Destiny 2 Dev Insights: Exotic Armor Tuning Buffs Warlocks

Bungie released the weapon tuning preview for Destiny 2’s Renegades expansion last week. Yesterday, they revealed the changes coming to Exotic Armor. For the most part, the changes should not significantly alter the sandbox. However, there is one change in particular that has the potential. Warlocks receive the most significant change, finally having super damage to rival that of the Cuirass of the Falling Star Thundercrash.

Destiny 2 Exotic Armor Tuning

All information is per the Destiny 2 Exotic Armor Tuning Article released by Bungie yesterday.

Destiny 2 Hunters

• Graviton Forfeit
  • Grants improved grenade, melee, and class ability recharge every time you become invisible, stacking up to three times, and does not deplete while invisible.
    • Akin to the old Heart of the Pack buff in Void 2.0
  • At three stacks, additional triggers grant a portion of Void Overshield.
• Omnioculus
  • Granting Beyond the Veil to allies starts health and shield regeneration, but not to the Hunter themselves.
• Lucky Raspberry
  • Arcbolt grenade should chain more consistently and to more targets.
  • Applies Jolt on hits
    • Returns Arcbolt energy on any application of Jolt or triggering the Jolt chain.
• Orpheus Rig
  • Super duration increased from 16 to 20 seconds.
    • Also hinting at a base buff on Shadowshot.
• Gemini Jesters
  • Utilizes the universal disorient verb
  • The disorient duration against players increased to one second (was 0.5).
  • Misdirection also removes the HUD of opposing players for two seconds.
  • The disorient duration against combatants increased to three seconds (was two).

Destiny 2 Titans

• Arbor Warden
  • Picking up three orbs enhances Barri-nade.
  • Enhanced Barri-nade spawns three of the equipped barricades in a Y pattern.
  • Works with things like Drengr’s Lash and Storm’s Keep.
• Ursa Furiosa
  • Fixed a bug preventing players from properly gaining Super energy while having an overshield.
  • The scaling of Super energy stored is no longer affected by the enemy difficulty.
    • Doubled in at-Power activities
    • Buffed by about 13.6% in -40 Power activities.
• Second Chance
  • Shield Throw final blows spawn Void Breaches.
    • Grants Melee energy when picking up any Void Breach
  • Sentinel Shield Ranged attack applies a weaken.
  • Fixed a bug that prevented the anti-barrier shield throw from bouncing to more than two targets.
• Armamentarium
  • Grants 10% grenade energy on a weapon final blow.
  • Reloads the equipped weapon after using a grenade ability.
• Lion Rampants
  • Can fire with ADS when in lift.
• Peacekeepers
  • Increased Mobility bonus by 5.
  • Re-added the swap-load SMG feature.
    • It was accidentally removed during the correction of an audio issue.

Destiny 2 Warlocks

• Nothing Manacles
  • Faster final projectile speed.
  • Spawns additional Scatter seekers on kill with the grenade.
    • The effect will chain.
• Briarbinds
  • Decreased kills required for Briarbind’s Void Soul damage bonus from six to four.
  • Deals increased damage based on time deployed on a target.
    • Max 30% after 10 seconds.
• Stormdancer’s Brace
  • Grants Bolt Charge for arc ability hits when Amplified while having Stormtrance equipped.
  • Stormtrance damage bonus is built by hits instead of kills.
    • Requires 30 hits to reach the cap.
    • Max damage unchanged.
• Winter’s Guile
  • Melee and Finisher final blows grant bonus melee damage.
    • One stack for melee final blows and three for Finishers.
    • Stacks up to ten times for 4x melee damage.
    • Stacks lost one at a time, lasting 4.5 seconds.
  • Reaching ten stacks grants a melee charge.
  • Using a melee ability within ten seconds activates Walord’s Rage.
    • Gain dramatically increased melee regen.
    • Faster melee speed.
    • Damage bonus increased to 5x.
    • Lasts for ten seconds and will remove all stacks.
• Mataiodoxia
  • Hitting a target with five Needlestorm projectiles activates the Stylostixis’ suspending burst.
    • Increases the damage to match Cuirass Thundercrash.
• Dawn Chorus
  • Daybreak+Dawn Chorus damage increased by 5%.
  • Total scorch stacks increased.

Final Thoughts

The majority of the changes should not impact the Destiny 2 sandbox. For Hunters and Titans, we are not getting much help in this regard. However, Warlocks are getting two buffs that they have been asking for for a long time. They are getting a damage super, alongside a melee-centric Exotic that increases their melee damage significantly.