Destiny 2 hits Le Monarque hard with PvP nerfs in season 22

Certain Exotic weapons have always overperformed in Destiny 2’s PvP environment. Guns like Dead Man’s Tale have become notorious in the seasons prior to their subsequent nerfs, but one bow in particular has remained infamous to this day from the Black Armory’s stock. Combining a heavy-hitting arrow with ticks of poison damage, Le Monarque has always been an effective and easy way to dispatch opponents.

Bungie wants to curb Le Monarque’s power level in season 22, though, and revealed today in a weapons preview blog ahead of the launch next week that the Exotic bow will be receiving a plethora of reworks and adjustments to heavily nerf its impact in the Crucible. That includes changes to its draw time and body shot damage that push it into an entirely different frame category, as well as changes to the damage-over-time effect.

“Lemon (Le Monarque) has long been a thorn in the side of many high-end PvP players,” Bungie said. “The massive chunk damage hit hard, and the long damage-over-time (DoT) duration kept you out of the fight for what felt like an eternity.”

To remedy this, Destiny 2 is tackling “both facets” through one key shift—giving Le Monarque the same damage profile as a Lightweight bow. Not only that, but the duration of the DoT effect has been almost halved to prevent it from feeling like a constant drain on your health bar and your ability to regenerate out of combat. The damage over time is still the same, the devs emphasize, but it’s now less frustrating to deal with.

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Despite how these changes drastically nerf Le Monarque’s efficacy in PvP, Bungie didn’t want the bow to suffer in PvE as a result. To make sure that doesn’t happen, the damage applied by the DoT effect has been increased in PvE exclusively, which, according to Bungie, “should result in a slight DPS increase” from what Le Monarque is currently capable of in season 21.

Here’s the breakdown of every change hitting Le Monarque in season 22 next week.

• The draw time has been reduced from 684 milliseconds to 612 milliseconds.
• The body shot damage has been reduced from 100 to 85.
• The critical hit multiplier has been increased from 1.5x to 1.6x.
  • The critical hit damage against players will go from 150 to 136, in combination with the draw time and damage changes.
• The poison DoT effect has been reworked.
  • Reduced poison DoT duration from three seconds to 1.75 seconds.
  • Moved from eight damage ticks to six, but poison deals the same total damage to players.
  • Poison damage increased in PvE by 50 percent.

In a similar boat is Touch of Malice, which is another Exotic weapon that will be getting a suite of reworks in season 22. But unlike Le Monarque, these changes are about buffing its capabilities across the board, rather than nerfing it.

“Touch of Malice is a strong weapon, but the usability of the gun was just too low in any content where it mattered,” Bungie said. “This was due in large part to how easy it was to unintentionally kill yourself.”

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The final round in the gun, which does increased damage, also inflicts self-damage on the user. But the amount of damage it does to the one who wields it has never been a price worth paying for its damage output, and Bungie now believes it went “too far” when increasing the self-damage after the gun returned to Destiny 2. To give the weapon a fighting chance at being used in high-end content, not only has Bungie increased the amount of damage the final shot does, but also decreased the likelihood that Touch of Malice will strike the killing blow on its user.

Here’s the breakdown of the Touch of Malice changes revealed in the blog.

• The final round damage has been increased in PvE by 20 percent.
• The self-damage from the final round has been decreased from 10 to seven.
  • The damage from the final round can also no longer kill the user.
• The health awarded by the Touch of Mercy perk has been increased from 30 to 75.
  • Touch of Mercy also now works like Unrelenting, with Guardians and major combatants giving more points toward activation.
• Ball of Darkness will now appropriately deal Arc damage, blind combatants and stun Unstoppable Champions.

These notable reworks are slated to launch alongside a variety of smaller updates and fixes to Exotic weapons such as Tommy’s Matchbook, Verglass Curve, and Quicksilver Storm when season 22 goes live on Aug. 22. On the same day, Destiny 2 will be hosting its annual showcase to talk more about the season itself as well as The Final Shape expansion.