In the latest patch for Destiny 2 The Final Shape, Bungie has added an extended cooldown to Facet of Command, which has greatly impacted the Fragment’s viability in the sandbox.
Previously, Facet of Command did not have a cooldown at all, allowing the Prismatic Fragment’s effects to be activated at will. However, after the June 18 patch, there is now an 11-second cooldown between uses, during which Guardians cannot trigger its effects.
Facet of Command provides the following benefits: “Freezing or suppressing a target reloads your equipped weapons and increases weapon stability, aim assist, and airborne effectiveness. Defeating frozen or suppressed targets creates a Stasis Shard or Void Breach.”
Though it hardly dominated the PvE Meta, Facet of Command had seen use from Destiny 2 players looking to utilize the unusual combinations it enabled. Most notably, it made Twin Tail Fox much stronger, as the often neglected Exotic weapon would automatically reload every time its Void projectile suppressed an enemy.
However, Facet of Command was nerfed due to how it interacted with certain Stasis abilities. Both Silence & Squall and Bleak Watcher could trigger the Fragment, allowing certain builds to avoid reloading entirely. This was especially strong when using meta Rocket Launchers or Heavy Grenade Launchers against bosses.
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Following the nerf, Facet of Command is hard to justify using. An 11-second cooldown is an awfully long time in Destiny, especially considering that comparable Fragments like Thread of Ascent and Whisper of Impetus’ cooldowns aren’t even half as long.
This was a sentiment echoed by the community, with upvoted replies in a Reddit thread discussing the nerf describing the change as “complete trash,” and “completely uncalled for.”
The consensus from most Guardians is that Facet of Command was overly nerfed, with a smaller 4-6 second cooldown being more suitable. This shorter cooldown would have still minimized the impact of troublesome interactions, while still retaining the Fragment’s ability to empower some of Destiny 2’s less popular weapons.