Bungie shifts major Stasis rework up to Season 14 after Destiny 2 player backlash

Destiny 2 Stasis Season 1 5nerfsBungie

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.

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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

Destiny 2 stasisBungie
Stasis was introduced in Beyond Light but has been scaled back multiple times already due to PVP dominance.

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.

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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.

Destiny 2 stasis gameplayBungie
All three Stasis subclasses should be less oppressive in PVP moving forward.

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.

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Bungie teases bigger PVP overhauls in the pipeline

destiny-2-beyond-light-stasis-subclass-titanBungie
Beyond the current nerfs, even more changes are in the works to tune Stasis in Destiny 2.

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.

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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

General Stasis
Stasis Freeze
  • Reduced duration of all non-Super freezes vs. players to 1.35s.
      • Note: This freeze is too short to break out of, so breaking out is now only possible when frozen by a Super.
  • Reduced Special-weapon, Heavy-weapon, and Light-ability bonus damage vs. frozen players from +50% to +5%.
Stasis Slow 
  • No longer reduces weapon accuracy.
      • Now increases weapon flinch when under fire.
  • No longer suppresses class ability and air moves (e.g., Icarus Dash).
  • Reduced movement speed penalty while slowed by ~20%.
Whisper of Hedrons Fragment
  • No longer increases weapon damage after freezing.
  • Now increases weapon stability, weapon aim assist, Mobility, Resilience, and Recovery after freezing.
Whisper of Rime Fragment
  • No longer provides overshield while in Super.
Coldsnap Grenade 
  • 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.
Titan Behemoth 
Looking at recent gameplay data, the Behemoth generally has the highest win rate of any subclass in most 6v6 game modes and is also among the strongest in 3v3 modes. In Trials of Osiris matches, for example, only top-tree Dawnblade has a higher win rate. We’ve taken these strengths into account when balancing the Behemoth’s abilities. Between Shiver Strike and Cryoclasm, the Behemoth has incredibly high mobility, making targeting the Behemoth frustrating for controller players in particular. We’ve taken steps to make the Behemoth more targetable while moving, which should hopefully alleviate some of this frustration.
Shiver Strike 
  • Reduced flight speed and distance.
  • Reduced knockback vs. players.
  • Removed slow detonation on player impact.
Cryoclasm 
  • Now requires the Titan to sprint for 1.25s before activation when not in Super.
  • Removed cooldown.
Howl of the Storm 
  • 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.
Glacial Quake 
  • Reduced heavy slam vertical freeze range vs. players.
  • Reduced damage resistance from 50% to 47%.
Hunter Revenant 
The Revenant’s Crucible win rate, kills per minute, and average efficiency is generally within the top six of all subclass trees, but its usage rate is incredibly high. In Trials of Osiris matches, it has the fifth-highest win rate of any subclass tree, but is used by a whopping 36% of Trials players. This high usage means players fall victim to its abilities more often, multiplying the frustration of being slowed by Withering Blade and Winter’s Shroud. We hope that the changes we’ve made to being slowed, paired with the adjustments to the Revenant’s abilities, make this experience better.
Withering Blade
  • 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.
Winter’s Shroud 
  • 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.
Touch of Winter 
  • Coldsnap seeker no longer has increased movement speed or travel distance.
  • Coldsnap seeker now spawns a small Stasis crystal on detonation.
Warlock Shadebinder
The Shadebinder’s Crucible performance is generally within the top ten of all subclass trees. In Trials of Osiris matches, it had the 9th highest win rate of all subclass trees. (BTW – I’m pulling all this data from the weekend of 5/14/21, but it generally doesn’t deviate much between weekends. VOG launch weekend shook things up a bit though.) While the Shadebinder may not be the most powerful in competitive play, being frozen by its abilities takes a large emotional toll on the victim. We’ve adjusted Penumbral Blast to require more accuracy vs. players in order to turn this ability into more of a skill shot given its powerful effects.
Penumbral Blast 
  • 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.
Iceflare Bolts 
  • Seeker now only chains once when spawned from a player shatter.
Winter’s Wrath 
  • Freezing-projectile tracking strength now ramps down to 0 after 2s of flight.