It’s quiet in Destiny 2 at the moment, but big changes are right around the corner. Last week, Bungie outlined major balance changes coming to weapons next month. Today, it revealed it’s completely overhauling how ability cooldowns work. Destiny 2 is going to feel like a very different game when the 30th Anniversary Pack goes live on December 7.
More so if you’ve been playing the game with any sense of regularity over the last year. While some of the upcoming changes might be background noise for newer Guardians, returning ones might find their world upside down. That’s because Bungie announced that starting next month, every ability will have a unique cooldown set in accordance with how powerful it is.
Currently, every category of subclass power has same cooldown timer. Warlock Solar grenades are the same as Hunter Flux grenades, and the Titan’s Fist of Havoc super takes as long to power up as the Warlock’s Well of Radiance. Going forward, each will be calibrated independently, like you might expect if you were playing a traditionally MMORPG. This shift will dovetail with subclass trees getting the Stasis Aspect/Fragment rework when The Witch Queen expansion hits in February, but in the meantime it’s going to change how people play, especially in PVP.
“We’ve been calling this the Variable Ability Cooldowns system, and we think it’s the beginning of a big change for the Destiny 2 sandbox,” Bungie wrote in today’s blog post. “It’s a foundational change in preparation to move the Light subclasses over to the Subclass 3.0 system that Stasis currently uses.”
Here are just some of the specific changes coming:
- Slower cooldowns in PVP and PVE
- Significantly more ability regen from gun damage
- Fewer but more powerful grenades in PVE
- Super cooldown tiers with Well of Radiance the fastest and Hammer of Sol the slowest
- Changes to ability regen for current Exotics and armor mods
- Lots of abilities getting nerfed including Hunter’s Dodge, Titan’s Shoulder Charge, and Warlock’s Handheld Supernova.
Paired with big weapon balance changes coming, the idea is for players to rely more on their unique gun arsenals and less on spamming abilities. There’s a lot of detailed notes in the over 5,000 word post, but big picture players are going to be completely recalibrating many of the character builds they’ve come to love and rely on since Beyond Light launched last year. Hunters are already preparing funerals for their max mobility Dodge loadouts. We’ll have a better idea of whether it’s for the best once the changes actually go live in December.