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Destiny 2: Beyond Light’s stasis abilities get major changes after fan outcry

By Giovanni Colantonio November 19, 2020

Bungie released its first patch to Destiny 2 following the release of Beyond Light on November 10. The update heavily scales back the power of the game’s new stasis abilities and fixes a popular exploit that allowed players to kill raid bosses in seconds.

The biggest change is that Bungie fixed the new Shadebinder super ability, which brought several problems to the live service game. Streamers quickly discovered that a full team of Warlocks running the ability could defeat the game’s most powerful bosses in seconds, even bypassing multi-phase fights entirely. The bug threatened to derail Bungie’s usual plans for a community world record race when the game’s new raid drops on November 21.

Hi Riven!

Bye Riven!

ur ded pic.twitter.com/dUjq3CKYsF

— Gladd (@Gladd) November 16, 2020

Other Warlock abilities like the Penumbral Blast melee have been rebalanced, with significant reductions to range and speed.

Wider changes reduce the new element’s power for all players. The amount of damage players take while frozen is reduced and freeze duration for certain abilities is now more than three seconds shorter.

Stasis created major tension in the Destiny 2 community shortly following Beyond Light‘s launch. The ability has had an especially notable impact in the game’s PVP Crucible mode, with many players complaining that the ice abilities were overpowered. Popular Destiny streamer Gothalion called the multiplayer mode “a nightmare” the day after Beyond Light launched.

Stasis makes pvp a nightmare. The CC is so long and you just get fucked. It’s not even a “get good” scenario, it’s a “how was this shipped” scenario.

— Gothalion (@Gothalion) November 11, 2020

In our own review of Destiny 2: Beyond Light, we praised the new ability, but criticized the current implementation, saying that “stasis is absurdly powerful in a way that feels unsustainable in the long run.” The new update is live now, so players can see if Bungie’s changes have made a difference.

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Giovanni Colantonio

Section Editor, Gaming

Giovanni is a writer and video producer focusing on happenings in the video game industry. He has contributed stories to…

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