It's always a privilege speaking to the creative minds behind a game you've spent thousands of hours playing, in no small part because you get the chance to ask them questions about changes you think the community will be concerned about. That was the case a couple of weeks ago when, after playing a preview build of The Edge of Fate expansion, I sat down to talk to game director Tyson Green.
One of the hot topics we hit were the nerfs incoming to multiple Prismatic subclasses in the version of the game I played. Specifically: Consecration, Stylish Executioner, Knockout and Feed the Void had all dropped to one Fragment slot, having previously had two or three. The result being that their buildcraft flexibility and base power would be brought down, with the argument being that those Aspects are so strong as to almost be auto-includes.
Suffice to say that when my interview made it to Reddit yesterday, despite Tyson's thoughtful answers about needing to avoid players feeling trapped into picking particular options, the community was, putting it politely, concerned. However, in one of the fastest turnarounds from outrage to official response, the Destiny 2 Team account took to r/DestinyTheGame today to announce that those nerfs would now either no longer be happening or have been watered down:
"This tuning pass reduced the number of Fragments that could be placed on various Aspects, as we've found the Prismatic subclasses have been a bit hot since release," the spokesperson wrote, understating the power of Prismatic admirably. "Certain Prismatic builds have increased damage output and survivability to a point where some challenges can feel trivial, and bringing everything else up to Prismatic's level wouldn't help to solve this issue in a healthy manner."
"While we're still planning an overall tuning pass for Prismatic for a future date, featuring buffs alongside other changes, we'll be changing our approach for The Edge of Fate a bit in response to your feedback. Aspects that were originally planned to be reduced to 1 fragment slot will remain at 2. We feel this is a good middle ground where some of the more potent Aspects are being tuned down, but not too much."
I really do think that's the right decision. Consecration and Feed the Void are so good that I don't think dropping them to one Fragment would have had the desired effect anyway, but—as I said in the interview—it would make those builds feel anemic in terms of player creatvity. So, panic over? Not quite. While the nerfs to the four aspects I listed have been watered down, Bungie's post also included some other Aspects which are being brought down in the balance pass.
Here's the complete list (which is still subject to change based on playtesting):
Titan
- Consecration 3 -> 2 (reverted from 1)
- Knockout remains at 2 (reverted from 1)
Hunter
- Stylish Executioner remains at 2 (reverted from 1)
- Ascension 3 -> 2
- Winter’s Shroud 3 -> 2
Warlock
- Feed the Void remains at 2 (reverted from 1)
- Hellion 3 -> 2
- Bleak Watcher 3 -> 2
To the surprise of absolutely nobody, people are still grumbling about why Bungie can't just buff all the lesser-used subclass Aspects, completely ignoring the concept of power creep, and the fact that the entire Prismatic class has been absolutely white hot in terms of power since it launched as one of the main selling points of last year's The Final Shape expansion.
That problem is not going to go away without a substantial subclass rework, but I stand by the idea that simply shaving off multiple Fragments from the most used Aspects was way too blunt of a solution. So, you're welcome, I guess?
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