Arc 3.0 is still the new kid on the block when it comes to subclasses in Destiny 2, but that hasn’t stopped it from receiving a plethora of big nerfs and buffs alongside the other sweeping balance changes coming with Destiny 2‘s next season on Dec. 6. The announcement of the changes comes courtesy of today’s This Week At Bungie blog, that goes into detail on the state of the sandbox.
The elephant in the room heading into season 19 was no doubt the Touch of Thunder Aspect for Titans, which was turning Storm Grenades into a nightmare in PvP. Bungie is hitting it with a sizeable nerf to curtail its potential, while lifting up weaker portions of the Arc 3.0 experience—such as Chaos Reach and Stormcaller Warlock—to leave the subclass in a more balanced state overall before the arrival of Strand next year.
The nerfs in question to the Touch of Thunder aspect are in part improving the readability for opponents and then decreasing the benefits that it provides to Storm Grenades.
“Our intention with this Aspect was to lean hard into Striker as the Titan’s grenade-centric class, and for the Storm Grenade to be used to force bunkered players to move when a Storm Grenade was approaching,” the sandbox team said. “It’s been pretty clear from feedback in the Crucible that these linger in the world too long and are difficult to read from the target’s perspective.”
Touch of Thunder Storm Grenade changes
- Decreased Touch of Thunder’s Storm Grenade base roaming duration from 5 seconds to 4 seconds
- Decreased the bonus lifetime granted by Spark of Magnitude to the enhanced Storm Grenade from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds
- Updated friend-or-foe visual language
It’s not all doom and gloom for Titans though, as Bungie also aims to give the Ballistic Slam melee ability for the Striker subclass some additional love in PvE.
Ballistic Slam Melee changes
- Increased Ballistic Slam damage against PvE combatants by 16 percent
Hunters are set to get some buffs with the Arc 3.0 balance changes as well. The sandbox team notes that Arcstrider Hunters are doing “pretty well” in high-end PvE content at the moment as they had hoped, but that the Tempest Strike Aspect was almost impossible to justify slotting compared to the other Aspects available. To make it a potentially more compelling choice, Bungie is giving it a sizeable power bump in PvE.
Tempest Strike Aspect changes
- Increased Tempest Strike damage against PvE combatants by 30 percent
Despite the fact that both Hunters and Titans do see some changes, the majority of the Arc 3.0 adjustments are targeted toward Warlocks. “We’ve received a lot of feedback about Stormcaller’s potency across both PvE and PvP since Arc 3.0’s release,” the team explained.
When compared to the options available across other Warlock subclasses, Arc simply wasn’t stacking up in any Destiny 2 content. The sandbox team agrees with player sentiment and announced they are “making a series of targeted changes to Stormcaller abilities to increase their potency, some of which will also increase Stormcaller’s viability in PvP modes.”
Those targeted changes include a significant buff for base Arc Souls in PvE—one the team admits they will be keeping an eye on in case it’s too much—as well as similarly major improvements to the Ball Lightning and Chain Lightning melee abilities. Even Chaos Reach, a Super that’s been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism since the nerfs to Geomag Stabilizers and its cooldown, is getting a drastic reduction to that cooldown time.
Stormcaller Warlock changes
- Arc Soul: Increased base damage vs. PvE combatants from 35 to 60
- Ball Lightning: Increased travel range from 27.5 meters to 35 meters
- Chain Lightning: Increased damage against PvE combatants by 50 percent
- Chaos Reach: Reduced base cooldown time from 9:16 to 7:35
With Arc 3.0 only being released this season, it’s clear that Bungie isn’t done tweaking and refining its place in the sandbox. “We’re still monitoring the feedback and data coming in,” the team said, pointing toward further balance patches still to come after this round of tweaks in season 19.
