Strand has been largely well-received by players since its introduction withDestiny 2’s latest expansion, though the developers have recently confirmed that the subclass is set to receive several adjustments when the game’s next season drops in May. Playing a major part in the most recent campaign experience forDestiny 2, Strand sets itself apart from other subclasses largely thanks to the significant mobility options it provides to players.
As the secondDarkness-based subclass inDestiny 2that fans have been able to get their hands on so far, Strand brings a variety of new options to the battlefield in the forms of Suspend, Woven Mail, and Threadlings among other things. The many new powers it has to offer affect each class differently, bringing the sort of variety that many previous subclasses failed to deliver as effectively. Though Strand arms Guardians with all that they need to destroy enemies in completely new ways, one of the biggest game-changers it provides is the iconic grapple ability, which allowsDestiny 2players to traverse environments like never before.
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Despite some initial controversy regarding cooldowns, Strand has mostly proven to be a well-regulated subclass since its arrival, offering a viable new approach to endgame content while keeping most ofDestiny 2’s other subclassesuseful in their own right. Bungie’s sandbox team revealed a few upcoming tweaks to Strand in their blog post this week, explaining that these adjustments will roll out along with the game’s next season amid some potentially longer-term balancing changes. Perhaps the most crucial of these changes is the reduction in the grapple ability’s base cooldown, which is to be brought down from 105 seconds to 82. This, along with the minimum time between grapples being reduced to 2 seconds from 2.5 seconds, has players excited over the potential upgrades to advanced grapple usage.
The other tweaks to Strand mentioned in this week’s blog post are primarily focused on the Threaded Spikemelee ability for Hunters inDestiny 2, a power that has received some criticism since its debut. The ability is currently set to receive a roughly 55% increase in overall damage output when the Strand changes come around, as well as a 30% increase in projectile travel range and an increased energy return depending on the number of enemies hit with the projectile. The ability will also become capable of piercing Phalanx shields, and will also see a slight reduction in return time so that players can catch the dart more easily.
Destiny 2has suffered from multiple technical issuessince the launch of its latest expansion, with countless bugs, error codes, and server problems affecting players throughout the season. The promise of highly-requested balancing changes and new story content in Season of the Deep has already gotten players excited, though many fans are hoping that the next season will bring further stability improvements to the game as well.
Destiny 2is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
