Disclaimer: Yes I already know this is super unpopular but I do want to voice my opinion since it's something other than 'nerfs bad Bungie sucks.' I've seen a ton of complaints over the past couple of days on various platforms about Bungie not listening to feedback well enough, [i]and while I think this is valid,[/i] the amount of unhelpful (and sometimes downright toxic) comments/posts is disappointing. As a community it seems rather silly of us to complain about changes we do not like while simultaneously failing to provide constructive criticism. There have been at least a few pieces of good feedback floating around the internet over the past couple of days (looking at you, suggestions for WotW changes), so credit to those folks, but the overwhelming majority of comments/posts have resulted in an overall response that is largely destructive, reflects poorly on the community, and frankly gets us nowhere. Now for the actual changes themselves: First, what exactly is getting changed? 4 exotic weapons and 6 exotic armors (that's ~8.2% of total current exotics btw) are being adjusted in some way or another, with most of them receiving very targeted nerfs. First up is the big one: Whisper of the Worm. Whisper has long been [b]the[/b] weapon for killing bosses, with very few weapons ever coming close to its DPS after the first few seconds. Thankfully, over the past few months some power weapons have been buffed to try to make them competitive with Whisper's DPS (things like grenade launchers and certain shotguns, including Lord of Wolves). However, Whisper still reigns as king for most boss fights and makes many of them trivial *cough* Insurrection Prime *cough*, so understandably it is being brought down to be more in line with other power weapons. With the Season 7 patch, Whisper's ammo changes are being reverted but it now pulls ammo from reserves, meaning you can no longer infinitely shoot. So, for the first 18 shots your damage will be unchanged, but after that you'll have to find yourself more ammo. While I will miss the skill-related bonus of getting ammo back, I do not mind this change much at all. The amount of times you shoot more than 18 uninterrupted shots with Whisper is low, and you can just throw on 3 pieces of armor with Heavy Ammo Finder and fairly reliably get some ammo in between DPS phases for whatever boss you are fighting. This nerf is clearly targeted at keeping people from infinitely shooting bosses with one of the game's highest DPS weapons and thereby trivializing encounters, and I can't fault Bungie for wanting to take away the infinite nature of it. Is Whisper super powerful and fun right now? Yes. Will it still be super powerful and fun after the changes? Yes, but you'll have to actually work to make sure you have ammo, [i]just like every other power weapon[/i]. Next up is Sleeper Simulant: It's not gonna do stupid damage on specific bosses that you can get a precision hit and several bounces with. Also, non-precision damage is getting buffed. This is the most targeted nerf, as it only affects bosses and even then only affects a minority of them. There's been speculation that this change is in anticipation of upcoming content that Sleeper might be able to decimate because of certain ricochets, and I would not be surprised at all if that is the case. This nerf will affect only edge cases in PvE, and I am not concerned about it at all. The last major weapon change for PvE is Lord of Wolves: It's being hit with a 20% PvE damage nerf, and Release the Wolves is getting a QoL change and an ambiguous adjustment. As for the flat damage nerf, do not worry; Lord of Wolves ought to still be the highest DPS shotgun in the game with the exception of Legend of Acrius, assuming you don't miss headshots ever. The one caveat to this is that the adjustment to the Release the Wolves states "PvE damage and range bonuses on this effect has been removed and replaced with a universal damage bonus instead," which seems to indicate that it is receiving both a nerf and a buff, so it'll take some testing to see how this all shakes out. Expect Lord of Wolves to still be top-tier for DPS. Finally, the last weapon being changed is Ace of Spades: All you need to know is less two-taps and Memento Mori goes away upon stowing Ace. This gun is a menace in the Crucible on PC, and it isn't surprising to see it nerfed, although I would like to see a modest decrease to its range. On a somewhat related note, I know I am not alone in saying Bungie still needs to sort out the disparities between Hand Cannons on controller vs M&K, as it is rather hard to balance things like Ace of Spades and Luna's Howl/Not Forgotten. One platform is always going to feel the nerfs much harder than the other until this gets sorted out, and the Crucible clearly suffers because of it. I'm going to group the armor changes together given that they're receiving mechanically the same changes. Skull of Dire Ahamkara, Orpheus Rigs, and Phoenix Protocol are all receiving diminishing returns on their super energy return. This means that they'll still create the same amount of energy as before for the first few kills/assists, but will see less returns as you kill even more (think of something like the recent changes to Everlasting Fire from Dawnblade's Attunement of Flame). These changes are arguably the most subjective, but I think that they are overall healthy for the sandbox. As a warlock main for over four years now, I can safely say that I have never been so bored in PvE as I have been for the past few months. Was new and improved Skull of Dire Ahamkara fun for the first few weeks? Sure. Is Phoenix Protocol super helpful? Of course. While the power fantasy of these super regen exotics feels good, it again contributes to the trivialization of endgame content. I miss the days of actually having to manage my abilities instead of mindlessly spamming my super button near a cluster of adds. Well of Radiance is hands-down the most effective super for nearly every boss fight, and Nova Bomb is usually the best burst super for add clear, not to mention it chunks bosses too. Having these supers up constantly restricts the amount of gunplay along with the amount of decision-making required when using supers in endgame content. It does not feel good for me to know I am often putting myself and/or my team at a disadvantage when I have my super available by choosing to shoot enemies instead of just spamming supers. I wish I was actually forced to make decisions and properly position myself instead of just running around and spamming Well of Radiance without a care in the world. I will hardly miss the current state of these two exotics, and I am looking forward to feeling less restricted in end-game content. I cannot speak to Orpheus Rigs very well given that I've essentially abandoned my hunter, but I can sympathize more with the indirect nerf to tether, although it will obviously still be fantastic for orb generation. Another very important thing to keep in mind is that we have absolutely no idea how harsh these nerfs will feel. If these exotics still consistently allow players to get back 2/3-3/4 of their super, it'll only take a few extra orbs to make up for the loss, which is very easy to do. Overall, we're going to have to make more decisions yes, but I wouldn't worry about these nerfs until we see them. As for the other super regen exotics, Bungie stated "Shards of Galanor and Ursa Furiosa had their Super gain caps reduced to be in parity with other Super Exotic changes." What does this mean? It seems like situations in which you get a very large portion of your super back from these two exotics are going to be less common, but we have no clue what this "parity" will look like so it's really just anyone's guess. These two exotics aren't particularly great, so hopefully this simply reduces edge cases, but it's certainly a "wait-and-see" type of change. Finally, Gwisin Vest gives back less energy for killing Guardians. Spectral Blades was clearly way overtuned in PvP, so I don't think this one will ruffle too many feathers. The Crucible has bigger problems anyways. So, what's the big picture? Two boss-shredding weapons are being toned down but will still be fantastic for DPS. Hopefully these changes make way for some of the other top boss DPS contenders. One exotic is having its edge cases hit hard but remains largely unchanged. Another weapon is receiving changes to make it less dominant in Crucible. Super regen exotic armors are being toned down to reduce mind-numbing gameplay and encourage other options. Will power fantasy be decreased a bit? Yes, but if it means more interesting gameplay, I am completely okay with that. I'd love to see what other people have to say, so please leave a reply. Are there any particular exotics or weapon archetypes you'd like to see buffed? Do you have any suggestions for trying to maintain power fantasy while improving the sandbox for endgame content? And lastly, be kind to your fellow guardians. It saddens me to see some of the negative or toxic behavior that's come out over the past couple of days. Show some love <3.