Heart of Inmost Light nerfed last second ahead of Destiny 2: Lightfall release

That’s it, Guardians…

The servers are officially down in the lead-up to the release of Destiny 2: Lightfall on February 28. Bungie has had some surprises up its sleeves though, as it released a very heavy blog post detailing all of the changes being made to the game during the server downtime, which lasts for 24 hours.

Amongst all of the details, one controversial nerf has been spotted by fans. One of the most popular Titan Exotics in Destiny 2, Heart of Inmost Light, has had a huge change which severely diminishes its effectiveness. In the patch notes, Bungie detailed the changes being made to Heart of Inmost Light. Prior to the servers being taken down, the Exotic chest plate was giving a 150% class regeneration buff in PvE activities and 38% in PvP. After the changes, this drops to 25% across both PvE and PvP activities. As well as this huge drop, the duration of its Empowered buff will decrease from ten seconds to just five.

Bungie, why?!

Bungie always has its reasons for adjusting equipment and weapons in Destiny 2 and it seems this alteration to Heart of Inmost Light is no different. “This change is intended to decrease how easy it is to get and maintain a 2x empowerment bonus in PvE, as well as reduce the total amount of bonus ability energy provided,” Bungie said. “The goal is for Heart of Inmost Light to remain strong in ability-focused builds while giving room for other Exotics to shine as well.”

The Exotic chest piece became popular for the Titan class in Destiny 2, as it regenerated ability energy faster than many other Exotics. This led to ability-focused builds that could create “loops” of using abilities almost endlessly, with those abilities also outputting higher damage numbers. This doesn’t seem to have changed in the massive overhaul being done with the introduction of Lightfall.

Perhaps the most valuable thing about Heart of Inmost Light, though, was the fact it could be used with any subclass build. Without its effectiveness, there’s a chance Titans will look to Hallowfire Heart for Solar builds, or another neutral Exotic such as Mask of the Quiet One.

All is not lost though, as there are plentiful reworks, system overhauls, new mechanics, and an entirely new subclass in the form of Strand for Guardians to get their hands dirty with when Lightfall becomes available on February 28.

Cheri Faulkner

Guides Writer || Cheri is a freelance guides writer for Destructoid having joined in early 2023. She is also published in the likes of NME, Metro, TechRadar, The Loadout, PCGamesN and more as well as writing about music in the pages of Metal Hammer and Prog Magazine.