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| 10 Changes in Destiny's 2.0 |
Bungie has just pushed
Destiny’s pre-
Taken King 2.0
patch live, and it’s a whopping 17 GB of changes and groundwork for
next week’s DLC. I’m still in the middle of downloading my patch, but I
have been able to peruse Bungie’s lengthy list of patch notes ahead of
actually playing the updated game.
You are more than welcome to read the entire thing for yourself, but it is an absolutely
massive document, so I thought that I would streamline it a little bit with some of the base essentials, the changes in
Destiny 2.0 that seem the most significant to me.
I may miss a few that you deem important, so check the full document,
but for now, this is what’s a “big deal” in this new patch.
1. The character level cap is now 34
Today marks the extraction of your character level from your light
level. The old character level max was 20, and light built levels on top
of that. Now, the max character level is 34 (it will be 40 when
TTK
launches), meaning you can hit that cap through XP alone. Light level
is a separate stat entirely. Also with this change brings new
Taken King-style
stat values to armor and weapons, so your old 365s are now 170 under
the new system, but they do the same amount of damage.
2. Most of the weapon class nerfs went through, but some have been altered
The big story of the 2.0 patch has been weapon balancing, and now we
finally get to see what the final balance changes have been. Some of the
major reveals include a
huge buff vs. AI for assault rifles, a
full 30% jump. And on the opposite end, there’s a 45% cut to AI damage
for the shotgun, though that’s down from a 100% increase a while back.
In the Crucible, assault rifles should be more competitive and hand
cannons and shotguns should be less so. Most weapon classes have minor
changes, but I’m not sure whether they’re buffs or nerfs in many cases.
There are lots of changes to stability and rate of fire for certain
types of guns.
3. The specific Exotic nerfs aren’t that bad.
I still like the Thorn nerf, which reduces the poison damage but adds
stacks. The Ice Breaker nerf is only 7 seconds for ammo regeneration,
not 8 like the initial patch notes said. And the much-talked about
Gjallarhorn nerf? It’s just a 33% reduction to Wolfpack rounds. I think
all of these weapons would still be pretty formidable despite these
nerfs, but of course, none are getting year Year Two variants. Very few
of the exotics changed in this patch
are getting Year Two versions, but again, I think more will be brought into the fold in time.
4. Exotic armor got a few tiny changes
The biggest change is probably that certain pieces will recolor
properly when you put shaders on, which is a big deal to my OCD self.
Otherwise, a few really bad exotics got bonus perks like Insurmountable
Skulltfort (two melee charges), Spine of Young Ahamkara (two tripmine
charges) and Heart of Praxic Fire (agility bonus while in Raidance). Oh,
and the Warlock’s beloved Ram had its armor nerfed (I love mine, but
boy was that needed).
5. Your Exotic bounties just autocompleted
I’m waiting for total verification on this, but I believe if you have
a unfinished Exotic bounty, with 2.0 you get to skip all the rest of
the steps and go straight to picking up your gun. So that Thorn bounty
you’ve had open for the last eight months? I think you can just go grab
it now. I’ve had three exotic missives open on my characters for a month
now, and I thought this wasn’t happening until
The Taken King, so I may have lost my chance for three free exotics (though I’ve already completed all the bounties legit at least once).
6. Nolan North is your Ghost now
The 2.0 patch is indeed inserting Northbot into the game for all
currently existing missions that formerly had Peter Dinklage’s
voicework. As bonus incentive to play them through again, story missions
will now give a decent amount of XP again for re-completion. I’m
wondering if there will be any additional lines (like in, I don’t know,
the two expansions?) or if any of the (really bad) old lines will be
changed.
7. Strikes punish slackers, reward the determined
Two awesome changes to Strikes in this patch. The first is that
players will have to participate in the boss fight to get the rewards
from a Strike, discouraging AFKers. The second is that you will earn a
“streak bonus” if you continue playing Strikes without returning to
orbit. One other change that’s a bit sad is that in burn strikes, burn
damage will now only buff player damage by 2x, while enemies will still
do 3x as much damage. Guess we were all burning through Nightfalls and
Heroics just a
little too fast.
8. Bounty and Vault slots galore
The expanded vaults have arrived, pretty much doubling the amount of
space you have for armor and weapons. There will also be 16 bounty slots
as of 2.0, a less celebrated, but still fantastic change. Good luck
maxing out both before the
Taken King launch.
9. Every Crucible map on earth is now playable
Bungie has added every new
Taken King multiplayer map to the Crucible a week ahead of launch as a sort of early preview. But also, they’re unlocked
House of Wolves and PlayStation exclusive maps for everyone too. The new
Taken King maps and modes will disappear behind the
Taken King paywall once the expansion launches, but they’re here for the week for everyone. Enjoy your unlimited supers.
10. You can now skip cutscenes.
YOU. CAN. NOW. SKIP. CUTSCENES.
Alright, my patch appears to be frozen, so I’m going to go beat my
Xbox with a shovel until it fixes itself. Read the entire patch notes
here for all the stuff I missed.
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