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The recent TWAB from Bungie regarding Destiny 2 Season 17 is perhaps the longest blog post from the company on balancing. This week's blog post clocks in at more than 8000 words from flinch changes to Glaives and numerous other abilities. Guardians can find the full edition of TWAB on Bungie's official website.
Out of the hundreds of changes coming in Season 17, the ones that might need a special mention with the current meta are Arbalest, Renewal Grasps, and Stomp-EE5. Typically, while these aren't the only changes mentioned in the post, they are essential for a player's build in PvP and PvE.
Exotic nerfs that are scheduled to come in Destiny 2 Season 17
Arbalest has been the pinnacle of any endgame activity in Destiny 2, as it helps players breeze through all kinds of elemental shields and Barrier Champions. If there is any weapon at the top of the list in Grandmaster Nightfalls, it has to be Arbalest. Bungie toned it down a little bit, reducing the damage it did against the Champions.
Starting Season 17, Arbalest will be dealing 20% less damage to Champions while having any of its perks untouched. Bungie's true intention with this nerf is to keep the weapon for breaking barriers only and not for boss DPS.
Stompees for Hunters got caught in the crossfire of nerfs, as the Exotic armor piece will no longer have combat effectiveness while airborne.
For example, if a player uses Submission SMG with Stompee Exotic and Icarus Grip, the overall airborne effectiveness from that build will be 12. So no matter how many stacks of mods players try to put in with Stomp-EE5, it will still deduct 50 airborne effectiveness from any remaining stats.
Hunters are not off the hook yet, as Renewal Grasps will increase Duskfield Grenades' cooldowns from 62 to 152 seconds. This will delay the time taken by Hunters in a Trials match to secure a single area per round with only one Grenade.
In addition, the outgoing damage applied to the victim players inside the Duskfield has been reduced from 50% to 20%, giving opponents a chance to fight head-on inside the field. While the damage remains unchanged in PvE, the huge difference in cooldown might affect some Stasis-focused Hunter builds.
Season 17 of Destiny 2 is scheduled for release on May 24, alongside Guardian Games for May 3.
