A new hotfix went live for Destiny 2, reducing enemy health in Legend and Master activities and making Lightfall’s raid boss more of a threat. There’s more coming in the mid-season patch, including some significant weapon balance changes for auto rifles, pulse rifles, hand cannons, and so on in PvE.
Auto rifles are getting a 25 percent damage buff against Minor and Elite enemies. Pulse rifles, hand cannons and sidearms receive a 20 percent damage increase, and Scout Rifles get a 10 percent damage buff (to avoid players hanging back and killing targets). SMGs and bows will remain unchanged, but Bungie will “keep an eye on the primary weapon balance in PvE” and revisit them later.
It’s also worth noting that the IKELOS SMG, one of the strongest Aggressive Frame SMGs, was found to have exceptional recoil reduction. Bungie described this as “Zen Moment at max strength, and always active,” so that’s being removed. A larger change is coming to the weapon archetype in Season of the Deep, reducing its Time to Kill from 0.67 seconds to 0.77 against other players.
Check out the full blog post for all the changes. Stay tuned for more details when the patch goes live.