Marathon nerfs dominant shotgun

Bungie is nerfing Marathon’s WSTR shotgun again on April 21 after the weapon became the game’s dominant close-range pick. (store.steampowered.com) Game director Joe Ziegler said the change is scheduled for Tuesday, April 21, likely at 8 a.m. Pacific. After that update, the WSTR will no longer down players with blue shields or higher in two shots. (store.steampowered.com) Ziegler said Bungie wants the change to force a reload “in a majority of cases” against blue-shield targets, creating more room for counterplay in short fights. He said the shotgun had become “a dominant option” that was “eclipsing” other short-range weapons. (store.steampowered.com) In a shooter like Marathon, shields work like extra health bars, and time-to-kill is the window a player has to react before being eliminated. A gun that can erase blue, purple, or gold defenses in two blasts shrinks that window and pushes more players toward the same loadout. (steamcommunity.com) That matters in Marathon because the game is an extraction shooter, where players carry gear into a match and try to leave with loot instead of respawning over and over. Steam’s store page describes it as a player-versus-player-versus-environment survival extraction first-person shooter set on Tau Ceti IV. (store.steampowered.com) Bungie had already hit the WSTR once in a March update. Marathon Update 1.0.0.4 changed Rook’s WSTR shotgun so it would spawn as “Compromised,” meaning players needed a Matter Fixative during the run to extract with it. (bungie.net) Player reaction shows why Bungie moved again. In recent Steam discussions, players described Cryo and Outpost fights as “a mess of bubble shields and shotguns,” and some said dropping into those maps without a WSTR felt like “actively throwing.” (steamcommunity.com) Other players argued the opposite, saying a shotgun should still win at point-blank range and warning against overcorrecting a weapon built for close quarters. Those comments appeared under Bungie’s April 19 announcement thread on Steam. (steamcommunity.com) Bungie’s own language points to a broader balance problem than one gun’s damage number. Ziegler said when one option takes over a role, the rest of the category starts to feel like decoration instead of real choices. (store.steampowered.com) The April 21 patch will test whether a forced reload is enough to loosen the WSTR’s grip without removing its place as Marathon’s point-blank weapon. (store.steampowered.com)