Destiny 2’s Season of the Wish May Have Gone Overboard With Nerfs to One Class

Highlights

• Destiny 2’s Season of the Wish brings excitement with the 15th Wish, but general sentiment is low due to Lightfall and Bungie’s layoffs.
• The recent TWID post discusses changes to Stasis and nerfs to the overall power, resulting in discouragement among some players.
• Titans in Destiny 2 face significant nerfs to Banner of War, Synthoceps, and Throwing Hammer, potentially impacting their gameplay in Season 23.

Destiny 2‘s Season of the Wish is in a strange place because, on the one hand, many players are excited to finally find out what the 15th Wish is and how it ties to the Ahamkara and Dreaming City lore, and on the other hand, the general sentiment about the game is not in a great place after Lightfall and the layoffs at Bungie. However, the needle is ever-shifting with news and in-game events, and right now, some players may be discouraged by the many nerfs discussed in the recent TWID post. While the main focus was supposed to be Stasis, Destiny 2 nerfed survivability across the board as well as ability regeneration and some specific builds, and one class got the short end of the stick.

Balance patches are not uncommon in Destiny 2, with every season typically including several changes to items, abilities, and some meta options, adding another layer to the changes via seasonal mods. Season of the Wish is overhauling 20 Exotics, which is a good starting point, but some of them are being nerfed on top of other class-specific changes to reduce players’ overall power in the game, and it seems like Season 23 could prove a hard time for Titans.

How Destiny 2 Nerfs Titans Hard in Season of the Wish

Destiny 2’s Banner of War Strand Aspect Gets a Nerf Alongside Synthoceps

Destiny 2‘s Strand Titan has been a dominating force of Season of the Witch in the endgame meta thanks to the introduction of a new Aspect in the form of Banner of War, which not only provides healing to sustain players, but also provides an escalating bonus to melee and sword damage. This single-handedly allowed some Titan builds to exceed expectations and destroy Raid bosses from Crota’s End or other pieces of content, and since stacking Banner of War worked so well, it makes sense for Bungie to nerf it in Season 23.

At the same time, the nerf could now make it much harder to stack Banner of War stages given the increase in the number of kills required, which may prove a challenge to upkeep in some content. While the changes to Banner of War are manageable, they also come at the same time as an overall Synthoceps nerf, which has been the go-to Exotic for many Titan builds for a long time. Reducing the melee damage scalar multiplier makes sense, but combined with the Banner of War changes, Strand Titans in Destiny 2 may be looking at a much worse version of their previous builds.

How Destiny 2’s Nerf to Throwing Hammer ‘Kills’ Solar Titan Builds

More importantly, Destiny 2 Titans got a massive nerf to the so-called “Bonk Hammer,” a nickname for Solar Titans’ Throwing Hammer, which could previously be chained endlessly as an attack if players picked their hammer up after use. This was especially easy to do against large bosses and at melee range, considering that the hammer’s animation often ended on the player character anyway, immediately refreshing melee energy. However, this is no longer going to be the case, as players will get melee energy refunded to them over 1.4 seconds instead of instantly, and that alone is enough to kill the build.

These Titan nerfs also come at the same time as a Ward of Dawn cooldown increase and an overall reduction of the effectiveness of Destiny 2 sources of ability energy to create constant ability loops. This could make it even harder for Titans to adjust to entirely new builds.

Much like Synthoceps and Banner of War, Throwing Hammer was in need of a change, but combining all of these into one patch could make it less enjoyable to play Titan in Destiny 2‘s endgame. There are some buffs and changes that are worth looking into when Season of the Wish launches, and it will be interesting to see how the players and the meta adapt in a different era for Titans.