Destiny 2 Details Big Stasis Changes for All Classes

Highlights

• Bungie is making major changes to the Stasis subclass in Destiny 2 to bring it in line with other subclasses in terms of power and usability.
• A variety of adjustments are being made to Stasis fragments, grenades, and special weapons to improve their effectiveness and balance.
• Hunter Revenant, Warlock Shadebinder, and Titan Behemoth subclasses are also receiving specific changes to enhance their abilities and overall gameplay experience.

Bungie announces major changes coming to the Stasis subclass in Destiny 2 to hopefully bring it more in line with the others in terms of power and usability. Originally introduced inside of the Beyond Light campaign, Stasis has had a somewhat tumultuous history with the game being the first Darkness subclass to be added. Utilizing slowing and freezing abilities, Stasis had a major impact on PvP style modes and also saw plenty of nerfs within the first year of it being added to Destiny 2.

As Stasis turns three in Destiny 2, many fans have felt that the darkness enhanced subclasses have fallen behind thanks to Bungie’s reworking of all Light subclasses as well as the recent addition of Stasis earlier this year inside of the Lightfall expansion. For the most part, Stasis hasn’t changed a whole lot in the past couple of years, leaving many fans to wonder if the one popular subclass would be getting a boost like the others. Thankfully, Bungie provided that answer in this week’s blog post, confirming that Stasis would finally be getting a big boost starting in Season of the Wish and continuing through to The Final Shape expansion.

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General Stasis Adjustments

Bungie’s weekly blog post broke down all of the major changes, kicking things off with a number of tweaks to most of the available Stasis fragments. Three big areas of focus were in adjusting the stat bonuses and penalties, tweaking lesser-used fragments to help make them more appealing, or just making a few changes to help them better suit the style of gameplay that the fragment was enhancing.

• Whisper of Hedrons: Removed -10 Strength penalty.
• Whisper of Impetus: Added +10 Resilience.
• Whisper of Shards: Removed +10 Resilience bonus.
• Whisper of Hunger: Penalty changed from -10 Mobility and -10 Intellect to -20 Strength.
• Whisper of Bonds: Removed -10 Discipline penalty.

Grenades are also seeing a few changes. Glacier grenade is getting a reduced cooldown time from the base of 152 seconds to 121 seconds. Coldsnap is going to be more reliable thanks to an increased arming shape size, improved tracking strength, and a bug getting fixed that prevented the seeker from getting consistently created in the direction the projectile was moving after a bounce.

Special weapons are also getting a stronger damage bonus against frozen targets from 5% to 10% which aims to make shattering opponents more consistent. Finally, Bungie is adding in unique keywords to match the other elements which is intended to be released sometime in the future, not Season of the Wish. While the name is not yet finalized, Bungie refers to it as Frost Armor, which aims to give Stasis players a bit more survivability.

Hunter Revenant Changes

In the past, the Hunter Revenant’s Withering Blade has seen a variety of changes, which has caused the ability to fluctuate in terms of how useful it has been. While many viewed it as being too powerful, Withering Blade recieved some nerfs to bring it back in line, though with the upcoming tweaks, the melee attack should be restored to at least make it more consistent than it has been as of late.

Specifically, Withering Blade is getting a 10% boost to projectile speed and lifetime, better enemy tracking, as well as a higher bounce count from 2 to 3. The Winter’s Shroud aspect, which slows enemy targets during a Hunter Dodge, is getting buffed with an increased area of effect, duration time, as well as a higher stack count. Better yet, Winter’s Shroud also stacks better with exotics like Sixth Coyote or allowing a freeze to happen faster when the enemy is also trapped within a Duskfield grenade.

Warlock Shadebinder Changes

Of the three Stasis subclasses, the Warlock Shadebinder has routinely been at the top of the list in terms of power, so Bungie, having recognized the subclass remains fairly strong, isn’t making too many changes here. However, the studio did confirm a few quality of life updates to Frostpulse and Penumbral Blast to help improve reliability.

For Frostpulse, Bungie has significantly boosted consistency when it’s used against fast-moving targets while also increasing the freeze detonation size against PvE enemies. As for Penumbral Blast, Bungie also increased the detonation size when impacting the environment to make it slightly more consistent and easier to use.

Titan Behemoth Changes

Finally, Titan players are getting so familiar functionality returned to Shiver Strike and Glacial Quake, with Bungie confirming that some changes made are being reverted. Specifically, Shiver Strike now slows players on hit to make it safer to use in close quarters. Glacial Quake also freezes nearby players when it is cast, though the radius of this effect has been slightly reduced from 8 to 6 meters.

Lastly, Howl of the Storm will now consistently freeze targets that come in contact with created Stasis crystals, an issue apparently caused by a bug that has finally been fixed.