Destiny 2’s August showcase was the perfect occasion for Bungie to share a first look at the Lightfall expansion, which was done via a story trailer that featured the city of Neomuna, the Cloud Striders, The Witness, and Calus' Shadow Legion. Other highlights were the Tormentors, a new enemy race that is coming with Lightfall, and the Strand subclass, which will focus on traversal abilities to let players explore the layers of Neomuna’s cyberpunk landscape. The showcase also included a commentary from Bungie developers talking about the Arc 3.0 update and howDestiny 2’s Season of Plunderwas going to shake things up for the last Light subclasses to get their rework.
One of the biggestimprovements to Arc Hunters was the addition of Gathering Storm, a new Super that allows Arcstriders to launch their javelin into the ground and create an electrified area where enemies take constant damage.Destiny 2’s 3.0 subclasses also get access to a plethora of Fragments and three Aspects per-class, which was also a good way to create more diversity in the Arc kit for all players. Although the intentions behind the Arc 3.0 update for Hunters were good, particularly with Bungie acknowledging the class lacked variety in terms of available Supers, the current iteration of Arcstriders might suffer from the same issues as the 2.0 era.
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Why Destiny 2’s Hunters Needed More Substance With Arc 3.0
One of the issues of pre-3.0 Arc subclasses was that they either lacked a specific niche they would excel at or didn’t offer much in endgame content. However, Arc 3.0 Hunters are heavily focused on melee builds, which on one hand offer the aforementioned niche use, but it also means the ability for players to craft their own builds and playstyle is partially lost here. This is something Bungie actively pushes inDestiny 2right now, but it’s not always easily achieved.
Two Aspects out of three for Arc Hunters are melee-based, which means not wanting to use one’s melee is already going to be a problem for any build. It doesn’t help that the current Exotic selection for Arc Hunters is insignificant, with only seven Exotics out of 37 having dedicated Arc-related effects - three of which exclusively work with the Super, and two of them improving grenades. This is a problem that has been plaguingDestiny 2Exoticsfor a long time, and particularly Hunter-exclusive Exotics that tend to cater more to very niche uses or PvP-related aspects.
In terms of the newArc 3.0 rework, Gathering Storm is a great Super and a welcome addition to the subclass, but it doesn’t stack with other Gathering Storms, meaning it doesn’t really shine in Raids, Dungeons, and similar activities. This is a problem that similar Super abilities share, such as Well of Radiance not stacking with other sources of the same buffs, which holds true for Ward of Dawn as well. Yet, giving Hunters a new Super that doesn’t deal damage when used on the same targets heavily impairs the class' viability.
There is also little to no synergy between manyHunter Exoticsand the Arc 3.0 changes, with examples being Lucky Raspberry and The Bombardiers, as they work the same way as they did prior to Season of Plunder regardless of the new meta. On the other hand, melee builds do hold their own in severalDestiny 2activities, particularly thanks to Season of Plunder’s Unstoppable Shotguns and other mods, but the reality remains that Arc Hunters have little to no place in the meta in the long run. Overall, Arc 3.0 is an upgrade compared to the class before this Season, but the issues that came with it are essentially the same as before, indicating more tweaks might be needed.
Destiny 2is now available for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
