Warlocks, Hunters, and Titans will get some mileage out of their Supers once Destiny 2‘s next season kicks off. Several Supers will see buffs once Season of the Deep lands this month, including Chaos Reach, Nova Bomb, Golden Gun, and others, Bungie confirmed in a blog post today. The changes come as part of a thorough balancing update to improve the viability of roaming Supers and some weaker burst-damage Supers.
Warlocks and Hunters take the spotlight in the upcoming balancing changes. Some of the best Supers for these classes will get some extra firepower, which can help add some variety when it comes to dealing damage. For Hunters, both variants of Golden Gun will get a 20 percent buff to damage, opening up potential options for the nearly ubiquitous Blade Barrage and Gathering Storm Supers.
Warlocks, on the other hand, can rejoice even more. Nova Bomb’s two variants will also deal an extra 20 percent damage, making Void a potentially more attractive choice. Arc Warlocks also have more to look out for with buffs to its two strongest skills—one of which used to output decent damage before trailing off completely.
Season 21 will bring a 25-percent buff to Chaos Reach, the once-great Arc Super. Sustained damage on a target will also jolt them, and players can move faster while casting it. This may not be enough to propel Arc Warlocks on its own (mostly due to how limited the class can be in higher-end content compared to the rest), but it could potentially bring Chaos Reach a bit more in line with its former glory.
Famous Supers aren’t the only ones seeing changes, however. Hunters’ Spectral Blades—which have gathered a reputation of being nearly a meme, and for good reason—will deal an extra 35 percent damage against PvE targets and weaken targets on a heavy hit.
Spectral Blades pales in comparison to the other two Supers for Void Hunters in season 20, but only seeing the buffs in practice will determine whether it’s worth picking it up. Since it’s a melee-oriented Super, it’s also not a choice that applies to all bosses (for instance, Oryx in King’s Fall, Taniks in Deep Stone Crypt, or the Sanctified Mind in Garden of Salvation), but the buffs might help it at least leave its status as a borderline troll pick.
Hunters’ Arc Staff is getting the same treatment with a 20 percent buff, but given the sheer firepower of Gathering Storm, this likely won’t be enough to push it anywhere near meta territory.
Warlocks will also see some changes to Stormtrance and Nova Warp, the two roaming Supers for Arc and Void respectively. While it may be hard to justify them over their (also soon-to-be-buffed) counterparts, the adjustments can make them more viable if you’re looking to branch out into roaming Supers. Winter’s Wrath (Stasis Warlock) will get a 10 percent buff just to give it some extra leeway for damage, though its main use is still crowd control.
Titans can expect some buffs to Fists of Havoc (Arc), Glacial Quake (Stasis), Sentinel Shield (Void), Hammer of Sol, and Burning Maul (Solar). Fists of Havoc will gain more energy efficiency and 33 percent increased heavy attack damage, with it blinding nearby targets. This will help make it more of a crowd control tool, especially when compared to a Thundercrash without the Cuirass of the Falling Star Exotic. Glacial Quake, the only Stasis Super for Titans, will see some adjustments as part of the changes to Shiver Strike.
Solar and Void Titans will arguably have the more palpable impact, though. Sentinel Shield (Void) is getting 20 percent more damage, but it may still need more than that to justify running it over Ward of Dawn, especially in group-based content.
Both Solar Supers (Hammer of Sol and Burning Maul) will get 10 percent more damage, with the latter creating a Sunspot upon activation if you have Sol Invictus equipped. Its heavy attacks will also apply Scorch over time, potentially leading to ignitions. This is a direct buff for Solar Titans, since they don’t really have other choices outside of these two.
As a general buff, players will also get 20 percent increased damage resistance while casting a Super. This feature is already a part of Destiny 2, but Bungie will crank it up even more with season 21. This should help Supers that roam (like Fists of Havoc) or have a long activation window (such as Chaos Reach).
Published: May 3, 2023 03:26 pm