By Tim Clark
published
A stealth buff to an unloved stat is turning guardians into invincible tanks.
Perhaps it should be no surprise for a game with patch notes which can run to north of 9,000 words that impactful changes still slip through the cracks only to be later discovered. Which is what's happening right now in Destiny 2, where players have found they can become almost unkillable tanks by cranking their 'Resilience' stat to the max.
Previously, Resilience was considered a total dumpster stat. In PvE, it was only useful on the Titan class in order to charge the barricade ability faster, otherwise providing almost no meaningful extra survivability. But as part of the Solar 3.0 changes that Bungie rolled with Season of the Haunted, Resilience was reworked substantially.
Amidst the vast swathe of changes listed in the May 24 update 4.1.0 notes was this: "Resilience: Now grants increased incoming flinch resistance and damage resistance vs. PVE combatants."
What no one expected was how much of a slab of resistance Bungie was talking about. Try a whopping 40% to all inbound damage from AI enemies, provided you're willing to go all-in and spec 100 Resilience.
(Note that this damage resistance doesn't apply in PvP, but the anti-flinch does.)
Crucially, this damage resistance effect does not scale linearly, and is heavily weighted towards the top of the curve. Or in other words, unless you can hit at least 70 Resilience, it's almost not worth bothering at all, as the testing by reddit user kaloryth illustrates:
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Resilience stat | Damage resistance % |
1 | 1 |
2 | 2 |
3 | 3 |
4 | 4 |
5 | 8 |
6 | 14 |
7 | 20 |
8 | 26 |
9 | 32 |
10 | 40 |
In any remotely challenging content, the effect is immediately noticeable. I found myself surviving all sorts of engagements that would normally have killed me, and often with a substantial chunk of health remaining. And for reference, 40% damage resistance is the same amount that the old Protective Light mod granted before it was nerfed into atoms. You really feel the benefit.
I was so impressed, that I've painstakingly re-specced most of my favourite builds to have 90+ Resilience. That process was made harder by the fact I've been routinely sharding armor with high Reslience for years now. Luckily, thanks to the superb tool that is D2 Armor Picker, which enables you to precisely specify what stat tiers you're trying to hit, then tells you what armor and mods to use, I was still often able to reach the cap. I strongly recommend building at least one high resilience set for raids and Grandmaster Nightfalls.
Compounding our newfound tankiness further, Season of the Haunted delivered several other potent healing options. Most notable is the Classy Restoration mod on the final column of the Season Artifact. It reads: "Activating your Solar class abilities grants you Restoration." The 'Restoration' effect regenerates health and shields over time, and—crucially—isn't interrupted by taking damage.
It's especially strong on Gunslinger Hunter, because the dodge ability already has a low cooldown and you want to be using it as often as possible anyway. You can easily have Restoration x2 up almost constantly. I also like it a lot on the current Starfire Protocol Warlock build, which involves spamming Fusion Grenades that explode twice using the Touch of Flame aspect, so that you can run an Empowering Rift that also triggers healing.
The buff granted by Classy Restoration is actually 'Restoration x2', which you don't need to be a maths whizz to know is double the basic version. In fact, it's the same buff that the recently reworked Titan exotic helmet Lorely Splendor gives. No surprise, then, that a Sunbreaker wearing that hat and also running 100 Resilience is the tankiest build in the game right now, thanks to constant Barricade/Sunspot spam.
If you want to spec even harder into not dying, also consider the new healing grenades, and the Well of Life mod which triggers another form of health regen when picking up solar wells.
Reminder: When you're dead your DPS drops to exactly zero.
At this point you may be thinking, hello, I am healed now, please stop healing me. I cannot, in fact, be more healthy. And you'd be right, insofar as we've certainly never had it so good when it comes to health mods and abilities. But as someone smarter than me once noted, when you're dead your DPS drops to exactly zero. It really can't be overstated how much not dying should be valued in endgame PvE content. My favourite teammates are the ones who are still shooting.
One side note: Presumably to mitigate the newfound value of Resilience, Bungie also nerfed (unannounced) the amount of damage resistance granted by chest mods. These now confer 15% damage resistance, as opposed to 25% for a single mod. Again, I think the philosophy here is that the developer wants you to really commit to building into damage resistance, rather than just slapping on a couple of cheap mods and calling it done.
All that said, I do think the Resilience change is soimpactful—especially as the damage reduction is active constantly—that I wouldn't be surprised if it gets toned down in a future update. For now, enjoy the face rolling.
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With over two decades covering videogames, Tim has been there from the beginning. In his case, that meant playing Elite in 'co-op' on a BBC Micro (one player uses the movement keys, the other shoots) until his parents finally caved and bought an Amstrad CPC 6128. These days, when not steering the good ship PC Gamer, Tim spends his time complaining that all Priest mains in Hearthstone are degenerates and raiding in Destiny 2. He's almost certainly doing one of these right now.
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FAQs
What is the most important stat in Destiny 2? ›
Resilience — Destiny 2 Best and Worst Stats
Since its update in Season of the Haunted, Resilience has been without a doubt the most important stat in Destiny 2, regardless of what mode or activity you're playing in.
Recovery – It's still a strong stat, but no longer as important as Resilience, and can be rendered somewhat pointless with Void 3.0's Devour and Solar 3.0's Restoration. Discipline – An important stat given that grenade cooldown reduction is key for many types of builds.
Does resilience matter in crucible? ›Resilience. Season of the Haunted has reworked the Resilience stat to grant damage resistance in PvE only; the damage resistance bonus does not affect the Crucible in any way.
Is resilience worth it in PvP? ›For PvP, resilience is much more important because it can make the difference between a 3 shot kill and a 4 shot kill. So recovery is better in pve and resilience is better in pvp. is that what youre trying to explain?
What is the best stat to max in Destiny 2? ›Your most important stats will depend highly on your build and if you're a PvE or PvP player. Generally, the best stats are Resilience for PvE, Recovery for PvP, and Discipline for all game modes.
Does 100 resilience matter in PvP? ›However, resilience does now reduce flinch a small amount at higher tiers so it has some for PvP now. It's still more or less a dump stat for PvP though. Recovery tends to be the sought after stat for PvP. In PvE it's a substantial damage decrease at tier 6+ but that doesn't have any effect in PvP.
Does resilience matter in PvE? ›Values from 0 to 40 aren't worth it because you only gain 1% of resistance per 10 resilience. Values from 50 to 100 add about 6% damage resistance per tier. Conclusion: Aim for 50 or more or don't even bother.
Did resilience get buffed Destiny 2? ›Currently, Guardians that have 100 Resilience have 40% damage reduction, but in the Lightfall expansion, Bungie is nerfing this so that maxing out Resilience caps that damage reduction to 30%. This change might not seem like much, but it greatly impacts how players build their Guardians in Destiny 2.
Why is resilience not always good? ›In sum, there is no doubt that resilience is a useful and highly adaptive trait, especially in the face of traumatic events. However, when taken too far, it may focus individuals on impossible goals and make them unnecessarily tolerant of unpleasant or counterproductive circumstances.
Is resilience the key to success? ›Resilience may not come up as often as the other skills, but being resilient — being able to “bounce back” from challenges and setbacks — is a skill that sets the most successful people apart from the rest.
Is it possible to get 100 in mobility resilience and recovery? ›
No. Pretty sure the best you can do is 100resil 100recovery and 80(60 base mobility with the +20 from a lightweight weapon.
Is resilience a good skill? ›Resilience is important because it's needed to process and overcome hardship. Those lacking resilience get easily overwhelmed, and may turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms. Resilient people tap into their strengths and support systems to overcome challenges and work through problems.
Does resilience build character? ›A key trait of resilient people is taking responsibility for their behaviors, including failures, and then taking action to improve them. This important character trait will make a huge difference in how a young person performs later in his work and personal life. Notice acts of kindness—your child's and others'.
Does resilience reduce flinch? ›Conversation. - You can now build into Flinch Resistance through Stability stat on weapons, and Resilience stat on Armor. - Higher stability and higher resil = less flinch.
Does resilience stack new world? ›The Resilient Perk – This is a perk that is supposed to have critical hits do 4.8% less damage to you, and can stack five times, commonly showing up in faction gear.
Does resilience matter in Destiny 2 trials? ›Anything above 6 resilience is an absolute waste in PvP unless you're a Titan trying to lower your cool down for barricade. So for the most part, if you're not running 6, your resilience stat is irrelevant and you might as well boost the others. The difference between 2 resilience and 4 is negligible in pvp.
How many points is Max XUR rank? ›Streak 1: 60 points. Streak 2: 86 points. Streak 3: 99 points. Streak 4: 112 points.
What is the strongest class in Destiny 2? ›1. Warlock Dawnblade (Solar 3.0) A subclass primarily used for support, Dawnblade fills its lack of ad clear and boss damage with some of the most powerful buffs in the game. Radiant provides a whopping 25% increase to damage, and Restoration provides continuous health regeneration even through damage.
How much health does resilience give Destiny 2? ›Resilience Tier | 0 | 7 |
---|---|---|
Flinch Resistance | 0% | 7% |
Damage Resistance (PvE) | 0% | 20% |
Shield Points | 115 | 124 |
Health Points | 7070 | 70 |
Immovable Object and Unstoppable Force make this the ultimate weapon for tanking, even in PvP. There are a ton of options here, and just about all of them are good.
What is the best stat for PvP Destiny 2? ›
Recovery and mobility is the most useful stats for pvp imo, Intellect also good if u want to cut some ulti cooldown, Discipline and melee are optional depends on ur build. Intellect, with recovery and resilience slightly behind that i'd say.
Is resilience good for tanking? ›It reduces the chance that you will be critically hit (and also reduces the damage of crits that do land). The reason this is useful for a tank is because tanks actually get hit in PVE whereas DPS and healers don't, and if they do, they are dead anyway, crit or not.
Does resilience and defense stack? ›Resilience helps reducing the chance to be Crit but does not push Crushing Blows off the charts. So it is possible to stack 480 Def with X Resilience, just don't go main tanking anything that crushes. It helps you stack avoidance though, something resilience does not.
Does resilience affect well of radiance? ›Damage taken can scale down to 0.25x based on the owner's Resilience stat. [/quote] [quote]Well of Radiance Increased damage taken from bosses from 0.25x → 1.5x (at 0 Resilience). Damage taken can scale down to 0.25x based on the owner's Resilience stat.
How do you get Cayde's gun after forsaken? ›Once you've collected all the Cayde Caches in Destiny 2, you'll then be instructed to complete the Ace in the Hole mission on Titan. Now, at long last, you can return to Banshee-44 and be granted with the Ace of Spades, Cayde-6's elite Exotic hand cannon. Have fun!
Does resilience matter in Destiny 2 PvP reddit? ›A certain amount of resilience increases your kill threshold. Basically, every weapon has some optimized time to kill. But if you have a certain amount of health via resilience, you can basically require 1 more bullet or more precision hits for your opponent to get that optimal time to kill.
Do stats matter in Destiny 2? ›Character stats are one of the most important aspects of Destiny 2, regardless if players are engaging in any PvE or PvP activity in the game. In Destiny 2, a Guardian's character stats is one of the most important aspects of the game.
What is better than resilience? ›But, there's something more effective than resilience. It's called Mental Fitness. Mental Fitness is a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to managing life's adversity.
Is there a dark side to resilience? ›However, it can be taken too far. For example, too much resilience could make people overly tolerant of adversity. At work, this can translate into putting up with boring or demoralizing jobs — and particularly bad bosses — for longer than needed.
Is there a limit to resilience? ›No matter how resilient you are, you have your limits. We all do. While staying resilient has our attention as a way to be more effective, never mind stay healthy— “it's a marathon, not a sprint” as one my mentors used to counsel me—much of the resilience advice seems focused on the individual.
Is resilience a hard skill? ›
Resilience is identified as one of Matter's top soft skills that is linked to performance, development, and career success. Recovers quickly from difficulties or setbacks.
Does resilience make you stronger? ›People with resilience do not experience less distress, grief, or anxiety than other people do. Instead, they use healthy coping skills to handle such difficulties in ways that foster strength and growth, often emerging stronger than they were before.
Why is resilience a good leader? ›Resilient leaders have the ability to sustain their energy level under pressure, to cope with disruptive changes and adapt. They bounce back from setbacks. They also overcome major difficulties without engaging in dysfunctional behavior or harming others.
What drains your resilience? ›A whopping 75% of them said that the biggest drain on their resilience reserves was “managing difficult people or office politics at work.” That was followed closely by stress brought on by overwork and by having to withstand personal criticism.
Does resilience affect recovery speed? ›Complex dynamic systems theory states that a slower recovery from small perturbations indicates a loss of resilience of a system.
Does resilience work with anarchist? ›Resilience Basic works by simply reducing the player's armor recovery time by a flat 15%. Note this does not work with the Anarchist Perk Deck.
Is resilience a good character trait? ›Why is resilience important? Because if you are resilient, you will be able to face, overcome and even become personally strengthened by the challenges and problems in your life. Resilience doesn't make the problems go away and doesn't solve all problems – it just helps you cope, adjust and stay on your feet.
Can you train resilience? ›You can develop resilience by learning to train your attention on more-positive aspects of your life. You use purposeful, trained attention to decrease negative thoughts in your mind and bring greater focus on the most meaningful aspect of an experience.
Is resilience a skill or attribute? ›Challenges commonly arise in the workplace. Handling and thriving amid those challenges requires that you have resilience. Resilience is a skill that can benefit you at all stages of your career development.
How much damage resistance does land tank give? ›On Weapon Kill: 10 Resilience and 5% Damage Resist against PvE Combatants for 5 seconds. Maximum of 3 Stacks.
How much does one for all increase damage? ›
Ability. Removes all other enchants but increases your damage by 500%.
Does stronghold work with glaives? ›Title. edit: Glaive's are real weapons and armour similar to Stonghold was used with them and the closely related weapon, the Halberd.
Does resilience matter destiny? ›...
Destiny 2 PSA: Resilience is now the single most important stat in the game.
Experiencing or surviving hard events or experiences can often make us more focused, compassionate, spiritual, and aware of our own strengths and possibilities than before. Also known as post-traumatic growth, some evidence suggests that if you accept those negative experiences, you may improve your mental health.
What increases resilience? ›Having confidence in your own ability to cope with the stresses of life can play an important part in resilience. Becoming more confident in your own abilities, including your ability to respond to and deal with a crisis, is a great way to build resilience for the future.
What stats matter in Destiny 2? ›There are six character stats in Destiny 2 that impact a number of features such as health regeneration, strafing speed, damage resistance, and more. These stats are called Mobility, Resilience, Recovery, Discipline, Intellect, and Strength.
What stats should hunters prioritize Destiny 2? ›- Resilience – Increases the amount of damage you can absorb.
- Mobility – Increases movement speed and max jump height.
- Discipline – Increases the recharge speed of your grenade.
- Soft Cap: 1750 power level.
- Hard Cap (also known as the Powerful Cap): 1800 power level.
- Pinnacle Cap: 1810 power level.
Survival hunters will always have the 10% attack speed buff from Hunting Party and another 3% attack speed increase from the Pathing talent. This means that the base cast time of Cobra Shot before haste is 1.765 seconds.
Does gun level matter in Destiny 2? ›Leveling your weapon is essential to get all the benefits weapon crafting has to offer: Level 16 will allow you to insert any Enhanced Perk you want.
Why hunters are the best class in destiny? ›
Hunters are Destiny 2's most popular class by a large margin, doubling the number of Guardians that play Warlock or Titan. With their majestic capes and well-designed subclasses, it's easy to see why. Hunters can offer a bit of everything, ranging from powerful Supers to team buffs.
What is the least played class in Destiny 2? ›Hunters are generally the most popular, with titans either being the least popular or very close in population compared to warlocks.
What is the best class for soloing in Destiny 2? ›The Destiny 2 Void Hunter Solo Build is the strongest class in the current sandbox. The amount of damage you can do with volatile explosions is insane. Currently, the Hunter is the best class for Damage and soloing dungeons and lost sectors. This class offers insane AoE damage and survivability.
Which Super does the most damage Destiny? ›That super? Blade Barrage, boosted with the fresh damage of Knock Em Down, the new Solar 3.0 aspect that gives you more knives to throw, and combined with a specific exotic, it's about 50% more damage than any other super in the game.
How to get to 1550 fast Destiny 2? ›- Complete 8 Vanguard Bounties.
- Complete 8 Crucible Bounties.
- Complete 8 Gambit Bounties.
- Complete 8 Gunsmith Bounties.
- Complete Nightfall Strikes.
- Win 7 Rounds in the Survival Crucible Playlist.
- 3 runs of Dares of Eternity.
- Gain Throne World Reputation with Fynch.
The most played class is the one you like best. (Yes, I did intentionally give a subjective answer to what you intended as an objective question). TL:DR version, 38% hunter, 31% Titans, 31% Warlock. TL:DR version, 38% hunter, 31% Titans, 31% Warlock.