• Ahead of Season of the Deep, Bungie has revealed changes to a number of Exotic armour pieces.
• The changes are intended to make these Exotics more appealing to players.
• These announcements come at a time when there are several, easily accessible ways to farm for armour.

Exotic armour in Destiny 2 gives players a way to add a bit more spice to the gameplay. These armour pieces can increase damage output, improve effects of abilities or even change abilities altogether.

Unfortunately, as the power and capabilities of Destiny 2 players have improved over time, certain Exotics aren’t as useful as others and some are overly used.

This week, Bungie has teased a few changes to certain Exotic armour pieces that will arrive in Season of the Deep later this month.

With that in mind, it may be best to start farming for a few of these Exotics ahead of the new season and the timing couldn’t be better.

We say this because at time of writing the Guardian Games are currently on the go in Destiny 2. Part of this event includes the Guardian Games: Competitive Playlist which is a Nightfall-esque activity that is match-made and has a chance to drop Exotic armour. So long as you hit a score of 175 000 you have a chance at an Exotic reward.

This week’s Guardian Games: Competitive Playlist is the Arms Dealer and getting 175 000 is a tough ask but it is possible if you clear rooms of enemies and earn as many medals as possible. This is frankly one of the easier ways of getting Exotics.

Other methods we recommend are Legend Lost Sectors. These are on rotation and you can visit Light.gg to see which Lost Sector is active that day and what rewards you can potentially earn.

Then, on Neomuna Vex Strike Force spawns randomly and there are groups that monitor the location for the event. This event drops a guaranteed Exotic on completion so it may be worth investigating.

Finally, Nightfall Strikes can also drop Exotics and this week’s rewards are doubled so it’s a brilliant time to farm.

What to farm?

According to Bungie, the changes that it is bringing to the game are intended to add to an Exotic’s functionality rather than remove its existing capabilities. With that in mind, these are the changes starting with Hunters:

• Sealed Ahamkara Grasps – will now reload the magazine of all of your weapons when you defeat a target with your powered melee, and for five seconds after dealing melee damage you gain increased movement speed and jump height.
• Athrys’s Embrace – Gain additional strength while the Exotic’s Weighted Knife damage bonus is active.
• Oathkeeper – When fully drawn, Bows gain a bonus to damage against combatants that increases as you hold the draw but deactivates after a few seconds.
• Raiju’s Harness – When deactivating your Arc Staff Super, you create a blinding explosion that temporarily increases your Arc weapon damage. However, blocking with Whirlwind Guard will no longer consume energy more slowly.
• Radiant Dance Machines – Kills while your free dodge is active extend the duration of free dodging. No longer deactivates when you get too far away from enemies. Deactivates after using Suspending Slam.
• ST0MP-EE5 – Removed airborne effectiveness penalties. You only gain increased speed, slide distance, and improved jumping while your dodge energy is full.
• Mask of Bakris – Changed to use a tier-4 non-stacking weapon damage bonus (which behaves the same as the non-stacking damage bonuses provided by Surge mods). Damage bonus increased in PvE from 10 percent to 25 percent, and now grants a 6 percent bonus to weapon damage in PvP. No longer stacks with Surge leg armour mods, but provides a larger bonus than can be achieved with 3 such mods equipped.

Titans should get a hand on the following Exotics if they don’t have one already:

• Point-Contact Cannon Brace – Lightning strikes now jolt targets. Increased PvE damage per lightning bolt from 50 to 200. Being amplified now increases the damage of the lightning strikes by 50 percent instead of extending their range.
• No Backup Plans – Reworked. Now provides a moderate benefit to the airborne effectiveness and reload speed of Shotguns. While you have a Void overshield, Shotguns deal additional damage and Shotgun final blows refresh your overshield. While using a Void subclass, rapid Shotgun final blows or defeating a powerful enemy with a Shotgun grants you a Void overshield and kicks off your health regeneration.
• Second Chance – Shield throw melee now weakens enemies. Stunning a Barrier Champion with your shield throw melee grants a single full melee charge.
• Stronghold – Replaced the healing from blocking shots precisely with significant damage reduction (50 percent in PvE, 10 percent in PvP) while blocking with a Sword. When you stop blocking, gain restoration x2, with a duration that increases based on the number of shots you blocked.
• Eternal Warrior – Rapid takedowns with an Arc weapon grant an escalating bonus to Arc weapon damage, using the same non-stacking damage bonuses used by Surge mods. This can go all the way up to the tier-4 damage bonus, granting a damage bonus of 25 percent in PvE and 6 percent in PvP, providing a larger bonus than can be achieved with three Surge mods equipped. While at the tier-4 damage bonus, Arc kills refresh the bonus’s duration. After your Fist of Havoc Super ends, you gain the tier-4 damage bonus.
• Khepri’s Horn – The Solar damage wave now scorches targets.
• Path of Burning Steps – Changed to use the non-stacking weapon damage bonuses used by Surge mods. This can go all the way up to the tier-4 damage bonus, granting a damage bonus of 25 percent in PvE and 6 percent in PvP, providing a larger bonus than can be achieved with three Surge mods equipped. While at the tier-4 damage bonus, Solar kills refresh the bonus’s duration. Becoming encased immediately grants you the tier-4 damage bonus.

And finally, Warlocks:

• Vesper of Radius – Your rifts emit an Arc shockwave every 5 seconds that deals damage (200 in PvE and 70 in PvP). Enemies defeated by these shockwaves explode for an additional 100 damage and, if you have an Arc subclass equipped, also blind nearby enemies.
• Chromatic Fire – Increased the radius and damage of the explosion created by precision Kinetic takedowns. The explosion also applies a status effect to targets damaged by it, depending on which subclass you have equipped: blind (Arc), scorch (Solar), slow (Stasis), sever (Strand), weaken (Void).
• Dawn Chorus – Daybreak projectile’s damage bonus has been increased and no longer is reliant on the enemy being scorched.
• Sanguine Alchemy – Standing in a rift grants a non-stacking bonus to weapon damage matching your subclass damage type. This damage bonus is the equivalent of 2 Surge leg mods (17 percent PvE and 4.5 percent PvP).
• Claws of Ahamkara – Powered melee kills create an Orb of Power. When Heavy Handed mods are equipped, increases the potency of the orb spawned (no more than 1 orb can be spawned per enemy takedown). 
• Mantle of Battle Harmony – Weapon bonus damage changed to tier-4 when Super is fully charged, increasing damage bonus in PvE from 20 percent to 25 percent and reducing the damage bonus from 15 percent to 6 percent in PvP. No longer stacks with Surge leg armour mods, but provides a larger bonus than can be achieved with three such mods equipped. Damage bonus only applies to weapons that match your subclass damage type, and now stacks with Empowering Rift and other similar damage bonuses. Extended base duration of this bonus from 6 seconds to 10 seconds (PvE) and 3 seconds to 5 seconds (PvP).
• Promethium Spur – Grants Rift energy for any Solar weapon takedown, with more energy granted for Solar weapon takedowns while standing in a rift. Also, you now have to be standing in a rift when you get a final blow for the Exotic to consume your class ability energy and create a rift at the target’s location.

These are substantial and interesting changes to a large number of Exotics and we’re curious to see how they impact the state of the game. These changes will also arrive alongside a new Artifact and perks which should give players even more ways to evolve their battlecraft.

Of course, players could wait until Exotic armour focusing arrives next season but given that you can grind out armour now when there isn’t much else to do in the game, may as well see if we can get a well-rolled Vesper of Radius.