Bungie held its first Live Stream, detailing some of the changes that will be coming to the way we play Destiny 2. In this Live Stream (the first one?), Deej (David Dague, Community Manager) was joined by Greg Peng (Senior Sandbox Designer), Claude Jerome (Senior Sandbox Designer), and Josh Hamrick (Sandbox Design Lead) to describe and provide insight to the changes that will be coming to our Weapon and Sandbox systems.
Some of these changes will go live on August 28th, with the remaining changes coming when Forsaken drops on September 4th.
It is safe to say that the way we currently play Destiny 2 has a very, very short life span. The Weapons system will be the biggest change we all see, and feel, when the update is pushed out to the players. Being a veteran Destiny 1 gamer, the changes almost take me back to exactly how the first game was played...almost.
Weapons Changes
There will no longer be Kinetic, Energy, and Power weapon slots. These are instead replaced by Primary, Special, and Heavy weapon slots. Every weapon will now have a designation attached, denoting what slot that weapon can be placed and used from. This, in itself, isn't a drastic change compared to the way ammo will now work with all of these slots. The ammo boxes are still the same - and reminiscent of Destiny 1. White ammo boxes replenish Primary ammo, Green replenish Special ammo, and Purple replenish Heavy. Follow so far? Good...
The big change is that you can now have an "energy" weapon, a void-firing Valakadyn, for instance, in your primary slot. Your Special slot can now contain a "kinetic" gun. Shotguns, snipers, and in a rare case, grenade launchers, can also be used from the Primary or Special slots.
This will definitely change the way you play Destiny 2, in both PvE and PvP combat. You will have more control over your "build", but you will also need to be more tactical with ammo.
Mods will also see some changes. There will no longer be a light level attached to a mod. The mod system as it is now, in thought, is an excellent concept. Most players only used it; however, to gain a light level boost to a weapon or armor. Mods post update will now offer a much more tactical option for each weapon and armor piece. More range, Icarus, impact, etc. You can change these over on-the-fly, but you will lose a mod if you change it to something else. If you have a weapon or piece or armor with a mod attached, and you dismantle ("shard" was the term used on the stream) that piece of equipment, the mod will go to your inventory.
Weapons will now also have random rolls, so players now have more reason to continue grinding away at strikes, crucible, and end-game activities to find that "God Roll" weapon. This is something every Destiny veteran has asked for as it added a lot of challenge and variety to the game. Exotic weapons; however, will have fixed rolls.
Masterwork will now go from 5 levels to 10 levels, adding more perks as a reward for continued play of the game.
Weapons overall will see some changes. Pulse rifles, assault rifles, and Hand Cannons were shown and killed enemies VERY fast. These weren't changes that were heavily discussed and were briefly shown, but it will be exciting to experience the changes.
Sandbox Changes
There was some very useful information provided during the live stream regarding overall sandbox changes. Most of them look like a hybrid between what veteran players experienced in Destiny 1, and what all players have experienced in Destiny 2. Details below, but just know that once these changes go live, your PvE and especially your PvP experience will be much different than what you might be accustomed to.
Two melee hits will now kill a guardian who doesn't have an overshield. This is a returning mechanic from Destiny 1 and, as described in the live stream, you will now have to think much more tactically about your engagements in the Crucible. If you aren't careful and jump into a swarm of enemy Guardians, you're not going to have a very good day.
Shoulder Charge is now a 1 hit kill again on Guardians without overshield. After these updates, if you see an enemy Titan Guardian running towards you, and they have a blue glow around their body you should...well...run? Chances are, you're not going to have a very good day.
Throwing knives will see an increase in damage to "match the new two-hit melee" world.
Shadowshot!!! FINALLY! Bungie acknowledged the targeting ability of a tether seemed too slow and said they "found a way to make it faster." They didn't go into details, but if my tether can now acquire and hook onto an enemy Guardian when they are in range, instead of letting them pass through, kill me, then get tethered, I will be a happy camper.
Stormtrance kills faster. Again, not too many details on this and it was just briefly discussed. Almost in a passing-thought manner.
Golden Gun now has an additional 2 seconds of time before your super bar runs out. They mentioned they wanted Golden Gun Hunters to have the ability to line up shots and not feel they were up against a shot clock. This should provide a bit of relief and let you find the targets with more ease.
Live Fire Exercise
As is customary in every Bungie Live Stream, we were then taken to a Crucible match to show a lot of these changes. Some takeaways from this:
- Cosmo needs some Crucible practice. Sorry Cosmo...
- When Guardians die in the Crucible, they drop ammo. This is a mechanic that should help with ammo changes.
- Dawnblades now have a healing grenade called Divine Protection. They charge this much like Voidwalker Warlocks
- Bows look very smooth and will be a nice addition
- Respawn times are MUCH faster - die, rinse, repeat
- Some new supers were shown and will be a nice change of pace from the current supers we've used for nearly a year
You can watch the entire Live Stream here. The stream had an issue near the beginning that delayed the audio and video from syncing completely.
What was your favorite thing from the Live Stream? What is your favorite change coming to the game, and what change doesn't have you as excited?
Destiny 2: Forsaken drops on September 4th for Xbox, PS4, and PC
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