343iBot Posted May 27, 2021 Report Share Posted May 27, 2021 Ever since it was added to the game with the Beyond Light expansion, Destiny 2's new Stasis abilities--which give players ice-based attacks that can freeze enemies and other players solid--have been hugely popular in the Crucible. A lot of players have complained that Stasis was too dominant in the PvP arena, and Bungie has slowly been making tweaks to bring the subclasses' abilities in line with the ones that were already in the game. But with the next big patch to the game, Bungie is speeding up the process with updates to Stasis that significantly reduce its power in the Crucible. Bungie detailed the upcoming patch in its This Week at Bungie blog post, running down a host of significant Stasis changes that it hopes will balance it better in the Crucible. According to Bungie, Stasis subclasses are used heavily in PvP activities, where they're also generally too strong--they often rank at or near the top of win percentages, suggesting they're outpacing the other subclasses in the game. On top of that, Bungie said it's been taking into account a lot of feedback from players, and one recurring theme is the emotional distress of getting frozen or slowed for long periods, and therefore, being unable to defend yourself. In response, Bungie is ratching back a lot of the damage and power of Stasis abilities, as well as their durations, with Hotfix 3.2.0.3. Those changes are only going to affect the PvP side of the game, it's worth noting. Bungie says it's happy with how Stasis functions for crowd-control on the PvE side, so that's going largely unchanged. The patch is slated to land on Tuesday, June 3, with the Destiny 2 weekly update. It'll also fix a few other issues that have cropped up this season, like a Legendary Lost Sector on the Tangled Shore giving out the wrong Exotic rewards, and Iron Banner bounties and tokens failing to provide two of the event's new guns. Check out the full list of Stasis changes coming with the patch below. Hotfix 3.2.0.3 Stasis Changes 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). Known issue: The Stormcaller's Ionic Blink is still suppressed when slowed. We plan to address this in a future release. 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. View the full article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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