Destiny 2 Hunter mains beg Bungie to revert nerfed fan-favorite Exotic
Following Destiny 2’s mid-season patch that saw Young Ahamkara’s Spine heavily nerfed, Hunter mains were forced to stop using it in PvE and are now begging Bungie to revert the changes.
On October 17, 2023, Bungie hit a series of Exotic armor pieces with various nerfs primarily aimed at balancing PvP. Amongst these was Young Ahamkara’s Spine, a Hunter Exotic that enhances Tripmine Grenades.
These were the nerfs given to Young Ahamkara’s Spine:
- Reduced the Tripmine Grenade’s increased HP to 70 (down from 100) and removed the bonus 50% damage resistance.
- Grenade energy is now provided on ability kills instead of damage with abilities.
The big change here was that Young Ahamkara’s Spine now only rewards grenade energy on final blows rather than damage.
This heavily nerfed it in PvE content, especially against tankier enemies. These proposed changes weren’t initially popular and they haven’t grown on players since either.
Destiny 2 Hunters want YAS nerf reverted
Appealing to Bungie to make the change one Reddit post begged “Bungie pls revert the YAS nerf,” looking to get Young Ahamkara’s Spine back to where it was before the mid-season update.
The post continues to explain that they found YAS “so much fun in pve,” before it was nerfed while it now is hard to justify using.
Many others agreed with OP with one such player commenting: “YAS still works on pvp but its horrible in pve, they butchered it in both sides of the game but the damage dealt to it by bungie feels worse in pve.”
“The build wasn’t even crazy broken in pve either. It was just good in low/mid tier content and struggled a lot in harder stuff. The nerf really does feel like a gut punch,” another Guardian responded questioning why Bungie hit the Hunter Exotic so hard.
The desire for Young Ahamkara’s Spine to be relevant again is apparent in other replies including “I basically don’t play Solar Hunter in PvE anymore now which is sad because it was my favorite with YAS,” and “I miss yas so much.”
It’s not unheard of for Bungie to revert nerfed Exotics with Renewal Grasps being nerfed in Season 17 but later reverted in Season 22 after the once meta Stasis Exotic fell behind the power curve.
