After months of Stasis dominance in Destiny 2’s Crucible, Bungie has rushed forward major changes for the Guardian power originally set for Season 15; these major freeze and slowing nerfs will now ship in patch 3.2.0.3.
There’s no denying Stasis has been controversially powerful in PVP since its introduction. The ice-based subclasses have been hit with wave after wave of nerfs yet they still continue to play a massive — and controversial — role throughout the Crucible in the Season of the Splicer.
Well aware of frustrations among the community, Bungie has ditched its original timeline for Destiny 2 in 2021. Rather than holding off to roll out big changes in future seasons, a major set of Stasis tweaks have been pushed ahead.
In order to finally have Stasis on ‘equal footing’ to Arc, Solar, and Void, in PVP, the devs have outlined perhaps the biggest list of nerfs yet.
Bungie pushes Season 15 Stasis nerfs forward
Despite Season of the Splicer only just kicking off, we’re already in store for another massive update. New Stasis changes were originally “planned to ship in Season 15 alongside a larger subclass balance patch,” Bungie revealed on May 27.
However, these gameplay changes have been rushed ahead and are now set for patch 3.2.0.3, which goes live on Thursday, June 3.
The general effects of Stasis have been reeled in and a number of abilities have also been tweaked to be far less oppressive.
Overall, any non-Super freeze will now keep players in place for just 1.35s. This considerably faster rate is so short, in fact, there’s no need for players to manually break out anymore. Moreover, damage sustained while frozen has dropped from a 50% bonus to a mere 5%.
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While you’re being hit with slows, accuracy will no longer be reduced, movement speed will be faster, and you can use abilities like Icarus Dash to escape.
All three classes have had their Stasis subclasses adjusted as well. Four Titan abilities have been nerfed, along with three for Hunters and three for Warlocks.
The likes of Penumbral Blast now has a considerably reduced radius. Abilities like Withering Blade will allow trapped targets to escape much quicker than before. Even the Coldsnap Grenade will be far less effective moving forward.
Bungie teases bigger PVP overhauls in the pipeline
While this unprecedented patch aims to address Stasis controversy once and for all, Bungie is already eyeing some bigger changes for Destiny 2 as a whole. Beyond Season 15, the devs teased some key ability changes, various reworks, along with a broader overhaul for ability usage in general.
“Ability regeneration rates” will be a big focus moving forward, as will the “ability-energy economy.” This could see major tweaks to the entire flow of combat in Destiny 2, not just in PVP.
- Read More: When is crossplay coming to Destiny 2?
There’s still plenty of time left for Bungie to nail down these exact changes. The devs even stressed not to expect “mid-season patches of this scope [to] become a regular occurrence.”
Destiny 2 patch 3.2.0.3 full notes
- Reduced duration of all non-Super freezes vs. players to 1.35s.
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- Note: This freeze is too short to break out of, so breaking out is now only possible when frozen by a Super.
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- Reduced Special-weapon, Heavy-weapon, and Light-ability bonus damage vs. frozen players from +50% to +5%.
- No longer reduces weapon accuracy.
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- Now increases weapon flinch when under fire.
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- No longer suppresses class ability and air moves (e.g., Icarus Dash).
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- Reduced movement speed penalty while slowed by ~20%.
- No longer increases weapon damage after freezing.
- Now increases weapon stability, weapon aim assist, Mobility, Resilience, and Recovery after freezing.
- No longer provides overshield while in Super.
- Seeker no longer tracks targets after initial target acquisition.
- Increased arming duration before seeker spawns from 0.3s to 0.8s.
- Reduced detonation radius vs. players from 3m to 1.5m.
- Now bounces off walls and detonates on the ground.
- Reduced flight speed and distance.
- Reduced knockback vs. players.
- Removed slow detonation on player impact.
- Now requires the Titan to sprint for 1.25s before activation when not in Super.
- Removed cooldown.
- Reduced angle of initial freezing/damage cone.
- Reduced crystal-creation freezing radius.
- Slowed down sequence of crystal formation to allow victims more opportunity to escape.
- Now spawns a small crystal on walls if performed into walls.
- Reduced heavy slam vertical freeze range vs. players.
- Reduced damage resistance from 50% to 47%.
- Reduced slow duration vs. players from 2.5s to 1.5s.
- Reduced Whisper of Durance slow-duration extension vs. players from 2s to 0.5s.
- Reduced damage vs. players from 65 to 45 (after one bounce reduced further to 30).
- Reduced projectile speed by 10%.
- Reduced tracking after bouncing off a wall.
- Reduced slow duration vs. players from 2.5s to 1.5s.
- Reduced Whisper of Durance slow-duration extension vs. players from 2s to 0.5s.
- Coldsnap seeker no longer has increased movement speed or travel distance.
- Coldsnap seeker now spawns a small Stasis crystal on detonation.
- Reduced tracking and proximity detonation size and tracking vs. players.
- Reduced freeze radius vs. players when impacting the environment from 2.7m to 1.5m.
- Seeker now only chains once when spawned from a player shatter.
- Freezing-projectile tracking strength now ramps down to 0 after 2s of flight.
