We are in the middle of Destiny 2’s Season of the Chosen in the lull before the next season kicks off. With only Guardian games to maybe look forward to. And as usual, Bungie has started to slowly inform us about all the changes which are going to come to Destiny 2 with the next season. They have done that through their TWABs and their huge yearly update.
Just in case anyone missed these announcements, I will be going through all the known updates and changes for the next season.
No More Sunsetting
Sunsetting was introduced into Destiny with Beyond Light. And to say the least, most players did not like it. The system gave the weapons in the game an expiry date of one year. This in turn led to players not feeling like the loot is worth earning.
I myself saw the befits of the system. As I thought that Bungie will be able to make awesome guns as they will only be active for a year. But the execution was off point and reissuing did not help that.
This does not mean all the guns that were sunset are gonna come back. But rather, any weapon which is yet to be sunset will carry over to the foreseeable future. I think that is the best way that they could have done it. As many have deleted their god rolls of their sunset weapons. Overall a great change.
Reducing the Power Grind
This is to reduce the power grind from being 50 + 10(Pinnacle) levels every season to being just 10+10(Pinnacle). This to combat the players feeling weak at the start of every season.
So now any player who is grinding the 10 levels of Pinnacle will be directly into the Pinnacle end of the next season. This is an interesting change as Pinnacle grinding can be infuriating due to the RNG involved with the gear. But let’s see how it plays out.
Vault of Glass Raid is Returning
In Season 14, the Vault of Glass will return. Vault of Glass will also launch with both a Contest mode in the first 24 hours and a World First race. As this is a repriced raid, the World First is gonna be a bit different. Players looking to claim the belt will not only have to complete the raid, but also a curated list of challenging Triumphs.
As someone who has never played Destiny 1, I am excited to see what the first-ever raid in Destiny 2 has to offer for me.
Ada-1 is Back with a Lot
Ada-1 will be coming back as a vendor. More specifically a vendor for Armour and Transmog.
Transmog
Transmog aka Armor Synthesis is being added to the game. This gives the players the ability to take any armor they have in their collections and turn it into a universal ornament. Every season Ada will offer players a set of bounties that highlight various activity types. Players can complete these quests and receive the materials they need to power up Ada’s Loom, which can turn any piece of armor in your collection into a permanent universal ornament. Along with this, now we can select whatever shaders we want and they will not be consumables (oh thank god).
But the caveat is that Bungie is allowing the purchase of Synthesis tokens for Silver. This is gonna be tricky to make the system in such a way that it is not too grindy to someone who is not directly paying for it. Let’s wait and see how far Bungie will lean into the spending.
Armour Vendor
Ada-1 will also be taking the Armour Vendor duties from Banshee-44. She will now become the vendor who delivers a variety of armor-focused items and upgrades. Each day, Ada-1 will now sell one randomly chosen armor mod from the general and armor slot (Helmet, Gauntlets, etc.) groups, and one randomly chosen Combat Style armor mod (chosen from the Charged with Light and Warmind Cell mod groups), which is to make it easier for players who missed these in the past to get their hands on some of the armor mods from Year 3.
And on a weekly basis, Ada-1 will sell one armor set randomly chosen from the World Loot Pool, with a stat roll that also changes on a weekly basis. Finally, Ada-1 will also sell armor upgrade materials (Upgrade Modules, Enhancement Prisms, and Ascendant Shards) taking the duties from Banshee-44.
Gunsmith Changes
So as mentioned Ada will be taking a lot of the present aspects of Banshee as a vendor. So now Banshee is also getting a revision.
Banshee-44 will sell a selection of six weapons, randomly chosen from the weapons in the World Loot Pool (two weapons each from the Kinetic, Energy, and Power slots) with perk rolls on each weapon that are randomly determined at the start of the week. As a fresh Destiny 2 player I am new to this but many vouch that this is seemingly similar to Destiny 1.
This is good, as acquiring a good gun in the world loot pool with the perks one needs is very improbable.
Buffing the Most Hated Perks
The new perks of Celerity (from Trails) and Bottomless Grief (from Nightfalls) have been met with disdain from the players as they are active only when the rest of the team is dead. This makes them kinda demoralizing to use. Even though they are very powerful when they are active. So the following changes have been made:
For Nightfall Weapons:
- Bottomless Grief grants a permanently active +30 to Magazine.
- Bottomless Grief is now a fixed alternate perk in the left column on Adept drops of Nightfall weapons
For Trails Weapons:
- Celerity grants a permanently active +20 to both Reload and Handling.
- Celerity is now a fixed alternate perk in the right column on Adept drops of Trials weapons
I am not sure that this will help but it’s nice to see that they are trying to make these perks viable.
New Iron Banner Weapons
Even though Iron banner has few of the best weapons in the game (The Steady Hand, The Timeworn Spire) the loot has been a bit stagnant.
So Iron Banner is gonna be getting Two new (a machine gun and a shotgun) and two repriced weapons with random rolls from Year One of Destiny 2 (Hand Cannon and Sniper Rifle). This will hopefully help the loot pool. But as mentioned in the yearly update, hopefully this mode gets an overall revision soon.
Changes to the Meta
So along with all the buffs to new perks and weapons, there are also a ton of changes planned to balance the game. They are as the following:
- Aggressive (120 rpm) Hand Cannons will now have damage and aim assist falloff distance reduced by between 2 and 4 meters, based on the Range stat. I still think that they will dominate PvP but let’s see how it goes.
- For Vortex Frame Swords; the full energy Heavy attack ammo cost has been increased from 4 to 6.
- Chip damage has been removed from Swords and Bastion
- The Quickdraw perk provides faster swap speed, but it also passively buffs handling by +100. So it is lethal on Shotguns like Felwinters and Astral Horizon. So to combat that,
- The Handling bonus is now removed one second after switching to this weapon or upon aiming down sights.
- And Replaced Quickdraw with Surplus on all new and existing drops of Felwinter’s Lie and Astral Horizon. This will most probably decrease aping with these guns.
- For the perk Frenzy; the bonus damage when it’s active has been reduced from +20 percent to +15 percent
- The perk Reservoir Burst now increases magazine size in addition to its other effects, reduced full battery bonus damage from 33 percent to 25 percent. This is interesting as the perk is not on any active gun in the game. So I am guessing this will come into play with new weapons
- The Lament the Sword, which has been melting all bosses in the game, now has its damage of revved Heavy attack being reduced by approximately 16 percent.
- Now as Bastion lost its chip damage, it’s gaining new perks such as
- Intrinsically staggers Unstoppable Champions.
- Increased spread angle by 13 percent.
Gilded Titles for the Hardcore
In Season 14, phase two of gilding titles will roll out. Now when players gild a title, it will now also display how many times that title has been gilded in the past.
Thoughts
All these changes are interesting and exciting as almost all of them are meant to make the game better and balance it. I am waiting to see what else Bungie has in store for us as we get closer to Season 14. Till then we have Guardian games and to catch up if you are behind.
And if you are behind, I would recommend catching up as the story of this season has been awesome. Here is another article from us about the storytelling in Season 13.
Destiny 2’s future look bright and from the looks of it these changes are only gonna make it better.
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