After heavy rumors and teases prior to the reveal of the Beyond Light expansion for Destiny 2, Bungie finally revealed the game's first set of Darkness powered subclasses. For Beyond Light, players were introduced to Stasis, a ice-inspired set of powers that let players freeze and shatter their enemies. After the expansion's launch, players quickly discovered that the Warlock Shadebinder subclass was perhaps too strong, something which Bungie seemingly agreed with pretty quickly.
Nine days after the expansion arrived, Bungie issued a hotfix to try and reel in this subclass which had quickly taken over the player versus player Crucible modes. Specifically, Destiny 2 players saw the Penumbral Blast melee attack range and projectile speed reduced as well as reducing its ability to freeze other players. The Winter's Wrath super ability was also toned down by reducing its overall duration and making the heavy attack no longer impact non-frozen players.
Naturally, the changes upset a good portion of the community who felt that Bungie had gone too far and essentially gutted the new subclass completely. After reviewing the changes and continually getting feedback from players over the past few weeks, Bungie has seemingly agree that it hit the subclass too hard. Specifically, the Warlock's melee, while it was too good upon release, was reduced too far and made it more inconsistent than the studio wanted.
In this week's blog post, Bungie announced that Penumbral Blast would be getting a few buffs to help make the melee attack feel better to use. Inside of next week's hotfix, players will see the range of this attack increased by 37%, which should help boost it above the paltry 16 meters it finds itself at now. In addition, Bungie is also reducing the minimum distance needed to cast it by 32%. This means that players can throw the melee attack closer to targets rather than punching at them.
Whiel the change will likely please Warlock players, this week's blog post also contained a bit more information for everybody as it revealed the annual Dawning event coming to the game next week. As expected, players will once again be baking treats for NPC characters and earning plenty of winter themed rewards along the way. This year, Bungie has also created a new exotic ship that players can customize and upgrade, a first for Destiny 2.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.