While this week’s Destiny 2 hot fix was only supposed to make a few small changes to the game and remove some bugs, it has also included a stealth nerf to a very useful combo. Prior to the patch, the Particle Deconstruction mod that buffs Fusion Rifle damage could stack with the Nightstalker Hunter’s Tether, which debuffs the enemy and increases damage output. Now, those two no longer stack.
The combination of Particle Deconstruction and Tether was helping fireteams deal massive damage to raid bosses, Strike bosses, and any other single targets. And if the team added more buffs and debuffs like Ward of Dawn’s Weapons of Light, a Well of Radiance, or Focusing Lens, they were seeing huge boosts to their damage output. Unfortunately, this stealth nerf takes one additive element out of the equation.
It’s not just the Nightstalker Hunter’s Tether that no longer stacks with Particle Deconstruction mod, either. Almost any Destiny 2 debuff that can be applied to a target is now overridden by Particle Deconstruction, which its own form of debuff, albeit only for fusion rifle and linear fusion rifle damage. Hammer Strike or Tractor Cannon, for example, used to work but now they do not.
Why Particle Deconstruction is So Good
Once Destiny 2 players began to play around with Particle Deconstruction, it became clear that this was going to be a very useful mod during Season of the Lost. Combined with Vex Mythoclast, or One Thousand Voices, or Threaded Needle, Particle Deconstruction can give players a huge boost to damage output. Then those fireteams started to see how much further they could push the damage and eventually discovered that if a Tether was applied before Particle Deconstruction, the two would stack. Most figured it was a bug, and now that Bungie has launched this stealth nerf, it appears they were right.
But even though Tether no longer works with Particle Deconstruction, there is one debuff that still does. The Divinity Trace Rifle can still stack with Particle Deconstruction if Divinity is applied before the fusion rifle mod.
Stealth nerfs in Destiny 2 are not unheard of and usually, they are meant to remove an unintended effect that's not game-breaking but very beneficial to the player. When things are broken like the Radiant Dance Machines, Bungie explains why it issued the nerf. In this case, the studio has not said anything.
It’s also possible that this is a bug and Bungie didn’t mean to make this change, but that seems unlikely given the way the studio has explained how buffs and debuffs should work. In this case, it was assumed that Tether shouldn’t be working with Particle Deconstruction but players were willing to take advantage for as long as they could. Now, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Divinity as a popular loadout option for raid bosses like Atheon in Vault of Glass.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S