Marathon UPDATE: WTF WSTRs from Game Director, Joe (17th April 2026)

Game Director Joe Ziegler posted a direct community update on April 17 addressing one of Marathon's most talked-about balance problems: the WSTR has been running the short-range meta, and Bungie is doing something about it.

The change goes live Tuesday, April 21 at approximately 8AM PT. Per Ziegler's post, the WSTR will still be able to down a green-shielded target with two direct shots at short range, but blue shields and above will now survive that two-shot burst. The intent is to force a reload in those scenarios, opening up counterplay that simply hasn't existed while the weapon has been this dominant. In practice, that's a meaningful shift, if you're running WSTR into blue-shield targets right now and winning those fights clean, you'll need to rethink your approach come Tuesday.

It's a focused, clearly communicated change, and I appreciate that Ziegler spelled out exactly what's changing and why rather than dropping a vague damage number tweak. Whether it's enough to bring other short-range options back into the picture remains the real question for the playerbase to answer after the patch lands.

Full patch notes below.