It was recently announced that the popular exotic sniper rifle Whisper of the Worm, as well as a host of other powerful weapons, are in line to be nerfed when the Season of Opulence drops early next month. Of course, it's not news that Guardians were happy to hear at all. Some even threatened to stop playing because their favourite gear was being reduced in power.

Then, there was the Guardian known as "ImBadAt_Games," (this guy is coping "IBAG" from now on by the way) who may be sacrificing their ability to play Destiny for their ability to create some pretty sweet rework ideas.

After the reveal that Whisper of the Worm would have it's White Nail perk hit heavily, stopping the ammo-replenishment the gun was known for, IBAG quickly got to work figuring out the best way to save his favourite sniper rifle from the hangman's noose when the Season of Opulence (not really Opulence if there's a raft of nerfs, is it) finally drops.

"It has been confirmed the Whisper of the Worm nerf, and other nerfs, are going to be in the Season of Opulence update despite community outcry, largely as a result of the lengthy process of certifying updates for console, and the legion of bugs that crop up whenever big content packs get dropped in development time," IBAG said in his opening statement of the almost-plea to Bungie to leave Whisper of the Worm alone.

"Herein lies the problem: the nerf to Whisper of the Worm makes the gun all-but-pointless compared to existing exotics," the thoughtful Guardian continued. "The ability to have feasibly infinite ammo was unique to it as a heavy weapon, giving Whisper a unique and nigh-unshakable niche within exceedingly high-level content and solo strats.

"The problem with this infinite ammo was, according to Bungie, that it made designing bosses and challenging encounters much harder when taking Whisper into account. It was a horribly restrictive outlier and Bungie saw a need to deal with it. However, a dilemma arises - should Bungie nerf Whisper and take away a huge part of its identity, or remain restricted by its uniquely pernicious nature to break encounters' flow/risk?"

IBAG suggests a new solution, one that makes sure the White Nail perk remains useful, and keeps Whisper of the Worm in the meta instead of just dumping it to the bottom of the heap for the upcoming Season. Basically, unbuffed shots from the Whisper grant 'White Nails,' which build as you continue to fire the powerful exotic.

The first three shots grant White Nail x1, then the next three (which receive the +20% precision damage bonus from White Nail x1) grant White Nail x2 and a free bullet, then the next three (which receive the +40% precision damage bonus from White Nail x2) grant White Nail x3 and two free bullets, then the final three (which receive the +60% precision damage bonus from White Nail x3) remove all stacks and grants 3 bullets. Effectively, this effect takes 18 rounds and makes them into 31, assuming all rounds hit.

Basically, these proposed changes are designed so that Guardians can't just take full advantage of the unlimited bullets Whisper was churning out against major bosses, but still keeps the power and flavour of the weapon alive. It keeps the DPS of the gun in-tact as well, but only for accurate Guardians that are battling very high-health targets. The proposed changes also remove the infinite ammo problem from the gun but keep a unique ammo economy that distinguishes it from other similar weapons that have replenishing ammo stores.

Overall, it's a clean change that Bungie would do well to look at ahead of dropping the damage Whisper of the Worm nerf into the sandbox. Other Guardians reading over the proposed changes loved the idea, dubbing it "an amazing rework," and expressing their desire for community manager Dylan "dmg" Gafner to see the changes. One can only hope that Bungie at least takes the time to browse the post and considers IBAG's changes. They're certainly solid on paper.

What do you think - does 'I'm Bad at Games' have solid gold when it comes to saving the Whisper of the Worm, or do you think that Bungie got it right with the upcoming changes?

Cover artwork for this article was created by game artist Harry Corr. More of his artwork can be found on his ArtStation profile here: https://www.artstation.com/mooglefight.