With The Final Shape expansion launching on June 4, Bungie has been hard at work detailing what players can expect when they load into the next chapter of Destiny 2. After showcasing some of the new Dread enemies, Exotic weapons, and Exotic armor, the studio has switched gears, laying out changes for existing weapons and abilities.
In the Dev Insights post for Subclass tuning, Bungie tackled some expected issues. But the studio also had a few surprises up its sleeve for a Subclass most players have written off.
Stasis revamp
The big news is a new Subclass keyword called Frost Armor. Frost Armor provides 4.5% damage resistance per stack against PvE foes and 2% per stack in PvP. The buff lasts nine seconds and can be stacked up to five times, leading to a whopping 22.5% damage resistance when fully stacked in PvE. If players loop in the updated Whisper of Rime Fragment, that duration bumps up to 13 seconds, and Frost Armor can be stacked up to eight times, pushing Guardians up to a 36% resistance buff in PvE and 16% in PvP.
Players can gain a stack of Frost Armor and a heal whenever collecting a Stasis Shard, but it doesn’t stop there. To support Frost Armor and give Stasis players a few extra toys to play with, Bungie has reworked several Fragments and introduced a couple of newcomers.
- Whisper of Rime – Reworked to increase Frost Armor buff length and maximum stack total.
- Whisper of Chill – A new Fragment that allows a chance to create a Stasis Shard when defeating foes with a Stasis weapon.
- Whisper of Chains – This Fragment was rebuilt to allow for the creation of Stasis Shards when defeating enemies while Frost Armor is active.
- Whisper of Fractures – Reworked to provide a stack of Frost Armor when players Shatter a frozen target with melee.
- Whisper of Torment – The Fragment was altered, now providing a fixed 7% grenade energy when players take damage from enemies, bumping up to 12% when Frost Armor is active.
- Whisper of Reversal – A new Fragment that slows melee attackers or those subject to a melee when players have Frost Armor active.
Bungie also noted how Shatter would change in The Final Shape to round out general stasis changes. Shatter damage will double from 200 to 400, but the studio has simultaneously fixed a bug where boss enemies were prone to having the Shatter effect hit twice.
General Arc changes
- Spark of Beacons – This Fragment now has an additional way to activate, defeating enemies with heavy Arc weapons while Amplified.
- Spark of Frequency – The ability regen bonus will remain active until players’ shields are fully recharged.
- Spark of Recharge – Added a weapon stability buff after a powered melee hit.
General Strand changes
- Thread of Warding – Orbs of Power now provides Woven Mail for 5 seconds instead of 10.
- Strand Tangles and Grapple – Grapple is no longer refreshed when grappling a Tangle. Tangle durations will be increased by 5 seconds per Grapple but reduced to 1-second increases after 5 Grapples.
Warlock Subclass changes
Solar
Solar Warlocks only have one change to address, and it’s a big one: the Well of Radiance Super. Bungie has long believed the Super was overused across Destiny 2, often allowing players to ignore mechanics with the neigh invincibility it provided. In that spirit, the studio has some changes coming to Well, making it less of a set-and-forget Super.
For the good, Well of Radiance will now provide 8 seconds of the Radiant buff to players who’ve entered the Super, even after they’ve left its AOE. In addition, Well now has some powerful utility as an instant group heal ability, with its instant heal on cast jumping from 40 to 300 HP. Finally, Bungie has made it possible to generate more Orbs of Power from the Super, going from 4 maximum to 5.
On the other hand, Well of Radiance’s ability to essentially withstand enemy damage will be all but eliminated. Healing per second is dropping to 50 HP from 100 and damage resistance is going down across the board, from 40% in all situations to 10% damage resistance against bosses and 20% against everything else.
Arc
Similar to Hunter, there aren’t many changes for Arc Warlocks inbound. The most notable are updates to the Lightning Surge Aspect that provides some damage resistance and some fiddling with Ball Lightning to make it more reliable. Chain Lightning also got some love, increasing damage from 27 to 54.
Void
Void Warlocks are getting a couple of targeted fixes to help improve the Subclass’ abilities for Prismatic. The Chaos Accellerant variant of Charged Magnetic grenade will see a 20% damage increase and a cooldown decrease of 20%. It will also knock enemies back by an additional 10%. Pocket Singularity will see some gains, too, with a 50% increase in detonation damage in PvE. The Nova Bomb Supers are also getting a little love, with Cataclysm earning two additional seeker projectiles (going to 6) and Vortex’s duration increasing to 10 seconds from 7.
Stasis
Aside from the updates that revolve around Frost Armor and Shatter, there isn’t much changing for Stasis Warlocks. The only point Bungie noted was that Iceflare Bolts would spawn 7 homing Bolts, up from the previous 5.
Strand
For Strand Warlocks, there’s only one change incoming, and it’s to the Weavers Call Aspect. The Aspect now offers a chance to generate a perched Threadling by eliminating foes with Strand damage.
Hunter Subclass changes
Solar
Solar Hunters are getting a few changes to the tools in their kit, starting with the underutilized Lightweight Knife melee ability. The ability will come with two charges by default, making throwing the blades rapidly easier. To support the changes to Lightweight Knife, Bungie changed how Knock ‘Em Down works, reducing the cooldown of the melee regenerating effect from 1 second to 0.2 seconds. Finally, Swarm Grenade is getting a few buffs to ready it for Prismatic builds. It will see a 20% damage buff, can linger for up to 11 seconds (up from 8), and has improved projectile tracking.
The other significant change Solar Hunters will see is to their Golden Gun Super. Specifically, Bungie called out Golden Gun, Marksman’s ability to recharge and power up a group of Hunters, all using the Super and the Star-Eater Scales Exotic. Thankfully, Bungie isn’t touching the power of the Super ability at its base, but it is tuning how effective created Orbs of Power are. Against a boss, created Orbs of Power have a 0.4 multiplier rather than a 0.75 multiplier. This effect is 0.5 for non-boss enemies. When Star-Eater Scales is thrown into the mix, that multiplier drops to 0.35.
Arc
There weren’t too many Arc changes for Hunters, with Bungie noting that it would watch how the Subclass performs after The Final Shape releases. Of note, heavy attacks will now Blind enemies when using Arc Staff. Otherwise, the only other changes are that Disorienting Blow has a reduced cooldown, from 100 seconds to 90 seconds, and Tempest Strike now provides some damage resistance in PvE. In addition to these goodies, Skip grenades and Arcbolt grenades get a 15% damage buff against PvE enemies, and Storm grenades get a 20% buff.
Void
Bungie commented that Void Hunters didn’t need many changes, but it still had a few updates in store. Starting with Snare Bomb, the ability will let its smoke linger for 5 seconds, up from 3. The smoke will also hurt enemies, dealing more damage the longer they’re in the effect. Trapper’s Ambush will similarly increase its smoke duration from 4.5 seconds to 6. Finally, Stylish Executioner will apply to Glaive melee attacks as well.
Stasis
On top of the more general Stasis updates, Hunters are having a few of their abilities targeted for a buff or overhaul. Bungie started with the Winter’s Shroud Aspect, adding some new functionalities. The Aspect now offers a damage reduction when used in PvE, and using the Aspect to slow enemies increases Class ability regeneration rates.
Next up was the Touch of Winter Aspect, focusing on the Glacier and Coldsnap Grenades. When using the Aspect, Glacier Grenade will now create one additional Stasis Crystal, but it’ll come at the cost of a slower deployment. Coldsnap Grenades buffed by the Aspect have been reworked to double seekers after freezing an enemy. They will also create a medium Stasis Crystal after chain-freezing a second enemy and a large one after a third.
Finally, Silence & Squall got a bit of an update, making it more reliable. The Super will move faster by 10% in The Final Shape, and it’ll slow itself when surrounding an enemy, hopefully eliminating a chance of overshooting foes. The speed at which it damages and applies Slow was also raised by 40% in PvE.
Strand
Bungie thinks Strand Hunters have a couple of abilities that are a bit too strong in their current form. To bring things more in line with the studio’s vision, Ensnaring Slam’s radius has decreased from 8 meters to 6.5 and changed in shape from a sphere to a cylinder. Threaded Spike also got a bit of a nerf, decreasing damage against players to 70 from 79.
Titan Subclass changes
Solar
Solar Titans are getting two focused tweaks ahead of The Final Shape. First, the powerful Consecration powered melee ability is getting even stronger. Consecration will see a 20% damage buff to Ignitions created by the ability and will be able to destroy any Stasis Crystals it hits. The ability will also more easily target foes in the air and apply damage resistance to the user.
The next set of tweaks is around Hammer of Sol, and interestingly, only when the Sol Invictus Aspect isn’t equipped. Shrapnel counts have increased by 1 regardless of distance traveled before detonation, either creating 4 or 6. Additionally, Shrapnel will deal more damage when Sol Invictus isn’t equipped, ramping up after 0.7 seconds.
Arc
Arc Titans are getting a bit of focus, with several changes coming to the Subclass. First, Thunderclap will increase its damage and provide some resistance. The Knockout Aspect is getting reworked, providing some instant healing after a melee kill and increasing powered melee attack damage by 50%, up from 25%. The healing provided by Knockout is 30 HP for a player, 50 HP for a minor enemy, 75 HP for Majors, and 100 HP for Champions or stronger.
Storm grenade is getting a couple of buffs, with increased tracking provided by the Touch of Thunder Aspect. Damage has risen by 20% for Storm grenades not utilizing Touch of Thunder. Lightning grenade will also get some added utility from Touch of Thunder, adding Jolt after the first instance of damage.
Void
While Void Titans have several changes coming their way, one of the biggest has to be Ward of Dawn. Alongside Well of Radiance, Bungie looked at Ward of Dawn, bringing it into line with other Super options. The Void-based dome shield no longer provides an overshield via Armor of Light, instead providing a Void overshield. The Void shield will recharge players close enough to the Ward, and Armor of Light has been reworked to provide 60% resistance while inside the dome in PvE and 30% resistance against players in PvP. Accompanying these changes is the retirement of Weapons of Light through the Super alone, but Titans can generate Orbs of Power with melee kills inside the Ward.
Outside of Ward of Dawn, Void Titans can expect changes to the Shield Throw melee ability. It will be able to bounce up to 5 times, increased from 4, and has a longer lifetime, going up to 4 seconds from 3. Bungie also made the ability to track enemies more easily and included a solid 20% damage buff against PvE foes. Offensive Bulwark is also getting a minor update, restoring Void overshield after melee kills and fixing a timer and buff duration issue.
Stasis
Alongside the general updates, Stasis Titans are finally getting some love. For the Stasis Titan melee, Shiver Strike will bolster a 10% damage boost in PvE and become easier to land hits. Bungie also noted that Glacial Quake would automatically propel Titans into a sprint after activation, and Cryoclasm has had its sprint requirement removed in favor of a 4-second cooldown between elongated slides.
Diamond Lance will see a suite of updates to make it a more competitive choice. The radius of the Lance’s detonation is increasing from 3.5 meters to 5 meters, and its slam radius is rising from 6.75 meters to 8 meters in PvE. The icy weapons will also be easier to grab amid combat, taking a note from Strand Tangles.
Strand
Bungie noted that, over time, Banner of War has proven a bit too strong. Bungie tuned down some abilities connected to Banner of War Titans to make the build feel less obligatory. The Into the Fray Aspect’s melee energy regen scaling was reduced from a 4X multiplier to 3X. Additionally, Banner of War saw a series of changes, including a time reduction to Banner of War, dropping from 30 seconds to 24.
Bungie also took a swing at the Synthoceps Exotic, decreasing bonus damage across the board. The same also happened with the Wormgod Caress Exotic. Finally, Frenzied Blade got a minor tweak, making it more reliable when close to enemies.
Published: May 30, 2024 10:00 am