The Destiny 2 console beta is well underway, and due to open up to all players today, rather than just those who pre-orderered. Developers Bungie say they’ve already gathered some useful data and have changes planned that will address some of the biggest community concerns so far.
Check out our all-new Destiny 2 legendary weapons guide, with impressions fresh from the beta.
In the words of beta design lead Rob Engeln:
“The PvE game tuning has changed pretty significantly since the Beta build was deployed. The nature of a Beta of this scale requires that it’s based off a build of the game that is now months old. So, in many cases, your feedback is helping us validate changes that were previously made based on internal feedback and playtesting. For example, we too felt that ammo (especially power ammo) was too scarce in PvE. In addition to retuning the drop rates, we built a system that guarantees power ammo drops for you and your Fireteam from certain enemies, giving power weapons a more reliable and predictable role in your arsenal. Other areas where we’ve made significant tuning changes include grenade effectiveness in PvE, Boss vitality, and weapon damage against non-player combatants.”
This is all welcome news. Based on my own experiences and my regular morning coffee spent trawling Reddit, the power ammo drop rate, and a general sense that better PvP balance has been achieved at the expense of PvE, are the biggest issues highlighted in the beta.
I have plenty of my own thoughts on the latter point, but it’s certainly no fun going for your grenade only to find it perpetually on cooldown. Equally, it’s no fun for every single engagement in PvP to start with a grenade duel. Fortunately, these are things that can be balanced separately, and it looks like Bungie are taking that approach.
The Bungie weekly update also includes some news about PvP matchmaking (it’s still skill-based, but your skill rating will be tracked differently in the quickplay and competitive playlists).
