Despite The Final Shape already being considered one of the best additions to the entire Destiny franchise, there are parts of this DLC that aren’t exactly welcome additions to Destiny 2. One such recent controversy in Destiny 2 was the result of the latest balancing update for abilities that was released alongside The Final Shape, which nerfed the Well of Radiance Warlock and Ward of Dawn Titan meta builds.

Apart from the controversial ability balancing update, Destiny 2 also recently rebalanced some of the Exotic weapons in the game. While the weapon balancing update has proven to be a lot less controversial compared to the ability balancing update, one specific change introduced in this update, the new Erianna’s Vow buff, still sticks out like a sore thumb. While this buff plays into the strengths of Erianna’s Vow and its shield-piercing utility, it missed the perfect opportunity to address some of the weapon’s biggest weaknesses.

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Destiny 2 finally made a highly-requested change, but in hindsight, this new change highlights several other longstanding issues with the game.

Eriana’s Vow is a Top-Tier Champion Counter in Destiny 2

Considering that Eriana’s Vow can innately counter Barrier Champions in Destiny 2, it’s still a useful Exotic even if it isn’t one of the current meta weapons. Then with the buff from the new Exotic weapons balancing update, Eriana’s Vow can nuke crowds of enemies whenever breaking an enemy’s Solar Shield. As long as players can consistently land critical hits or target shielded enemies, the Eriana’s Vow is a seriously powerful weapon, at least when it comes to PvE. In PvP on the other hand, Eriana’s Vow has typically always been considered underwhelming compared to other Exotic weapons in Destiny 2.

Destiny 2’s Eriana’s Vow Buff Was a Missed Opportunity

Patch Notes from Destiny 2: The Final Shape Exotics Tuning Preview

  • Breaking a matched shield or piercing a Champion's Barrier [with Eriana’s Vow] will cause the target to Ignite.

One of the biggest weaknesses of Eriana’s Vow is that it suffers from heavy recoil after firing, so buffing this weapon without addressing this weakness was arguably a missed opportunity. Since missing a shot will temporarily deactivate the damage boost from Eriana’s Vow’s Death at First Glance trait, it’s generally better to fire this weapon slowly, favoring accuracy over speed to preserve the damage buff. Because of this, Eriana’s Vow doesn’t quite reach the same DPS as some of the current meta weapons in Destiny 2, but it's still a great weapon because of its utility for dealing with Elemental shields and Barrier Champions.

Eriana’s Vow’s Death at First Glance trait provides a damage buff of around 45% when landing critical hits or dealing damage to any Elemental shield, and persists until players miss a shot.

Apart from its dramatic recoil, another major weakness of Eriana’s Vow is its overall performance in PvP, specifically, its damage and ammo efficiency. Despite being listed as a hand cannon in Destiny 2, Eriana’s Vow is generally more comparable to a sniper rifle than a hand cannon, given that it’s a precision weapon that uses special ammo. However, since Eriana’s Vow can’t naturally one-shot Guardians in Crucible with a headshot, legendary sniper rifles can often outperform Eriana’s Vow.

Compared to other Exotic weapons like the Jotunn, Conditional Finality, and the Cloudstrike, there are plenty of other Exotic weapons that arguably make for better picks in Crucible than Eriana’s Vow. So, with Eriana’s Vow recently getting a PvE-specific buff in the Final Shape DLC, this was a missed opportunity to address this weapon’s biggest flaws, such as its damage in Crucible and its recoil. While the new Eriana’s Vow buff is still an objective improvement for the weapon, it arguably wasn’t quite what this weapon needed to be able to compete with Destiny 2’s current meta, at least in PvP.