[GameSpot] - Destiny 2 Is Getting Huge Grenade And Melee Changes During 30th Anniversary

[343iBot]

The latest This Week At Bungie blog post is hefty, preparing Guardians for the changes coming to Destiny 2 with the Bungie 30th Anniversary event on December 7. Developers at Bungie note that abilities need some tweaking in Crucible and player vs. environment activities based on feedback from the Destiny community. Here's a quick look at what adjustments are coming in December.

Grenade Changes

One primary change is grenade cooldowns for all classes. Players will be able to see the base cooldown of their abilities in the subclass menu. To know individual cooldowns from a character's armor stats, players can check the stats on their character screen.

The Hunter's Arc Flux grenade will have 182 seconds cooldown instead of 82, and detonation damage from sticking the grenade on an opponent is a one-shot kill. Now, the Flux grenade sticks to any surface. Damage is also increased in PvE by 15% from the base damage increase. Throw speed is up by 117%.

The Warlock Solar Firebolt grenade has increased damage in PvE by 15%, but damage per bolt will reduce from 90 to 60. The cooldown for the Firebolt grenade will be 64 seconds instead of 82.

Keep in mind that a base cooldown is the cooldown time at tier 3 because player's get penalized for having stats below that. Also, all grenades will have increased damage by 15% in PvE.

Grenades will be more powerful in PvE than in player vs. player activities because Bungie wants Crucible to focus on weapon combat. The TWAB also states, "we have tuned PvP energy regeneration separately from their base PvE values, which we are not changing."

Stasis Crystals

Stasis Crystals freeze, block, and damage opponents and combatants, but major changes are coming to how they work in PvP. In Crucible, Stasis will slow opponents instead of freezing them. Also, Stasis crystals will do less damage when they shatter by about 55%. RIP Shatterdive.

These changes don't apply to PvE. Stasis crystals will do more damage against combatants by approximately 60%.

Melee Abilities

So, Shatterdive. Bungie explicitly writes in the TWAB that "Stasis Crystal changes detailed earlier mean that the Hunter Revenant’s Shatterdive will now almost never kill a full-health Guardian." However, there is are rare chance that a Hunter can pull off a lethal Shatterdive using certain Aspects and Fragments.

Like Shatterdive losing its one-hit kill potential, Titans will no longer be able to kill players with single Shoulder Charge melees. Sprint activation time will decrease by .25 seconds, but the range will increase by about one meter. Arc, Void, and Solar Shoulder Charges are getting increased cooldowns as well. However, the area of effect is reduced for all three classes.

Warlocks will be able to melee multiple times as quickly as Hunters and Titans, but the melee range will decrease to match the other classes. Also, the Handheld Supernova will not one-shot players in PvP. The Handheld Supernova will deal a max of 150 damage, but the projectile range will increase by two meters.

Subclass Perks

Additional subclass perks for the Striker, Stormcaller, Dawnblade, Gunslinger, Voidwalker, and the Whisper of Shards Stasis fragment will have their ability regeneration reduced by almost 50%. You can see the list in the TWAB.

The Hunter dodge is also seeing some changes. The dodge will no longer break projectile tracking, for starters. The Marksman Dodge and Gambler's Dodge tier 10 cooldowns will increase by a few seconds. Marksman's base cooldown will remain the same, but Gambler's will increase by 9 seconds.

The Titan barricades are getting adjustments too. The Towering Barricade's base cooldown will be 40 seconds instead of 37. The Rally Barricade's base cooldown will reduce to 32 seconds.

The Warlock's Bleak Watcher Stasis Aspect will get a cooldown increase due to Stasis grenades all having different cooldown times. Bungie says, "While Bleak Watcher is equipped, all Stasis grenades charge at Glacier Grenade rate."

The TWAB also goes over changes for Supers and Super perks on December 7, when the Bungie 30 Anniversary event begins. When The Witch Queen expansion launches, Bungie plans to update the Void subclass for all classes as well.

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