Destiny 2 is nerfing ability spam in Lightfall, but it’s not all bad news
Lightfall’s buildcrafting changes will help offset the incoming nerfs.
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What you need to know
Ability spam has dominated Destiny 2’s metagame in both PvE and PvP for much of Year 5 and The Witch Queen DLC. However, when the Lightfall expansion drops later this month, developer Bungie is taking some steps to tone abilities down a bit. In a new blog post on the game’s sandbox, the studio confirmed its plan to address constant ability uptime and spam potential, while still ensuring that abilities feel like a powerful and useful part of a Guardian’s kit.
“Moving forward, our goal with ability uptime in both PvE and PvP is to get back to roughly where we were when the 30th Anniversary Pack launched in December 2021,” wrote the developers. “We’re making some changes to the ability energy economy in Lightfall and subsequent Seasons to correct ability uptime, while still rewarding players for investing in buildcrafting and fine-tuning their Guardian into the perfect monster-slaying machine.”
Specifically, Bungie is targeting the efficacy of the discipline, strength, and class ability stats (mobility, resilience, and recovery), reducing how much these stats improve the regeneration rate of grenades, melees, and class abilities respectively. Players can generally expect tier 10 of these stats to provide the same benefits that a tier 8 does in the currentDestiny 2patch.
Overall, it’s a sizable nerf to ability-heavy playstyles, and I expect that the importance of using your weapons effectively will rise as a result. However, playerswillbe able to mitigate the effects of this change withDestiny 2: Lightfall’s overhauled buildcrafting. In the post, Bungie noted that Solar Firesprites and Void Breaches — some of Lightfall’s replacements for the soon-to-be-removed Elemental Well mods — will grant Guardians grenade and class ability energy, respectively. These, alongside Ionic Traces and Stasis Crystals for Arc and Stasis subclasses that return energy evenly across the board, will help offset the effects of the ability uptime nerf.
WhenDestiny 2: Lightfalllaunches, several Fragments in each subclass will be expanded with ways for players to create Firesprites and Void Breaches (Arc and Stasis subclasses can already make Ionic Traces and Stasis Crystals). New Fragments are also being added, too, which we’ve listed below:
Make sure to read thefull blog post, as it includes additional details on some other changes coming with Lightfall. These include buffs to the underperforming Daybreak Warlock subclass, PvP nerfs for the Titan Ward of Dawn and Thundercrash supers, and cooldown reductions for the Hammer of Sol, Daybreak, and Spectral Blades supers. Bungie is also making players immune to physics collision deaths, which will finally put a stop to the rise of Eager Edge trolls.
Destiny 2: Lightfall
The upcoming Lightfall expansion takes players to the neon-soaked city of Neomuna on Neptune and pits them against the fearsome Shadow Legion — all while the threat of Darkness pyramids, The Witness, and his new disciple Emperor Calus looms overhead.
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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. He’s been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you’ll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once.Follow him on X(Twitter).
