After The Immortal’s release in Trials of Osiris during Destiny 2‘s Season of Defiance, very few other weapons have come close to dethroning it. A robust perk pool and best-in-class stats have meant that the submachine gun, and its Adept version, have made the top two spots for most used weapons in Trials of Osiris their home week in, week out.
Bungie has finally announced plans to try and do something about that. In a weapons preview blog released today, the developer revealed their plans to hit The Immortal with its first nerf when season 21 launches next week on May 23. It’s a nerf that arrives alongside a wider nerf to its archetype, the Aggressive Frame, with the goal of curbing their dominance in the PvP environment.
While the growing presence of Aggressive Frame SMGs in the Crucible began with the reissued IKELOS submachine gun, it reached new heights when The Immortal launched. Key to this dominance was the presence of Rangefinder in the third perk column on The Immortal, which allowed this crucial range-boosting perk to be paired with such damage-boosting options as Target Lock or Kill Clip.
While Target Lock did receive a small nerf to make it a bit harder to use, that hasn’t stopped The Immortal from continuing to hold domain over the meta.
“The Immortal is such a stat monster that no other Aggressive SMG can compete,” Bungie explained. This is on top of the fact that Aggressive SMG’s themselves are a problem child too. “Aggressive Submachine Guns have surged in PvP, they need to be brought back into band. We’re doing that in a way that keeps them viable by reducing both base and crit damage a little, requiring higher precision to reach their optimal time to kill.”
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While the nerfs in question aren’t as large so as to entirely remove their efficacy in PvP, it should give other weapons a chance to shine.
Destiny 2 weapon archetype updates
- The base damage of Aggressive Frame submachine guns has been reduced from 15 to 14.
- The precision hit multiplier has been increased from 1.45 to 1.5.
- When factoring in the base damage nerf, this means the critical hit damage is reduced a small amount, from 21.8 to 21.
- The Immortal specifically has had its base range value reduced by 10.
The changes coming to submachine guns are undoubtedly one of the major takeaways for weapon archetypes from this preview blog, but there are some additional updates coming alongside them that Bungie also shared ahead of Season of the Deep’s launch.
- Sniper Rifle damage in PvE has been increased by 10 percent.
- While Izanagi’s Burden’s Honed Edge perk shots don’t receive this buff, all other Exotic sniper rifles do.
- An issue has been fixed where the Long Arm scout rifle was receiving an unintended damage bonus vs. minors.
- The Tyranny of Heaven bow has had its stats updated and increased to better match its contemporaries.
These changes will hit alongside a wider suite of sandbox updates when Destiny 2’s Season of the Deep launches on Tuesday, May 23.
