Destiny 2 Making Big Changes to Abilities in Episode Heresy

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 18, 2025 4 Views 13 Min Read
Destiny 2 Making Big Changes to Abilities in Episode Heresy

Summary

  • Bungie reveals changes to Destiny 2 subclasses during Episode Heresy.
  • Arc subclasses like Striker, Arcstrider, and Stormcaller receive new abilities and buffs like Bolt Charge in Episode Heresy.
  • Certain effects and buffs like Radiant, Amplified, and Frost Armor are also seeing tweaks.

Bungie reveals extensive changes coming to many of the subclasses during Episode Heresy, balancing out a wide variety of Destiny 2 abilities. Considering the current state of Destiny 2, there seems to be a lot of hope being placed on Episode Heresy, as well as what Codename Frontiers ultimately brings to the table this summer.

With Episode Revenant coming to a close, most Destiny 2 players have started looking ahead, aided by recent blog posts from Bungie which have slowly revealed new details about the upcoming Episode. While fans already knew that the popular Destiny location the Dreadnaught is returning, Bungie has started to confirm some of the smaller and more subtle details that are also coming, such as a full balance sweep of existing subclass abilities.

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Balance changes are nothing new to Destiny 2, as Bungie typically takes the time at the start of each season to make sandbox-level changes to Destiny 2. For Episode Heresy, Bungie really focused on the arc subclasses of the Striker, Arcstrider, and Stormcaller, adding in a new ability, while also granting additional buffs. However, other subclasses were also highlighted, with Sentinel and Voidwalker also seeing a number of tweaks. For all subclasses, Radiant is seeing a slight PvE nerf, Frost Armor is being buffed, and Prismatic also saw a few changes as well.

In addition to a sweeping balance pass on all abilities, Bungie is also looking to enhance the arc subclass as well. To help players lean into that momentum-based gameplay style, Bungie is adding a new verb called Bolt Charge to the Destiny 2 Arc subclass. Players can build stacks of Bolt Charge via combat and after gaining a full 10, the next ability that damages an enemy also sends out a Arc bolt, which deals about the same amount of damage as a Solar ignition.

As players continue to wait for new details on Episode Heresy, Bungie had one last surprise for fans. Starting on January 21, a new in-game event called Past is Prologue arrives in Destiny 2, bringing back elements of the previous Riven’s Wishes feature. By completing various quests from the Drifter, players can earn up to 8 Bento Tokens and exhange them for some powerful rewards, like various mementos, rare resources, Adept weapons, and artifice armor. Turning in 5 tokens also unlocks the fan favorite Chatterwhite Shader as well.

Destiny 2 Episode Heresy Ability Change Preview

Hunter

Arc Strider

  • Tempest Strike
    • New additional effect added.
      • Killing any jolted target grants a stack of Bolt Charge.
    • Increased damage against PvE enemies by 57%.
  • Disorienting Blow
    • Now grants a moderate amount of Bolt Charge stacks when dealing damage with Disorienting Blow.
    • Disorienting Blow now deals significant damage in an area around the target hit, instead of just single target damage.
    • Increased the Blind AoE from 6m to 9.6m.
  • Arc Staff
    • Reflecting an attack will grant a stack of Bolt Charge.
  • Ascension
    • Increased Fragment slots to three on Arc.
      • Note: Ascension was already granting three Fragment slots on Prismatic.
    • Activating Ascension will now activate the effects from the following abilities: Gambler’s Dodge, Marksman’s Dodge, Empowering Dodge, and Threaded Specter.
      • Note: We don’t plan to make Ascension activate every Hunter class-ability perk, but we may add more interactions in the future.

Threadrunner

  • Ensnaring Slam
    • Activating Ensnaring Slam will now activate the effects from the following abilities: Gambler’s Dodge, Marksman’s Dodge, and Threaded Specter.
      • Note: We don’t plan to make Ensnaring Slam activate every Hunter class-ability perk, but we may add more interactions in the future.
    • Threaded Specter
      • Increased the clone’s PvE damage resistance from 40% to 70%.

Titan

All Titan Subclasses

  • Barricade
    • Increased damage resistance vs. combatant splash damage attacks when standing behind Barricade from 60% to 80%.
    • Taunt strength and range no longer fall off over time.

Striker

  • Juggernaut
    • While Juggernaut shield is active, players now have splash damage resistance.
      • 60% splash damage resistance in PvE, 10% in PvP.
    • While the Juggernaut shield is active, players now have 10% damage resistance vs PvE combatants.
    • When the Juggernaut shield blocks damage, players are granted a stack of Bolt Charge.
  • Ballistic Slam
    • Sprint time requirement before activation significantly reduced.
    • Damage now scales based on distance traveled.
    • Damage vs. PvE combatants increased by 30%.
    • Each enemy damaged by Ballistic Slam grants a stack of Bolt Charge.
      • Up to the max of 10 stacks if you manage to hit 10 targets with a single activation.

Sentinel

  • Unbreakable
    • Increased the rate that the Unbreakable offensive throw charges up when blocking damage.
    • Increased max damage dealt from the offensive throw by 20%.
    • Increased the health pool of the shield to make it less likely to break when under heavy fire.
    • Increased the Void Overshield charge rate while holding the shield.
    • Throw now costs half of a grenade-energy charge instead of a full charge.
    • While Sentinel Shield is equipped, Orb of Power creation cooldown increased from 1s to 4.5s.
      • Note: Unbreakable has received a significant buff here. We want it to be strong, but we’ll be monitoring it closely to make sure we haven’t gone too far.
    • Ward of Dawn
      • Ward of Dawn now does a Weaken pulse when the Ward is created.

Sunbreaker

  • Consecration
    • Reduced scorch-wave and slam-wave damage in PvE by 55%.
      • Note: When reviewing the damage-cost ratio for certain abilities, it became clear that Consecration was doing too much for too little. We didn’t want to take away from the dramatic pop moment of landing both waves on a target though, so we kept its increased Ignition damage bonus and instead reduced the wave damage. We suspect we may also need to adjust the Ignition damage in the future.

Warlock

Stormcaller

  • Stormtrance
    • Increased non-champion PvE damage by 20%.
  • Chaos Reach
    • Increased non-champion PvE damage by 15%.
  • Lightning Surge
    • Removed Amplified on cast.
    • Now grants a stack of Bolt Charge for each enemy hit with Lightning Surge.
    • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by 30%.

Voidwalker

  • Handheld Supernova (Chaos Accelerant’s Magnetic Grenade Variant)
    • Increased total projectile count from five to nine.
    • Increased the width of the cone’s blast by roughly two meters.
    • Increased the height of the cone’s blast by one meter.
    • Reduced projectile damage in PvP from 20 to 15 per projectile to account for additional projectiles.
      • Note: Adding four projectiles is potentially a substantial damage increase, but due to the increased size of the cone blast, all projectiles won’t land on a single smaller target. This means PvP potency should remain similar but in PvE this becomes a much more reliable add clear tool or single target burst damage option against larger targets.

All Classes

Solar

  • Radiant
    • Damage bonus reduced from 25% to 20% in PvE
      • Well of Radiance damage bonus remains unchanged.

Stasis

  • Frost Armor
    • Increased DR per stack from 4.5% to 6.25%.
      • At max stacks, DR goes from 36% to 50%.
      • Note: This change is PvE only, PvP values remain unchanged.

Arc

  • Amplified
    • While Amplified, PvE combatants are now less accurate against you.
      • This is similar to how The Manticore’s Exotic effect works while in air.
    • While Amplified, players now have 15% damage resistance against PvE combatants.
  • Spark of Discharge
    • Added effect: Picking up an Ionic Trace grants a stack of Bolt Charge.
  • Spark of Momentum
    • Added effect: Sliding over ammo bricks now also grants a stack of Bolt Charge.
    • Removed the bespoke melee energy bonus from sliding over ammo bricks since each stack of Bolt Charge comes with bonus melee energy.
    • Reduced the amount of time you need to be sliding to activate Spark of Momentum.
      • This should make it so if you start your slide on top of an ammo brick, Spark of Momentum will still activate instead of previously needing to slide into the brick after roughly 0.75s.
    • Spark of Frequency
      • Added effect: While Amplified, gain a bonus stack of Bolt Charge from all sources, in addition to previous effect.
    • Spark of Volts
      • Added effect: Finishers grant a stack of Bolt Charge in addition to granting Amplified.
    • Spark of Ions
      • Added effect: Targets defeated with Bolt Charge will also make an Ionic Trace, in addition to previous effect.

Prismatic

  • Facet of Hope
    • Can now be activated by Bolt Charge.
  • Facet of Purpose
    • Now grants a stack of Bolt Charge on orb pickup when an Arc Super is equipped instead of granting of Amplified.
  • Facet of Sacrifice
    • Can now be activated by Bolt Charge.

Modifiers

  • Brawn
    • Tuned healing sources to better balance the health economy when this modifier is active.

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