Destiny 2's latest season, Season of the Deep, is slowly but surely approaching, with Guardian Games being the final event to close out Season of Defiance.
Bungie always spices the experience up with massive balance changes every new season, and Season 21 will be no different.
There is quite a lot to break down after the devs showcased an initial taste of what's to come on May 23, so let's get on with it.
Destiny 2 Season 21 ability changes
We highly recommend you take a look at Bungie's blog post for a massive (and we mean it) deep dive into every change and the reasoning behind them.
In this article we're going to focus on the cold hard facts, that is, showcasing all Destiny 2 Season 21 ability changes.
Fragments
Increased the Fragment slot allotment for the following Aspects from 1 to 2:
Hunter
- Trapper's Ambush
- Shatterdive
- Gunpowder Gamble
Titan
- Bastion
- Juggernaut
Warlock
- Chaos Accelerant
Super tuning
All Supers
- Increased PvE damage resistance by ~20%.
Hunter Supers
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.
Titan Supers
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.
Warlock 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.
Strand tuning updates
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
Arc 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%.
Stasis tuning updates
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.
Light Subclass update
Titan
Seismic Strike, Shield Bash, Hammer Strike
- Now cost 15% melee energy on activation.
- Base cooldowns are now standardized at 91 seconds (previously ranged from 101s to 114s).
Knockout
- Lunge range reduced from 6.5m to 5.5m.
- Uncharged melee PvE damage bonus increased from 60% to 100%.
Shield Throw
- Increased base impact damage from 60 to 70.
- Increased consistency of finding and adjusting initial trajectory toward a new target after a bounce.
Throwing Hammer
- Now adjusts its initial flight trajectory based on your aim assist target.
Sol Invictus
- Increased damage dealt by Sunspots to enemy players per tick from 17 to 22.
Hunter
Snare Bomb
- Increased PvE weaken duration on detonation from 4 seconds to 8 seconds.
Proximity Explosive Knife
- Detonation damage vs. players reduced from 105 to 90.
- Impact damage vs. players increased from 14 to 20.
Weighted Throwing Knife
- On mouse and keyboard, reduced minimum tracking shape size by 25% and maximum tracking shape size by 10%. This shape grows over 0.5 seconds after the projectile is thrown.
Lightweight Knife
- Projectile speed increased from 30 meters per second to 40 meters per second.
- Tracking shape size increased by 20%.
Gunpowder Gamble
- Reduced cooldown from 12 seconds to 6 seconds.
Warlock
Incinerator Snap
- Fixed an issue preventing the secondary projectile arming shape from activating.
- Total damage vs. players reduced from 150 to 135 to compensate for dramatically increased consistency.
Ball Lightning
- Increased PvE damage by 30%.
- Reduced ping scalar on both primary and secondary detonations so combatants are less likely to be knocked out of the secondary strike area while the player is amplified.
Chaos Accelerant
- Scatter Grenade
- Increased tracking consistency of charged Scatter Grenade submunitions.
- Increased submunition arming duration.
- Fixed a bug where some submunitions were impacting the ground on creation in some situations, resulting in an early detonation.
- Magnetic Grenade (Handheld Supernova)
- Increase charged hold time from 3.2 seconds to 4.5 seconds.
Lightning Surge
- Fixed an issue allowing Lightning Surge to deal more instances of secondary strike damage than intended – now targets can take a maximum of two instances of damage from a single activation of the ability: one from the primary lightning strike around the player, and one from a secondary lightning strike.
- This change necessitated some changes in damage values, but in general its damage output should be significantly more consistent and slightly higher than the intended value previously, but without the ability to one-shot a single enemy Guardian from full health.
Subclass
Subclass Keyword tuning updates
Scorch
- Increase stun time before stacks begin falling off from 1.5s to 2.3s on players.
- Increase stun time before stacks begin falling off from 3s to 4.5s on PvE combatants.
Jolt
- Reduced base PvE damage by 15%.
- Reduced additional damage scalar vs. major combatants in PvE by ~20%.
Speed Booster
- Bonus jump acceleration scalar reduced from 1.5x to 1.25x.
- Now activates while sprinting after 2.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
- Now lingers while the player is not sprinting for 2 seconds, up from 1.5 seconds.
- Fixed a bug where if the player was already sprinting and then became amplified, speed booster would not be granted.
So there you have it, plenty of massive changes for all subclasses. Some necessary nerfs, while others, like Titan Shoulder Charge costing melee energy, will definitely be a bit more controversial.
If you want more Destiny 2 content, check out these God Roll guides for The Title SMG and the Taraxippos Scout Rifle.