Many Of Destiny 2's Supers Are Getting Big Upgrades In Season 21

Abilities are back in the spotlight in Destiny 2, as Bungie plans to fine-tune Guardian powers for Season 21 of the game. Every subclass will be getting tweaked, with Supers being a primary point of attention. Bungie had previously spoken about increasing the effectiveness of roaming Supers in particular, and next season, the developer is aiming to put them on a more level playing field when compared to other Supers.

"One of the ways we're working to increase that viability is through damage resistance," Bungie explained. "In addition to the damage resistance values that Supers have against other players, all Supers have additional intrinsic damage resistance against PvE combatants, which we're increasing. With this change, our goal is that Supers--in particular melee Supers--are more easily able to engage with targets in high-difficulty content."

Players will benefit from a 20% increase to damage resistance in PvE while a roaming Super is active, and more nuanced changes will be implemented across all three Guardian subclasses. For Hunters, Golden Gun, Arc Staff, and Spectral Blades will be getting big boosts that will increase their damage, do a better job at debuffing enemies, and deliver a more lethal payoff for accurate attacks.

Golden Gun (both Marksman and Deadshot)

• Increased PvE damage by 20%.

Arc Staff

• Increased PvE damage by 20%.

Spectral Blades

• Increased PvE damage by 35%.
• Heavy attack now weakens targets on hit.
• Fixed an issue causing some right-hand Spectral Blades attacks to fail to connect when attacking at maximum attack speed.

Gathering Storm

• Direct impact damage vs. players increased from 200 to 300.
• Delayed lightning strike damage vs. players increased from 300 to 500.
• Lingering lightning tick damage vs. players increased from 40 to 60.
• Now deals increased damage vs. Well of Radiance and Ward of Dawn.

According to Bungie, Titans are currently falling a bit short in high-level PvE content and the remedy to this issue is an increase to the damage that this punch-happy subclass can inflict. Expect more power across Arc, Solar, and Stasis roaming Supers if you play as these Guardians.

Fists of Havoc

• Light attack cost reduced from 8.5% to 6%.
• Heavy attack cost reduced from 18% to 12%.
• Increased heavy attack PvE damage by 33%.
• Heavy attack now blinds targets near the center of the slam area.

Glacial Quake

• Increased Shiver Strike thrust speed while in Super by 10%.
• Increased light attack damage by 20%.

Sentinel Shield

• Increased PvE damage by 20%.

Hammer of Sol

• Increased PvE damage by 10%.

Burning Maul

• Increased PvE damage by 10%.
• Now creates a Sunspot on cast when Sol Invictus is equipped, matching the behavior of Hammer of Sol.
• Heavy attack cyclone now applies scorch over time.

As for Warlocks, Bungie says that several of their Super options currently feel below the bar in high-level content. Season 21 will see these the Stormcaller and Voidwalker Supers given special attention, while a few quality-of-life fixes will be felt across other roaming Supers.

Nova Warp

• Increased PvE damage by 15%.
• A fully charged attack now makes enemies Volatile on hit.

Nova Bomb

• PvE damage increased by 20%.

Stormtrance

• Increased PvE damage by 25%.
• Damage ramp while attacking now occurs more quickly (over 3 seconds, down from 5).
• Landfall detonation and seekers now jolt targets.

Chaos Reach

• Increased PvE damage by 25%.
• Sustained damage on a single target now creates a jolting lightning strike at the target's location.
• Increased damage resistance vs. players from 40% to 50%.
• Increased maximum strafe speed from 3.5m/s to 4.5m/s.
• Adjusted Super camera to avoid the player's body blocking view of targets when strafing.

Winter's Wrath

• Increased PvE damage by 10%.

Daybreak

• Adjusted Super camera to allow the player to look down further and avoid VFX blocking view of targets when moving quickly.

For Destiny 2's Darkness subclasses, Stasis and Strand, Bungie has multiple goals. For Stasis, the developer is revisiting changes made in Seasons 14 and 15 that increased the power of that subclass. More buffs are coming to specific Stasis abilities and Aspects, with a handful of tweaks in the pipeline already.

Hunter

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.

Strand, Destiny 2's newest subclass, is in a more fluid state and will see some adjustments to base cooldown times and targeted improvements across the ability board. These range from decreased cooldown times and increased PvE damage, and as Bungie previously revealed, an improved grapple that will see the cooldown timer significantly reduced.

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

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%.

In other Destiny 2 news, the Guardian Games have officially begun and there's plenty to earn from this event that pits Titans, Hunters, and Warlocks against each other. Winning those bragging rights--and some great loot--will require grinding out a few resources, and if you're looking to easily accomplish this, you can check out GameSpot's guide on how to easily farm Guardian Games Platinum medals.