Destiny 2 Adjusts Fastest Sword Perk Because Players Were Shortcuting Everything With It

Destiny 2 nerfs the upgraded Bold Blade perk, and as a result, the fastest players will now have to forego their strongest movement advantage. MeinMMO tells you what has changed and, above all, how the players react to it.

What did Bungie nerf? Destiny 2 nerfed the Bold Blade upgraded perk in the latest hotfix 6.2.0.7, which could be used multiple times with a single activation.

This is a sword perk that could give players a huge speed boost. If you were skilled enough to trigger it, you could trigger the so-called “Sword Surfing” in Destiny 2.

• The normal perk “Bold Blade” gave you an instant increase in jump range when switching to the sword equipped with it. This gave you 1 second to activate it and another 1 second of use to perform up to 2 sword strikes.
• From season 18 you could still get the perk via weapon crafting as an improved version. The upgraded perk Valiant Blade increased the activation time to 1.5 seconds and the usage time to 2 seconds. This allowed an extra third shot or 2 easy shots with a lot of skill.

Now, Bold Blade isn’t even worth the materials needed to craft an upgraded version of the Half-Truths sword perk.

What specifically has changed? With Hotfix 6.2.0.7, Bungie implemented a strict disabling of the Valiant Blade enhanced perk.

• The 4 second cooldown is now observed and therefore only one hit can be executed.
• However, the cooldown is not triggered by the sword strike, but by the speed. This allows you to still perform multiple sword strikes when you are out of ammo and not at full speed.
• Conversely, it can also happen that you cannot activate the “Bold Blade” perk if, for example, you have been falling and have already reached or exceeded the maximum perk speed.

“Fixed issue where players were having too much fun!”

The Bold Blade perk was hugely popular and the nerf is dampening player spirits accordingly. On the forums and on Twitter, many openly shared their frustration and explained that Bungie had just fixed an issue here that players were probably having too much fun with.

• The player Jacquelan writes on reddit: “So we essentially wasted the upgrade material because Bungie decided that an improved perk that supposedly is better – should no longer be better – and now literally does the same thing as the standard perk…”
• Another Guardian named Aviodia finds: “This technique [das Schwert-Surfen] had zero impact on sandbox balance and a large positive impact on player skill expression and overall fun. I’m honestly amazed as to why [Bungie] decided to nerf this.”

Even streamers and pro players like Saltagreppo, who recently made a name for himself with his demand for a nerf to the raid exotic “divinity”, can’t understand this either.

He posted on Twitter shortly after the nerf became known:

And why? It was a small, fun, nifty, non-harmful technique. The only thing that came to mind was that maybe it was a little annoying in PvP? But again, why? Isn’t someone firing a Wardcliff coil at you worse than a swift sword?

the streamer Saltagreppo comments on the adjustment via Twitter

The Destiny 2 PvP Pro and Streamer then answers him Frostbolt via Twitter promptly: “[…] You will no longer overtake me in strikes, now you must go to the end just like the rest of us.”

A little nod to the fact that many PvE players have often just used the sword with the Enhanced Bold Blade perk to just cut things short or get away with it.

The perk was simply exploited too often: For the players, especially speedrunners, this change is fatal. Ever since its release, the Bold Blade perk has been a powerful option for simply cutting long distances.

However, the Guardians not only used it for more speed, but also to skip basic game mechanics. And it looks like that was exactly the reason for the nerf.

The community manager of Bungie explains this on Twitter:

There was no rush on the part of the developers. It was randomly assigned hotfix 6.2.0.7, given the appropriate test pass, and headed out the door. […] The team found numerous issues where the perk could be used to skip encounters, break mechanics, and generally cause problems with the game. […]

Bungie’s Senior Community Manager dmg04 informs the players via Twitter

What he means by that quickly becomes clear when you look at the corresponding player videos where a sword with the “Bold Blade” perk is used.

Here, for example, a player abbreviates the entire jump passage in the “Garden of Salvation” raid.

Other jump passages, such as those in the current raid “Kingsfall”, were also child’s play. Even the speed record in the latest dungeon “Duality” only came about because players used the sword perk “Bold Blade” to shorten so much of the long running paths that they were finished after just under 9 minutes.

Did you use the Bold Blade perk to shorten everything and invest in the improved version of the Sword perk as a result? Or are you one of the guardians who rarely managed to trigger the perk at all? Feel free to write us in the comments how you find the adjustment of the perk.