With Destiny 2 being a looter-shooter, every piece of gear can make quite the difference in a build or loadout. When the game launched, Hunters proved to have one of the best sets of Exotic armor pieces and abilities to make even hard PvE content almost trivial, especially thanks to items like Celestial Nighthawk and Orpheus Rig that benefit DPS and crowd control. Forsaken was a solid expansion for Hunters, providing them with Blade Barrage and Shards of Galanor, a very powerful combination that allowed players to deal impressive damage and quickly regenerate their Super.
However, Destiny 2 goes through many iterations, and this means that items are changed, abilities and weapons are reworked, and new elements rise in popularity. In the current meta, Blade Barrage is one of the worst Supers due to many nerfs and changes over time, same with the Shards of Galanor Exotic gauntlets, leaving Hunters short of good options for damage. Orpheus Rig was also nerfed, and the Hunters' Tether Weaken debuff was made available to every class through artifact mods. Eventually, Destiny 2's Cuirass of the Falling Star acted as a better DPS option than Celestial Nighthawk, leaving Hunters as the worst PvE class in the game.
How Destiny 2 Hunters Were Outgunned by Titans
One of the issues with Hunters is that they were meant to be a great PvP class, and while that still stands, the sheer power Hunters brought to PvE activities has dwindled. There are many reasons for this fall from grace, and it's undeniable that artifact mods played a huge part in how things went, but one of the biggest issues with Hunters' PvE viability was the introduction of the Titan Exotic Cuirass of the Falling Star. This item improves damage dealt by Thundercrash by a lot, making Titans incredibly powerful options to burst down Destiny 2's bosses across all activities.
The reason why an item for the Titan had such a big impact on Hunters is that it does the same thing as Celestial Nighthawk, but without precision damage. Thundercrash doesn't need to hit the enemies' vulnerable spots to deal more damage, which any Hunter with Celestial Nighthawk needs to do in order to increase their DPS, but it still deals a substantial amount of damage through Cuirass of the Falling Star.
Cuirass of the Falling Star was an extraordinary addition to Titans' arsenals because of its damage output, but also because the class was very strong to begin with. Titans were already common in high-end PvE activities thanks to Ward of Dawn and other niche items, such as Throwing Hammers for boss DPS with a premade team, but this new item made them even more reliable, and just a few clicks away from a supportive role to main damage dealers.
With Hunters losing their utility and supportive abilities to nerfs and changes, and also dealing less damage overall because of other classes, this created the perfect storm for the cloak-wearing class to become the worst of the bunch in PvE. Hunters also don't bring much utility to the table with their Stasis abilities and Super, as Warlocks do the same thing but better, and Titans offering either more support or damage. Cuirass of the Falling Star shouldn't be changed, but Hunters do need help in PvE, especially with Destiny 2's The Witch Queen expansion rolling out in less than two weeks.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
