The third Director’s Cut by Bungie’s Luke Smith released today and tackles some of the biggest issues plaguing Destiny 2’s PvE and PvP. In the post, Smith breakdowns a number of changes coming to the game when Shadowkeep releases on October 1. While we don’t know the exact sandbox changes coming to the game, Smith does give us an idea what the future of Destiny 2 looks like.
Damage stacking has been a massive problem on Destiny 2’s PvE side, as it allows teams to quickly kill bosses and trivialize encounters. This has been an issue since the game introduced Well of Radiance in the Forsaken expansion since players would just use this combined with weapons such as Tractor Cannon to melt bosses. Bungie is changing this, so any damage bonuses that affect everyone’s weapons do not stack.
This means buffs such as Rampage will still work, but combining effects such as Melting Point and Well of Radiance will be a thing of the past. Instead, the game will automatically apply the best buff to the team and ignore any that follow. Hopefully, this should free up teams from running the same loadouts for every encounter, promote better diversity in builds, and make endgame content more challenging.
Smith also addressed PvP, citing multiple changes coming to the playlist, Heavy ammo, and modes. With the massive influx of new players coming into Destiny 2, Bungie has decided to break the playlists up so it’s more inviting for users.
- We’ve removed the Quickplay and Competitive nodes from the Director.
- If you’re looking for an experience like Quickplay, we’ve added Classic Mix (a connection-based playlist [like Quickplay today]). Classic Mix includes Control, Clash, and Supremacy.
- Competitive is replaced by 3v3 Survival (which now awards Glory).
- We’ve also added a Survival Solo Queue playlist that also awards Glory.
- We’ve added 6v6 Control as its own playlist.
- With the potential influx of new players this Fall, we want to have a playlist that signals to new players that this is where to start.
- We feel like 6v6 Control is the right starting place when introducing new friends to Destiny.
- We’ve added a weekly 6v6 rotator and a weekly 4v4 rotator.
- These rotator playlists are where modes like Clash, Supremacy, Mayhem, Lockdown, and Countdown will appear.
- We’ve removed some underperforming maps from matchmaking, too.
Heavy ammo will now be communal in 6v6 games, meaning if someone grabs it then everyone has a short window to quickly pick up some as well. The amount of ammo you obtain per Heavy Brick will also be reduced, but the amount is still unknown. Additionally, Smith did not address how Heavy will factor into the competitive side of the game or Gambit.
These changes to PvP sound fantastic, even if Smith is being a bit vague on some aspects. Adding more playlists will certainly make finding the game mode you want to enjoy far easier. I do worry that the new competitive elimination mode will make quests for the Luna’s Howl and Mountaintop even more frustrating to complete. We hope that Bungie adjusts these quest to better fit the new direction their game is going.
You can read Luke Smith’s full thoughts on PvP and PvE in this blog post, here.