To be specific, Divinity completely ignores the significant changes to damage buffs and debuffs that were ushered in with the release of Shadowkeep. This shows itself in Divinity’s main exotic perk, Judgment: “Sustained damage with this weapon envelops the target in a field that weakens and disrupts them.” The way this perk’s weaken effect works is that it applies at 25% buff to all incoming damage onto an enemy.
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While that by itself does not sound significant considering the fact that other abilities in the game such as Weapons of Light and Well of Radiance add a similar buff to player damage, the unique part of Divinity is that the 25% damage buff stacks with everything else in the game. And that ability goes completely against the new damage buff rules added in Shadowkeep. That is, the new way buffs and debuffs work in the game is that players can only have one buff and one debuff active at one time. If there are multiple buffs and debuffs used at once, the game picks the most effective buff/debuff and ignores the others instead of stacking them as in the past.
But Divinity breaks these rules, stacking an additional 25% damage on top of any buff and debuff players apply. And that makes Divinity truly exotic. Bungie has discussed in the past how exotics often are designed with the idea of asking what the rules of the game are, then seeing how far an exotic can bend, stretch, or break those rules without being too overpowered. And Divinity is a prime example of that design at its finest.
It also makes having a Divinity equipped on a fireteam very valuable in PvE activities, such as the Garden of Salvation raid itself. It is an exotic weapon that raises itself above just a simple high-damage-dealing weapon and adds strategy, utility, and a meaningful choice to consider having in a loadout. Hopefully, there are even more uniquely powerful exotics like it in the future.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Stadia version also in development.
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