Destiny; Patch 2.0

Hi Guys,
On Tuesday the 8th of September, the world of Destiny changed for ever, Patch 2.0 was release which heralds the release of The Taken King. Nearly everything in the game was touched by this patch, the UI, the usability of the weapons(balance), more changes in the Tower than you can hold a candle too, and a new Quest System, which will change the way to play the story. So today I want to talk to you about some of my favourite things from this patch! My last note before I get into this post, I will be referring to PvE and PvP, PvE is the Player vs Enemies, and PvP Player vs Player!

The first thing I want to talk about is the balance in PvE, most notably the change that has occurred with Auto Rifles, in the past they were a weapon that you would be stupid to use. Now they are incredibly useful weapons, I would actually take an Auto Rifle into Kings Fall, the new Raid. They have had a 10% damage increase against AI enemies, this may sound like a small difference, but it makes a huge difference, I will talk about how good they are in PvP shortly. Despite the promise of a small reduction in the magazine size of Hand Cannons, I have seen no such change, though this was one of the few changes that I didn't like the sound of.

Then we have the famous Gjallahorn, which has had the Wolf Pack Rounds nerfed by 33%, I full agree with this change, and I have used it a bit since this patch and I still think it is very usable. Especially on activities with Solar Burn(like this weeks Nightfall). The Icebreaker was slated to have the shots respawn every 8 seconds up from 5 in the pre patch Weekly Update, I didn't full agree with this change, that has been changed slightly from 5 seconds to 7 seconds now the patch has been released.

Next up we have the changes made to PvP, if you even played 1 match in the Crucible before Patch 2.0 you would know that a select few weapons were used by nearly everyone. The Thorn and The Last Word, were both weapons that everyone used, myself included. Well the DoT(Damage over Time) for the Thorn has been decreased to a fifth of what it was, but it now stacks, so in PvE, it has actually received a buff! The new power house in PvP are Pulse Rifles, specifically the Trials of Osiris weapon The Messenger, is rather powerful. Though I need to stress that the whole crucible feels much more balanced, I have still been killed by the Thorn a few times, but there is a very wide variety of weapons that work very well! I personally am finding my best play style is with the Hawkmoon, as it can down people at a nice rate. Though that isn't to say it is an OP weapon, it is just one of the many useful weapons that I have gravitated towards.

Now let's talk about some of the amazing additions in The Tower, Patch 2.0 has revamped most of the Tower. First let's address the most obvious change, the Vault Space has been increased by 2 times for weapons, and even more for Armour and General(Consumables etc). This is an amazing addition, and especially with TTKs new take on armour and Light level, the extra armour space will be very nice indeed. The Gunsmith now has a reputation meter, which you can fill up by taking free weapons of him, and completing certain objectives, such as 10 kills with it in the Crucible, or 20 headshots. This rank will the contribute to the Armsday weapons he will sell, which will set you back 2,500 Glimmer per weapon, and he will sell 5 weapons per week. These weapons will be delivered to you on Wednesday(exactly 32 hours after reset on Tuesday). There are no weapons to buy yet, but that feature will be added once The Taken King has been released in a few days time.

As you can see in the picture above, Ghosts can now have changeable shells, which not only change the colour of your Ghost, but it also gives you at least one perk. At the moment I believe they all offer perks that assist with finding planetary materials, including chests, but I'm sure more perks will be available in the future! Your Ghost will also now have a defence stat on them, which contributes to your general Light level(not connected to your general level which is increased via XP). Your Light level now dictates the amount of damage you receive and deal out, this is a very welcome change, as armour variation will now very much be a thing. As a few light points lost or gained will be of very little consequence, when high level players seem to be over 300 Light Level!

Bounties have now been overhauled, firstly you can now carry up to 16 at a time, and they can be turned it(though not collected) from your menue, no matter where you are. All of the bounties are either new or tweaked from what we had before(as far as I can see from a few days watching them), they are now incredibly easy to complete. Especially the Crucible bounties, for example yesterday I completed 5 of the 6 available bounties for that day in 1 single match. Now I like the principle of this, and I like completing them, but XP gain towards vendors will seriously plummet, seeing as you can't earn as much XP per day as you could. Due to this I would like to see the XP needed for each vendor level reduced from 2,500 to around 1,750. Other than that, I love the speed of the new bounties, and I love the fact that they are all new, at least for now!

Speaking of vendor and Faction levelling up, you now no longer need to wear your faction specific class armour piece in order to level up with them. All you need to do is spend 2,500 Glimmer to pledge allegiance to that faction, and you will now earn XP towards either the Vanguard or Crucible(depending on the bounty) and also towards your faction. I have a problem with this, and it links back in with what I was saying before about the speed of levelling up vendors. At the moment(and I do suspect this will change after Tuesday), you earn half the XP of the bounty towards your faction, and the full amount towards the vendor. You are thus effectively earning 150%XP. The problem is, there is no way to make the split change, so I can't make more XP go towards my Faction. So at the moment some bounties are only giving 12 XP towards my faction, which will make levelling up much, much slower! This may be counteracted by another new feature that has been implemented, which is that you can sacrifice materials for faction XP. So I calculated that it will take 100 Motes of Light to increase a faction level by 1. You can also trade in Armour Materials, Weapon Parts, Special Weapons Synthesis and Heavy Weapon Synthesis. This might make levelling factions easier in the long run, I would just like to see the option to send more XP towards you faction of choice!

All in all, I think Patch 2.0 is the best thing to ever happen to Destiny, there is a plethora of new additions which improve the game immensely, and with TTK launch around the corner, things are only looking up for Destiny, and Destiny players!

That will do it for me for now, I am planning to do lots of content covering The Taken King in the days, weeks and months after launch. Specifically check back here on Launch Day, as there will be plenty of content to keep you going!

Thanks for reading,
Ed
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