First Destiny 2: Shadowkeep balance changes include Super nerfs and Armor 2.0 improvements

As we said in our Destiny 2: Shadowkeep review, the expansion has gotten off to a great start but could definitely improve on a few things, especially balance and economy issues. Happily, in its latest blog post, Bungie says it's working on fixes for both areas. An updating coming on Tuesday, October 29 will address some overpowered Supers and annoying bugs, and Bungie says a future update will refine the new Destiny 2 Armor 2.0 system. 

If you've stepped into the Crucible in the past, oh I don't know, year, you probably already know which Supers are being targeted: bottom-tree Daybreak and bottom-tree Fists of Havoc. Simply put, the skills that extend the duration of these Supers on kill are being nerfed into the pavement, so they won't last nearly as long. 

Titans are also getting some more specialized nerfs. Performing light attacks with Fists of Havoc will cost more energy to prevent players from idly flying across the map, and getting kills with the Super will no longer trigger health regeneration innately. Just as importantly, Bungie says it's looking at a nerf for One-Eyed Mask, an infamous Exotic which has been terrorizing PvP for over a year. Together with this Fists of Havoc nerf, this ought to bring Titans back in line. 

The update coming on October 29 will also fix another Super-related PvP issue by updating the icons shown at the top of the screen. Currently, you have no way of knowing if a player is using one of the Supers introduced in Forsaken since they share icons with the base Supers, but that will change soon enough. We're also getting a fix for a bug which causes slow gear preview times during space flight loading sequences, and a small quality of life boost in the form of a Phantasmal Core cap increase. Oh, and because Titans didn't get enough bad news, the bug that allowed One-Two Punch to stack with Peregrine Greaves is also getting fixed. 

Looking further ahead, Bungie says it wants to improve Armor 2.0 by making the availability and advantages of specific mods clearer. For starters, an option to view all the mods you've collected via the Collections tab will be added on October 29. Bungie's also planning to soften the often prohibitive elemental affinity system by adding neutral Ammo Finder and Scavenger mods, but these won't arrive until next season (just under two months from now). Changes to mod stacking will also arrive next season, and these could have a big impact on the way players build their characters. 

"Starting next season, the restrictions on having multiple mods of the same type in a single piece of armor will be removed (with a few exceptions)," Bungie says. "So, you’ll be able to run two Hand Cannon Loader mods, or two Shotgun Ammo Finder mods, and so forth. The only exceptions to this stacking come from mods that provide no benefit when stacked, such as Fastball and Traction. We needed a little more time to make sure that stacking mods wouldn’t cause any major technical issues, and think that stacking mods of the same type gives more flexibility in crafting your build, provided you have the armor energy to spend in socketing them in."

It's nice to see Bungie acknowledging systemic issues like these so early in the season, but it's a shame some of these fixes won't arrive until next season. Still, the update coming on October 29 sounds like good news all around - unless you're a Titan, of course. 

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