Season of Dawn is approaching its end as players continue to work together to donate fractaline to the Empyrean Foundation. Speculation has also started as to what the next season will bring as well as what sort of changes Bungie should focus on making to Destiny 2. Many fans are expecting to see at least a few adjustments to Fusion Rifles, or Erentil at the very least, though Bungie has recently confirmed a surprising overhaul for a certain heavy weapon type.
In its weekly update to players, Bungie revealed one of the planned sandbox changes it’s bringing to Destiny 2 in March alongside the new season. Swords are getting revamped and overhauled which are going to change how players use light and heavy attacks as well as guard. The first major change is that Swords now have an energy meter that recharges on its own. This replaces the player’s melee slot when a sword is equipped and the energy is used on various actions.
Guarding now uses the energy rather than ammo, though players will need at least one ammo to even be able to guard. Different guard styles will also have different energy consumption rates and resist certain types of damage as well so Bungie encourages players to test out available styles. This change is intended to push players to use the guard feature on swords since it was largely ignored due to the high heavy ammo cost to use previously.
With Light Attacks, all swords now have an infinite looping combo and can cleave, which was previously exclusive to aggressive frame swords. On the other hand heavy attacks also use sword energy now and will result in stronger attacks with a full bar. Aerial heavy attacks don’t cost any energy to use. Better yet, a portion of most Sword attacks actually bypass a portion of elemental shields to help differential them from other close quarter combat weapons like shotguns. Bungie is hoping players utilize a better mix of sword attacks with these changes rather than defaulting to mashing the heavy attack button.
Ultimately, Bungie is hoping to make Swords more viable and interesting to use in PvE activities. However, as Bungie has already admitted, these changes will have unfortunate consequences for speed runners or players who utilize a form of sword skating. These changes will definitely impact how players can quickly move around especially with the exotic sword, Worldline Zero. When the sword’s trait Tessaract and a Warlock’s glide were used in tandem, players could essentially speed forward almost as if they were skating through the air. Bungie hasn’t specifically mentioned Worldline Zero, but sword skating definitely appears to be getting nerfed.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
