Season of the Deep Makes Waves in Destiny 2's Armor Economy

With Destiny 2's Season of Defiance coming to an end, it’s time to turn an eye to the future and see what lies ahead in the next season, the Season of the Deep. Bungie has held their cards close to their chest in terms of the narrative of the next season. Aside from a lot of watery imagery, the most they’ve revealed on that front is the return of Titan and Sloane. However, on the mechanics side of things, it seems as though big changes are underway.

One of the biggest mechanical changes coming to the new season are the Exotic Armor reworks. The Armor reworks focus on Exotics on either side of the power curve, tuning up some of the weaker options and pulling the must-pick items back down to better align with the rest of the curve.

The Titan armor is first up with some interesting changes. The Point-Contact Cannon Brace Gauntlets have been updated to jolt targets, and the Second Chance Gauntlets' shield throw now weakens enemies. The Stronghold Gauntlets will have their healing mechanic swapped out with a more consistent damage reduction. The No Backup Plans Gauntlets have been remade from the ground up to support Void subclass shotgun users, with bonuses to reload speed, void overshield refreshes, and situational health regen.  The Eternal Warrior helmet will also see a change which now has a cumulative damage bonus for takedowns, and the Khepri’s Horn helmet's damage wave no longer scorches targets. The Dune Marchers leg armor has been given a range and PvP damage reduction, while Path Of The Burning Steps has been retuned to utilize Surge mods damage bonus, with Solar kills refreshing the duration at the highest tier.

The Hunter armor pieces are up next. The Sealed Ahamkara Grasps now reloads all magazines when a target is killed with a powered melee attack, and melee attacks now grant a 5 second mobility buff. The Oathkeeper Gauntlets now grant a temporary bonus to damage from fully drawn bows, while Athrys’s Embrace now grants additional strength while its Knife damage bonus is in effect. The Radiant Dance Machines leg armor now extends the duration of free dodge when you kill enemies with it active, and St0mp-EE5 leg armor traded a removal of airborne penalties in exchange for its mobility bonus only being in effect while dodge energy is full. Raiju’s Harness chest armor adds an explosion and arc damage buff to the end of Arc supers, but in exchange Whirlwind Guard no longer reduces energy consumption. The Mask of Bakris helmet now uses a non-stacking weapon bonus that does not work with Surge mods.

Finally, we have the Warlock armor. The Vesper of Radius chest armor now adds Arc shockwaves to rifts that can blind enemies while using the Arc subclass. The Chromatic Fire chest armor, whose explosion radius and damage has increased, will also apply a subclass specific debuff to enemies caught in the blast radius. The Starfire Protocol chest armor's energy gain has been dramatically reduced, but in exchange empowered weapon kills now grant grenade energy, and the Sanguine Alchemy chest armor now grants a bonus to subclass type weapon damage while standing in a rift. The Mantle of Battle Harmony chest armor's PVE bonus damage has increased while decreasing PVP damage, but in exchange the duration has increased and the bonus stacks with other damage bonuses. The Dawn Chorus helmet's damage bonus has been increased, and decoupled from scorch. The Ophidian Aspect gauntlets have lost their extended melee range, while the Claws of Ahamkara now create orbs of power upon powered melee kills, and when paired with Heavy Handed mods this ability instead increases the potency of orbs spawned. Finally, the Promethium Spur leg armor now requires you to be standing in a rift for its final blow ability to function, but in return grants rift energy for solar weapon takedowns.

While those are the totality of the armor changes, they are far from the only changes coming to the Season of the Deep. From Ability changes to Weapon updates, it looks like Destiny 2 is giving itself a fresh coat of paint. And with several seasonal grinds being omitted from the season, such as a power cap increase, it seems like the devs want to give all guardians plenty of time to play around with these updates. Season of the Deep is launching Tuesday, May 23rd and will go on for three months, giving everyone plenty of time to test out these new changes for themselves. Good luck Guardians!