Bungie is playing fun police this week. Destiny 2 is like many other games around this time of year, with events going on to ring in the new year. Although this week it’s not all fun and games, as Bugie has announced a surprise nerf to an event weapon. It turns out that the Coldfront Dragonfly combo of weapon and perk respectively is being patched out.
Dragonfly is an unbelievably strong perk to have on a class of weapons like SMGs. The very fast fire rate procs the elemental damage explosion effect a little too much for Bungie’s liking. There are two other SMGs that can roll with Dragonfly: Death Adder and Seventh Seraph VY-7, which are both Energy-based. The Kinetic type of the Coldfront seems to be a little too wonky as designed with this perk active.
The Dragonfly perk was not designed with the weapon class in mind, explains Destiny 2 assistant director Joe Blackburn. “The Dragonfly perk was not designed to work with kinetic weapons and causes some technical errors,” he said in a Tweet confirming the change.
Weapons already dropped in the game will have the perk removed, and new drops will not be able to roll for it. All Coldfronts with the Dragonfly perk will have it replaced with the Swashbuckler perk. The nerf to DPS will definitely be felt, but it seems like a good call for most.
Blackburn did apologize for springing the change on fans though, but it looks to be pretty justified to protect Bungie’s ideal for game balance and stability. “Sorry for the late breaking timing on this. We try to keep our winter holiday time sacred at Bungie,” he said.
The criticism, though measured, came back very clearly. Since the weapon was added during the Dawning seasonal event during the recent Season 10, there were many players who felt the combo had been eclipsed in power, and should be left in. Although it appears as though there’s some math error or something causing backend issues, prompting the emergency change. So the idea that there’s an issue of an overpowered weapon here might be flawed.
Other Plans
Blackburn did tease that some other changes are coming to Vault of Glass later in 2021. Though details are light, things might be getting a bit better for those missing out on the Coldfront Dragonfly combo.
Other changes include the potential of a change for Shatterdive. This ability for Hunter classes is being heavily discussed internally within both Bungie and the Destiny 2 community.
The crux of the issue is that the ability can be procced for movement around the map that’s way too fluid and quick. It makes it an incredibly potent vertical movement tool that eclipses the normal jumps by a fair bit in utility. Hunters also gain a roughly 40 percent damage resistance for a brief time, making this a good way to face tank some abilities. It’s likely way too potent. Senior Community Manager Dmg04 also made a tweet addressing it and that Bungie has some plans in the works.
