There are a lot of weapons and armor pieces you can utilize in Destiny 2, some of which have warped the entire PVE or PVP meta around them. The recent Solar and Void subclasses updates caused some exotics like the Titan’s Lorely Splendor Helm to rocket in popularity. However, an-ever present truth of Destiny 2 is that not all exotic armor pieces are created equal — and some are in desperate need of a buff to remain viable.
Whether through a lack of interactions with the improved subclasses or simply offering very little benefits for an exotic, here are six exotic armor pieces that desperately need a buff.
Destiny 2 Exotic Armor Pieces That Should Be Buffed
Actium War Rig
Yes, I know this exotic is fun with Sweet Business, but that’s literally all it’s ever used for. Actium War Rig sounds great on paper, as the auto-reloading of your auto rifles and machine guns seems like a great perk. The problem is that no one really uses machine guns in high-end PVE activities. Additionally, the airborne effectiveness isn’t terribly helpful since this entire stat is still being balanced.
Instead of having this exotic slowly reload your guns, a cool buff would be just doubling the magazine of all auto rifles and machine guns. This could help push machine guns into the meta and deliciously synergize with perks like Triple Tap or Fourth’s Time the Charm.
Khepri’s Horn
I actually like Khepri’s Horn since it can be a cheeky way to surprise your foes in PVP or deal some extra damage to large groups of enemies. When it comes to improving this exotic, I think it just needs some sort of interaction with any of the Solar 3.0 status effects.
This is more a general statement since any exotic that deals elemental damage in some capacity should tie in with specific subclass keywords. Doing so will give them greater viability in builds, allowing players to experiment and create new, powerful synergies that previously didn’t exist. Also, having the barricade blast refund class ability energy per kill would help Khepri’s Horn be far more useful in PVE.
Sanguine Alchemy
One of the coolest-looking exotics in the game is also one of the most useless. Unless you are dedicated to a Tommy’s Matchbook build or prioritizing fashion over function, there’s essentially no reason to rock this chest piece.
I believe this exotic needs a complete rework because the extended Rift duration is just okay. Prolonging it through enemy kills can be useful, but only in very niche scenarios. A small but significant improvement would be basing the duration’s extension on the damage you deal rather than the number of foes you eliminate. Alternatively, you could just lean into the entire vampire aesthetic and make Sanguine Alchemy have some type of Void life-stealing ability.
Bungie, please just buff this exotic and give me a reason to look like space Dracula.
Chromatic Fire
There was a time when you had to beg for me to take this exotic off. Introduced in Forsaken, Chromatic Fire gave users the ability to trigger elemental explosions on Kinetic weapons. Essentially, it gave all guns in that slot the Dragonfly perk.
When it was first introduced, this was a nifty idea that effectively gave me a third perk to all my Kinetic firearms. However, as guns and abilities have been tweaked and improved, Chromatic Fire simply doesn’t pack enough of a punch. I’d love to see this exotic get a buff to the explosion size and damage values to make it more enticing to use.
Alternatively, Bungie could always copy The Bombardiers and give it different effects, depending on what subclass you’re using. I’m literally looking for any excuse to throw these on again.
Mechaneer’s Tricksleeve
Just make it like Lucky Pants for sidearms. That’s it. Boom, job done.
Shinobu’s Vow
I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve died to Skip Grenades this year. While Shinobu’s Vow is already pretty useless due to the ineffectiveness of Skip Grenades, it’s about to become even more obsolete when Arc 3.0 releases. Since all classes will have access to every type of Arc grenade, there are just objectively better options for both PVE and PVP activities.
Of all the exotics on this list, I do think this is the most likely to get a buff next season. It’s desperately needed. If nothing changes, I don’t see any Hunter using Shinobu’s Vow for any reason other than in extremely casual content.
