Source: https://www.bungie.net/en/News/Article/45661

2.5.0.2 The one about Sandbox tuning.

Crucible

Special Ammo

  • Adjusted Special ammo economy in all gametypes

    • Players start Crucible matches with Special ammo
    • Special ammo is now lost upon death
    • Sidearms are not affected by this change
    • Special ammo crates now appear every 60 seconds (initial spawn and respawn)
    • Special ammo crates are shared with allies within 75m (down from 100m)
    • Special ammo timing in Mayhem is unchanged

Here's what I wrote before the patch dropped: "This is the one change I somewhat have a problem with. I'll have to see how exactly this plays out before I can make a final call, and I think overall it could be a great thing as it promotes using a primary far more often, and sidearms just became way more useful, but I have some reservations. I think it's going to promote a campy style of play with snipers, as it encourages people to stay alive to continue using their special weapon."

Now, after playing with the patch live, I can say that I believe I was correct in being worried. Although we no longer have to worry about shotgun rushers sprinting across the map full speed, the only specials I saw at all were extremely passive sniper players and aggressive sidearm users. No fusions, no shotguns, and just as little variety in weapons and playstyles as before the patch. Only time will tell how this meta will settle, but at the moment I really do not like the special ammo changes at all. Besides the lack of variety, it also seems that good players get the first few kills with special and then become nearly impossible to challenge when all the players who died have are primaries. I'm not sure exactly why they felt the need to make such a drastic change, but I hope that it is either modified or revoked soon.

Elimination Gametypes

  • Round time limit has been reduced to 90 seconds (down from 2 minutes)
  • Players only start with Special ammo for Round 1 in Elimination gametypes
    • Special ammo timing is 30s initial, then 45s respawns
    • Special ammo is wiped at the beginning of subsequent rounds

I actually think these changes are good, and make sense for Trials. Not much more to say there.

Weapons

Hand Cannons

  • Significantly increased initial accuracy (returns to Launch / Year 1)
  • Reduced base range to 35m from 40m
  • Reduced Aim Assist and Magnetism at longer ranges
  • Reduced minimum damage after falloff from 50% to 33%

I haven't gotten to play much or do my own testing with HCs, but from what I've seen around Reddit and Twitter, this seems to be a marked improvement. Although the damage fall off is much more aggressive, the HCs are much more accurate over all, and they have a crispy feel that is enjoyable to play with. I'm pretty happy with the way they handled HCs, showing a rare deft touch to make weapons play well without making them OP. Range still seems to be the king perk for HCs, and mid-impact models still seem to be the best, but I'm not sure the gap is quite so wide in either case, post patch.

Auto Rifles

  • Increased Precision Damage modifier to 1.3x (up from 1.25x)
  • Increased base damage of low rate of fire Auto Rifles by 2.5%
  • Increased in air accuracy

Unfortunately this wasn't quite as much of a buff as I was looking for for ARs. Mid and high impact models boost their critical damage by one, which is enough to make them slightly more forgiving, but not kill any faster. Low impact models barely notice the change at all, which leads to an unfortunate lack of options when it comes to primary weapons outside of HCs and PRs. I will say, somewhat surprisingly, that the GENESIS CHAIN seems to have benefited quite noticeably from the small boost to damage, and it now kills faster than any other AR, with an optimal TtK of 0.83s. I look forward to trying out some more of the weapons, but for now, with a lack of a damage fall off buff, I'm not sure they'll find a place in the competitive meta.

Pulse Rifles

  • Reduced rate of fire for very high rate of fire Pulse Rifles by 7.7%

Was pretty accurate with my pre-patch estimate. This change will increase optimal TtK from 0.80s to 0.87s, remaining competitive but no longer best in class. The bigger change will be to the body shot TtK, which will plummet from 1.33 to 1.47, drastically reducing the forgiveness of the weapon. With only one frame of burst delay separating this class from it's Hawksaw brethren, I'd be hardpressed to recommend these weapons as top tier at this point.

  • Increased rate of fire for low rate of fire Pulse Rifles by 5.3%

I'm not really sure where they got their percentages from, but the Partian Shot and Spare Change actually got a bigger boost than I was estimating, shaving two frames off of the burst delay. This brings the optimal TtK down to a blazing fast 0.67s, and when you lad your two bursts perfectly, no other legendary primary will be able to compete. Unfortunately, in practice it's still very hard to do this. Thankfully the buff also applies to the body shot TtK, which has dropped to a very low 1.20s. These guns in the right hands might become some of the most powerful weapons on medium to large maps.

  • Reduced Magazine Size of Clever Dragon and Grasp of Malok by 6

This is a pretty brutal change. 24-27 is already very low for weapons with a RoF this fast, so Braced Frame is a much less sought after perk. I suggest looking for Hand-laid Stock or Perfect Balance to replace it.

  • Reduced the effect of High Caliber Rounds for Pulse Rifles

In my opinion a smart move, definitely will help with the lower impact models causing undue amounts of flinch, but I question why it was necessary on the higher impact models that are already underused. Probably did it across the board for simplicity's sake.

  • Increased in air accuracy

This was something I mentioned was a possibility in my patch suggestions, as more weapons needed to be able to compete in-air with HCs. Sounds like a small change, which will act more like a tiny bonus and less like a game changer, but it's welcome none the less.

Scout Rifles

  • Increased in air accuracy

This was something I mentioned was a possibility in my patch suggestions, as more weapons needed to be able to compete in-air with HCs. Sounds like a small change, which will act more like a tiny bonus and less like a game changer, but it's welcome none the less.

Shotguns

  • Shotguns no longer deal precision damage
    • The Chaperone and Universal Remote are unaffected by this change
    • Note: Universal Remote only deals precision damage when ADS
  • Shotguns now have significantly less magnetism when fired from the hip
  • Shotguns now have significantly less in air accuracy
  • Shotguns no longer have a movement penalty
  • Shotguns now deal 20% more damage to combatants
  • Rangefinder on Shotguns now increases ADS time by 25%
  • Reduced Universal Remote’s Magazine Size to 3 from 5
  • Universal Remote now takes longer to reload

In practice, I like the changes that were made to shotguns. It definitely promotes a defensive playstyle, but it's unfortunate that they were made across the board, and in conjunction with special ammo changes that I feel went overboard. Now, instead of just the two worse offenders seeing less playing time, it would appear that all shotguns have been relegated to afterthoughts. Good intentions, poor implementation.

Exotics

Young Wolf’s Howl

  • Reduced "Howling Flames" ammo cost from 10 to 5

And collectively nobody cared.

Truth

  • Reduced Magazine size from 3 to 1

This is a nerf that pisses me off. Instead of bringing other weapons up to the level of Truth (a weapon which no one was complaining about anyways), they nerfed everybody's favorite rocket launcher. A stupid change, and one which I'm very disappointed with.

Classes

General

  • Reduced Health of Guardians with Armor values above 10
  • Increased damage of Flux Grenade, Magnetic Grenade and Shoulder Charge to ensure effectiveness across all Armor values

I like these changes in theory, although I haven't had the time to really check them myself.

  • Blink now disables your Radar and HUD for a short time after activation

This was another stupid nerf. Why bother to put another knock on Blink when basically no one uses it at this point?

Hunter

  • Throwing Knife now deals Solar Damage on impact

Whooooo!

  • Hungering Blade*
    • Immediately starts Health regen
    • Restores more Health per kill
    • Gives a flat amount of Health/Shield per activation
    • Does not immediately start regenerating Shields

Having seen the way the special ammo economy is working now, I'm kind of impartial to this change. Although I think they probably could have gone without it, I don't think it's the awful change a lot of the community seems to think it is. Without special weapons, roaming supers have become ridiculously hard to kill, and BD would have been no exception if HB hadn't been changed at least a bit.

  • Bladedancer’s Quick Draw Perk no longer readies your weapons instantly, but now grants a large increase to weapon handling speed

Not even sure why this change needed to be made.

Warlock

  • Viper Totemic on Ophidian Aspect no longer readies your weapon instantly, but now grants a large increase to weapon handling speed

Same with this change. Why even bother?

  • Stormcaller's Thunderstrike melee range reduced to be consistent with other Warlock Subclasses
    • Amplitude will continue to grant small range boost to new base range
  • Landfall now reduces the total time in Stormtrance

Although I like these changes in theory, I would have preferred a flat decrease to Stormtrance's duration rather than a perk based one, especially because it's a perk almost no one uses. The melee change, while I feel for Stormcallers, I'm also relatively happy about, though I probably would have just decreased the usefulness of Amplitude.

Titan

  • Juggernaut is now disabled after being in the air for a short time and cannot be activated while in mid air

Honestly, I thought with the improvements to ARs and shotguns nerfs Jugg would fall back into line on its own, but as far as it goes this was probably a solid change. Similar to the HC changes, it actually seems to be nuanced and not destructive to a playstlyle. I like this change.

General

  • Outbreak Prime no longer triggers The Corruption Spreads by shooting at Ward of Dawn

Don't care much about this.

  • Shinobu’s Vow no longer adds an additional seeker to Skip Grenades

BD takes another hit, but this one actually isn't that bad.

  • Removed intrinsic Perks Kneepads and Icarus on some Talent grids

Good change.

  • Fixed an issue where High Caliber Rounds were not functioning properly on Hand Cannons, Scout Rifles, Machine Guns and Sniper Rifles

Good change here too.

  • *Hungering Blade changes were also inadvertently applied to the following Perks, for more information check this post
    • Transfusion (Striker Titan)
    • Cauterize (Sunbreaker Titan)
    • Lifesteal (Voidwalker Warlock)
    • Red Death Perk
    • Suros Legacy Perk (Suros Regime)
    • No Backup Plans
    • Ward of Dawn cast
    • The Ram
    • Apotheosis Veil
    • Embrace the Void (Voidwalker Warlock)

Although the community is furious about this, like I said above about HB, after seeing the special ammo changes I'm not totally upset for the time being, as long as Bungie is truthful about attempting to rectify it. Roaming supers are very hard to combat without special ammo, so preventing hammer Titans from getting back to full health immediately is okay in my book. The other changes can be more of an annoyance to Voidwalker and Striker players, but I'd be lying if I said that I think these are enjoyment-destroying mistakes. Realistically, it probably fits into the theme with HB, so we'll have to see how things develop with time.