The This Week In Destiny blog discussed upcoming changes to weapons and Exotic armor that will go live in the mid-season patch. Bungie intends to nerf Antaeus Wards and Young Ahamkara’s Spine Exotic armor pieces in the upcoming patch because they aren’t easy to counter in PVP.
For Young Ahamkara’s Spine, Bungie will reduce the overall health of the Tripmine grenades and remove the bonus resistance. Moreover, grenade energy will now be tied to grenade final blows as opposed to ability damage. The developer hopes to bring Young Ahamkara’s Spine in line with other Solar ability focused Exotics like Caliban’s Hand and Athrys’ Embrace.
Young Ahamkara’s Spine offers Enhanced Tripmine grenades, and while good in PVE, they are an absolute menace in PVP. These Tripmine grenades have a lot of health, as opposed to basic Tripmine grenades, which are an effective means to corner opponents and take them out of the fight for a bit. Enhanced Tripmine grenades could instantly eliminate Guardians with lower resilience, and leave Guardians with higher resilience vulnerable. Young Ahamkara’s Spine also has the Fastball mod as its intrinsic trait, letting players throw grenades at longer distances. Solar Hunters are a strong class to fight against as it is, but this Exotic takes them to another level.
While these changes are great in PVP, they could negatively impact Young Ahamkara’s Spine's utility in PVE. For PVE, Young Ahamkara’s Spine is a niche option, but with powerful utility. Players get grenade energy solely by doing Solar ability damage, which counts Solar melees and grenades. So when players use Knife Trick, a Solar Hunter melee sends three separate knives at one enemy, and each knife counts towards grenade energy. This can be further enhanced by the Ember of Torches Fragment, which makes players Radiant through powered Solar melee damage, and the Knock Em’ Down aspect refunds Solar melees upon getting final blows while Radiant. It’s an excellent build for new players as Young Ahamkara’s Spine is a free-to-play Exotic, but it’s also useful for endgame players who have used it to solo raid bosses like Caretaker from the Vow of the Disciple raid.
