Destiny 2 Is Making Big Changes to Solar Subclasses

Bungie recently revealed the big ways they are shaking up the Destiny 2 solar subclasses. According to the studio’s recent blog update, they are reworking several of the ability trees, though in a way that makes sense and will be exciting for players. 

According to the dev team, “When we started working on sandbox updates to follow Season of the Undying, our team looked at the whole catalog of Solar subclasses by cross-referencing data, feedback, and conversation to figure out which subclasses needed help, which are performing fine, and which ones were a bit too potent. During our investigations, it was pretty clear that three specific subclasses were underperforming and needed to be taken back into the shop for a rework,” Bungie explained.

“It’s worth noting here that a rework doesn’t mean it’s a completely new subclass. It means that we took the root of the gameplay fantasies for those subclasses and either expanded on what was already there or shifted some of the existing attributes closer to their fantasy. In some cases, entire perks were changed to help further the gameplay role and fantasy of those subclasses.”

For those that may be unfamiliar, here are the three solar subclasses: 

• Gunslinger
• Sunbreaker
• Dawnblade

Here’s what exactly is changing: 

Gunslinger

• For 3-shot we increased the auto-aim distance and reliability when aiming down sights, as it fulfills the role of long-range accuracy. For 6-shot, we shortened the damage falloff range to emphasize the short-range gunfighter role with a lot of kill potential. While it can still perform at longer ranges, it may take an extra shot to get the job done. We’ve made other changes to Way of the Outlaw to help keep its potency like adding a new Explosive Prox Knife that can stick to surfaces and detonate when enemies pass nearby. 
• All up – we want Way of the Sharpshooter to feel more active and rewarding for players who can fulfill the role of the sharpshooter by taking down enemies with accuracy and precision.
• NEW Weighted Knife: High-damage knife throw with a long wind up. Travels at high speeds, bounces once, and does extra damage to the head. Precision shot final blows recharge the melee completely. One-hit precision final blow in PvP.
• Practice Makes Perfect: (QoL):  Lasts longer but gives a bit less energy per second. Precision hits grant two stacks.
• NEW Knock ’em Down: Precision final blows increase weapon stability and ADS speed. Timer starts at 10 seconds but any additional final blow/assists can increase it up to 25 seconds. Casting your Super with this buff above 20 seconds consumes the buff and grants extra damage. (Does not stack with Celestial Nighthawk).
• Line ’em Up: (QoL): Old perks from Crowd Pleaser are now part of this perk. (Golden Gun can cause precision damage and precision shots generate orbs of light).

Sunbreaker

• The Roaring Flame perk has received a significant buff to its bonus damage, and the buff now lasts 25% longer, making it easier to build and retain stacks between encounters. The base damage of Throwing Hammer melee ability has increased—it’s now very lethal in PvP while you have Roaring Flames active. In addition, once you’ve thrown the hammer and it’s lying on the ground, you don’t have to get quite as close to it to pick it back up. Finally, we tuned the Super in a number of ways. 
• For starters, Burning Maul now lasts longer, giving you more time to use it strategically instead of simply spamming the slam button. (Titans. All we want to do is smash, right?) We also increased the height of the heavy-slam explosion, so this Super should feel much more potent against airborne enemies. That’s the gist of it, but here are more details:
• Throwing Hammer: Increased impact damage from 100 to 120 and increased hammer pick-up radius from 2m to 3.5m. Adjusted hammer throw animations to fit a more damaging attack.
• Roaring Flames: Increased damage bonus from 10% per stack to 25% per stack in PvP, and increased duration from 15 seconds to 20 seconds.
• Burning Maul: Increased duration from 21.2 seconds to 28.5 seconds
• Light Attack: Reduced light attack energy cost from 5% to 3%. Adjusted the animation so that it flows seamlessly into chained light attacks without stopping.
• Heavy Attack: Ground Slam attack now detonates when it detects enemies above it. Detonation radius was increased to make landing attacks more consistent. Increased energy cost from 6% to 8%.

Dawnblade