All primary weapon balance changes coming in Destiny 2 Season 17

Primary weapons have been a Destiny 2 mainstay for quite some time. Depending on the artifact mods available for a given season, their popularity and usage vary dramatically. The Witch Queen adds a couple of new options to the mix, but they have often felt underutilized and quite frankly, weak in most of Destiny 2’s PVP content. Season 17 is shaping up to be a massive update, and Bungie is addressing primary weapon balance in a major way.

Flinch resistance changes

Flinch is a common problem with primary weapons in PVP related content. Harder hitting secondary weapons can flinch a primary weapon so hard, that they become unusable. These changes will affect all primary weapons in PVE and PVP content.

• Flinch for weapons with 100 stability
• 25%: Autorifle, Submachine Gun, Bow 
• 20%: Pulse Rifle, Scout Rifle, Sidearm, Machine Gun 
• 15%: Hand Cannon, Trace Rifle 
• 10%: Fusion Rifle, Shotgun, Sniper Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Linear Fusion Rifle, Rocket Launcher 

Airborne Effectiveness

In season 17, a new hidden stat is being added to all weapons in Destiny 2. Primary weapons will be benefitting from this new change more than special or heavy weapon categories. This will lead to primary weapons becoming much more effective weapons when shot from the air. These are the stat ranges on primary weapons with this new airborne stat.

• Hand Cannon: 0-25 
• Sidearm: 0-30 
• Auto Rifle: 0-25 
• Pulse Rifle: 0-25 
• Scout Rifle: 0-20 
• Submachine Gun: 0-30 
• Bow: 0-20 

Certain exotic primary weapons can exceed these base stats.

Weapon Archetype Buffs

Certain primary weapon archetypes were under performing at range or were losing too much in the spaces intended for them. These are specific changes affecting primary weapon archetypes.

• Auto Rifle – Increased damage falloff near distance by 0.75m. 
• Pulse Rifle – Increased damage falloff near distance based on the range stat: 
• 0 range: increased from 15 to 16m. 
• 100 range: increased from 22.5 to 24m.
• Increased Lightweight (450RPM) Pulse Rifle damage per bullet from 15 to 16 (with a 1.65x precision scalar this will increase precision damage from 24.75 to 26.4).

These changes should give primary weapons a major boost, while also overhauling the PVP sandbox and keep the focus on gunplay rather than ability and special weapon usage.