Season of Plunder launched alongside the Arc 3.0 update, which reworked the last set of subclasses in Destiny 2 that were still using the pre-Beyond Light model, with Stasis being the first to receive a new system for Fragments and Aspects. Much like other elemental subclasses before, with Arc 3.0, every class got new abilities, Fragments, and Aspects to use and combine with other existing elements of the game, like Exotics or mods, to create more powerful builds that delve into different sub-identities of each class. Hunters got tools to focus on melee builds and a new Super entirely, whereas Warlocks' existing Ionic Trace focus was expanded upon and made into a general buff for all Arc classes.
Titans got a new Aspect called Touch of Thunder, which was controversial at launch because it gave them a tool with which they could change the way each of Destiny 2's Arc grenades work and how effective they are, and that's something that Warlocks usually do instead of other classes. However, Touch of Thunder proved to be way stronger than it looked when combined with Storm Grenades, which deal incredible damage on their own and can be spammed when using Heart of Inmost Light as the build's Exotic. Thankfully, Bungie has announced that Destiny 2's Season 19 will come with multiple changes to abilities, and Storm Grenades will be nerfed, solving several problems at once.
Why Destiny 2's Approach to Nerfing Storm Grenade is Perfect
Storm Grenades with Touch of Thunder were proved to deal more damage based on one's FPS, meaning that a higher refresh rate leads to an overall increase in damage by proccing more lightning bolts. FPS-based damage is something Destiny 2 has struggled with multiple times in the past, and it's a murky issue that sometimes also causes players to take more damage than intended from enemies based on their refresh rate.
Nerfing Storm Grenades helps with this because it doesn't become too much of a dominant issue in the meta to come, and that's a good thing. The way Bungie will do this is by reducing the overall duration of the grenade's roaming effect gained through Touch of Thunder, which means that even if there ends up being a difference in terms of damage and performance based on FPS, it shouldn't be as polarizing as it is now. As far as Heart of Inmost Light goes with Touch of Thunder and Storm Grenades, this combination currently destroys build diversity for Titans in Destiny 2.
The Heart of Inmost Light Storm Grenade build is pretty much the best all-around, not just for Arc, with only a handful of other options being as viable but with less damage dealt - and that even extends to all classes, not just Titans. Thus, Destiny 2's Titans are currently being preferred over all other classes and subclasses in LFG parties just because they perform so much better than other characters in the game. Again, the upcoming changes solve this problem.
With Bungie nerfing Storm Grenades in Destiny 2's Season 19, Titans will no longer need to resort to a specific Exotic and build for all content, which is solving another major issue with build diversity and effectiveness. As the Divinity discourse in Destiny 2 proved, items and builds that take the game further into power creep territory shouldn't do so at all times, leading to excessive damage-dealing elements being nerfed, eventually.
As such, the upcoming nerfs to Storm Grenades solve issues with their high damage output, the fact that they scale more based on FPS and duration, the LFG-related gatekeeping problems, and also those about Exotic usage and build diversity. This is also the right path for Bungie to choose, as it doesn't nerf Heart of Inmost Light directly, so it will likely remain one of Destiny 2's good Exotics, at least for a little longer.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
