While it was buffing a bunch of arc (and a few non-arc) Destiny 2 subclasses, Bungie announced it was looking into the hunter class’ Spectral Blades super ability, which it saw as being too strong in the current meta. Earlier this week, the developer brought the hammer down.
The spectral blades super was introduced in Destiny 2’s Forsaken expansion, and have void-flavored Hunters a super ability outside of their normal Shadowshot, a one-and-done ability that tethered enemies to a particular location. Spectral blades, however, lets them roam around the battlefield and take easy kills for a short period.
The issues, as Bungie points out in their This Week At Bungie blog post, is that spectral blades lasted too long, and that it made its user a little too survivable, especially while they were under its cloaking effect. “Previously, this Super had the highest damage reduction of all the roaming Supers, either in stealth or not,” Bungie’s sandbox team said. This is even further exacerbated by the Gwisin Vest exotic chest piece, which elongates the super’s duration every time you score a kill. This could make the super last much longer than most other supers, and made hunters who used spectral blades a terror on the battlefield.
The alleviate the issue, Bungie has reduced the super’s damage-reduction from eight percent, regardless of whether you’re cloaked or not (the super has increased damage reduction when you’re cloaked), and have reduced the super’s overall length by three seconds. They’ve also upped the cost of each light melee swing, meaning hunters won’t be able to strike their targets with abandon and hope for a kill as easily.
As for the super’s interaction with the Gwisin Vest, Bungie is currently toying with some changes. If they make it to release, however, it won’t be until next season.
