Unveiling Destiny 2: Intriguing Season 22 Strand Transformations Demystified
Destiny 2's Strand subclass undergoes significant changes in the middle of the Lightfall expansion Discover the reasons behind the revamp and explore the specific alterations across all classes: Suspend, General, Hunter, Warlock, and Titan
Destiny 2 has been steadily expanding the range of abilities and powers available to players for several years. The most recent expansion, Lightfall, introduced the Strand subclass, which comes with its own unique set of capabilities. After being available for some time, Bungie has noted that there will be some changes to Strand starting in Season 22.
In the past, Guardians in Destiny and the early expansions of Destiny 2 could only wield the Light. These powers were divided into three subclasses: Solar, Void, and Arc. However, with the launch of the Beyond Light expansion, players were introduced to a new Darkness-based subclass called Stasis. While Stasis has its uses with its icy abilities, the long grind and underwhelming powers didn't fully satisfy the player base. In contrast, Strand, which was released alongside Lightfall, gained popularity due to its impressive powers and straightforward acquisition process. Unfortunately, Bungie noticed that Strand outperforms Stasis in the areas where Stasis was meant to shine.
Why Is Strand Changing?
The subclass initially outshone its Darkness-based counterpart, Strand, in various roles.
Bungie stated that Strand's Suspend effect made PvE content too easy, as it could handle almost any non-boss opponent effortlessly. The developer emphasized that Stasis and its Freeze effect should be the primary means of controlling enemies.
Suspend, available to any Guardian class utilizing Strand, can be easily activated in various ways. The prolonged stun effectively immobilizes recipients and leaves them vulnerable to attacks. As a result, players frequently exploit this opportunity to restrict adversaries to one location for an extended duration, without the worry of facing significant consequences. Naturally, Destiny 2 players have identified methods to optimize this effect through specific build options, and, in some cases, they have even discovered ways to indefinitely suspend enemies.
How Is Strand Changing?
Suspend Changes
With the introduction of Season 22, there will be a significant revamping of Strand's character. This transformation will involve a shift away from relying heavily on long Suspend times and towards a greater emphasis on Threadling and Tangle generation. For those unfamiliar, Threadlings are adorable little summons that have a propensity for self-destruction as they actively seek out enemies. On the other hand, Tangles are intriguing orbs crafted from woven Strand energy that can bestow beneficial effects or cause explosive reactions when hurled at foes.
Suspend effect duration decreased from an 8-second duration to 3 seconds for Champions (this can be extended to 4 seconds with the Thread of Continuity Fragment).
The duration of the Suspend effect on non-Champion enemies has been reduced from 8 seconds to 5 seconds (can be extended to 7 seconds with the Thread of Continuity Fragment).
Bosses are immune to the Suspend effect, but they now receive a debuff that inflicts increased damage, which has been raised by 67%.
The class ability energy gain of the Thread of Mind Fragment has been reduced from all enemy sources. It now decreases from 15% to 10% for Minors, 25% to 15% for Majors, and 50% to 25% for Bosses, Champions, and minibosses.
The Thread of Generation ability previously granted grenade energy whenever Guardians inflicted damage on enemies in any manner. This gain will now be decreased by approximately 20% in PvE and redesigned to prioritize precision weaponry rather than automatic bullet hoses.
General Strand Changes
Threadlings deal 30% increased damage to PvE enemies.
The cooldown for creating a Tangle was reduced to 12 seconds from 15 seconds.
The Sever debuff now decreases enemy damage by 40%, instead of the initial 30%.
Grapple melees will be given priority during a Grapple to prevent conflicts with ranged-powered melee abilities.
The Propagation Fragment enhances Strength by +10, while the Continuity Fragment loses this bonus.
The Wisdom Fragment now generates an Orb of Power whenever Guardians defeat any Suspended foe, eliminating the need for precise kills on Suspended targets.
The activation requirements for the Fragment of Isolation have been reduced by approximately 30%. This results in the Sever debuff being triggered after successfully landing multiple precise hits.
The Fragment of Rebirth previously provided an opportunity to summon a single Threading upon killing an enemy with a Strand weapon. It has now been enhanced to summon additional Threadlings based on the enemy type defeated: one for Minors, two for Elites or players, and three for Bosses, Champions, or Minibosses.
Hunter Strand Changes
Resistance to damage increases to 45% from 40% when the Silkstrike Super is active. Additionally, the Silkstrike Super now exhibits improved agility in the air, specifically in terms of the speed of light attacks as well as the acrobatics of heavy attacks.
Warlock Strand Changes
The duration of the Strand decoy in the Threaded Specter Aspect has been extended to 12 seconds, providing players with a longer window of opportunity. Moreover, the decoy now possesses improved PvE health, ensuring its longevity during encounters. Additionally, the decoy now effectively attracts enemy attention more consistently and grants a brief period after setup where enemies remain unaware. Notably, the lure no longer misguides friendly players, preventing their reticles from mistakenly targeting it as an enemy.
The Wanderer Aspect now allows Warlocks to hurl Tangles at enemies, which then attach to them and subsequently explode, inflicting the Suspend debuff. Additionally, killing Threadlings also creates Tangles. However, the Aspect has been enhanced so that players can now shoot the Tangle for it to activate. Moreover, the explosion radius has been extended to 7 meters from its previous range of 6 meters. To maintain consistency, the damage caused by the Wanderer's thrown detonation has been adjusted to match that of regular Tangle detonations.
Titan Strand Changes
The Towering Barricade cooldown for Strand Titans is now 70 seconds instead of 48 seconds. Additionally, the Barricade health has been reduced from 600 to 500, but it now has additional PvE resistances. Destiny 2 can be played on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
