In the two weeks leading up to Destiny 2’s The Witch Queen expansion, Bungie is revealing more of what the upcoming release entails, including the revamp of Void subclasses. With the introduction of Stasis from the Beyond Light expansion, Destiny 2’s old tree system became obsolete, calling for a rework of all Light subclasses in the future. Bungie’s recent patches proved that the company is willing to provide players with plenty of different options to customize their characters’ builds and loadouts, further emphasizing the importance of the Void 3.0 system.
Destiny 2’s Void 3.0 update seemed like a perfect moment to reshape the state of the game by providing subclasses with enhanced tools, while also delving more into their inherent themes. This is partly what the breakdown of the Void 3.0 changes highlighted, but it also seems that the update is reaffirming the power and utility of each class and subclass rather than rebalancing them. The problem is that Warlocks were already very powerful in PvE and outperformed nearly every other option, and that aspect may not change with The Witch Queen - same as the Titans’ superior team-wide utility and support, and the Hunters’ focus on solo play.
Why Destiny 2’s Void 3.0 Update Could Have Done Better
The current Destiny 2 meta makes it so that Warlocks are pretty much mandatory in every team because of Well of Radiance. Meanwhile, Titans are exceptional picks because of Cuirass of the Falling Star and Ward of Dawn, and Hunters are often banned from LFGs. Warlocks have some of the best PvE options in the game, with abilities like Devour, Arc Souls, both Empowering and Healing Rift, and Stasis turrets. Titans have Exotics and abilities that make them out-DPS Hunters and Warlocks, while also offering interesting skills that increase the survivability and damage output of allied players. Hunters, on the other hand, have a single-utility build in Omnioculus, but every remaining Exotic or subclass is more about damage without actually excelling at it.
Destiny 2’s Void 3.0 update makes Warlocks incredibly powerful at clearing adds, even more than they were, and they also get a chance of applying the Weaken debuff to most enemies. They can even tether enemies better than Hunters thanks to Child of the Old Gods, a new Aspect. Sentinel Titans have new Aspects that enhance their overshields and the way they are applied to their allies, and while this is a decent change, Suppression Grenades were made available to all classes, and the explosions coming from middle-tree Sentinel share the same fate with a Volatile debuff.
Still, Titans didn’t need a whole subclass themed around overshields, and while the changes made to Barricade and grenade energy are good to see, it feels like Sentinels didn’t get the same treatment as Voidwalkers. Lastly, the class that was hit hardest is Hunters, and the reason for it is that there are no team-wide utility abilities to help Hunters shine in endgame PvE content where they struggle the most.
On the other hand, Bungie offered new powerful PvP tools to Hunters, and while those always come in handy, this is not what the class needed. Delving more into the invisibility aspect of Hunters is not ideal in Destiny 2’s PvE content because it’s mostly something Hunters do to themselves, and their tether officially serves nearly no purpose because of how accessible Weaken is across. The Void 3.0 update was the perfect chance for Bungie to restore a balance between the three classes, but it seems its main theme is reworking them individually without a wider rebalance.
Destiny 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
