Comparing the damage to using the optimal Spec Mod in every situation:
- On average, all Primary Weapons will do more damage against redbars than what they do now with minor spec, with some having no changes
- Rockets and Heavy GL will do 7.7% less damage against all enemy types, including bosses
- Exotics that had their Splash Damage nerfed will do roughly the same damage against redbars, but significantly less against majors and up
- all Hand Cannons will do about 2.5% less damage against redbars, with Sunshot Splash damage doing 12.15% less damage against redbars
- Sidearms, Traces and Pulses are the clear winner of this Patch, doing a lot more damage against redbars and especially majors
- Kinetic weapons boss damage got SIGNIFICANTLY nerfed, but Mountaintop will still be better than other special GLs
- Because of how absurd calculating Lament damage is, it's to soon to say how bad it will be
Starting from the removal of the Spec Mods, all weapons will end up doing more damage than what they do now with spec equipped, except for some outliers like HC, which will end up doing less damage, albeit not by much. Also, Exotic weapons will perform slightly better than their legendary counterpart simply because they can't equip mods currently, getting overall a bigger jump in damage (or a lesser nerf in some cases).
Kinetic Weapons will get a big hit against bosses. While they will still be good options, Stasis and Strand now will have a chance because they won't be just worse Kinetic Weapons. That said, the Pulse Rifle buff will not make Revision Zero or Outbreak Perfected suddenly good for DPS, simply because the Kinetic nerf offsets the buffs.
The Splash damage nerfs aren't really "nerfs": after summing up everything, those weapons (except Sunshot, see below) will retain their add clear capabilities, but they will do significantly less damage against Majors and Bosses, making them a more Add-Clear option rather than "just use this weapon" (whether it's a good or bad thing).
Just a little note on Mountaintop: Yes, it got hit hard by the nerfs. Overall it will do 21% less damage against bosses, and 7% less against all enemies. But i want to highlight that it already does 25% more damage than a Double-Fire frame, which does even MORE damage than a standard Breech-Loaded. So...yeah, it will still be incredible, not just a better GL than any other one, it will instead be more in line with Wilderflight (which, of course, also got a 7% nerf).
More specifically, the numbers will be the following:
- Pulse Rifles will do 28% more damage against redbars and 11,4% more against majors and bosses
- Graviton Lance specifically will do 6% more impact damage and 3,8% less splash damage against redbars and 10% less Splash against majors
- Revision Zero will overall do 8% more damage against bosses even while counting the global Kinetic Nerf, just like Outbreak Perfected
- Sidearms will see their damage profile change, doing 11% more damage against redbars but 7% less against majors and bosses
- Buried Bloodline specifically will behave like a legendary Sidearm (because it's a special) but will avoid the negative of loosing Spec Mods.
- Traces will do 3,46% more damage against redbars but a whopping 11,42% more against majors, while loosing the Spec Mod buff for bosses
- Exotic Traces will do much more than that, ending at 11,42% more against redbars and 20% against majors
- Scouts and Bows will see similar changes, getting a big jump against redbars (11% more) but loosing the Spec Mod damage against majors and bosses
- Auto Rifles will do 6% more damage against redbars but loose the spec mods damage
- SMG will get an almost overall nerf, doing only 2% more against redbars but loose the Spec mods
- Hand Cannons are... interesting: Because they got a small buff, they will be overall nerfed against all combatants, doing 2% less to redbars and also loose the Specs
- Because of this Sunshot Splash damage will be severely nerfed, doing 12,25% less against redbars and 10% less against majors and up
- Because of the Kinetic Nerf, Warden's Law will do 16% less damage to bosses and Maleficent will do 10% less, resulting in an overall nerf to Lucky Pants
- Snipers and Fusion received the same buff, resulting in an overall 7% global buff
- Because Izanagi Honed Edge didn't get any buffs, it will do 15% less damage against bosses in the end
- Trinity and Polaris Splash Damage hasn't really been nerfed against redbars, on the contrary it got a 0,3% damage buff, but a 10% nerf against majors and up.
- LFR got a 5% buff, increasing the exotic options damage by 5% while nerfing legendary by 3%
- combining this with the Kinetic Nerf, Arbalest has been nerfed by 6% in the end.
I think that we won't see a shake in the meta but one thing is certain, majors will feel like a pain to kill with most Primaries, while redbars should feel much weaker with anything. Kinetic weapons will still be excellent for dps, but they won't be the best-in-slot but some options will fall off a little like Wishender, which will do significantly less damage against champions, nerfing the "slowly plink at the enemies from far away" strategy.
EDIT:
- Missed the LFR buff, added it and a special case for Arbalest
- Added more section for exotic weapons, to get a better idea at how they will perform
- Added more context regarding Spec Mods and starting conditions in the TL;DR
Some numbers are off by a small percentage, currently working on fixing it (thank youu/packman627!)- All numbers updated: most moved by no more than a 2/3%, but others (mostly Pulses) got brought down more because of how buffs are calculated. In the end nothing really substantial changed but i still suggest reading all numbers again to get the correct version.
- It's quite interesting that the same stacking mistake was make in 2 different posts, both in front page, not even 24h from each other...
