There are two subclasses in particular in Destiny 2 that have long been at the top of the PvP meta, and developer Bungie is getting ready to reduce their effectiveness a bit. The first, and most obvious to many players, is the bottom tree Striker Titan. The other is the bottom tree Dawnblade Warlock. Both subclasses have a similar advantage being targeted in Destiny 2’s next game update coming later this month.
The nerf has to do with both of these subclasses’ supers and how long they can last. This is what sets them above many of the other subclasses specifically in PvP. Getting kills within both these supers extends the duration of the super, leading to a long time for players to have their most powerful ability.
Despite Bungie previously trying to dial back these supers getting energy upon a kill, the developer decided it was not enough and both these subclasses are still “outliers” in the current sandbox. The specific perks receiving the nerf are the Striker’s Trample and the Dawnblade’s Everlasting Flames. Both are getting a reduction to their super energy regeneration and a change to their diminishing returns on the more kills players get.
Additionally, Striker’s are getting a specific nerf to the light super attack that allows them to zip around the map quickly. There have not been many penalties for using this attack as a way to dodge and traverse the map, according to Bungie. The developer still wants to preserve its use as a movement ability, but decrease players being able to use it to get quickly across the entire map. And despite Shadowkeep’s nerf to roaming supers like this one, the ability to roam across the map for the Striker is still very strong.
The Striker is also being nerfed in the fact that melee kills performed within an active super will no longer count to trigger Trample and return super energy. Regeneration will only occur on actual super attacks. Bungie said the combination of the light super’s attack movement capabilities and melee attacks triggering regeneration have been “too strong and overly forgiving of strategic or positional mistakes.”
These changes will arrive in Destiny 2 in the next game update being deployed on October 29th, which is also the day Festival of the Lost begins. There are bound to be players who especially like these subclasses that will be disappointed with the changes, but many players are likely glad that these obviously subclasses are being pulled back a bit. As is always the case, it will take players getting their hands on the new update to see how the meta shifts in PvP with these changes.
Destiny 2: Shadowkeep is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, with a Stadia version also in development.
Source: Bungie
