I want to start of by saying that Pocket Singularity having range drop-off is unnecessary, it makes the melee feel weak, and it does not have the utility to balance it out; the Volatile in PvP is almost entirely useless, as it feels like it rarely triggers, no matter the circumstances.
Handheld Supernova has previously seen nerf after nerf, first the charge time being increased, as well as how long you are able to hold it before you need to recharge it, the range was lowered, the explosion size was reduced, and you could easily vaporize yourself (You no longer currently easily vaporize yourself, however).
Then, HHSN had the ability to One-Hit kill with damage alone taken away, only being able to do so with architect damage. It's exotic partner, Contraverse hold, also had a rework, to do less potential grenade energy charge, but for a more consistent charge in general.
Come Void 3.0, HHSN was tied to a 1-fragment artifact slot (Being changed to 2 slots in Season 21), as well as being limited to only Magnetic Grenades, making it very restrictive on your buildcrafting, with the "silver lining" that it now applies volatile to enemies. Vortex Grenades also had an uprising, due to the new "Pull" mechanic they provide, as well as better .fragment synergy
Season 20 removed Architect damage, which means HHSN could no longer One-hit KO under any circumstance, as well as buffed its competition's PvE damage and cooldown adjustments.
Season 21, Season of the Deep, is buffing Chaos Accelerant to hold 2 fragments (a nice start), however, the only thing that is directly happening to HHSN is that its timer for how long you are able to hold it is getting increased to 4.2, making it 0.7 seconds longer than when it first launched. HHSN will still have the longest cooldown of 2 minutes 32 seconds base, it will still have the majority of the previous nerfs, and it still will have to contend against the other void grenades (Including buffed / fixed charged scatter grenades, also coming in Season of the Deep.)
Bungie, please buff Handheld Supernova, as a unique grenade type, it feels detrimental and weak to use, as well as restrictive to build around.
-
1 ReplyI somehow doubt that the “fix” for charged scatter grenades will do anything tbh. And even with adding another fragment slot, Chaos Accelerant will still be by far the weakest grenade buffing aspect in the game given that it nerfs half of the options, is the only one that requires a charge-up, and for whatever reason also stops super regen. If I’m going to have to spend time charging the thing it had best be giving my something damn explosive. I understand wanting to keep the charging up flair but let’s be real. A charged up vortex is no more effective than an uncharged vortex. Axion charged up is better but only really useful in PvP. Scatter even with the buffs will probably suck just as bad meaning uncharged will still be better. HHSN is inconsistent at best and 120% not even remotely worth using in PvP OR PvE, and given that it’s on a far superior magnetic Grenade I have no clue what they were thinking. They need to add more effects and flair to the aspect to even consider it a contender. With all of its drawbacks it should be the most powerful.