Coming next week on Thursday, June 3rd, Destiny 2 Hotfix 3.2.0.3 will bring some Stasis changes to Destiny 2’s Crucible that were originally planned for Season 15. While Bungie has pushed up these changes, it has expressed that pushing up changes like this is not something to expect in the future.
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General Changes
General Destiny 2 Stasis tuning includes a reduced duration of all non-Super freezes against players down to 1.35 seconds. Because this duration is too short to break out of, breaking out of Stasis is only possible when frozen by a Super. This means players will no longer have to fumble with the break out button unless they are frozen by a Super. Additionally, Special-weapon, Heavy-weapon, and Light-ability bonus damage against frozen players will be reduced from +50% to +5%.
Stasis’ Slow will no longer reduce weapon accuracy and instead will increase weapon flinch when under fire. Class ability and air moves like Icarus Dash will no longer be suppressed. On top of that, Slow’s movement speed penalty will be reduced by about 20%, making Slow a much less annoying mechanic in PVP.
Whisper of Hedrons has been a top-tier Stasis Fragment since Stasis entered Destiny 2. Being able to increase damage in PvP means easier access to a 120 RPM Hand Cannon with two-tap potential. With the upcoming Stasis changes, Whisper of Hedrons will no longer increase weapon damage. Instead, it will increase weapon stability, weapon aim assist, Mobility, Resilience, and Recovery after freezing a target. Whisper of Rime will no longer provide overshield while in Super.
The Coldsnap Grenade is getting a hefty nerf and will no longer track targets after the initial target acquisition. The arming duration before a seeker spawns will be more than doubled from 0.3 seconds to 0.8 seconds. If that wasn’t enough, Coldsnap Grenades will also have their detonation radius cut in half against players, down to 1.5 meters and will no longer detonate on walls.
Behemoth Titan Nerfs
Bungie looked at recent Crucible gameplay data and found that the Behemoth Titan generally has the highest win rate of any subclass in most 6v6 modes and is also among the strongest in 3v3 modes, with only top-tree Dawnblade having a higher win rate in Trials of Osiris. With controller users having a hard time being able to track a Behemoth Titan, Bungie’s Stasis Changes aim to make that easier for controller players.
The Shiver Strike will have a reduced flight speed and distance with reduced knockback against players. The slow detonation upon player impact will also be removed. Cryoclasm will require the Titan to sprint for 1.25 seconds before activating when not in their Super, however, its current cooldown will be removed.
The Howl of the Storm Aspect will get a reduced angle of the initial freezing/damage cone, and reduced crystal-creation freezing radius. The sequence and animation of the crystal formation will be slowed down to allow players more opportunity to escape. Glacial Quake will get a reduction to its heavy slam vertical freeze range against players and its damage resistance from 50% to 47%.
Revenant Hunter Nerfs
The Hunter Revenant was also found to be a dominating force in the Crucible, with incredibly high usage amongst Destiny 2 Guardians. Because of the frequency of Revenant Hunter usage being as high as 36% in Trials of Osiris, Bungie will make adjustments based on that information.
Withering Blade will be hit pretty hard with multiple changes to its effectiveness. The Slow duration against players will be reduced from 2.5 seconds to 1.5 seconds, with Whisper of Durance’s slow-duration extension against players being reduced from 2 seconds to 0.5 seconds. This means a Withering Blade with Whisper of Durance post-patch, will have a shorter Slow Duration than Withering Blade by itself pre-patch.
Withering Blade will also get a reduction to its damage against players from 65 to 45 and after a one bounce, that damage is further reduced to 30. The projectile speed will be reduced by 10% and will have reduced tracking after bounding off of a wall. These changes, paired with the general Slow changes, should make Withering Blade nothing more than an annoyance in the Crucible.
Winter’s Shroud will get a reduction in its slow duration against players to match the changes to Withering Blade, bringing Winter’s Shroud to a 1.5 second Slow duration with Whisper of Durance adding 0.5 seconds. The new Touch of Winter Aspect from Season of the Splicer will also see a nerf to its Coldsnap Grenade benefits, with the removal of the increased movement speed and travel distance, but will spawn a small Stasis crystal on detonation.
Shadebinder Warlock Nerfs
Warlock’ and their Shadebinder subclass is generally within the top ten of all subclass trees in Destiny 2, grabbing ninth highest in Trials of Osiris, according to Bungie. Noting that the Shadebinders abilities do not feel good as a victim, Bungie will make adjustments to bring Shadebinders more in line.
The Penumbral Blast melee will get reduced tracking and proximity detonation size against players, while also getting a reduced freeze radius to 1.5 meters when impacting the environment against players. These changes should hopefully make instantly freezing Guardians in the Crucible require more aim and skill. The Shadebinder’s Iceflare Bolts seeker will only chain once when spawned from a player shatter. Winter’s Wrath freezing projectile tracking strength will ramp down to 0 after 2 seconds of flight, making this Super less dominant.
Bungie mentions that it will continue to monitor how players interact with Stasis in the Crucible and will continue to make adjustments until Stasis win rates are more in line with the Light-based subclasses. Hopefully, Bungie looks at this as a means to not just nerf Stasis, but also to buff the Light-based subclasses. With Light-based subclasses getting tuning in Season 15, Guardians could very well end up with a meta where Stasis is the weaker force.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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