Since the original Destiny launched back in 2014, the series has always had the traditional three class archetypes centered around Solar, Arc, and Void. While the abilities may have changed somewhat from Destiny to Destiny 2, it never stopped fans from wondering what potential other classes could offer, specifically ones based on the Darkness. Fans finally got their wish last year with the Beyond Light expansion as a fourth subclass called Stasis was made available to players.
While the prospect of an ice based class that could freeze and shatter enemies was exciting, many Destiny 2 players have come to loath it, especially in competitive game modes like the PvP Crucible and even hybrid modes like Gambit. Since it launched last November, Stasis has received plenty of changes to bring many of the abilities and supers in line with the traditional three class types, though it is getting another round of significant nerfs later today.
While Stasis continues to be a hot topic among those in the Destiny 2 community, Sandbox Discipline Lead Kevin Yanes recently appeared on the Destiny Community Podcast and provided some insight into Stasis and the goals Bungie originally intended by adding it to the game. Essentially, Stasis was intended to be a counter for aggressive shotgun rushers in the Crucible, acting more as a defensive measure for players. In terms of PvE, Stasis was envisioned as a way for players to get some breathing room from enemies through freezing them in place.
When it was first developed, Stasis was merely a tool to freeze someone, there was no bleedthrough and didn't offer much else. During playtests, Bungie developers seemingly began to second guess themselves believing that players would continue to opt to use supers that could instant kill enemies like Golden Gun rather than simply freeze them in place with no damage modifiers. As such, the studio began turning up Stasis to make it more appealing, ultimately making it more powerful than the studio originally intended at launch and resulting in the early nerfs to the Shadebinder Warlock class.
Yates was then asked if the reception to Stasis has altered how Bungie looks at potential future Darkness subclasses, to which he indicated he wasn't able to talk too much about future plans. He did mention that lessons have been learned with Stasis, especially on the PvP side of the game where community voices tend to be loudest.
Following today's update, players may view Stasis in a different light as Bungie makes significant alterations to the popular subclass. Originally intended to arrive next season, these changes were pushed up early to alleviate many of the current pain points, especially in the Crucible. All non-super freezes are having their duration reduced, class ability and air moves like Icarus Dash will no longer be suppressed, bonus damage to frozen players is getting reduced, and slow no longer reduces weapon accuracy. There's a lot more in today's hotfix and it should make significant changes to the current meta in game.
Destiny 2: Beyond Light is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Reddit