Destiny 2’s next expansion, Beyond Light, is set to be one of the biggest fans have seen in a long time. The new add on will bring something Destiny players have been speculating about since the first game, new elemental abilities.
In their most recent Blog Post, Bungie outlined the way the new stasis Melee and Super abilities will work for the Warlock Class. As with all the new powers coming in the Beyond Light expansion, the new Shadebinder Warlock will be ice-based. The new class powers revolve around summoning an ice staff and using it in a variety of ways. As described by Bungie the new melee ability called Penumbral Blast fires a burst of stasis that can freeze enemies. Based on trailer footage the attack will operate somewhat like the Celestial Fire ability except freezing enemies instead of burning them. The new Super ability, Winter’s Wrath, allows Warlocks to throw multiple freezing projectiles at enemies and then shatter them with a shock-wave.
Another new aspect of the Stasis classes is two new ways to customize these new powers. Both of the new power-ups are tied to new loot types, Aspects, and Fragments. Aspects are specific items tied to a specific class and add new abilities as well as some other effects. This could explain why no information about the new class’s grenade ability has been shown. If Aspects change Grenade abilities significantly it would make sense to cover that in an update specifically about Aspects. Fragments are a sort of Russian Nesting Doll item that slots into an Aspect to further tweak a Guardian’s abilities through passive perks and stat buffs or stat trade-offs.
Looking beyond Beyond Light, it is possible that Bungie might add up to two more elements to the game eventually. The game’s lore hints at symmetry or balance between light and darkness so three light and three dark class options would make sense. Bungie also seems to be going for opposite elements with Stasis/Ice opposing Solar/Fire so next could be Arc/Lightning opposed by Ground/Earth. The Void classes present a bit of a challenge for this approach to powers since it’s opposite would be Light of some kind. Bungie could always pull some kind of twist like, “You’ve been using the Darkness all along and didn’t know.”
At any rate tying class abilities to loot is an interesting addition to the game. Newer Destiny players may not be used to grinding for their superpowers but veteran players remember the quests from Destiny 1 and Forsaken.