Bungie have answered the effervescent discontent amongst Destiny 2 gamers – which was sparked into full-on outrage by the XP throttling controversy – with a press release on the present issues within the sport, and the way they plan to repair them.
To summarise: a brand new class of Legendary weapons known as Masterworks might be launched, the Crucible is getting some love, and it’s about to get simpler to finish your gear collections. Head here for a full breakdown of the forthcoming modifications. The query is: are they sufficient?
Our Destiny 2 update tracker compiles all of the modifications coming to the sport sooner or later.
By themselves, most likely not. Every change is optimistic, and I applaud the presentation: there are clear dates given for a lot of the tweaks, estimates for longer-term targets and, crucially, a promise to be extra vocal sooner or later as a matter in fact. I argued yesterday that this was important – Bungie leaving gamers to come across XP throttling and one-use shaders, fairly than clarify them outright, made each controversies a lot worse than they wanted to be. Still, there’s a sense with this announcement that Bungie are taking care to not overpromise.
The introduction says Bungie will goal to help gamers “who want Destiny to be their hobby” (which raises the query of whom they had been catering to till now), however the important thing change that may allow this – “better incentives to complete Prestige activities” – is given no additional elucidation. Raid and Trials gear within the authentic sport had distinctive perks and sat in a tier above different loot – neither of this stuff is true now (no, the Trials gear’s bizarre sliding perks don’t rely), and aesthetics are their solely distinction. This has been interpreted as a pitch to informal gamers, whereas a lot of the current discontent has, inevitably, come from the vocal hardcore on Reddit. Whether Bungie really feel sufficiently chastened by them to reverse any of their overture to the informal viewers will say quite a bit about how they see Destiny in the long run.
The different modifications are good to have, however most likely not vital – and positively not adequate to wholly settle the important thing complaints. Take Masterwork weapons, for instance. They are cool, and folks will definitely play to accumulate them, however they don’t actually do a lot. They are Legendary weapons that monitor your kills, generate orbs with multi-kills, and have re-rollable stat boosts. Stat boosts, not perks – the fastened rolls which have divided the group will stay.
Stats are much less thrilling; there’s a display screen of a Masterwork Uriel’s Gift with +10 reload velocity. My preliminary response was a sarcastic “whoop-de-doo,” however whether it is attainable to get an total enhance of, say, +30 or extra by stacking Masterworks alongside different mods, then we’re a bump to a gun’s efficiency that we would truly discover. Hardcore gamers will work for that, particularly on extra vital stats like stability or vary (there’s no approach Bungie will allow us to do it to influence or hearth fee, which collectively decide a gun’s DPS).
The skill to purchase vendor gear immediately returns from the unique Destiny, although it’s tied to gameplay now, in that you must unlock it for buy. I don’t know whether or not to be grateful or irritated that Bungie are letting us do one thing we might do earlier than whereas placing new obstacles in the way in which, however at the very least most Legendary gear is getting cool glowing ornaments. More positively, Xur will now inventory one Fated Engram per week, which can assure a non-duplicate Exotic. Its pricing might be not last but, however a screenshot suggests Bungie are contemplating charging 97 Legendary Shards for it, which is quite a bit. Three of Coins – a consumable buff that will increase the prospect of an Exotic drop – additionally returns, and in addition prices Legendary Shards.
So, as promised, we’re about to have many extra methods to spend shards, which means extra incentives to refill on them by taking part in the sport. It is nice information for gear collectors and style victims. Better rewards for strikes, and the Heroic strike playlist – one other returning function from the unique – also needs to give us a cause to play PvE stuff different than public occasions. This freshens up the midgame, which is welcome, however the endgame stays the larger downside.
Finally, there may be excellent news for the Crucible. Ranked play and personal matches – two options the aggressive group have been crying out for for too lengthy now – are promised for subsequent 12 months. A quitter penalty system can be in growth, however let’s keep in mind an enormous cause we get quitters within the Crucible (and the Strike playlist, which could truly see some use now) is that each one sport modes are grouped into two playlists, and folks don’t like all of them equally. For occasion: Supremacy sucks, and it is vitally tough not to depart when RNG palms me three video games of that boring mode in a row. I assume Bungie pooled gamers like this to shorten queue occasions – although matchmaking nonetheless takes some time, in my expertise – however I do know I’d welcome the prospect to select modes individually once more. There isn’t any point out of that.
These modifications are an excellent begin, and given how shortly the dialog has moved within the final week or two, I don’t suppose we might moderately have anticipated way more at this stage. It is obvious Bungie haven’t completed, as we nonetheless want particulars on an important replace: higher Prestige rewards. So this assertion appears like a stopgap forward of additional bulletins. I actually hope that’s what is is, as a result of extra must be executed. Here’s trying ahead to a extra attentive, and extra vocal, Bungie sooner or later.
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