All Changes to Abilities, Aspects and Fragments in Destiny 2: The Final Shape

With The Final Shape quickly approaching, Bungie’s been releasing more and more information on the upcoming changes in Destiny 2, including those to abilities, Aspects, and Fragments. This week, Bungie released a super thick Ability Tuning Preview that details all the Ability, Aspect, and Fragment adjustments on a subclass-by-subclass basis, and there’s quite a lot to take in.

While some changes might seem minor, others will be massive in comparison. Overall, these changes will make for much more balanced gameplay in The Final Shape. Let’s take a look at those changes.

Stasis Ability Adjustments

• New Frost Armor keyword:
  • You are fortified by layers of durable Stasis matter, reducing incoming damage. Frost Armor damage resistance grows stronger as you gain additional stacks.
  • Reduces damage from PvE combatants by 4.5% per stack and from enemy players by 2% per stack.
• Whisper of Rime reworked:
  • No longer grants a Stasis Shard Overshield when collecting a Stasis Shard.
  • Now increases the maximum duration and stack count of your Frost Armor.
• All Harvest Aspects:
  • Added new behavior:
    • While Grim, Tectonic, or Glacial Harvest is equipped, Stasis Shards grant a small amount of health and a stack of Frost Armor.
    • Large Stasis Shards from Grim Harvest grant more health and Frost Armor stacks.
  • All Harvest Aspects now have a standardized cooldown when a large number of Shards are created very quickly.
• Tectonic Harvest:
  • Now creates a Stasis Shard when shattering a frozen target in addition to shattering Stasis crystals.
• Whisper of Chill:
  • Stasis weapon final blows have a chance to create a Stasis Shard.
• Whisper of Chains:
  • No longer grants passive damage resistance when near a Stasis crystal or frozen target.
  • Now grants a chance to create a Stasis Shard when defeating a target while you have one or more stacks of Frost Armor.
• Whisper of Fractures:
  • No longer increases melee energy regeneration while surrounded by enemies.
  • Now grants a stack of Frost Armor when you shatter any frozen target with a melee attack.
• Whisper of Torment:
  • Grenade energy gains are no longer dependent on your current health value. Base grenade energy regeneration amount per incoming damage event increased from 5% to 7%.
  • While you have Frost Armor, energy per damage event increases from 7% to 12%.
• Whisper of Reversal:
  • While you have Frost Armor, dealing or receiving physical melee (i.e., not projectile melee) damage slows your victim or attacker.
• Stasis shatter:
  • Increased base PvE shatter damage from 200 to 400.
  • Fixed an issue where bosses auto-shattering were being hit by two instances of shatter damage.
  • Fixed an issue where players in an active Super would show immune damage flyouts when automatically breaking out of Stasis freeze.

Stasis Warlock

• Iceflare Bolts:
  • Increased maximum number of seekers created before going on cooldown from 5 to 7.

Stasis Hunter

• Winter’s Shroud:
  • Added new behavior:
    • Slowing targets briefly increases your class ability regeneration rate.
      • Bonus is reduced in PvP game modes.
    • Now grants PvE damage reduction when activated.
• Touch of Winter:
  • Glacier Grenade:
    • Added an additional Stasis crystal to the ring formation, increasing total count from 6 to 7.
    • Glacier Grenade ring now forms over 0.27 seconds, rather than instantly.
  • Coldsnap Grenade:
    • No longer chains an additional time while Touch of Winter is equipped.
    • Instead, seekers now duplicate when they freeze a target.
    • Second and third seeker chains now create a medium and large Stasis crystal respectively, rather than every chain creating a small crystal.
• Silence & Squall:
  • Increased Squall maximum travel speed by 10%.
  • Squall storm now slows down when any target is within its area of effect to reduce instances where it could overshoot its target.
  • Increased damage and slow tick rate vs. PvE combatants by about 40%, bringing its freeze time from approximately 0.8 seconds to ~0.5 seconds.

Stasis Titan

• Shiver Strike:
  • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 10%.
  • Increased size of melee target search area cone by about 50%.
  • Increased maximum lunge tracking angular speed from 7 degrees per second to 21 degrees per second.
• Glacial Quake:
  • Now automatically begins sprinting when the player throttles forward.
• Cryoclasm:
  • Removed sprint time requirement. Cryoclasm now goes on cooldown for 4 seconds after one extended slide.
• Diamond Lance:
  • Increased thrown Diamond Lance detonation radius from 3.5 meters to 5 meters.
  • Increased Diamond Lance slam detonation radius from 6.75 meters to 8 meters vs. PvE combatants.
  • Diamond Lance now shatters Stasis crystals on direct impact.
  • Reduced Diamond Lance pickup interaction time from 0.2 seconds to 0.1 seconds, matching Strand Tangles.
  • Increased Diamond Lance pickup interaction radius from 0.7 meters to 3 meters, matching Strand Tangles.

Arc Ability Adjustments

Arc Hunter

• Arc Staff:
  • Heavy palm strike attacks and heavy air slam blind enemies.
• Disorienting Blow:
  • Decreased base cooldown time from 100 seconds to 90 seconds.
• Tempest Strike:
  • Added additional damage resistance vs. PvE combatants when activated, lingering for a short duration after the attack.

Arc Warlock

• Lightning Surge:
  • Added additional damage resistance vs. PvE combatants when activated, lingering for a short duration after the attack.
• Ball Lightning:
  • Increased the final arming shape size by 30%.
  • Fixed an issue where the arming shape was offset upward, higher than the maximum damage range of the projectile’s detonation.
• Chain Lightning:
  • Increased secondary chain projectile’s base damage from 27 to 54.

Arc Titan

• Thunderclap:
  • Added additional damage resistance vs. PvE combatants when activated, lingering for a short duration after the attack.
  • Increased minimum damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%.
  • Increased maximum damage vs. PvE combatants by 33%.
  • Increased maximum damage vs. enemy players by 14%.
• Knockout:
  • Increased bonus damage granted to powered melee attacks vs. PvE combatants from 25% to 50%.
  • Reworked healing behavior:
    • No longer unstuns health regeneration on melee defeats. Now instantly grants a chunk of healing that scales with the type of target defeated.
      • Player: 30 health points.
      • Minor combatant: 50 health points.
      • Major combatant: 75 health points.
      • Champion+ combatant: 100 health points.
• Touch of Thunder:
  • Storm Grenade:
    • Increased tracking travel speed when targeting PvE combatants by between 0.5 and 1 meters per second, increasing with the storm’s lifetime.
• Touch of Thunder:
  • Lightning Grenade:
    • Now applies jolt after the first damage event, rather than prior.

Arc Grenades

• Storm Grenade:
  • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%.
  • Touch of Thunder variant’s damage is unchanged.
• Skip Grenade:
  • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 15%.
• Arcbolt Grenade:
  • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 15%.

Arc Fragments

• Spark of Recharge:
  • Ability regeneration bonus now persists until the player returns to full shields, rather than deactivating as soon as shields begin to recharge.
• Spark of Beacons:
  • Now also triggers on defeating targets with Arc Power ammo weapons while amplified.
• Spark of Frequency:
  • Now also grants 15 weapon stability on powered melee hit, in addition to its reload benefit.

Solar Ability Adjustments

Solar Hunter

• Lightweight Knife:
  • Now has 2 melee charges by default.
  • Increased throw animation speed by 33%.
  • Reduced suppression time between throws, so both knives can be thrown very quickly back-to-back.
  • Note: The additional melee charge does not stack with Ophidia Spathe, due to the Exotic’s unique energy recharge behavior. We’ll be monitoring this and evaluating how things are playing once things go live.
• Knock ‘Em Down:
  • Reduced internal cooldown on throwing knife refund from 1 second to 0.2 seconds.
• Golden Gun – Marksman:
  • Reduced strength of Orbs of Power created on precision hit as follows:
    • When hitting non-boss enemies, reduced strength from 0.75x to 0.5x of a normal Super Orb of Power.
    • When hitting boss enemies, reduced strength from 0.75x to about 0.4x of a normal Super Orb of Power.
    • When hitting boss enemies while Star-Eater Scales is equipped, reduced strength from 0.75x to about 0.35x of a normal Super Orb of Power.

Solar Warlock

• Well of Radiance:
  • Now grants radiant for 8 seconds when players exit the Well of Radiance area.
  • Reduced player survivability while standing in the Well of Radiance aura.
    • Reduced healing per second from 100 to 50 health points, matching restoration x2.
    • Increased heal on cast from 40 to 300 health points.
    • Reduced damage resistance vs. non-boss combatants from 40% to 20%.
    • Reduced damage resistance vs. boss combatants from 40% to 10%.
      • Note: damage resistance vs. enemy players is unchanged.
    • Increased maximum Orbs of Power from defeating targets while in your Well of Radiance aura from 4 to 5.

Solar Titan

• Consecration:
  • Consecration’s slam attack can now shatter Stasis crystals.
  • Ignitions generated by Consecration now deal 20% additional damage to PvE combatants.
  • Fixed an issue where Consecration’s slam attack was sometimes unable to damage floating combatants while they were grounded.
  • Fixed an issue where Consecration’s intended PvE damage resistance was not being applied.
• Hammer of Sol:
  • Increased projectile submunition count when Sol Invictus is not equipped as follows:
    • If the projectile detonates within the first 0.7 seconds of its lifetime, it now creates 4 shrapnel submunitions, up from 3.
    • If the projectile detonates after the first 0.7 seconds of its lifetime, it now creates 6 shrapnel, up from 5.
    • Note: When Sol Invictus is equipped, only 3 shrapnel submunitions are created, regardless of flight time.
  • Shrapnel submunitions now deal additional damage when Sol Invictus is not equipped, with the damage increasing after the first 0.7 seconds of the projectile’s lifetime.

Solar Grenades

• Swarm Grenade:
  • Increased tracking shape size from 4 meters to 6 meters.
  • Increased linger duration from 7-8 seconds to 10-11 seconds.
  • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%.

Void Ability Adjustments

Void Hunter

• Snare Bomb:
  • Increased linger duration of smoke after detonation from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.
  • Now applies small damage over time to enemies in the smoke , which increases in strength the longer they remain in the smoke.
• Trapper’s Ambush:
  • Increased linger duration of the smoke after detonation from 4.5 seconds to 6 seconds.
  • Now applies Snare Bomb’s damage over time to enemies caught in its smoke.
  • Fixed an issue where Trapper’s Ambush’s smoke effects could be obstructed by ground geometry.
• Stylish Executioner:
  • Stylish Executioner’s weaken effect can now be applied by Glaive melee attacks.

Void Titan

• Shield Throw:
  • Increased maximum bounce count from 4 to 5.
  • Increased maximum lifetime from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
  • Now increases its tracking shape size and strength after each bounce, increasing its ability to consistently find a new target.
  • Slightly increased gravity and decreased thrust speed with each bounce.
  • Increased damage vs. PvE targets by 20%.
• Offensive Bulwark:
  • Can now only extend Void Overshield’s timer to its normal maximum duration, to prevent an issue where players could get into a bad timer state.
  • Now regenerates a small portion of your active Void Overshield with each melee defeat.
• Ward of Dawn:
  • Armor of Light:
  • Removed Armor of Light Overshield. Ward of Dawn now immediately applies a full Void Overshield to the caster and allies that enter its dome.
  • Armor of Light now instead grants additional damage resistance to players inside the Ward of Dawn:30% vs. enemy players and 60% vs. enemy combatants.
    • Effective health of players inside the Ward of Dawn dome remains roughly the same as it was before vs. PvE combatants.
    • Effective health of players inside the Ward of Dawn is significantly lower than it was before vs other players in PvP, and cannot be further increased by stacking Bastion Barricades inside the Ward to gain additional Overshield layers.
• Allies near the Ward of Dawn dome now have Void Overshield trickled on over time, similar to the volume behind a Bastion barricade.
• No longer provides Weapons of Light by default. This behavior has been moved to the benefits of Helm of Saint-14.
• The Ward of Dawn caster can now generate additional Orbs of Power by defeating enemies with melee attacks in or near their Ward of Dawn dome.

Void Warlock

• Chaos Accelerant:
  • Charged Magnetic Grenade:
    • Increased maximum intensity of physics knockback impulse by 10%.
    • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 20%.
    • Now passively decreases your Magnetic Grenade’s cooldown by 10% while Chaos Accelerant is equipped.
• Pocket Singularity:
  • Increased detonation damage vs. PvE combatants by about 50%.
• Nova Bomb:
  • Cataclysm variant:
    • Increased seeker count from 4 to 6.
    • Fixed an issue where seekers could impact the environment on creation.
  • Vortex variant:
    • Increased Vortex linger duration from 7 seconds to 10 seconds.
    • Fixed an issue where the linger visual effects were shutting off early.

Strand Ability Adjustments

• Thread of Warding:
  • Reduced Woven Mail duration on Orb of Power pickup from 10 seconds to 5 seconds.

Strand Hunter

• Ensnaring Slam:
  • Detonation volume vs. enemy players is now a cylinder with a 6.5-meter radius, rather than a sphere with an 8-meter radius.
    • This results in fewer instances of victims correctly attempting to counterplay by jumping but being caught by the Ensnaring Slam detonation high up in the air.
• Threaded Spike:
  • Reduced damage vs. enemy players from 79 to 70.
  • Catching your Threaded Spike no longer breaks invisibility.

Strand Warlock

• Weaver’s Call:
  • Added new behavior:
    • Defeating a target with Strand damage now has a chance to generate a perched Threadling, with a higher chance of generation from defeating more powerful targets.
    • This damage can be from any source, including other Threadlings.
• Grapple Tangles:
  • No longer fully refresh their duration when Grappled to.
  • Now increase their duration by a maximum of 5 seconds per Grapple, reducing to a maximum of 1 second added after 5 consecutive Grapples to the same Grapple Tangle.

Strand Titan

• Into the Fray
  • Reduced melee energy regeneration scalar from 4x to 3x in PvE activities.
  • Unchanged in PvP activities.
• Banner of War
  • Reduced maximum timer from 30 seconds to 24 seconds.
  • Melee, Glaive melee, and Super damage bonus now have diminishing returns with Synthoceps as follows:
    • Melee bonuses decreased from 1.4x to 1.15x.
    • Glaive melee bonuses decreased from 1.25x to 1.125x.
    • Super bonuses decreased from 1.4x to 1.2x.
  • Melee and Glaive melee damage bonuses now have diminishing returns with Wormgod Caress, too.
    • Melee bonuses decreased from 1.4x to 1.1x, based on stack count.
    • Glaive melee bonuses decreased from 1.4x to 1.05x, based on stack count.
• Frenzied Blade:
  • Reduced the forward offset for melee lunge target point from 0.4 meters to 0.18 meters.

Personally, I think these changes won’t do much good for Titans, but when it comes to Hunters and Warlocks, things will be much better.

Destiny 2 is now available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation consoles.