Season of the Wish will bring several weapon changes to Destiny 2. Bungie previewed PVP and PVE weapon updates, but one of, if not the best SMG in the game, the Osteo Striga, is getting nerfed. This SMG will receive a major balance change that will limit its huge poison damage potential, making PVE SMG choices more varied.
One of the main features that SMGs get during PVE is the damage scalar, which Bungie introduced to help improve the SMG direct impact damage. This combined with Osteo Striga’s Toxic Overload Exotic perk — which rewards final blows or multiple precision hits with a poison burst that hits nearby enemies — ends up taking over PVE ad-clear. This SMG’s range and the fact that it does not need kills to use its Exotic perks makes Osteo Striga powerful.
Bungie has decided to remove the SMG bonus scalar damage altogether from the Osteo Striga, which will downgrade its poison damage to a more standard level similar to the Necrotic Grip Exotic. Bungie could have matched all of the other SMGs and buffed them to Osteo Striga’s potential, but apparently, this would create all sorts of balancing issues.
Let’s hope that this change will balance things out and make Destiny 2 a more accessible game overall, though we’ll miss Osteo Striga’s poison damage capabilities. Season of the Wish is bringing more changes to Destiny 2 like overhauling glaives, including Exotic class-specific glaives, and Vex Mythoclast and Revision Zero will get Anti-Champion buffs. Exotic armor will get some tuning next season too.
