Destiny 2: The Witch Queen year is coming to an end. In about a month’s time, Bungie will launch its fifth major expansion, Lightfall, in which the Destiny 2 client will undergo a series of changes, all of which will be added on top of a series of new content – such as new locations, sub Career types, stories, and more – all of this becomes available. With that in mind, now that the season of Seraf’s story is largely over, I think it’s a good time to look back at Year 5 and the good (bad and ugly) features it brought to Destiny 2.
good
Weapon making
There was some concern that being able to actually create the weapon roll of your dreams would take away some of the heart of Destiny 2’s looter shooter, but frankly, it all reveals that looting and shooting is a thing of the past. The extra control and value this imparts to weapons makes the grindy nature of the sci-fi title all the more appealing, while still preserving the hunt for “God Scrolls” by only allowing certain weapon types and suits to actually be crafted. It’s hard to imagine us going this long without weapon crafting.
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Sunset Sunset
We know why Bungie had to introduce sunsets (the concept of removing or phasing out certain locations and items); it’s to make room for future improvements and new additions. But that doesn’t change the fact that it, I mean it’s really sad to see so many items become unusable at all. Whether it was Hermit with 75,000 kills or the challenging Not Forgotten, seeing those items in my vault still brings tears to my eyes. That’s why I’m happy to hear that future sunsets will no longer occur, meaning that no major locations will be removed in the future (i.e. not related to seasonal events), nor will weapons and armor meet the same grim fate as before.
Vox Obscura， Operation： Seraph Shield， and The Witch Queen Exotic Mission
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Exotic missions are explosive. Year 5 gave us some new in-depth research, and each bonus player got a fancy, often powerful, exotic weapon to fight the enemies of humanity. Most years of Destiny 2 have these quests, but The Witch Queen/Year 5 brings more of them than we could have hoped for, with the best of them commemorating the final season – Operation: Seraf’s Shield . While these usually have a fairly niche focus, hopefully Lightfall will continue the trend of making us work on the most powerful projects Bungie can cook up.
bad guy
The Crucible
Bungie has done incredible things with worldbuilding and storytelling, but Destiny 2 seems to show that the iconic developer can’t figure out how to balance and create engaging player-versus-player multiplayer. Crucible has always had its detractors, but there’s no question that Year 5 is the worst year to be a Crucible player, as a series of grim balance changes and simply horrible game modes make it nearly unbearable at times. Need an example? Check out the latest Iron Banner and the disaster it offers with a mode called Bastion. I say disaster, but if you’re a Bubble Titans player, you’ll undoubtedly have a blast.
Lack of Roadmaps
It might seem like a small, weird thing to bring up, but I love knowing what events and new content will be coming throughout the season. I like knowing which week Iron Banner will be active and when each Trial of Osiris will start. I love knowing when Dungeons is out and when Grandmaster Nightfall is open, I love getting that info at the start of the season and not just by getting intel from the in-game client and Bungie loose in blog posts every week Mentioned content to piece together. Please bring back the road map.
ugly
The Preservation
A fairly simple quest, done alone, rewarding a pinnacle gear drop, and existing for an entire season sounds great, right? Well, that was… a few months. The save is basically the opening part of the Oath of the Disciple Raid, which means it serves two purposes: to teach players how to complete this part of the endgame challenge, and as a way to get some powerful, hard-earned loot. When you look at it this way, it’s all great, but after your 50th time beating a quest just to get a piece of equipment, the brilliance has really worn off. Hopefully Lightfall won’t make us go through this again.
Competitive PvP Changes
Now, while I wholeheartedly believe Crucible has been a disaster this year, Bungie’s move to address the competitive portion of Crucible is more of a mixed bag. The ranking system is a clear improvement, and it offers rewards that make getting into this side of Destiny 2 rewarding – especially for dedicated PvP players. But at the same time, ambiguous progression, game mode selection (Rift, uh…), and matchmaking, either pits you against a team that’s much better than yours, or a team that’s significantly worse and very Fewer teams that fit your skill set, all of which make this update a bit ugly. Hopefully the team will work on this in Lightfall’s launch.
Deepsights
Similar to my previous point; weapon crafting rocks, but finding Deepsight rolls (required to first unlock the weapon to be crafted) does not. At least not now. Stopping craftable weapons that are too easy to get is a necessary evil, but sometimes it takes seasons and a lot of resources to hunt down, which is a real problem for me. Perhaps crafting Deepsights actually requires more frequent drops, or reducing the total number of Deepsight scrolls required to unlock weapon schematics can alleviate this. Either way, it’s not my favorite thing to do in Destiny 2 right now.
Honorable Mention: Ketchup Killer Armor
I don’t think I need to say much. Just look at this set. Howling uh.