Bungie’s latest This Week in Destiny blog post is the last one before Season of the Wish launches on November 28. Along with revealing the new seasonal artifact, the post details a number of ability changes in the new season. One batch is about to infuriate Titans and finally deliver some justice for Hunters who’ve long been jealous of one-shot abilities in the Crucible.
Once upon a time, Titans could sprint around in the Crucible and then activate a Shoulder Charge ability (Seismic Strike, Hammer Strike, Shield Bash) to instantly kill any enemy player. Meanwhile, the closest option Hunters had in comparison was a Gunslinger’s throwing knife that required you to hit enemies in the head for a precision kill. The December 2021 update 3.4.0 rightfully nerfed Shoulder Charge so that it couldn’t one-shot anybody in the Crucible. The Season of the Wish update will take things even further as part of “an ongoing effort to make sure that any one-shot ability in the game comes with significant risk or cost.”
For some time, however, players have been able to circumvent the 3.4.0 nerf by sliding and firing their weapon to initiate a Shoulder Charge or slide melee. This is being patched out in Season of the Wish so that shooting while sliding prevents the activation of these abilities. While this change does directly impact Tempest Strike (the Arcstrider Hunter’s sliding melee that delivers an electrified uppercut that travels forward, damaging and Jolting enemies), this specific and underutilized Hunter ability is also getting a significant buff.
For a long time, the Arcstrider meta has involved combining the Liar’s Handshake Exotic gauntlets with the Lethal Current and Flow State aspects. With Lethal Current, dodging increases melee lunge range, the attack Jolts targets, it creates an aftershock, and Jolted targets are blinded. With Liar’s Handshake, follow-up melee attacks after using a fully charged melee deal extra damage and heal you. With Flow State, defeating a Jolted opponent amplifies you, recharging Dodge, increasing damage resistance, and reducing reload times. In other words, continuously dodging and punching is an overpowered combat loop that can decimate hordes of ads. Why would any Arcstrider opt for anything else?
Because this combo is so effective, nobody really even considers Tempest Strike. That may change in Season of the Wish with these following changes:
- Increased base damage from 110 to 125.
- Reworked tracking behavior to be more consistent at longer ranges.
- Improved consistency when traveling over rough terrain.
Tempest Strike got a 30% damage boost against PVE combatants back in Season 19, which was much-needed. Regardless, the ability has been virtually useless in PVP for quite some time. Could this buff be enough to change that? Probably not, but at the very least, the Arcstrider Hunter’s charged melee options will be at least comparable to other class options out there.
