Holy Patch!

[Marrkin]

This is live today 12/01:

1.1 : The one about Exotics. And the Raid!

Today's patch includes the long-awaited arrival of Exotics weapon buffs, additional acquisition paths for destination upgrade materials, along with additional changes to exotic gear node upgrading in preparation for the soon-to-be-released expansion, The Dark Below. We're also correcting issues induced by our more recent update to the Raid.

Weapons

Exotics

Exotic Weapons are designed to look, feel, and sound overpowered. At the same time, they are not supposed to break the balance of the game. We hope these weapons challenge the way players think about their loadouts. Exotics will be a constant work in-progress!

General

-In preparation for the Dark Below, Exotic Armor and Weapons no longer require Ascendant Materials to upgrade
-The final upgrade node of all Exotic Gear will require an Exotic Shard
-Exotic Shards can be obtained by one of the following means:
-Dismantling unwanted Exotics
-Purchased from Xur for 7 Strange Coins
-Exotics now start at a higher base Attack value and have a narrowed upgrade range to compensate

Thorn

-Projectiles now briefly highlight targets on impact
-Mark of the Devourer DoT (damage-over-time) upgrade increased against PvE enemy targets
-Reload Speed increased
-Magazine Size increased
-Ammo inventory size increased
-Stability and Weapon Handling increased

Bad Juju

-Magazine Size increased to 8 bursts (was 5)
-Ammo inventory size increased
-String of Curses now also decreases the cooldown of your Super on kill
-Adjusted effects to not block first person reticle

Hard Light

-Stability increased
-Perfect Balance upgrade replaced by Fitted Stock (increases maximum possible weapon Stability)

Suros Regime

-Lowered total damage at the end of the mag on SUROS Regime upgrade to be more in line with the Glass Half Full perk on Legendary Auto Rifles

Monte Carlo

-Stability increased
-Range slightly decreased
-Monte Carlo Method upgrade now also has a chance to fully charge melee ability on kill

MIDA Multi-Tool

-MIDA rounds now have increased knockback against targets in both PvE and PvP

Hawkmoon

-Send It upgrade (which was redundant) replaced by Speed Reload

Red Death

-Rate of Fire increased slightly, but Burst Damage reduced to compensate

Plan C

-Weapon Handling speed increased
-Player Speed increased while Plan C is in hand

Pocket Infinity

-Speed Reload upgrade replaced by Extended Clip which allows the option to increase magazine size (5 bursts)

Vex Mythoclast

-Attack Power increased to 323 (from 300)
-Base Damage increased, fixing bug we introduced in previous patch
-Enhanced Battery upgrade by Extended Mag (this change still allows for a significant upgrade to Magazine Size, but less than before)

Invective

-Reload Speed increased significantly, auto fires slightly slower

Ice Breaker

-Send It upgrade replaced by Lightweight (which was redundant as Icebreaker already had maximum range)
-New effects for enemies killed by Ice Breaker upgrade

Patience and Time

-Snapshot upgrade replaced by Custom Optics (provides a lower zoom option)

Super Good Advice

-Stability increased

Truth

-Magazine Size increased to 3 (was 1)

Activities

Raid

-Fixed an issue we introduced in a previous patch, in which Atheon did not correctly send 3 players through the time gates
-Fixed an exploit where the Templar could be forced off its platform

Daily Heroic Story

-Destination Materials now drop from completing the Daily Heroic

Bounties

-Removed the ‘Relic Hunter’ Bounty
-Destination Materials now drop from completing the Daily Patrol Bounty

Vendors

-Reduced Cryptarch reputation gain from Engrams, but reputation reward packages now have an increased chance for Legendary Engrams
-Players will now be able to use Vanguard Marks and Crucible Marks to purchase Spinmetal, Relic Iron, Spirit Bloom, and Helium Filaments from the Vanguard and Crucible Quartermasters in the Tower
-Xur now sells a new material, Exotic Shards, to upgrade the final node of Exotics for 7 Strange Coins
-Faction Class Items (ex: FWC Cloak, Dead Orbit Mark, etc.) are now replaced by Faction Emblems in the rank-up reward packages from Faction Vendors

Technical

-Networking fixes, which should reduce the instance of the Bee family of KTOs
-Fixed an issue in which using Xbox One party chat induced a slower frame rate

[Staris]

Nice to see the increased material drops for the Daily and the Patrol Bounty. As well as an ability to straight purchase them with marks.

I'll hold on my final judgement on the new Exotic Shard as its currently unknown how many shards each upgrade point needs as well as how many you get from breaking down exotics but at first blush that seems a bit too limiting on how fast the items can be upgraded. If that does turn out to be the case hopefully they introduce additional ways to get those.

[Marrkin]

Agreed, not sure about the exotic shard thing.. def gotta see how that develops. Also nice to see the additional avenues for regular materials.

Super happy about those weapon upgrades, not counting the Suros nerf. Overall though I'm excited to try them out.

Also, super glad they "fixed" the Templar.... no more 'hearing' that "oh yeah we just knock him off" bullshiite.

[Furiel]

Well crap...So much for my plan if getting all my exotics fully leveled before the expansion... Only had a couple more to go too.

[Marrkin]

Well crap...So much for my plan if getting all my exotics fully leveled before the expansion... Only had a couple more to go too.

but at least the ones that are should now be "better"

[Furiel]

Plan C, The Last Word and my 2 Warlock Helmets were all I had left and would have had them done by next Tuesday easy.

Final upgrade node if all Exotic Gear will require AN Exotic Shard.
Emphasis mine, but singular term so it should only be one, and with 120+ coins in the bank I suppose I can afford it. Although I'd probably want most of those coins the first few weeks of TDB for the new stuff.

[Staris]

True but I'm wondering is that the last bubble or the last column of bubbles as the former would then only require 7 coins for both weapons and armor and the later 14 coins for armor and 21 coins for weapons.

[Furiel]

The final upgrade node of all Exotic Gear will require an Exotic Shard.

Again singular and also node implies the last bubble, not last column of bubbles, so it should only be the 7.

And I'm stoked about the 10 marks for 20 mats. No more running in circles for hours. Great QOL tweak.