Hello Guardians! This is the last This Week at Bungie before the new Lightfall DLC drops next week. Lets take a look at the TWAB for 2-23-23.
First up is a new Lightfall trailer is coming today! I expected this to be in the TWAB but it will be showcased during the Sony State of Play today at 1pm Pacific. You can check it out on YouTube by clicking here. Once the trailer is available, we will be posting to our YouTube channel which you can check out by clicking here.
Bungie also reiterated what the World Systems team shared about changes coming. Destiny 2 is going to get harder with Surges, Threats and Overcharges. Strikes will be refreshed with a new Vanguard Ops scoring system. Power level disadvantages will make Nightfalls more challenging. Lost sectors, raids, dungeons and other PvE activities will be more challenging on Legend and Master difficulties.
In the TWAB for 2-23-23, Bungie states they are revamping the buildcrafting experience for all players with the new Mod Customization system and giving everyone the ability to create and switch builds on the fly with the addition of in-game loadouts.
Crucible
I have some feelings on Crucible in Destiny and how it should not be tied to Seasonal Triumphs for players who do not like it, or should have a PvE option for the triumph as well. Bungie does have a few things to share on Crucible. First up is the competitive division freelance mode is going away in favor of the in-game fireteam matchmaking. They believe this will merge the population into a larger healthier pool of players. Some quality of life changes coming are:
- Placement Changes
- You can now place in Platinum division after your initial placement series matches if you were Adept or Ascendant in the previous Season.
- Mode and Map Weighting
- While we understand not everyone loves Rift and Showdown, we believe that those two modes stress Crucible players in different and important ways, and that a variety of kill and objective modes makes for a healthier ladder. However, we are lowering how common Rift and Showdown come up on in play. While RNG can give any sequence of maps and modes, we expect Survival to show up roughly 2/3 of the time, and Rift and Showdown to split the other 1/3.
- We have also adjusted the individual map weightings for Showdown to eliminate maps the mode does not play well on.
- Overall, we have increased the weight of Javelin-4, Endless Vale, and Altar of Flame in Competitive Division, and removed Disjunction and Cathedral of Dusk from the rotation entirely.
- While we understand not everyone loves Rift and Showdown, we believe that those two modes stress Crucible players in different and important ways, and that a variety of kill and objective modes makes for a healthier ladder. However, we are lowering how common Rift and Showdown come up on in play. While RNG can give any sequence of maps and modes, we expect Survival to show up roughly 2/3 of the time, and Rift and Showdown to split the other 1/3.
- As of the start of Season 20:
- You can gild the Glorious title by reaching the Adept division as well as a number of other Crucible triumphs.
- In Season 20, we are introducing the Notswap modifier to Trials of Osiris and Competitive Division.
- In activities with Notswap, if you change your Exotic armor during the match, all of your ability energy is removed, just like if you swapped your subclass.
- We will be monitoring gameplay and community discussion around this issue, but we are not currently planning on adding it to Gambit or other Crucible playlists.
- We are also not planning on adding it to any PvE modes — anywhere it might provide a meaningful advantage already has equipment locked.
Seasonal Artifact
In the TWAB for 2-23-23, Bungie talks about the seasonal artifact that we have grown accustomed to. Bungie has adjusted its functionalities to better suit how you face some of the most challenging activities in Destiny 2 and to spice up the meta a bit each Season. We’re making several improvements to it in Lightfall, starting with the following:
- Artifact mods are now artifact perks.
- These are passive and you don’t have to slot them into armor pieces. Once you unlock an artifact perk, it automatically applies to your Guardian.
- Twelve perks are unlockable per character.
- You can reset the artifact at no cost any number of times.
- The anti-Champion weapons featured on the artifact can also be Overcharged in higher difficulty activities.
- To accommodate these changes, Artifice Armor has now has a unique mod slot that grants three additional points to a character stat of your choice.
- This change is retroactive to all Artifice Armor.
Here’s what the Ascendant Scepter brings to the table for Season 20:
COLUMN 1
- Anti-Barrier Sidearms – Your equipped Sidearms fire shield-piercing rounds and stun Barrier Champions. Additionally, Sidearms are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
- Anti-Barrier Pulse Rifles – Your equipped Pulse Rifles fire shield-piercing rounds and stun Barrier Champions. Additionally, Pulse Rifles are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
- Overload Bows – Damage by fully drawn arrows from your equipped Bows disrupts combatants, stunning the target, delaying ability energy regeneration, and lowering combatant damage output. Strong against Overload Champions. Additionally, Bows are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
- Unstoppable Scout Rifles – Aiming down the sights of a Scout Rifle for a short time loads a powerful explosive payload that stuns unshielded combatants. Strong against Unstoppable Champions. Additionally, Scout Rifles are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
- Automatics Overload – Sustained fire from Auto Rifles and Submachine Guns disrupts combatants, stunning them, delaying ability energy regeneration, and lowering combatant damage output. Strong against Overload Champions. Additionally, Auto Rifles and Submachine Guns are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
COLUMN 2
- Authorized Mods: Solar – The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your Solar weapons are significantly discounted.
- Authorized Mods: Strand – The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your Strand weapons are significantly discounted.
- Authorized Mods: Void – The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your Void weapons are significantly discounted.
- Authorized Mods: Grenades – The armor energy costs of all armor mods affecting your grenades are significantly discounted.
- Multi-Siphon Mods – Grants access to armor mods in your helmet that combine the effects of the Strand Siphon mod with the Solar Siphon Mod and the Void Siphon mods.
COLUMN 3
- Shatter Orbs – The first time you break a combatant’s shield, you create an Orb of Power if you break the shield with the matching damage type.
- Defiant Armory – Greatly improves the benefits provided by the Noble Deeds, Nanotech Tracer Rockets, Tex Balanced Stock, and Ambush Origin traits.
- Untangler – Destroying a Tangle with a Strand weapon suspends targets damaged by the explosion.
- Solar Surge – Collecting a Firesprite gives you Armor Charge.
- Volatile Flow – Picking up an Orb of Power grants your Void weapons Volatile Rounds.
COLUMN 4
- Bricks from Beyond – Defeating a powerful combatant with a Void weapon has a chance to generate Heavy ammo for you and your teammates.
- Flare Up – Firebolt Grenades apply more Scorch stacks. Damaging a combatant with a Firebolt Grenade spawns a Firesprite near them.
- Origin Hones – Weapons with the Noble Deeds, Nanotracing Rockets, Tex Balanced Stock, and Ambush Origin traits are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
- Allied Unraveling – Rapid final blows with a Strand weapon grant your weapon Unraveling Rounds, with a longer duration near allies.
- Counterweave – When you or a member of your fireteam stuns or defeats a Champion, you gain energy for your least-charged Strand ability.
COLUMN 5
- Stranded Reach – Destroying a Tangle with a Strand weapon creates a larger and more damaging explosion.
- Rain of Firebolts – When you have Firebolt Grenades equipped, gain a second grenade charge.
- Void Weapons Channeling – You gain a temporary bonus to Void weapon damage after you defeat a target with a Void weapon while at least one of your Void abilities is fully charged. This damage bonus increases based on the number of fully charged Void abilities you have.
- Medieval Champion – Glaives you wield fire a powerful explosive payload that stuns unshielded combatants. Strong against Unstoppable Champions. Additionally, Glaives are always Overcharged when that modifier is active. Landing consecutive hits with a Sword disrupts combatants, stunning them, delaying ability energy regeneration, and lowering combatant damage output. Strong against Overload Champions. Additionally, Swords are always Overcharged when that modifier is active.
- Prismatic Transfer – When you cast your Super, each member of your fireteam with a subclass damage type different than yours gains a bonus to weapon damage.
Defeating Champions
The TWAB for 2-23-23 also discusses new ways of defeating champions. There will be new ways to counter Champions in Lightfall:
- You can use an Exotic with an anti-Champion intrinsic perk.
- Eriana’s Vow, Divinity, or Leviathan’s Breath are three examples.
- You can use weapons that have an anti-Champion artifact perk.
- You can use the following subclass verb and status effects:
- Barrier Champions: radiant, volatile rounds, and unraveling rounds.
- Overload Champions: jolt, suppression, and slow.
- Unstoppable Champions: ignite, blind, shatter, and suspend.
- The verbs work no matter how they are triggered. Two examples:
- If you are radiant because a Solar Hunter used an Acrobatic Dodge near you, you will shoot anti-Barrier rounds until radiant wears off.
- If you use a weapon with the Chill Clip perk, the slow effect upon direct hits will stun Overload Champions. And the shatter upon a second hit will stun Unstoppables. While radiant, though, the same weapon would pierce a Barrier Champions, but not stun Overloads.
- Exotics with an anti-Champion status effect won’t get the pierce effect when applying Radiant.
- One example: Ager’s Scepter will slow and stun an Overload Champion, but not pierce a Barrier one even if the player is radiant.
- There’s an exception for weapons able to scorch, since ignitions require build-up in order to stun.
Legendary Difficulty
Legendary difficulty premiered with the Witch Queen and is coming over to Lightfall. Legendary difficulty scales based on the size of your fireteam. Incoming damage, damage required to stagger an enemy, enemy health, and amount of revives are a few of the things that scale on Legendary for each additional member of your fireteam.
Witch Queen
Speaking of the Witch Queen, Bungie is making all of the content from Witch Queen available for free. It started today at 9am pacific time and will end 2/26 at midnight on Xbox and 2/27 at 9am pacific on PlayStation, Steam, and Epic Games. For Xbox, players must visit The Witch Queen page on their platform’s store to claim access. For PlayStation, Steam, Epic Games, and MS Store players, all you have to do is log in to the game, and The Witch Queen will be available.
What are your thoughts on the TWAB for 2-23-23 by Bungie? Are you excited for Lightfall? Let us know in the comments below or hit us up on our Twitter account by clicking here. Stay tuned to Culture Splat for more exciting stuff coming your way!