TWAB Recap: 2021/08/12

This week's TWAB is right on the heels of last week's in terms of meaty content. We got a preview of the champion mods for next season.

Overload - Bow
Barrier - Auto Rifle
Unstoppable - Liner and Fusion Rifles, Scout Rifle, Sidearm

Controller sensitivity and traction are being reworked. The Traction mod is being removed and instead, a sprint turn speed scalar is being added with a range of 0.3 to 0.8. Additionally, there are more sensitivity options with 1-10 being the same and an 11-20 being added. We're also getting an ADS sensitivity modifier (THANK YOU) with values from 0.5 to 1.5.

As someone who prefers a controller to keyboard and mouse for Destiny 2, this is huge. While it won't make me a PVP god, it should help with the curb-stomping I deal with on the regular.

However, the bulk of the content for this week is focused on exotics and tuning. To start, we're seeing some changes to the exotics based around super regeneration. From Bungie:

• Shards of Galanor: Increased the amount of Super granted for hits, but total Super regain is now capped at 50%. 
• Ursa Furiosa: Capped the amount of Super energy you can regain once your Super ends at 50%. 
• Skull of Dire Ahamkara: Increased the amount of Super refunded per kill, but total Super gain is capped at 50%.  
• Phoenix Protocol: Capped the amount of Super energy you can regain once your Super ends at 50%. 
• Stormdancer's Brace: Now also refunds up to 50% of your Super energy after your Super ends, based on the number of kills. 
• Geomag Stabilizers: Removed "sprint to top off your Super." 
• This part of the perk led to a higher uptime in PvP than was healthy and gave Attunement of Control Warlocks an immediately renewable supply of Super energy for paying for mod costs like Special Finisher in PvE.

Next, we're seeing some less popular exotics get an overhaul to become more viable and vary player loadouts. I'm personally excited to The Stag on this list as it's my favorite looking, but least useful exotic for my warlock.

Hunters

• The Bombardiers 
• The bomb now has a secondary effect based on your subclass type: 
• Blind for Arc. 
• Burn for Solar. 
• Slow for Stasis. 
• Suppress for Void. 
• Note: The suppression will not affect a Guardian in Super. 
• Graviton Forfeit 
• Increased the bonus invisibility duration. 
• The melee regeneration speed now increases based on the number of enemies near you. 
• While you are invisible, your Recovery is greatly increased, and your weapons reload more quickly. 
• Lucky Pants 
• Added intrinsic Hand Cannon Holster mod, replaced previous functionality with the following: 
• "When you ready a fully-loaded Hand Cannon that deals Kinetic damage or damage matching your subclass energy type, for a short time each hit against a combatant from that Hand Cannon increases the damage of the next shot.” 
• Note: No, Hawkmoon won’t be able to one-shot a raid boss using these legs. Other Hand Cannons will get a fun edge in combat, though!  

Warlocks

• Verity's Brow 
• Changed to trigger when you get a weapon kill that matches your subclass energy type. 
• Increased grenade damage bonus to 20% per stack (up from 10%). 
• The Stag 
• Grants damage reduction to allied Guardians standing in your Rifts. 
• 25% against combatants, 15% against players. 
• Promethium Spur 
• Has additional functionality: 
• While standing in a Rift, Solar weapon kills give you class ability energy. 
• When your class ability energy is full, Solar weapon kills consume that energy and spawn a combination healing/empowering Rift at the target's location. 

Titans

• Precious Scars 
• Will now also create a burst of healing and bonus Recovery around you whenever you kill an enemy with a weapon whose damage type matches your subclass type. 
• Icefall Mantle 
• Removed the slower class ability recharge scalar.  

With armor out of the way, we can take a look at some mods. Essentially it breaks down to managing the special weapon ammo economy in PvP and PvE. This one has me a bit nervous as Bungie has a history of swinging the pendulum too far when making adjustments. Also, I just made a build around Ruinous Effigy, so I need all the special ammo I can get. From Bungie:

• Ammo Finder 
• Now have an increased chance to spawn ammo on kills with primary weapons, and a further increased chance with Exotic Primaries. 
• Scavenger 
• Multiple copies of Scavenger mods of the same type no longer stack. 
• Holster 
• This is a new type of leg armor mod that will gradually reload stowed weapons of the matching type over time. 
• Multiple copies of Holster mods of the same type will increase the rate ammo is reloaded. 
• The following weapon types will have Holster mods: Auto Rifle, Fusion Rifle, Grenade Launcher (Power), Hand Cannon, Linear Fusion Rifle, Machine Gun, Pulse Rifle, Scout Rifle, Shotgun, Sidearm, Submachine Gun, Sniper Rifle, and Trace Rifle. 
• Hand Cannon excludes Eriana’s Vow. 
• Rocket Launchers, Breech-loaded Grenade Launchers, and Bows will not have Holster mods, as we didn’t want to affect any weapon that has a magazine size of 1. 

As we come to a close on the TWAB, Warmind Cells are finally addressed. While I love the concept behind them and making builds, it's clear they were going to see a nerf. After all, they weren't designed to stick around for longer than a season. From Bungie:

• Base Warmind Cells 
• Reduced radius of the explosion/effect range of Warmind Cells (10 → 6 meters). 
• Reduced damage of the explosion of Warmind Cells (previously 200-400 → now 50-250). 
• Global Reach 
• Increase the mod cost of Global Reach to 3. 
• Reduce the amount of radius increase (20 → 10 meters). 
• Cellular Suppression 
• Reduce the duration of the suppressing effect when using Cellular Suppression (3 seconds → 2 seconds). 
• Wrath of Rasputin 
• Reduce bonus Solar damage (previously 100-200 → now 25-100). 

Finally, Elemental Wells are being tweaked. This has me excited as I've recently dropped the Warmind Cell Build in favor of an Elemental Well build. From Bungie:

• Elemental Armaments now has an increased chance to spawn an elemental well based on the tier of the enemy defeated.
• Font of Might's base duration has been increased to 10 seconds and increased the damage bonus provided from 10% to 25%. 

Phew! That was a lot to go over! But again, it's good to see Bungie making adjustments and putting out meaningful adjustments to prep players before the launch of the next expansion. It's exciting to think that it's less than a few weeks away at this point.

Finally Iron Banner is seeing a new set of gear drop. The Iron Forerunner set has a definite aquatic theme to it. It's not my favorite IB design, but I'll take it. We've been desperate to see something new for ages now. But the most exciting thing is the addition of the Iron Lord's Pride perk which grants a small chance of an Enhancement Prism dropping at the end of an Iron Banner matching. Each piece (up to four) increases the chance of a drop. I think this will be a good quality of life change as it gives players more incentive to keep playing IB after completing the bounties and quest. We'll also see a couple of new weapons roll out: the Forge's Pledge pulse rifle and Peacebond sidearm.

A new round of Twitch Prime rewards rolls out including an emote, Ghost shell, sparrow, and ship.

Known Issues

• Players who have a full quest inventory can pick up the “As Prophesied” quest. This quest can be acquired again from the Quest Archive. 
• At the end of the newest Override mission, players should wait for the timer to end and not press anything so they can view a cutscene.  
• Some messages in the H.E.L.M. and Eliksni Quarter don’t show subtitles or names. 
• Sometimes players in a fireteam won’t be able to view seasonal cutscenes. 
• Champions may not spawn in the final boss room of the Warden of Nothing on Grandmaster difficulty. 
• In French, the Exo Stranger’s Weekly Challenge incorrectly tells players to defeat enemies using Stasis while on Europa. To progress this Challenge, players will need to defeat enemies using Stasis when NOT on Europa. 
• Solstice Key Fragments remain in some player’s inventories after the conclusion of Solstice of Heroes. 
• The Laconic ornament for The Last Word ejects bullet casings when firing, while the base weapon does not.