Subclasses
New Aspects, abilities, grenades, and major reworks to existing abilities. The champion mod system was also fully overhauled.
New Aspects
Shieldburst — Solar Titan
Activating Barricade causes your class ability to slide forward, granting scorching rounds to nearby allies. The slide can be detonated for an area-of-effect scorch burst. Scales in power with your Class stat.
Pairs well with Ember of Searing or any scorch-stacking build. The AoE detonation scales hard at high Class stat — prioritize it on your stat rolls.
Crackshot — Solar Hunter
Mark targets, then on class ability activation, fire up to 3 scorching shots at marked targets. Landing all 3 shots on marked targets cures the Hunter.
The self-cure from landing all 3 shots makes this extremely strong for solo content. Works with any Solar build that stacks Radiant or scorch.
Soul Siphon — Void Warlock
Readying a powered melee primes Soul Siphon. Pressing melee again siphons from all nearby enemies simultaneously, granting Void Overshield and class ability energy.
Combine with devour or child of the old gods for maximum Void fragment synergy. The class ability energy return makes this effectively permanent Blink or Healing Rift uptime in dense content.
New Melee
Phantom Surge — Void Hunter
An aggressive dash that damages enemies in its path and generates Void Overshield per enemy hit. Deals bonus damage against targets already affected by a Void debuff (Volatile, Suppressed, Weaken).
Use in combination with Volatile Rounds from Devour to almost immediately cap Void Overshield. The bonus damage vs Void-debuffed targets stacks well with Tether setups.
New Grenades
Stasis Shatter Grenade
Sticky grenade that, on detonation, releases ricocheting Stasis shrapnel. Deals bonus damage against frozen targets. Shrapnel bounces around cover to hit enemies behind obstacles.
Pre-freeze enemies with Duskfield Grenade or a teammate's Stasis, then follow with Shatter Grenade for massive burst. Excellent for clearing clustered frozen adds.
Strand Slicewire Grenade
Bouncing grenade that releases whirling Strand lashes on each bounce. Lashes deal damage and apply Sever (reducing enemy damage output) to anything they hit.
The bouncing nature makes this effective in corridors and enclosed spaces. Sever application stacks with Woven Mail and other Strand survivability perks for high-uptime damage reduction.
Major Ability Reworks
Ward of Dawn — Void Titan
Ward of Dawn is now more than twice as large as before. Allies inside receive Void Overshield and a weapon damage buff. Enemies inside the Ward are Weakened. The Ward also has a relocatable core — you can move its position after placement.
The Weakened effect on enemies inside the Ward makes it viable for offensive plays in endgame content, not just a Weapons of Light buff station. The damage buff plus Weakened enemy is a significant DPS setup.
The larger Ward of Dawn makes it more visible to enemies. In PvP, enemies know exactly where you are. In PvE, it now covers a much larger area — position carefully so you don't accidentally Weaken adds you can't deal with.
Trapper's Ambush — Void Hunter
Now consumes class ability energy instead of a separate resource. Damage is greatly increased while the Hunter has an active positive Void status effect (Void Overshield, Invisibility, Devour).
Always combine Trapper's Ambush with Devour or a Void Overshield source. The damage boost is substantial and makes this viable in endgame DPS rotations for the first time.
Hammer Strike — Solar Titan
Now deals 100% more damage against combatants (doubled). This applies to the punch version, not just the throwing version.
Pairs well with Wormgod Caress or Synthoceps for stacking melee damage. Combined with Shieldburst (new Aspect), Solar Titan melee builds have never hit harder.
Balance Changes
Super energy generation from boss damage is down -60%. Extended DPS phases will no longer feed Super energy the way they used to. Adjust super-dependent builds accordingly.
Passive ability cooldown reduced by ~20% — abilities now recharge slightly faster outside of active combat.
Active ability cooldown bonus reduced from 190% to 125% — the burst ability recharge from dealing damage is weaker than before.
Scatter Grenades (PvP only) chase distance reduced by -50%. They're no longer as effective at pursuing players around cover.
Grapple boss melee bonus damage reduced by -50%.
Lightning Grenade detonation damage increased by +25%.
Champion Frame Overhaul
Champion mods are no longer tied to Seasonal Artifacts. Anti-Champion behavior is now intrinsic to weapon archetypes:
Unstoppable = Aggressive Frame / High-Impact Frame weapons
Barrier = Precision Frame / Adaptive Frame weapons
Overload = Lightweight Frame / Rapid-Fire Frame weapons
You no longer need to slot Champion mods. Any weapon of the matching archetype will stagger Champions. This opens up significantly more loadout flexibility — you're no longer forced to use specific artifact mods to cover all three Champion types.
Some weapons that previously had Champion coverage through artifacts no longer have it. If your go-to weapon was a non-covered archetype before, check whether it now inherently covers a Champion type.