Banner of War has been one of the most potent weapons for Titans with the help of a few Exotics and a multitude of damage bonuses in Destiny 2. But Bungie is trimming the edges of neon-green Titans’ kits with The Final Shape, the developer revealed today.
While the Strand Titans’ fantasy is generally in line with Bungie’s expectations for it, the Destiny developer will trim some “balance outliers” with a series of adjustments that are “relatively small and targeted at specific issues,” according to a blog post—namely, Banner of War’s interactions with Exotics, coupled with a smaller pass at Into the Fray and grapple points.
Banner of War increases melee damage based on growing stacks, including Strand’s unique grapple melee attack. The stacking buff is “relatively modest” by itself, according to Bungie, but it “becomes a very large force multiplier” when paired with melee-boosting Exotics such as Synthoceps or Wormgod Caress, and even the One-Two Punch trait on shotguns.
To tackle those bigger-than-intended boosts, Bungie is dropping Banner of War’s maximum timer to 24 seconds (down from 30) and reducing the scaling with melee damage bonuses from Synthoceps and Wormgod.
- Melee bonuses from Synthoceps are down to 1.15 (from 1.4), with glaives dropping to 1.125 (previously 1.25) and Super bonuses diminishing to 1.2 (down from 1.4).
- Wormgod has a similar loss, with melee stacking bonuses moving to 1.1 (down from 1.4) and glaives to 1.05 (also from 1.4), depending on how many stacks you have in both cases.
Grapple points were designed primarily as a traversal tool, but “that intention was quickly subverted” by using it for grapple melees, according to Bungie. Due to that opportunity for endless free melee attacks, the developers have a couple of changes in store for those grapple tangles.
Instead of refreshing that grapple point’s duration, slinging to that point will only increase its total time in the world, with diminishing returns. You can’t use grapple melee after firing your weapon, either, which makes it easier to understand those deaths in the Crucible and removes One-Two Punch from the equation, according to the blog post.
Lastly, the Into the Fray Aspect grants Woven Mail upon destroying a Tangle and increases melee regeneration while the buff is active. The touchup keeps its survivability intact but waters down its bonus to ability uptime. Its melee regeneration scalar will get a 25 percent cut, and that’s before factoring in any other upcoming sandbox changes.
The focused changes help rein in Strand Titans’ most overpowered builds while keeping the rest of the element mostly intact, though The Final Shape also brings a blanket nerf to Thread of Warding’s duration on Woven Mail from Orb of Power pickups (five seconds, down from 10).
The changes to Berserker will go live on June 4, when The Final Shape is released. Prismatic Titans won’t have much to worry about, though, since the upcoming subclass doesn’t have access to Banner of War or Into the Fray as Aspects.
