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Bungie will give the Mountaintop grenade launcher some long-overdue balance changes in an upcoming Destiny 2 sandbox update.
Community manager dmg04 teased the changes in a tweet earlier today. On top of sweeping updates to Strikes, Crucible, and Gambit, a new blog post from Bungie suggested that a large sandbox update is due for October. According to dmg, this update includes changes for Mountaintop that will "balance" but "not kill" the gun.
Mountaintop has been exceedingly popular in all game modes ever since it was first released in season 5 as a pinnacle weapon, and it's only become more prevalent in recent seasons now that the quest to obtain it is considerably easier. Its unique perk offers high damage and pinpoint accuracy, so it's never truly left the meta for PvE or PvP. Many solo dungeon strategies rely on its frankly obscene damage output, and countering it in PvP is extremely difficult.
Despite its obvious strengths and peerless ease of use, Mountaintop has largely escaped balance patches. Again, it came out in season 5, and players are still using it everywhere at the end of season 11. It's hard to think of another weapon that's this strong, popular, and also enduring. For comparison, the Recluse, another exceedingly powerful Crucible pinnacle weapon, was nerfed after a few seasons, and both it and Mountaintop are widely credited for the retirement of pinnacle weapons as a reward. Simply put, if Bungie kept making these monsters, the game's balance would be irreparably shot.
After such a long and tyrannical reign, it'll be interesting to see how Bungie nerfs Mountaintop. Even as a diehard opponent of the gun, I'd hate to see it totally hobbled, but there's no question that it is, fittingly, over the top as-is.
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