TTK = Time to Kill
This is PVP centric.
Introduction:
Patch 2.0 brought massive changes to Destiny’s crucible. Almost every type of weapon was substantially changed, class abilities were rebalanced, and three new subclasses were added. The purpose of this post is to examine how these changes have affected both meta loadout choices (weapons and subclass) and meta playstyles (tactics and strategies). Unless specifically mentioned, this post deals with the no heavy 3v3 meta (although most conclusions are generalizable to gameplay with heavy).
The 1.2 Meta:
During patch 1.2, PvP was dominated by two primary weapons, Thorn and TLW, and two types of special weapons, high impact shotguns with max range and shot package and high impact high aim assist snipers. For the almost all players, two subclasses, sunsinger warlock and bladedancer hunter, dominated the meta. The most important meta subclass skills were firebolt/touch of flame/viking funeral for sunsinger and arcbolt/blink/quickdraw for bladedancer. There were also a few players who could find success running striker titan and, in 6s, gunslinger hunter. There were about five commonly used tactics: 1) TLW body shot + firebolt; 2) Thorn body shot + arcbolt; 3) blink quickdraw shotgun; 4) slide shotgun; and 5) aggressive sniping (sometimes using body shot snipe/quickdraw primary finish). Dominant strategies were generally aggressive. In encounters with equal numbers on both sides, players generally pushed for a quick positional advantage to get a pick. Being out of position was punished severely as the victim could rarely correct their mistake in time to avoid being killed. The team that got the pick would then quickly collapse on outnumbered opponents with their push weapons (usually TLW and shotguns). This would often result in a spawn split that the winning team would attempt to exploit by using their numbers advantage to constantly collapse on opponents off spawn.
Primary Weapon Changes:
Patch 2.0 included dramatic changes to three of the four dominant weapon choices. TLW was hit by the blanket HC range and accuracy nerfs, specific nerfs to its range (-10) and stability (-20), the aggressive ballistics nerf (-50% damage bonus, +100% range and stability penalties), and the perfect balance nerf. Perhaps the most significant of these for TLW were the changes to Aggressive Ballistics which removed the gun’s ability to consistently three shot to the body from the hip, even at point blank range. The nerf to HC range and accuracy also made the gun’s hit detection very inconsistent, even when using soft ballistics to max its range. Thorn was hit by the blanket HC range and accuracy nerfs, the nerf to send it, and the direct nerf to its DoT. By far the most significant effect of these was the removal of the gun’s ability to consistently two shot to the head. Overall, these changes have removed TLW from the meta almost entirely (when I say this, I do not mean that no one can do well with the gun, but rather that most players who do well with it would do notably better using another weapon). Thorn, however, remains a part of the meta on most maps. It still kills in 3 body shots in a very competitive .73 seconds, has decent range, and has relatively good hit detection. However, it lacks significant flinch, which is more important now that its TTK is not half that of almost all alternatives.
In 2.0, the dominant class of primary weapons is undoubtedly pulse rifles. Due to the Thorn and TLW nerfs, they have optimal TTKs that are competitive, and, more importantly, those optimal TTKs are much easier to achieve, on average, than other weapons’. Most PRs can still reach their optimal TTKs even when their 2 or 3 bursts include some body shots or misses. Apart from autorifles, which have terrible range and mediocre TTKs, no class of weapons is more forgiving of imperfect accuracy. PRs also have incredible range and stability. Damage drop off is rare in most engagements, and stability can be spiked so that they have barely any recoil. These combine to make them the most consistent and versatile class of primaries in 2.0. TLW still kills faster with its 3 shot (now requiring 2 headshots and one body shot) and Thorn is faster than most pulses with its 3 shot, but TLW’s optimal TTK is impossible to achieve consistently, and Thorn is limited by engagement range and whether the user is being flinched while shooting. In other words, the exotic HCs that ruled 1.2 lose out to pulse rifles in either consistency, versatility, or both. PRs also beat scout rifles on both of those counts, since scouts are less effective at close-mid range and misses/body shots generally affect scout rifles’ TTKs much more than they do PRs’. PRs also cause severe flinch; primary and especially sniper scope aim bounce a great deal when hit by precision pulse rifle fire.
Special Weapon Changes:
Patch 2.0 and 2.0.1 also included significant changes to shotguns. Shotguns’ crit multiplier was lowered from 1.25 to 1.1, shot package ended up being completely removed, and rangefinder’s effect was nerfed by 50% (increase to effective range lowered from 20% to 10%). This change shortened the theoretical OHK range of shotguns slightly, but reduced their average OHK range significantly. Shot package’s primary advantage over rangefinder was how it could consistently provide kills at longer range. Rangefinder’s effect was inconsistent, governed by the RNG spread of shotgun pellets. The resulting inconsistency has slightly lowered the viability of shotguns in competitive play by limiting the fraction of situations in which they are useful. Snipers, on the other hand, were barely changed in 2.0. The only significant change was making the range stat on them meaningful for aim assist drop off and (on the biggest maps) damage drop off. High impact high aim assist snipers remain a part of the 2.0 meta.
Changes to Subclasses:
Patch 2.0 radically rebalanced the subclass meta. The most important change was the dramatic increase to weapon ready time after blinking (even with quickdraw). Other notable changes were nerfs to arcbolt (significant) and firebolt (slight) range and damage, a buff to incendiary grenade damage (can now one shot), and a buff to golden gun (now OHKs all supers except for 9+ armor sunbreaker). These changes dramatically reduced the viability of bladedancer and slightly reduced the viability of sunsinger. Striker became even more competitive, relatively speaking, gunslinger became a viable choice in 3s, voidwalker became a little bit more competitive overall, and Defender remained relatively uncompetitive (niche at best). The addition of the new subclasses added one subclass with a decent neutral game and an amazing super (sunbreaker), one with a very good neutral game and a very good super (stormcaller), and one with an amazing neutral game and decent super (nightstalker). All three see use in competitive play, although some are more useful in 6s than in 3s (sunbreaker and, to a lesser extent, stormcaller). Nightstalker in particular brings an extremely interesting and powerful set of neutral game abilities to the table, namely shadestep, keen scout, and envenomed smoke.
The Resulting Changes to Meta Tactics:
In 1.2, we had 1) TLW body shot + firebolt; 2) Thorn body shot + arcbolt; 3) blink quickdraw shotgun; 4) slide shotgun; and 5) aggressive sniping (sometimes using body shot snipe/quickdraw primary finish). TLW is rarely used anymore but plenty of pulse rifles (and Thorn) have taken its place for tactic 1), which remains part of the meta. Any variation of tactic 2) has mostly fallen out of the meta due to the arcbolts experiencing such severe nerfs to their range and damage. Blink quickdraw shotgun, tactic 3), saw dramatic nerfs to all its components, and is rare in 2.0. Tactic 4), slide shotgun, is still used and its effectiveness is roughly unchanged since the shotgun changes were accompanied by countervailing nerfs to average primary TTK and most maps are relatively compact. Tactic 5) can still be used successfully by extremely high skill players, but passive sniping generally dominates it now.
Overall, the changes to the set of meta weapons and movement skills in 2.0 slowed down the pace of the game a great deal. Primary actual TTK was basically doubled, and the effectiveness of rush tactics with secondaries (read: blink shotgun) was hit particularly hard. The shift in meta primaries from exotic HCs to mainly PRs means that meta primaries no longer have workable mid air accuracy (HCs received a specific buff to this very early in year 1). In 1.2, when players were caught out of position, they rarely had time to adjust and could easily be killed by one player on the opposing team. In 2.0, you can usually realize you’re behind in a gun fight and escape a single opponent before it’s too late when caught out of position. This change adds perhaps the most important tactic of 2.0, teamshotting. Teamshotting is how you consistently get picks on good opponents using primaries in 2.0.
Slowing down the pace of the game has also made more passive sniping a viable tactic. In 1.2, sniping passively would often let the other team aggressively position themselves for a push that would easily pick you or one of your teammates or simply result in a 3v2 against your teammates right away. In 2.0, it is much harder to put a hardscoped, passive team at a disadvantage, especially because the radar constantly lets them know where you might decide to push from. If they are briefly unscoping/unADSing every few seconds to pay attention to the radar, they can generally always be looking at exactly the spot you’ll come from. In 1.2, you could blink around a corner and immediately start shooting someone with TLW or Thorn. Even if they were already looking at the point you’d push from, their time to react and acquire you was very similar to your time to acquire them and ready your weapon. In 2.0, it post blink weapon ready time is much higher, so you can no longer blink directly into engagements against a setup. In fact, the nerf to blink and the changes in meta primaries’ mid air accuracy make it extremely hard to consistently make successful pushes against a setup without a super. You can try to challenge people who are set up and preaimed with primaries or hard scoped with snipers with your own primary/sniper just by walking around a corner, but you will lose the majority of those fights if your opponents are at the same skill level as you. What this means is that, in 2.0, passive sniping is probably the best way to get picks with secondaries.
The Resulting Changes to Meta Strategies:
Whereas 1.2 was characterized by aggressive kill or be killed playstyles, dominant strategies in 2.0 are generally slower and more passive. The meta in patch 1.2 emphasized the importance of controlling recoil with meta primaries and movement skill. In 2.0, meta primaries have far less recoil to control and movement skill (especially using blink) is less important. Instead, team positioning and coordination have become paramount, and running away is actually an option if you find yourself behind in a gun fight. In 1.2, you had to punish opponents who were out of position for even a fraction of a second and then take advantage of the pick. In 2.0, picks are significantly harder for a single player to get, especially with primaries. To get picks, a team has to coordinate pressure on the other team. Map control helps with this because it gives access to the best angles of attack in a game where aggression is only successful when it is measured and precise. Collapses also take significantly longer now due to the increased primary TTK and the lower practical player movement speed during engagements.
In general, there is now a notable difference in optimal strategy for 3v3 full team encounters that depends on whether you are winning or losing. Instead of almost always aggressively pushing to catch a player briefly in a bad position, there are significant advantages to playing more passively when ahead and only considering playing aggressively when behind (or when a numbers advantage exists). Because it is so hard to push a setup in 2.0, setting up to control the map is a far more powerful strategy than in 1.2. When the other team is already behind, why not put them at further disadvantage by letting them push you, since they have to in order to stand a chance at winning? Given the current meta weapons, classes, and tactics, I struggle to see how, once you have the lead, setting up to control the map and then playing passively unless you have a numbers advantage or a gametype objective (ex. salvage) is involved is not a dominant strategy (i.e. the best option regardless of what your opponents choose to do).
If a team is behind against a passive team that has achieved map control, on the other hand, they have no choice but to make a push, eventually. For teams that are behind, perhaps the only way to consistently make a successful push against a team with map control is by approaching them from somewhere unexpected (i.e. off radar) or with a super. The objective is two fold, to get the lead so they can set up and play passively, and to break the set up so that further pushes they may need to get the lead become easier. Pushes should be made by the entire team simultaneously in order to guarantee that opponents can get teamshotted and killed before they can run away. On all but the biggest maps, however, the defending team is alerted to the positions of the attackers by the radar, which makes pushing without a super difficult. Should the attacking team push without a super when the defending team knows where they’re coming from, the attacking team can only really win the engagement outright (take map control and force their opponents into a split spawn where they’re constantly outnumbered) if they get lucky.
Conclusions and TL;DR:
Overall, the 2.0 meta varies tremendously from the 1.2 meta primarily due to how game pace has changed. Meta primaries in 2.0 are mostly high stability pulse rifles (and Thorn) and have significantly longer actual TTKs than their 1.2 counterparts, as well as worse mid air accuracy. Combined with the changes to blink and the nerfs to shotguns, this has dramatically slowed the pace of the game and made passive play much more viable than it used to be. In 2.0, having the lead and map control are extremely important – far more than they were in 1.2. Teamshotting with primaries and passive sniping are probably the dominant methods of getting picks and kills more generally. Shotguns retain their place in the meta, but their focus is somewhat more in a defensive role than it used to be.
