Destiny 2 subclass balance changes are coming to the game at the start of Season 19, according to the latest This Week at Bungie post shared on the official Bungie website. Guardians can also look forward to a new dungeon on December 9, just days after the FPS game‘s next season launches on December 6.
One of the most significant forthcoming balance changes involves updates to restoration, a buff which, when active, causes the player to continuously regenerate health and shields over time and is not interrupted when a player takes damage. Its base healing will be reduced from 25 to 20 health per second in PvP activities and from 50 to 40 in PvE activities. Restoration can be stacked, so when the change is implemented, the effectiveness of two stacks of restoration will be reduced from 40 to 32.5 health per second in PvP activities and from 80 to 65 health per second in PvE activities.
Further, restoration will no longer stack with the Warlock Healing Rift. Instead, the game will prioritise the stronger “heal-over-time value” of the two.
Bungie also plans to adjust two Solar Fragments. The team intends to reduce the duration of Ember of Torches, which causes powered melee attacks to make the player and nearby allies radiant, from 10 seconds to 8 seconds. The Fragment will also now grant a -10 Discipline penalty when equipped. Ember of Solace, which increases radiant and restoration effects, will now provide a 50% radiant bonus to its duration instead of a flat five seconds.
The team will also introduce tweaks to Knock ‘Em Down, a popular Hunter Aspect that enhances Solar Supers, and will fix a Void Overshield bug to increase its damage resistance in PvE from 25% to 50%. Players will also see adjustments to Warlock Voidwalker and Hunter Nightstalker Super Abilities, Titan Striker Touch of Thunder Storm Grenades, Warlock Stormcaller Arc Souls, and several Stasis abilities. Hunter Revenant and Titan Behemoth will gain one additional Fragment slot for the Winter’s Shroud and Cyroclasm Aspects, respectively.
Bungie clarified the upcoming changes won’t constitute a large-scale ability energy economy tuning, suggesting those types of changes “would be on a post-Lightfall timeframe so we can include Strand in our holistic review.” The team also noted it was investigating ways to balance Hunter Nightstalker invisibility, which many players consider overpowered, particularly in high-level PvP. Invisibility grants Guardians a massive relative advantage, to the extent that Nightstalkers now dominate the Trials meta.
The TWAB confirmed players can also look forward to a new dungeon in Season 19, though Bungie has yet to reveal any specifics. However, players anticipated this, as Bungie previously announced the game would introduce a new dungeon or raid each season for players who paid for the highest tier of DLC. With the revamped King’s Fall raid‘s arrival in Season 18, it seemed likely the forthcoming season would alternate to include a dungeon activity.
There are still nearly four weeks to go in the current season, meaning Guardians still have plenty of time to explore different meta builds before Season of Plunder ends. Check out our guides to the best Destiny 2 Warlock builds, Destiny 2 Hunter builds, and Destiny 2 Titan builds for our takes on the most fun and overpowered builds to try before the season concludes.