Destiny 2 getting major ability cooldown rework this December

Bungie’s 30th Anniversary event, which comes with a host of new content, is fast approaching Destiny 2With its December 7 release date. Alongside the paid content, players will also get a major balance pack — so major that sandbox discipline lead Kevin Yanes said he’s “fairly convinced” that the upcoming update will be the “biggest balance patch ever.”

Bungie discussed major weapon change in Nov. 11, but this Nov. 18 blog focuses exclusively on capabilities. These are some highlights.

The biggest change here is to ability cooldowns, as it’ll affect every class and every ability in the game. Bungie now has individual cooldowns instead of universal ones for Supers, grenades and melee capabilities. This means that Bungie can base ability cooldown directly on that ability’s power.

The example Bungie uses in the blog post is the Hunter’s Flux grenade, which sticks to targets. If the player who uses it accurately is precise, it can do decent damage to an enemy Guardian and target. Starting Dec. 7, Flux grenades will take 182 seconds to cooldown after use, but they’ll fire faster, stick to all surfaces, deal bonus damage to PvE enemies, and kill an enemy Guardian in a single hit.

The cooldown changes will have a negative impact on supers as well. Destiny 2. Some Supers can recharge quicker than others, depending on the potency. Players can still get extra Super energy while in combat, particularly if they are using their primary weapon. Bungie has made it clear that the Intellect stat which controls the Super’s passive cooldown will not be as helpful as they want players to fight to gain their strongest ability.

Bungie also plans to make significant changes in several areas that are critical for certain classes. The big ticket balance items are PvE buffs to Titan’s Behemoth subclass, improved melee attacks for Warlocks, and major PvP nerfs for one-hit kill abilities like Titan’s Shoulder Charge, Hunter’s Shatterdive, and Warlock’s Hand-held Supernova.

These changes focus on PvP mode, and most abilities will become more useful in PvE. This is a real push from Bungie to balance their PvE and PvP modes differently — something the studio hasn’t always wanted to do.

The general idea behind these changes seems to be that abilities should be as useful — or even more so — in PvE, but that PvP games should focus primarily on gunplay with brief, potent moments of what Bungie calls “space magic.”

The rest of Bungie’s blog post is filled with individual notes that will affect unique abilities and classes. Bungie still has a lot to spare for patch notes. These will appear alongside the 30th Anniversary celebration on December 7.

If you want to see all the previewed changes, we recommend you check out the blog on Bungie’s website and skip down to your favorite class’ section.