Season of the Lost continues in Destiny 2 in December with the Bungie’s 30th Anniversary Event on December 7th. A new balance patch with a host of updates to abilities, exotics, weapons, and perks is planned for the same day. The November 18th This Week At Bungie outlined a dozens of changes, including a major shift in the potency of certain Stasis abilities. Bungie previously teased that Stasis subclasses were due for a rework in this update, and specifically they mentioned taking a look at Revenant Hunters and Shatterdive, as well as the Behemoth Titans.
Both Revenants and Behemoths will be able to take advantage of buffs to shatter damage in PvE, but they’re also significantly less effective at freezing or defeating players with shatter damage in PvP. Behemoths also received another buff to the Diamond Lance Stasis Aspect, which now can be triggered from Stasis weapon kills and comes with three Stasis Fragment slots. It’s a huge buff that totally reinvents the Behemoth subclass, and yet it’s also incredibly confusing considering Bungie’s original vision for the subclass.
The “Shatter” Subclass That Was Doomed To Fail
When Bungie introduced the three Stasis subclasses–Revenant, Shadebinder, and Behemoth–they outlined a new concept where each class represented a different component of Stasis gameplay. Revenant was pitched as the ‘slow’ subclass while Shadebinder delivered ‘freeze.’ Behemoth was supposed to excel as the ‘shatter’ class, but that initial plan didn’t work out. While Shadebinder definitely does the freeze thing well it’s unfortunately Revenant that became the go-to shatter subclass. Shatterdive did everything Behemoth was supposed to do, while also having more freezing options available in its kit.
Being the ‘shatter’ class already comes with a bunch of caveats. Shattering is a two step process that requires players to first freeze a target (slowing isn’t good enough) and follow up with a shatter ability. There just isn’t enough space in the Titan kit do so all of this. Behemoth Titans currently have a confusing selection of abilities that make the subclass a poor choice for PvE and PvP content outside of some gimmicky builds with Whisper of Rime. Behemoth lacks a freeze on its melee, applies no status with its PvP melee, and features the most interdependent set of Stasis Aspects in the game.
Come December 7th Behemoth actually looks worse in PvP. Let’s take minute to consider the upcoming change to Stasis crystals next month. Crystals no longer freeze players when forming. As a result, the Behemoth Super, Glacial Quake, has a harder time freezing players who aren’t caught in the initial freeze pulse. The Behemoth Aspect Howl of the Storm also won’t be able to freeze players. Meanwhile, Behemoth still has awful tracking on its melee, low Super armor, and it’ll have the longest-recharging Super in the game come next month.
The Diamond Lance Buff Still Isn’t Enough
The PvP outlook for Behemoth looks bleak, but the PvE changes are a significant buff to the subclass. The Diamond Lance Stasis Aspect is getting a major buff to trigger on Stasis weapon kills. It’s a huge change that unlinks Stasis Lance creation from ability uptime. Rather than waiting for a melee or grenade ability you can simply get a kill with Peacebond to generate a Stasis Lance.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to build around Diamond Lance because it doesn’t play nicely with the rest of the Stasis Aspects available for Behemoths. Tectonic Harvest triggers when shattering Stasis Crystals, but those can only be made via Headstone, Salvation’s Grip, Glacial Grenades, or with the Super ability. If you’re running Glacial Grenades you might as well take advantage of the buffed shatter damage by running Cryoclasm, especially since you can’t run Diamond Lance, Tectonic Harvest, and Howl of the Storm together. That leaves just two pairings to Behemoth: Tectonic Harvest and Howl of the Storm, and Cryoclasm and Diamond Lance, which is really only useful if you’re running Glacial Grenades.
Eventually we’ll have access to more Stasis weapons, but for now there’s only three Legendary Stasis options. Ager’s Scepter is fantastic on the new Behemoth, yet it’s also just as functional on the other subclasses. It’s still hard to see what the ‘draw’ of Behemoth is, especially since Hunters can still shatter better than Titans. Why am I playing Behemoth over Shadebinder or Revenant? What are Stasis Titans bringing to the table that other classes aren’t? Winter’s Wrath and Silence & Squall are insane supers that are viable at every level of PvE and PvP content. Glacial Quake is adequate for normal PvE content and actually a detriment to your team in PvP.
Behemoth doesn’t need one or two Aspect buffs. It needs a totally new Super. I’m increasingly concerned about what’s coming for the Void 2.0 update as long as Behemoth continues to be in the poor position it’s in. As a Titan main there’s a lot of fun to be had with each of Sentinel’s trees. Bottom tree can generate supers extremely quickly, middle tree is end game viable with a cool detonator mechanic, and top tree is one of the best supports in the game. I like the idea of a rework for Void subclasses, especially for Nova Warp, but I’m not convinced that Titans will be better off for it.
Contrails 