You finally did it. You lunatics. You blew up a mountain top, and for those of you who are not familiar with the science of Destiny 2's weapons meta (thanks for reading), the Mountain Top is a breech-loading grenade launcher that is an absolute terror in PvP, and is also very useful in PvE.

What makes this weapon so powerful is that, unlike other breechloaders, the projectile does not travel along a parabolic line. Instead, the Mountain Top has a perk called Micro Missile. Combine that with splash damage, one-hit kills, and unmatched aerial accuracy with the mouse and keyboard, and you can imagine why this weapon induces teabagging like no other.

The Mountain Top is one of the few pinnacle weapons that will actually be sunset when Destiny 2's next expansion, Beyond Light, arrives on November 10. This means that it will no longer be able to be "infused" with power levels up to its current limit, effectively excluding it from endgame activities such as raiding and the Trials of Osiris. However, there has been strong negative sentiment towards The Mountaintop recently, and Bungie recently confirmed

that it will nerf the weapon in order to reduce its dominance in regular PvP (power levels notwithstanding)

The numbers don't tell the full story, but my guess is that direct hits can still kill, but the change to splash damage should make it less easy to just shoot near your opponent and wipe them out with your primary weapon. Also, the reduced speed of the micromissiles should allow for a bit more counterplay in terms of getting out of the way.

The rest of the post details many other changes that Destiny 2 will bring to the weapons sandbox: all 150 rpm hand cannons will be changed to 140 rpm (with the exception of the exotic sunshots), and the new hand cannons will be more powerful and more effective. But from what I've seen so far, people's reactions are more mixed: some are relieved that Bungie has chosen one archetype and that it is not the dominant one, while others are upset that their favorite hand cannon is effectively gone.

Bungie explains:

"At this time, lightweight (ROF150) hand cannons dominate hand cannon use in crucibles. We have conducted various experiments to equalize the lightweight (ROF150) and adaptive (ROF140) hand cannons, but the lightweight hand cannons consistently remain faster time to kill (TTK). Therefore, we decided to equalize the ROF.

A 140 ROF was chosen because it is fairly balanced in the crucible sandbox. This gives the other weapon archetypes time to breathe between shots, avoids an excess of hand cannons with TTKs that are faster than other weapons, and combines nicely with the upcoming change to the 600 ROF auto rifle (more on that later). I don't know if I agree with this logic, but I would have rather had the 140s be 150s and be done with it, as the 140s are not very useful." Other notable changes include a change in the firing rate of the slowest firing hand cannon from 110RPM to 120RPM and a slight nerf to the damage of the now mainstream 600RPM auto rifle.

As for the buff, the rocket launcher has slightly more ammo, but unfortunately it reads "in reserve" instead of "in magazine". Also, the weak-source Aim Assist buff to scout rifles would not do much to bring them into the meta.

Perhaps the most controversial change would be a nerf to the incredibly popular heavy weapon. Here it is:

I must say I've been calling this for a while; back in June I noted that swords, especially "falling guillotines" were ridiculously good and would probably get a nerf. Just look around the tower's social space or play the strike playlist and you will quickly notice that everyone is maneuvering their swords. Specifically, it's this.

Falling Guillotine's strength lies in its heavy attack; Bungie has a long track record of nerfing weapons that approach ubiquitous use, so I don't think anyone should be surprised. It was fun while it lasted.

For my fellow spacegun obsessives, I'd recommend checking out the details of the changes, including how they'll work once Adept weapons start dropping from flawless chests in Trials. But I won't be getting it, so I don't want to depress you with the details.