Destiny 2's Lord of Wolves saga is finally coming to a close. As Bungie announced in a recent blog post, the infamous Exotic shotgun will receive some well-deserved nerfs in the Destiny 2 Solstice of Heroes 2019 update coming on Tuesday, July 30.
For starters, Lord of Wolves is getting a tangential nerf via the shotgun scavenger armor perk, which has played a big part in the weapon's dominance. With two shotgun scavenger perks equipped, you can get 30 shots for Lord of Wolves per special ammo brick in the Crucible, which is enough for three full Unleash the Wolves bursts. However, special ammo bricks will now yield less ammo while the Release the Wolves perk is active. I don't expect anyone to stop moving, disable the perk via special reload, then pick up special ammo, and then reactivate the perk, so this should pretty thoroughly neuter the gun's ammo reserves.
Additionally, Lord of Wolves is getting a flat nerf to its effective range, and this range decrease will be "more aggressive" when Release the Wolves is active. This should bring the perk more in line with the neutral shotgun perk Trench Barrel, which grants a huge damage boost at the cost of reduced range. Previously, there was no reason not to enable Release the Wolves, but between this range nerf and the accompanying ammo changes, Lord of Wolves should now be a strong but reasonable shotgun, as opposed to the untouchable killing machine it's been for weeks. These changes will definitely affect its usability, which will hopefully give players using other weapons more ways to counter it and more time to respond to it.
As previously reported, Bungie also created a special emblem to commemorate how broken Lord of Wolves was. The studio showed off the Wolves Unleashed emblem in the latest blog post.
If you played Iron Banner between June 18 and June 25, you've already earned this emblem and will receive it on July 30. If you still need it, be sure to play an Iron Banner match this week.
Not only that, the Prometheus Lens laser tag weekend from 2017 - back when the bugged Exotic trace rifle deleted players on sight - is getting an emblem of its own. If you played a Crucible match between December 8 and December 10 that year, you'll also receive the Prismatic Inferno emblem on July 30.
As one final bit of good news for Crucible enthusiasts, Bungie confirmed that the overlong Iron Banner quest Test of Strength will be toned down for future Iron Banner events, starting in August. The grenade kill quest step will only require half as many kills going forward, plus ally kills will contribute more progress. The number of required sword kills is also being reduced by 25%, and ally kills will be worth more. I reckon a few other steps could've used some adjustments - ehem, scout rifles - but hey, it's something.
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