During today’s Destiny: The Taken King livestream, developer Bungie Studios detailed new abilities and skills that will be available the three new subclasses when The Taken King is released next month.
Prior to jumping into the highlight of the stream, a new Strike that takes place on King Oryx’s Dreadnaught ship called “Shield Brothers,” members of Destiny’s development team, gameplay designer Claude Jerome and community manager Cozmo, as well as member of the Destiny community Mr. Fruit, went over new skills and abilities that will be available in The Taken King’s new subclasses.
First up, Mr. Fruit outlined the Titan’s new subclass: Sunbreaker. In the grenades category the subclass includes a Fusion Grenade (identical to the Sunsinger Warlock’s Fusion Grenade), a new Thermite Grenade that “sends forward a burning line of fire,” and an Incendiary Grenade that will light enemies on fire, causing additional damage over time.
Most important to the Sunbreaker is the Titan’s new special ability Hammer of Sol, which summons a flaming hammer for the Titan to throw at targets for massive damage. Enhancements to Hammer of Sol include the ability to throw more hammers with bigger explosions, the ability to thrust the Titan forward causing enemies in the Titan’s path to explode and chain fiery damage to nearby enemies, and an ability called Scorched Earth, which allows the Titan to create what are called Sunspots wherever a Hammer of Sol lands after being thrown.
Next up, Jerome detailed the Hunter’s new subclass: Nightstalker. Nightstalkers will be able to choose from a Spike Grenade, which can attach to any surface and then emit “a torrent of damaging Void Light,” a Voidwall Grenade that “creates a horizontal wall of burning Void Light,” and the Vortex Grenade, which creates a spherical Vortex that damages enemies trapped inside of it (identical to the Voidwalker Warlock’s Vortex Grenade).
Of note is the Nightstalker’s special ability, Shadowshot, which gives the Hunter a bow and arrow that will “tether foes to a Void Anchor, slowing, weakening, and suppressing them for you and your allies.” Shadowshot can be modified to cause tethered enemies to explode when they are killed in addition to making the damage done to tethered enemies shared amongst all tethered enemies; to make the Void Anchor have “increased range, last significantly longer and can tether more targets;” and, finally, give the Hunter the ability to fire Shadowshot up to three times, sacrificing range on the Voice Anchors.
Interestingly, the Nightstalker does not have traditional melee ability. Instead, it has something called Smoke, with which the Hunter will create a cloud of smoke that disorients enemies trapped in the cloud. Smoke can be upgraded to cause damage to those trapped in the cloud, cause you and your allies to disappear from sight, and the ability to make the Smoke bomb attach to a surface, detonating when enemies pass by.
Lastly, Jerome took the reins again to go over the Warlock’s new subclass: Stormcaller. For grenades, the Stormcaller subclass can choose from a Pulse Grenade, the new Storm Grenade, which “calls down a focused lightning storm” wherever it lands, and an Arcbolt Grenade.
Stormtrance is the Stormcaller’s special ability. It enables the Warlock to channel lightning through its hands and fire it at enemies. Modifiers for Stormtrance include Landfall, which causes the Warlock to shoot a lightning bolt into the ground, “creating a devastating shockwave under you” when casting Stormtrance; Superconductor, which doubles the chaining capabilities of Stormtrance’s lightning; and Ionic Blink, which allows the Warlock to teleport while under the effects of Stormtrance.
The Stormcaller’s melee ability fires an arc of lightning at the target with a range longer than that of a typical melee ability.
Check out the archived Twitch video below to get the full rundown on the new abilities, as well as a few of the new artifact items that can be equipped for stat bonuses and unique perks (beginning at 8:35).
Watch live video from Bungie on Twitch
Destiny: The Taken King will be available on Sept. 15 for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 3. The in-game PvP event Iron Banner will be making one last return before The Taken King launches, after which two of the Iron Banner emblems will no longer be attainable.
