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In Destiny 2‘s Season of the Wish, some pretty big changes are being made to Exotics throughout the game. Though some of the biggest changes will be seen in some of the Exotic Armor we know and love, and even in some that we rarely remember even exist. These changes will consist of quite a few different balance changes, as well as some buffs for the Exotic Armor that rarely gets used and some overall increased PvE experiences. Each class will feature some decent changes and improvements that I’m sure we’ll all be quite happy to see.
Changes to Hunter Exotics in Destiny 2 Season 23
(Updated on September 25, 2024 – updated links and format)
Shards of Galanor
- Throwing Knife kills now grant Super energy ranging between +2.5% and +5% depending on the type of enemy killed.
Ophidia Spathe
- Knife kills now grant a stacking damage bonus (+30%/+60%/+100% for 5 seconds) to throwing knives. Dodging refreshes the duration.
St0mp-EE5
Feedback about the previous St0mp-EE5 change indicated that requiring full class ability made movement while wearing this Exotic feel too variable between its states and disproportionately hurt certain builds. In this update, we have removed the requirement of having full dodge energy to activate the benefits and have reduced the bonus to airborne lateral acceleration that the Exotic provides to be more in line with its other bonuses (sprint speed, grounded acceleration, airborne vertical acceleration, slide distance, and jump height) in terms of effectiveness. We also added damage resistance while airborne in PvE, to make St0mp-EE5 a more desirable option outside of the Crucible and jumping puzzles.
- Removed requirement to have full class ability energy to benefit from the movement bonuses.
- Reduced the airborne lateral acceleration bonus.
- Now provides damage resistance against combatants while airborne.
Mechaneer’s Tricksleeves
- The Sidearm damage bonus now persists for 5 seconds after your shields begin to recharge.
- Sidearm kills extend the damage bonus’ duration by 3 seconds and completely reload your Sidearm from reserves.
- The damage bonus has been reduced in PvP to compensate for it lasting longer. It is now +10% Sidearm damage (down from +35%).
The Bombardiers
- Now applies 20 slow stacks to enemy players and 40 slow stacks to PvE combatants.
Triton Vice
- Increased Glaive melee damage bonus while surrounded to +100% for both PvE and PvP (up from +30% in PvE and +10% in PvP).
Celestial Nighthawk
- Precision kills now grant Super energy ranging between +1.5% and +4.5%, depending on target type killed.
Changes to Titan Exotics
Severance Enclosure
- Increased size and damage of the explosion.
- Kills with the Exotic’s explosion will now trigger an additional explosion.
Peregrine Greaves
- You now have to be airborne for a brief time before the Exotic effects will apply.
- Damaging Champions, Tormentors, or mini-bosses with a shoulder charge deals further increased damage and refunds your melee energy.
Wormgod Caress
- The Burning Fist Exotic effect has been reworked. It is now a meter that increases with melee kills and finishers and decays over time.
- The meter is broken up into five sections which provide escalating melee and Glaive melee damage bonuses. The upper end of the meter also provides escalating weapon damage bonuses.
- As the meter decays, it passes back through the earlier tiers rather than deactivating immediately. The meter decays more quickly the more full it is.
Ashen Wake
- Fusion Grenade impacts now stun Unstoppable Champions.
Synthoceps
While we wanted to bring the generic melee bonus down a bit to give space for other, more specialized melee Exotics to shine in their specific niches, we felt it was safe to bring Synthoceps’ Glaive melee bonus back up a substantial amount. We have also swapped the increased melee lunge range for increased weapon handling and reload speed.
- Removed extended melee lunge distance.
- Now improves weapon handling and reload speed while surrounded.
- Reduced the PvE surrounded melee damage bonus to +165% (from +200%).
- Increased Glaive melee bonus to +100% (from +50%).
Precious Scars
- Kills with weapons matching your subclass now apply Restoration Tier 1 for 1.5 seconds in PvP and 3 seconds in PvE.
Changes to Destiny 2 Warlock Exotics in Season 23
Ballidorse Wrathweavers
- Now when you cast a Frostpulse rift, nearby allies gain a Tier 2 Stasis Surge weapon bonus for 10 seconds in PvE and 5 seconds in PvP. They also gain a 50hp overshield.
- The stasis damage bonus provided to allies by the Winter’s Wrath Shockwave is now the Tier 4 Stasis Surge weapon bonus. When your Winter’s Wrath ends, you gain the Tier 4 Stasis Surge weapon bonus as well.
Apotheosis Veil
- Casting your Super now grants Cure Tier 3 for you and nearby allies.
- After your Super ends, you now temporarily gain greatly increased melee and grenade regen for 8 seconds.
Felwinter’s Helm
- Moved the size of the weakening burst and duration of weaken up one tier against all targets, except for finishers against bosses, which retains the maximum size and duration.
Karnstein Armlets
- Melee kills now grant Cure T3 and Restoration T1 for 8 seconds.
- Finishers now grant Cure T3 and Restoration T2 for 8 seconds.
Aeon Cult
Aeon Swift, Aeon Safe, and Aeon Soul Exotic armor all received the following changes to their “sect” mods.
Sect of Force
This has been reworked to be all about providing your allies significant bonus weapon damage against powerful combatants. The bonus grenade and melee energy has been moved to be the special benefit granted to Aeon cult allies using a different sect.
- Rapid precision hits provide quicker reload and weapon swap speeds, and the bonus now lasts for 10 seconds (up from 6 seconds).
- No longer grants bonus melee, grenade, or Super energy on stunning a Champion or defeating a boss or miniboss. Instead, stunning a Champion or rapid precision hits against Champions, elites, or minibosses will mark them for your allies.
- Allies deal +20% more damage to marked targets.
- When a target is first marked, nearby Aeon cult allies who do not have the Sect of Force role equipped gain grenade and melee energy.
Sect of Insight
Sect of Insight had a strong role in endgame PvE teams, and we don’t want to change that. The one modification we do want to make is changing the Aeon cult ally bonus to be Super energy instead of weapon damage, as we want Sect of Force to be the source of weapon bonuses.
- Nearby Aeon cult allies who do not have the Sect of Insight role equipped no longer gain a bonus to weapon damage for a short time. Instead, they gain a burst of Super energy.
Sect of Vigor
Sect of Vigor already had a strong theme as the supporting role in the Aeon cult. We wanted to boost its effectiveness by having it provide damage resistance in PvE, in addition to its class ability benefits. Our goal is to make Sect of Vigor players shepherds for their team, keeping their allies near to protect them from harm.
- Now provides damage resistance against combatants when an ally dies or is resurrected, in addition to the existing class ability energy.
- When you cast your Super, nearby allies no longer gain an instant burst of healing or an overshield. Instead, nearby critically wounded allies gain damage resistance from combatants as long as they stay near you. Nearby Aeon cult allies who do not have the Sect of Vigor role equipped will also recover class ability energy more quickly.
Those are all the changes planned for Exotic armor that will be available the moment Season of the Wish launches. As always, let us know how you feel about these, try them in your favorite activities, and keep that precious feedback coming!
All Armor Mod Changes in Destiny 2: Season of the Wish
- Heavy Handed, Firepower, and Reaper
- These now have a 10-second cooldown for generating an Orb of Power.
- Reaper also requires a kill be secured within 10 seconds of using your class ability.
- Melee Kickstart, Grenade Kickstart, and Utility Kickstart
- Now provides between +16% and +45% ability energy and requires at least a single armor charge be consumed.
- Momentum Transfer, Bolstering Detonation, Impact Induction, and Focusing Strike
- Now provide 12%/17%/20% ability energy for 1/2/3 stacks respectively and require a powered melee attack.
- Outreach and Bomber
- Now provides 12%/17%/20% ability energy for 1/2/3 stacks respectively.
- Outreach, Bomber, and Distribution
- Outreach and Bomber now provides 12%/17%/20% ability energy.
- Distribution now provides 4%/6%/7% ability energy.
- Energy provided is further reduced based on the cooldown of the class ability used, with the shortest cooldowns reducing it by 60%.
