Darkness Subclass Updates Are Coming Next Season in Destiny 2

Bungie published a pretty hefty post today on updates coming in the next season of Destiny 2, including changes to Strand and Stasis power sets. The developer previously announced a few small changes to Strand abilities, but the list of changes and adjustments coming in season 21 is considerably longer than that small preview may have led you to believe. Here are the changes coming to Destiny 2 Darkness subclasses, starting with the changes to Strand abilities.

Darkness Subclass Updates in Destiny 2 Season 21 — Strand

 Hunter

• Threaded Spike
• • Increased projectile travel range before beginning to return to the player by 30%.
  • Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by ~55%.
  • Slightly reduced speed of the dart as it returns to the player to make catching it easier.
  • Increased energy gain for catching the dart based on the number of enemies hit.
  • Now pierces Cabal Phalanx shields.
  • No longer prioritizes the catch action over the grapple melee if an enemy target is within grapple melee range.

Titan — Destiny 2 Darkness Subclass Updates

• Frenzied Blade
  • Decreased cooldown based on how many melee charges the player has stored.
  • At 0 charges, cooldown reduced by 15%. At 2 charges, cooldown reduced by 30%.

Warlock

• Arcane Needle
  • Decreased cooldown based on how many melee charges the player has stored.
    • At 0 charges, cooldown reduced by 15%. At 2 charges, cooldown reduced by 30%.
  • Increased projectile speed based on the projectile’s flight time.
    • Initial velocity increased to 40 meters per second, up from 30.
    • Final velocity increased to 70 meters per second, up from 60.
  • Increased projectile tracking strength by ~10%.

Grapple

• Reduced base cooldown from 105 seconds to 82 seconds.
• Reduced the minimum time between grapple activations from 2.5s to 0.2s.

Thread of Generation

• Reduced energy generation provided by some damage-over-time mechanics.
• Reduced energy generation provided by Trace Rifles by 36%.

The nerf to Thread of Generation was expected but will hit the most popular Warlock Strand build pretty hard, which involves eating your grenade to gain the Weaver’s Trance buff. We already knew the Grapple cooldown was coming, but it’s nice to see. And the buffs to each class’s melee abilities is welcome, since most players seemed to agree these were lacking for Strand subclasses.

Darkness Subclass Updates in Destiny 2 Season 21 — Stasis

Hunter — Destiny 2 Darkness Subclass Updates

• Withering Blade
• • Increased projectile tracking search range on bounce vs. players by 20%.
  • Increased maximum tracking strength by 12.5%.

Titan

• Shiver Strike
  • Maximum thrust while in flight increased by 16%.
  • Decreased maximum downward influence of gravity while in flight by 18%.
• Howl of the Storm
  • Increased width of freezing cone vs. players by 31%.

Warlock

• Frostpulse
  • Now provides 2 meters of additional melee lunge range after activation for 1.2 seconds.

The changes to Stasis aren’t as big as those to Strand, but they should make Stasis abilities more competitive in the Crucible. Frostpulse granting a melee lunge buff is especially interesting.

What do you think of these changes to the Darkness subclasses in Destiny 2? Let us know in the comments.