Destiny 2 Season of the Deep early patch notes: Super buffs, seasonal content, more

Season 21 of Destiny 2, Season of the Deep, brings about sweeping balance changes for the game and a bunch of new story, dungeon, and activity content for players to experience. Here’s an early look at the patch notes.

Season of the Deep is on the horizon for Destiny 2 and with a brand new seasonal story, content, and a new dungeon on the way, there’s a lot to be excited about. Bungie is also looking to make some sweeping balance changes come Season of the Deep, with several supers and subclasses receiving some love in PvE.

There’s plenty on the horizon so before it all hits the live servers, be sure to brush up on our early look at the Season of the Deep patch notes for Destiny 2.

Destiny 2 Season 21 Patch Highlights

Seasonal Content

As per most seasons, Season of the Deep will launch with its very own story arc that continues on from Lightfall. This will include seasonal story missions that slowly divulge the plot to players each week and also cause pivotal story moments as we move towards the Final Shape.

Alongside this, Season of the Deep will likely host a repeatable season activity for players to complete for loot. This often comes in the form of a 3 or 6-man matchmade activity.

New Dungeon

With Bungie alternating between a dungeon or raid each season in Destiny 2, Season of the Deep sees a new dungeon being released. Season of the Deep’s dungeon is yet to have its theme revealed, but will likely reward players with various armor, weapons, and even an exotic for lose lucky enough.

It’s worth noting that players will need to own the Lightfall Dungeon Key in order to access the dungeon, which can be purchased with the Deluxe Edition of Lightfall or with 2000 Silver (roughly $20 USD).

Subclass and Super Changes

Almost every subclass and super is receiving some sort of love from Bungie come Season 21. Most of these changes are in the form of PvE buffs, often increasing the damage of certain supers or giving them Light 3.0 keywords. Certain Aspects also receive buffs with their Fragment slot allotment going up to 2 from 1.

Destiny 2 Season of the Deep early patch notes

Below is an early look at the Season of the Deep patch notes, courtesy of Bungie.

Fragment Allotment Changes

Increased the Fragment slot allotment for the following Aspects from 1 to 2:

Hunter

• Trapper’s Ambush
• Shatterdive
• Gunpowder Gamble

Titan

• Bastion
• Juggernaut

Warlock

• Chaos Accelerant

Supers

All Supers

• Increased PvE damage resistance by ~20%.

Strand Buffs

Grapple

• Reduced base cooldown from 105 seconds to 82 seconds.
• Reduced the minimum time between grapple activations from 2.5s to 0.2s.

Thread of Generation

• Reduced energy generation provided by some damage-over-time mechanics.
• Reduced energy generation provided by Trace Rifles by 36%.

Hunter

Solar

Golden Gun (both Marksman and Deadshot)

• Increased PvE damage by 20%.

Proximity Explosive Knife

• Detonation damage vs. players reduced from 105 to 90.
• Impact damage vs. players increased from 14 to 20.

Weighted Throwing Knife

• On mouse and keyboard, reduced minimum tracking shape size by 25% and maximum tracking shape size by 10%. This shape grows over 0.5 seconds after the projectile is thrown.

Lightweight Knife

• Projectile speed increased from 30 meters per second to 40 meters per second.
• Tracking shape size increased by 20%.

Gunpowder Gamble

• Reduced cooldown from 12 seconds to 6 seconds.

Void

Spectral Blades

• Increased PvE damage by 35%.
• Heavy attack now weakens targets on hit.
• Fixed an issue causing some right-hand Spectral Blades attacks to fail to connect when attacking at maximum attack speed.

Snare Bomb

• Increased PvE weaken duration on detonation from 4 seconds to 8 seconds.

Arc

Gathering Storm

• Direct impact damage vs. players increased from 200 to 300.
• Delayed lightning strike damage vs. players increased from 300 to 500.
• Lingering lightning tick damage vs. players increased from 40 to 60.
• Now deals increased damage vs. Well of Radiance and Ward of Dawn.

Arc Staff

• Increased PvE damage by 20%.

Strand

Threaded Spike

• Increased projectile travel range before beginning to return to the player by 30%.
• Increased damage vs. PvE combatants by ~55%.
• Slightly reduced speed of the dart as it returns to the player to make catching it easier.
• Increased energy gain for catching the dart based on the number of enemies hit.
• Now pierces Cabal Phalanx shields.
• No longer prioritizes the catch action over the grapple melee if an enemy target is within grapple melee range.

Stasis

Withering Blade

• Increased projectile tracking search range on bounce vs. players by 20%.
• Increased maximum tracking strength by 12.5%.

Warlock

Solar

Daybreak

• Adjusted Super camera to allow the player to look down further and avoid VFX blocking view of targets when moving quickly.

Incinerator Snap

• Fixed an issue preventing the secondary projectile arming shape from activating.
• Total damage vs. players reduced from 150 to 135 to compensate for dramatically increased consistency.

Stormtrance

• Increased PvE damage by 25%.
• Damage ramp while attacking now occurs more quickly (over 3 seconds, down from 5).
• Landfall detonation and seekers now jolt targets.

Chaos Reach

• Increased PvE damage by 25%.
• Sustained damage on a single target now creates a jolting lightning strike at the target’s location.
• Increased damage resistance vs. players from 40% to 50%.
• Increased maximum strafe speed from 3.5m/s to 4.5m/s.
• Adjusted Super camera to avoid the player’s body blocking view of targets when strafing.

Ball Lightning

• Increased PvE damage by 30%.
• Reduced ping scalar on both primary and secondary detonations so combatants are less likely to be knocked out of the secondary strike area while the player is amplified.

Lightning Surge

• Fixed an issue allowing Lightning Surge to deal more instances of secondary strike damage than intended – now targets can take a maximum of two instances of damage from a single activation of the ability: one from the primary lightning strike around the player, and one from a secondary lightning strike.
• This change necessitated some changes in damage values, but in general its damage output should be significantly more consistent and slightly higher than the intended value previously, but without the ability to one-shot a single enemy Guardian from full health.

Void

Nova Warp

• Increased PvE damage by 15%.
• A fully charged attack now makes enemies Volatile on hit.

Nova Bomb

• PvE damage increased by 20%.

Chaos Accelerant

• Scatter Grenade
  • Increased tracking consistency of charged Scatter Grenade submunitions.
  • Increased submunition arming duration.
  • Fixed a bug where some submunitions were impacting the ground on creation in some situations, resulting in an early detonation.
• Magnetic Grenade (Handheld Supernova)
  • Increase charged hold time from 3.2 seconds to 4.5 seconds.

Strand

Arcane Needle

• Decreased cooldown based on how many melee charges the player has stored.
• At 0 charges, cooldown reduced by 15%. At 2 charges, cooldown reduced by 30%.
• Increased projectile speed based on the projectile’s flight time.
• Initial velocity increased to 40 meters per second, up from 30.
• Final velocity increased to 70 meters per second, up from 60.
• Increased projectile tracking strength by ~10%.

Stasis

Winter’s Wrath

• Increased PvE damage by 10%.

Frostpulse

• Now provides 2 meters of additional melee lunge range after activation for 1.2 seconds.

Titan

Solar

Hammer of Sol

• Increased PvE damage by 10%.

Burning Maul

• Increased PvE damage by 10%.
• Now creates a Sunspot on cast when Sol Invictus is equipped, matching the behavior of Hammer of Sol.
• Heavy attack cyclone now applies scorch over time.

Sol Invictus

• Increased damage dealt by Sunspots to enemy players per tick from 17 to 22.

Arc

Fists of Havoc

• Light attack cost reduced from 8.5% to 6%.
• Heavy attack cost reduced from 18% to 12%.
• Increased heavy attack PvE damage by 33%.
• Heavy attack now blinds targets near the center of the slam area.

Knockout

• Lunge range reduced from 6.5m to 5.5m.
• Uncharged melee PvE damage bonus increased from 60% to 100%.

Void

Sentinel Shield

• Increased PvE damage by 20%.
• Shield Throw
• Increased base impact damage from 60 to 70.
• Increased consistency of finding and adjusting initial trajectory toward a new target after a bounce.

Strand

Frenzied Blade

• Decreased cooldown based on how many melee charges the player has stored.
• At 0 charges, cooldown reduced by 15%. At 2 charges, cooldown reduced by 30%.

Stasis

Glacial Quake

• Increased Shiver Strike thrust speed while in Super by 10%.
• Increased light attack damage by 20%.

Shiver Strike

• Maximum thrust while in flight increased by 16%.
• Decreased maximum downward influence of gravity while in flight by 18%.
• Howl of the Storm
• Increased width of freezing cone vs. players by 31%.

General

Seismic Strike, Shield Bash, Hammer Strike

• Now cost 15% melee energy on activation.
• Base cooldowns are now standardized at 91 seconds (previously ranged from 101s to 114s).

Subclass Keyword Changes

Scorch

• Increase stun time before stacks begin falling off from 1.5s to 2.3s on players.
• Increase stun time before stacks begin falling off from 3s to 4.5s on PvE combatants.

Jolt

• Reduced base PvE damage by 15%.
• Reduced additional damage scalar vs. major combatants in PvE by ~20%.

Speed Booster

• Bonus jump acceleration scalar reduced from 1.5x to 1.25x.
• Now activates while sprinting after 2.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.
• Now lingers while the player is not sprinting for 2 seconds, up from 1.5 seconds.
• Fixed a bug where if the player was already sprinting and then became amplified, speed booster would not be granted.

Exotics

Bungie has revealed in a recent post that certain exotics will also be receiving some changes when Season 21 comes around. The developers have also stated that, unless explicitly stated, the following changes leave the rest of the Exotic’s benefits intact.

Hunter

Sealed Ahamkara Grasps

• This Exotic will now reload the magazine of all of your weapons when you defeat a target with your powered melee, and for 5 seconds after dealing melee damage you gain increased movement speed and jump height. 

Athrys’s Embrace

• Gain additional strength while the Exotic’s Weighted Knife damage bonus is active. 

Oathkeeper

• When fully drawn, Bows gain a bonus to damage against combatants that increases as you hold the draw but deactivates after a few seconds.

Raiju’s Harness

• When deactivating your Arc Staff Super, you create a blinding explosion that temporarily increases your Arc weapon damage. However, blocking with Whirlwind Guard will no longer consume energy more slowly.

Radiant Dance Machines

• Kills while your free dodge is active extend the duration of free dodging. No longer deactivates when you get too far away from enemies. Deactivates after using Suspending Slam. 

ST0MP-EE5 

• Removed airborne effectiveness penalties. You only gain increased speed, slide distance, and improved jumping while your dodge energy is full. 

Mask of Bakris

• Changed to use a tier-4 non-stacking weapon damage bonus (which behaves the same as the non-stacking damage bonuses provided by Surge mods). Damage bonus increased in PvE from 10% to 25%, and now grants a 6% bonus to weapon damage in PvP. No longer stacks with Surge leg armor mods, but provides a larger bonus than can be achieved with 3 such mods equipped.

Warlock

Vesper of Radius

• Your rifts emit an Arc shockwave every 5 seconds that deals damage (200 in PvE and 70 in PvP). Enemies defeated by these shockwaves explode for an additional 100 damage and, if you have an Arc subclass equipped, also blind nearby enemies.

Chromatic Fire

• Increased the radius and damage of the explosion created by precision Kinetic takedowns. The explosion also applies a status effect to targets damaged by it, depending on which subclass you have equipped: blind (Arc), scorch (Solar), slow (Stasis), sever (Strand), weaken (Void).

Dawn Chorus

• Daybreak projectile’s damage bonus has been increased and no longer is reliant on the enemy being scorched.

Sanguine Alchemy

• Standing in a rift grants a non-stacking bonus to weapon damage matching your subclass damage type. This damage bonus is the equivalent of 2 Surge leg mods (17% PvE and 4.5% PvP).

Claws of Ahamkara

• Powered melee kills create an Orb of Power. When Heavy Handed mods are equipped, increases the potency of the orb spawned (no more than 1 orb can be spawned per enemy takedown).

Mantle of Battle Harmony

• Weapon bonus damage changed to tier-4 when Super is fully charged, increasing damage bonus in PvE from 20% to 25% and reducing the damage bonus from 15% to 6% in PvP. No longer stacks with Surge leg armor mods, but provides a larger bonus than can be achieved with three such mods equipped.
• Damage bonus only applies to weapons that match your subclass damage type, and now stacks with Empowering Rift and other similar damage bonuses. Extended base duration of this bonus from 6 seconds to 10 seconds (PvE) and 3 seconds to 5 seconds (PvP).

Ophidian Aspect

• Removed the extended melee range.

Promethium Spur

• Grants Rift energy for any Solar weapon takedown, with more energy granted for Solar weapon takedowns while standing in a rift. Also, you now have to be standing in a rift when you get a final blow for the Exotic to consume your class ability energy and create a rift at the target’s location.

Starfire Protocol

• Reduced the amount of energy gained per instance of damage from 20% to 2.5%. Empowered weapon kills now grant 20% grenade energy.

Titan

Point-Contact Cannon Brace

• Lightning strikes now jolt targets. Increased PvE damage per lightning bolt from 50 to 200. Being amplified now increases the damage of the lightning strikes by 50% instead of extending their range.

No Backup Plans

• This is a complete rework, replacing the old functionality entirely. Now provides a moderate benefit to the airborne effectiveness and reload speed of Shotguns.
• While you have a Void overshield, Shotguns deal additional damage and Shotgun final blows refresh your overshield.
• While using a Void subclass, rapid Shotgun final blows or defeating a powerful enemy with a Shotgun grants you a Void overshield and kicks off your health regeneration.

Second Chance

• Shield throw melee now weakens enemies. Stunning a Barrier Champion with your shield throw melee grants a single full melee charge.

Stronghold

• Replaced the healing from blocking shots precisely with significant damage reduction (50% in PvE, 10% in PvP) while blocking with a Sword. When you stop blocking, gain restoration x2, with a duration that increases based on the number of shots you blocked.

Eternal Warrior

• Rapid takedowns with an Arc weapon grant an escalating bonus to Arc weapon damage, using the same non-stacking damage bonuses used by Surge mods. This can go all the way up to the tier-4 damage bonus, granting a damage bonus of 25% in PvE and 6% in PvP, providing a larger bonus than can be achieved with three Surge mods equipped. While at the tier-4 damage bonus, Arc kills refresh the bonus’s duration. After your Fist of Havoc Super ends, you gain the tier-4 damage bonus.

Khephri’s Horn

• The Solar damage wave now scorches targets.

Path Of The Burning Steps

• Changed to use the non-stacking weapon damage bonuses used by Surge mods. This can go all the way up to the tier-4 damage bonus, granting a damage bonus of 25% in PvE and 6% in PvP, providing a larger bonus than can be achieved with three Surge mods equipped. While at the tier-4 damage bonus, Solar kills refresh the bonus’s duration. Becoming encased immediately grants you the tier-4 damage bonus.

Dunemarchers

• Reduced the range of the chain damage from 20m to 12m and PvP damage from 85 to 50.