Five Things That Have Disappeared From ‘Destiny 2’ For No Reason
(https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/)
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There’s a lot of talk about the future of Destiny right now, as we really have no idea where things are going after the Season of Opulence other than rumors about a new season pass and far-flung stuff about Destiny 3 . But one thing remains perplexing, how much Destiny continues to leave behind in the past for seemingly next to no reason.
I’m talking about stuff we had at the beginning of Destiny 2 (and at least one thing from Destiny 1 ), that remains absent from the game right now, and could be bolstering a relatively down time of year in many ways. This spans all manner of content.
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Trials
Bungie created an iconic event in Trials of Osiris in Destiny 1 that morphed into Trials of the Nine in the sequel. And yet we are approaching a full year without Trials after it was removed from the game with no plans on when or if it might return.
Even if Trials requires some larger scale fixes, I remain confused why we still can’t have at least “interim” Trials with Osiris rules and 3v3 format, paired with maps and updated Year 1 Trials of the Nine gear which is sitting around doing nothing. Surely, Trials cannot have any more problems than we’ve seen from the Competitive playlist, yet that remains the fixture of D2 competitive Crucible. It is bizarre that Trials was once such a big part of Destiny ’s DNA and now it’s nowhere to be found with no plans for it to return that we know of.
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Faction Rallies
I get that people were not super thrilled about the nature of Faction Rallies, given the time-limited ticking clock to hunt down catalysts and ornaments, and the activity being so Lost Sector-focused. But they were still fun and they were still better than…erasing the concept of factions from the game entirely.
I see no reason that either Faction Rallies can’t return exactly as they were with another shot at the three catalysts that were offered for players who missed them, and updated versions of their year 1 weapons and armor. Ideally, we’d get new stuff as well, but this is the bare minimum that should be happening.
Past this, there’s been a call to return to Destiny 1 type factions where you pledge one and slowly earn stuff for it over time, which could easily work as well, and get factions back in the game without the time-limited nature of rallies that no one much cared for. And yet, there’s nothing.
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All Year 1 Armor And Weapons
It continues to be bizarre that there are 20+ full armor sets and dozens, if not hundreds of guns that have been left behind in year 1 without the new changes to gear, giving armor actual perks and giving guns a bonus perk.
This seems like it’s some twisted way to trickle out “new” content, as new seasons bring back a handful of old guns, or events like the Revelry reskin armor sets for event armor. But overall, it sucks, and it’s a real shame that so many good pieces of armor have been left behind, especially ones that players worked to earn ornaments for across Crucible or Iron Banner or the Solstice, only to never touch them again.
I am not understanding the benefit of keeping all this old gear locked up. Surely, the game is more fun when there is more loot, and Destiny is not re-releasing stuff at a fast enough pace to make this trickle worth it. They need to open the floodgates and make this gear re-earnable in various activities to encourage both visual and gameplay diversity instead of everyone wearing the same eight sets and using the same dozen legendaries.
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Timely Catalyst Releases
I guess I can’t say that Bungie has abandoned exotic catalyst releases entirely, given that we finally just got four new ones recently in the form of the final year 1 weapons that didn’t have them. But that was year 1 weapons, and not only are most of the catalysts uncreative garbage (wow such stability on Hard Light), we have a ton of Forsaken, Black Armory and now Drifter exotics that badly need catalysts as well, and I don’t really feel like waiting another ten months to possibly see them.
And that says nothing of exotic armor catalysts, which are another potential source of dozens and dozens of things to farm, even if they did something simplistic like make perks enhanced when equipped. Catalysts are relatively low effort offerings that are still fun to farm for and utilize, yet Bungie is rolling them out at a snail’s pace for reasons I cannot understand.
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Skeleton Keys
Strikes, my favorite Destiny activity, have long felt useless in Destiny 2 , and for months, years even, players still do not understand why the Destiny 1 -era Skeleton Key system has been removed, making the Vanguard playlist pointless and forcing everyone instead into repetitive Nightfall farming for unique strikes drops instead.
Skeleton Keys give the strike playlist a purpose again, where currently there is no point to it with no Vanguard rank and no unique strike playlist loot and really just a few milestones a week and the remaining catalysts that now have an almost instant drop rate (I got Hard Light and Prospector in four total strikes). Skeleton Keys would breathe fresh life into farming the Vanguard playlist and would not even need anything else added since the strike-specific drops are already in the game! Those could be better too, I suppose, but the point is that this is a no-brainer that Bungie just won’t address for some reason.
That’s all I’ve got for now, but I’m sure there’s more. Let me know what you think.