharge grenade energy. Rising storm is a perk in the Thunderstrike tree which causes your super and melee energy to charge slightly. Feedback is another great perk which makes incoming melee attacks fully recharge and increase Thunderstrike damage output. Now think if you combined those with the Claws of Ahamkara which allow you to run around with two melee charges! Just be careful not to be killed from taking those melee hits.
Lord Saladin and the Iron Banner is returning back to the tower with the Clash game mode. Action starts next Tuesday (21st) at 10am PST, and will continue until 2am PST on the 28th. Looks like Lord Saladin will bring the Class armor, Helmets, Colovance’s Duty Scout Rifle, and Bretomart’s Stand Machine Gun. PlayStation 4 exclusives this time around will be the Helmets and Class armor as well.
Just like with any major game patch or update there may be some bugs and glitches. If you see any or want to know what has been occurring, please check out the known issues thread or post in Bungie’s #Helm forum.