Yesterday, Bungie laid out changes coming to armor in season 15 of Destiny 2, which included a few nerfs, but less than many players thought, and a good amount of buffs, more than many players thought.
The nerfs rein in infinite super exotics like Ursas and Phoenix Protocol, but besides that? Almost all buffs.
I thought I would go in ranking order of what I view as the most significant exotic armor buffs that were laid out in this presentation, as some of these do feel like they have the potential to be significant. So, here are my top five:
1. The Stag (Warlock Helmet)
Current ability: Rift spawn on death, grants rift energy when critically wounded
Buff: Adds 25% damage reduction in rifts in PvE, 15% damage reduction in PvP
It’s long been the coolest looking Warlock helmet in the game, but to me, adding this huge damage reduction (which works in well too, not just rifts) is a pretty massive addition and should be pretty incredible for higher end content or PvP in many situations.
2. Precious Scars (Titan Helmet)
Current Ability: After reviving or being revived, grants overshield to you and nearby allies
Buff: Kills with a weapon whose element matches your subclass type grants a burst of healing and recovery around you.
Bungie is leaning pretty hard into the whole “match subclass” thing, my guess is because they’re trying to push elemental wells, and also stasis is getting legendary weapons next season. But if I’m reading this right, this is constant healing and recov if you’re landing kills with an elemental weapon which seems…extremely good?
3. The Bombardiers (Hunter Legs)
Current Ability: Releases explosive bomb on dodge.
Buff: Adds different effects based on subclass, Arc (Blind), Solar (Burn), Void (Suppress), Stasis (Slow)
While Stompees aren’t nerfed yet, this is a huge change to Bombardiers if suddenly you can blind or slow enemies with these boots, and I can easily see this being a whole lot of fun. Perhaps not meta, but this is the kind of improvement I really love to see.
4. Lucky Pants (Hunter Legs)
Current Ability: Gives all hand cannons quickdraw and opening shot on draw, precision hits load ammo into stowed hand cannons.
Buff: Keeps intrinsic hand cannon bonuses, adds new intrinsic hand cannon holster mod for reloading when stowed. Kinetic or energy hand cannons matching your subclass type will increase damage on PvE enemies on each hit.
This new functionality combined with a promised PvE buff to hand cannons may make them a viable option in higher end PvE content, also paired with things like exotic primaries now generated ammo scavs more often. This is going to be fun to try out.
5. Stormdancer’s Brace (Warlock Chest)
Current Ability: Increases damage of Stormtrance on kill
Buff: Regenerates up to 50% of super energy depending on number of kills
Again, not sure if this is enough to make it meta, and yet the ability to have this up way, way more often by giving it super regen is a pretty huge buff.
Some quick thoughts on the rest of the buffs:
Shards of Galanor – Increasing super regen, capped at 50%. Blade Barrage also needs a damage buff if you ask me
Skull of Dire Ahamkara – Increasing super regen, capped at 50%. This is a somewhat significant buff given how little super regen it was getting after its old massive nerf.
Graviton Forfeit – Bonus invisibility duration, reload and recover faster when invis, melee energy regen when enemies are close. I mean, that’s a lot of stuff in one package, and I can see this giving Omni a run for its money. Maybe.
Icefall Mantle – No longer increases class ability cooldown. I mean that’s fine, but what we really need is a way to turn it off early once we’re done needing it.
Verity’s Brow – Changed to trigger on elemental weapon kills matching your subclass. Grenade damage increased to 20% from 10%. This actually…reads like a nerf overall? I don’t like this change at all, minus the grenade damage.
Promethium Spur – Solar weapon kills in a rift regen class ability energy faster, solar weapon kills spawn a damage/healing rift at target’s location, consuming class ability energy. The fact that this auto-spends your rift on solar kill when full seems weird to me. I get that it can’t be free, but I can see how that would be annoying if you were trying to save it.
Anyway, that’s a lot to go through and some of these seem like they’re going to be fantastic. Can’t wait to try them out next season.
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