Destiny 2 devs reveal new plans for changes to "fairly mediocre" Sword weapon class

It’s no secret Swords have been in a fairly mediocre spot in Destiny 2 for some time now. While some perk combinations can lead to it being possible to deal large amounts of damage this does not help their obvious downfall of ammo economy and engage range putting the wielder in a dangerous position.

Bungie is attempting to address these issues with some reworks to how the ammo on Swords function and how their attacks work, the devs revealed in the latest This Week at Bungie on February 6. It’s been a long-standing community request that Swords be reworked into Special weapons but it seems Bungie is going in a different direction.

Here are the changes:

• Sword Energy: Swords now have their own reserve of energy that recharges naturally on its own, and is not to be confused with ammo capacity. This energy will overtake your melee slot while you’re wielding a sword and is spent on various actions.
• Guarding: Guarding now uses sword energy instead of consuming ammo. Different guards have different consumption rates, damage resistance and behaviors, so be sure to experiment and find a guard type you like. You’ll still need at least one ammo to begin guarding, though.
• Light Attacks: Grounded light attacks for all Swords will now loop for an infinite combo, and all Swords can cleave.
• Heavy Attacks​​​​​​​: Heavy attacks now consume Sword energy. While you are always able to perform a heavy attack, the attack is stronger when you have full energy, and weaker when you don’t.
• Shield Bypass: A portion of most Sword attacks can partially bypass elemental shields.

One major change that was immediately picked up by Destiny's elite speed-running community was that they may no longer be able to rely on the bladed weapons for their time-cutting methods throughout their race to beat personal bests.

According to Bungie community manager Dylan "dmg04" Gafner, this was something they had taken into account. The Bungie mouthpiece also added that the speedrunning community will "need to find new ways to break the sound barrier next season."

"I understand this will come as a disappointment to some. Hopefully, this will bring new techniques and serve as a challenge to refresh previously established records," he said on Twitter.

"I feel this change impacts all players, including the speedrunning community. Like sticky 'nades, these strategies were growing in visibility and utility. Designing aspects of D2 around these strategies puts a hard limit on game design, whether it be activities or sword functionality."

I feel this change impacts all players, including the speedrun community. Like sticky nades, these stategies were growing in visibility and utility. Designing aspects of D2 around these strategies puts a hard limit on game design, whether it be activities or sword functionality.

— dmg04 (@A_dmg04) February 6, 2020

It’s also worth noting that on top of these listed changes that the various damage values of the Sword archetypes and perks have been adjusted as well. Could Swords become a staple in the meta of the upcoming season? Only time will tell.

These changes to Swords are planned to go live alongside the release of the upcoming season, believed to be called Season of the Worthy, on March 9th and will be available on Steam, Google Stadia, Xbox One and Playstation 4.