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5/19/2026 1:29:37 PM
13
The Primary Weapon Debacle
Primaries are hot garbage.
Period.
There's so few worth a damn in the game's sandbox (looking at you Outbreak & Horror's Least) that basically 60% of the loot pool is useless. Why is this the case? Why can't Primaries breach a state of relevance, and how is it they are so pathetic in Endgame PVE?
This issue has been ongoing. For ages. At least since TWQ.
Double Special has long dominated Endgame PVE. There have been numerous nerfs and adjustments over the years, yet nothing has ever really stuck. WHY?
Well, simply put, the hamster wheel.
Sweeping buffs to Primaries would essentially shelf many grindable activities. After all, we all have loads of seemingly potent Primaries stacked in our Vaults. By buffing them universally, we'd instantly lower the demand for us to grind. And Bungie doesn't like anything that has the potential to reduce playtime.
Additionally, the intentionality of Ability Spam gets undermined to a degree. Special Weapons can actually pace with Ability Spam, and often times offer more intrinsic benefits to Ability Spam builds (take Demolitionist for example; 15% energy from a variety of Specials, only 10% from Primaries).
So how does this issue get resolved? How do we make Primaries relevant without being "free"?
Let's take a trip down memory lane and revisit D1......
Ammo management is a skill.
Full Stop.
How one chooses to utilize their ammo, the timing, the target priority, the mechanical components of aiming, reloading, and perk selection- all get wrapped up into skill expression.
So how do we increase the skill ceiling of Primaries?
Reversion. Going backwards. Back to the D1 era of Primaries. Where the ammunition isn't infinite.
As a trade off, I'd like to see MASSIVE buffs to the damage. Severely reduce available ammo for both Special and Heavy in the process, but also buff their damage.
Have you ever held a .50cal bullet? Or perhaps a .308? Also heavy. Our Guardians need a weight limit. And varying archetypes and their ammunition can play a major role in how much they can carry.
And Primaries can see their damage skyrocket.
In what universe does it make sense that I head shot an enemy 4 times with an rifle and it doesn't die?
But that's the state of Destiny 2 currently.......
So the best path forward is to go backwards. Go backwards to limited ammo for Primaries. And while you're at it, buff the damage to stupendous levels. IDGAF if you want to reduce their output against bosses, but this BS of shooting enemies in crit spots repeatedly without death ensuing is absolutely ridiculous. Reintroduce some manner of skill expression and limit our ammo.
And while carry weight isn't a concept in D2, if we ever see a D3, it certainly should be.
https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/264557025?page=0&path=1&sort=0&utm_source=chatgpt.com
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3 RepliesHonestly it is a compelling argument.
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3 RepliesI use my primaries mainly as filler between two abilities spam, so I don’t care that much. I’m playing D1 again at the moment (like everyone else it seems) and honestly I prefer D2 sandbox.
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1 ReplySure buff Primaries in general but why not limit the amount of special ammo?
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1 ReplyWeapons sucks in general since Void 3.0 came out
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100% agree. Since the ammo meters were added, special and heavy ammo drops WAY too much. I think the idea of reverting the unlimited primary ammo is a good idea as well. Currently there is zero ammo management required. I would prefer to go back to the days where we had to make decisions on special, heavy, and ability usage instead of just spamming them nonstop without repurcusions.
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Definitely don’t want a weight limit thank you, enough stack limits as there is. I have 1200 raid banners I cant bank so with a weight penalty I’d need a mobility scooter not a sparrow! Maybe the whole primary/special/heavy needs to go? A rethink on archetypes? Definately sick of ability spam and double specials in a shooter/looter where 90% of drops are pointless. At least in Div 2 the drops can be used to incrementally improve that archetypes effectiveness. In Destiny its almost auto destroy drops. Maybe primaries are seriously buffed and specials are intrinsically linked to skills, so they are ineffective without that skill equipped? Dunno. At this point I just hope we get some more Destiny, nothing else like it out there.
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1 ReplyWhoa, no limited ammo on primaries please... But yes, increase damage. If players want to sit far away and plink away at mobs, let them. Heck, its how I played the Legendary Campaign in Halo
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In D1 I had my own ammo dump…for all weapons…which I increased whenever needed. Those white- / green- / purple bricks are still there…along with all of my other stuff. Moving On… In the EDZ doing Public Events to complete BD bounties, it takes 4-6 gally wockets or 6x Heavy GL rounds to destroy one wotsit. As for those pesky trio that regularly appear on sparrows to spoil things - good luck with tracking rockets or other heavy munitions in trying to blast them from distance. The glitchy cabal are another issue. D2 is withering on the vine…asking Bungle to sort it out is akin to pi$$ing into the wind… 👈 Game Cube - where art thou?!? 🤔 That is all. Carry On 🥶
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In D1, I would do strikes severely underpowered (unknowingly), and I didn't know why my teammates would leave 😅 I remember sitting as far back as I could, trying to kill Boomer Knights with my Badger and running out of ammo before I could get their health all the way down or they'd go hide behind a rock. But if you ran all of your ammo out and waited long enough, your ammo would automatically refresh, and that's how I learned how to do strikes by myself.
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1 ReplyI never was a double special runner until EOF and Renegades! It is straight booty cheeks!
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1 ReplyI dont think that going back to primary ammo is the solution. Switching to unlimited primary ammo cleans up the use of primary weapons considerably. There were some that were always in an ammo drought when used, so basically shelved and forgotten. If I have to choose between a primary with limited ammo, I will always just equip two special weapons. Primaries can be buffed to do decent damage, while still remaining infinite in reserves. I dont want to have to think about rotating my weapons to make primary ammo again, then having to go pick it up after each group of enemies. My general use of primary is for the utility of the weapon more than its damage currently. I mostly run voidwalker, so I use High Tyrant or another void primary to apply volatile and run demo to reload with grenade throw. So, I always have enemies weakened/volatile, and when I kill them I get grenade energy to complete the loop through devour/demo. The primary does not do the bulk of the workload, but contributes a decent amount. I do the same with getaway builds, so I am basically only reloading by consuming or throwing a grenade and having volatile adds AoE elements and a good amount of extra damage to targets afflicted (so the weapon feels stronger than it is). In most content without negative deltas, the primaries feel as they should. The moment that the deltas come into play, they fall off a cliff due to the power scaling. IMHO, the real culprit is not the primary sandbox, but the negative deltas basically being injected into every part of the game now. Bigger health bars and lower damage output on everything that we put out, and primaries just dont do enough at that point.
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1 ReplyI’ve explained this before. It’s not the guns, it’s the enemies and how bungie creates artificially difficult environments. Multiple layers of making enemies deal more damage, take less damage, have stronger shields with match game like effects, and then you often deal less damage on top of it due to light disadvantage modifiers for endgame modes. The problem isn’t the weapons themselves, it’s the entire system and how it makes things difficult, largely by making enemies way too hard to kill and stronger at the same time.
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Uhhh, someone forgot that ammo synthesis was the way to get ammo in d1. Gonna disagree on double special keeps up with ability spam. Not a single build I have uses a weapon only for lawless. The praxic blade being the exception cause it has built in chunking and unlimited ammo basically.
