Destiny 2 director Luke Smith talks updating Light subclasses, Stasis upgrades, more

With the release of the recent Beyond Light expansion, three brand new subclasses were added to Destiny 2 in the form of Warlock Shadebinder, Hunter Revenant, and Titan Behemoth. These subclasses are powered by ‘Stasis’, an element of the Darkness that focuses on freezing and slowing enemies to manipulate the battlefield.

Unlike the typical Light subclasses, where the player selects one of three predetermined sets of perks, these Stasis subclasses are completely modular and have a much greater degree of customization.

When this new level of customization was revealed earlier in the year, Bungie addressed their possible plans to bring this same level of customization to the Light subclasses too. In a recent interview with Polygon, Destiny 2 Game Director Luke Smith gave some further details on the company’s plans for the Dark and Light subclasses going forward into 2021.

Updating Older Light Subclasses

To rip the bandaid off quickly Smith addressed the release timeline for the team’s plans to fully rework the older Light subclasses. In short, these reworks are a fair way off, if they even happen at all, but Smith assures the community that it is something that himself and the developers at Bungie are really passionate about.

“I can totally imagine it in ‘Luke Fantasyland,’” said Smith. “You know, all the Supers using the same system, that sounds awesome. But also the Supers that we have in the game would be an edited list. It would be something that’s edited toward more identity than what we have today.”

By ‘an edited list’ Smith means that the total number of Supers in the game will need to be cut down in order to maintain a balance and identity to the classes. The use of the word ‘identity’ here is important as it's something the team at Bungie will need to pay close attention to and could pose a unique problem.

Before the release of Taken King Smith notes that each class of Hunter, Titan and Warlock had a very defined identity to each of their Supers whether it was the situational panic button of the Ward of Dawn or the mobile Blade Dancer.

As subclasses have been added to the series over the years the central identity of each class has become less and less defined. To sharpen this identity, Smith says that unfortunately some less popular and less class defining Supers will need to be cut. Smith notes that for some subclasses this is an easy decision. Take Voidwalker for example. “It’s much easier for me to look at Nova Bomb and say Nova Bomb is, like, IP-defining,” said Smith. “It’s an IP-defining super; get rid of Nova Warp."

For other subclasses though this is simply not the case. Smith uses the Warlock Dawnblade subclass as an example of this. “Within Solar Warlock, there are two really distinct fantasies that don’t work together at all,” says Smith. This is honestly a tricky puzzle for Bungie to solve. The Dawnblade Super allows the Warlock to fly above the battlefield raining down destructive Solar energy upon their enemies while Well of Radiance is a supportive Super that heals nearby allies and buffs their damage. These are two very conflicting identities and are both very popular Supers. Cutting one of these Supers to sharpen the identity of Solar Warlocks will lead to many upset players.

Bungie sure has a challenge ahead of them if they plan on going down this path of updating and consolidating these older subclasses. Bringing them up to speed with the new Stasis powers will be worth it though.

Evolving Stasis Powers

Stasis is the first Darkness subclass added to Destiny 2 with Beyond Light and there are rumours spreading that more will be added alongside The Witch Queen in 2021 and Lightfall in 2022.

With Stasis Bungie took a new approach to subclass customization which is done through Aspects and Fragments. Aspects are the main form of customization that grant completely new effects to your Stasis abilities like causing the Warlock Rift ability to release a wave of freezing energy on activation or the Hunter’s dodge slowing nearby enemies. Fragments on the other hand are a way to upgrade Aspects with passive bonuses such as bonus weapon damage upon shattering a frozen enemy or gaining class ability energy when eliminating a frozen enemy. Aspects are unique to each class while Fragments can be used across classes.

These upgrades are completely modular with players being able freely slot in different Aspects and Fragments whenever they earn them. At the moment though each class only has two Aspects that can be earned and six Fragments so the customization can feel a bit limited.

Don't fear though as Bungie is hard at work on addressing this issue. “We plan to add more”, says Smith in regards to Stasis Aspects. It's likely that over the coming year a small number of new Stasis Aspects and Fragments will be seen each Season in order to increase customization options. Since Aspects add unique effects to the Stasis subclasses, it's possible that the build diversity in Destiny 2 will expand tenfold in the coming year leading into The Witch Queen.