Destiny 2’s Lord of Wolves Exotic shotgun was included in a recent round of Exotic weapon nerfs. However, while the weapon’s PvE viability was lowered, it has become a dominant force in Crucible PvP. Players are naturally unhappy about Lord of Wolves’ newly found power, and Bungie has said it’s looking into the matter.
Destiny 2 Lord of Wolves Unintended After-Effects
As part of the recent nerf wave, Lord of Wolves received two significant changes. First, its overall PvE damage output was lowered by 20 percent. Second, its unique ‘Release the Wolves’ perk, which triggers a high-damage blast with increased range, was reworked. Originally, Release the Wolves only triggered after its wielder scored a kill. After the rework, though, the perk can be manually triggered at will by holding down the reload button.
Since the damage nerf only applies in PvE, Lord of Wolves’ PvP popularity has naturally skyrocketed. The Exotic shotgun already had pretty decent range, a large clip size, and solid damage output. Now, players can freely activate Release the Wolves to turn the weapon into a veritable monster. And of course players were quick to vent their displeasure on social channels like Reddit.
Bungie community manager dmg04 responded directly to one such Reddit thread, saying that the studio is investigating the issue. Dmg04’s statement was brief, but it did at least confirm that Bungie is examining Lord of Wolves’ PvP performance. In the meantime, dmg04 encouraged players to “release the wolves accordingly.”
Potential Solutions
One commenter in the Reddit thread actually had a good potential fix. Their suggestion involved attaching a 5-second timer to each Release the Wolves activation. If a user didn’t fire their shot within five seconds, it would revert to a standard round. This would force users to more judiciously consider when to activate the perk. Another user suggested lowering the amount of ammo Lord of Wolves gains from each ammo brick the player finds. Both suggestions sound viable for players who want balance without additional nerfs.
Either way, players should be on the lookout for Lord of Wolves-wielding enemies when playing Destiny 2’s Crucible PvP component. It shouldn’t be a huge issue since most players are still working on unlocking other PvP weapons like Revoker. If you normally prefer the run-and-gun style, though, there might be some wolf-sized pain in your future.