Good Morning Folks! Yesterday was the end of the previous season in Destiny Rising, or more correctly I think Season 2 Act 2? They do this weird thing where they split the same season up into multiple acts, with each being effectively like a new seasonal start. This one is centered around an alternate universe version of Kabr, aka the one that died in the Vault of Glass from Destiny 1. It introduces a few new game modes, and a new raid which appears to be a rework of the Destiny versions of Crota’s End. I have no clue if this will be closer to the original Destiny 1 version or the Destiny 2 reworked versions that have appeared over the years. I do know that gated behind the raid is access to a new Exotic Scout rifle which comes from Destiny 2 called Symmetry. While this weapon was not necessarily associated with Crota I do believe it was put into the game with the Shadowkeep expansion as a chase bonus for buying the fancier versions if I am remembering correctly.
Kabr the Resolute is the new alternate reality version of Kabr that we are getting access to, and I have to say… not really my thing. You can play him in Trial mode, and his kit just doesnt seem like it works that well. Effectively he has a primary scout rifle and a secondary linear fusion… when when combined with a character that mostly creates a bunch of shields feels odd. More so they shifted the burst ability to being one that has to be channeled, similar to how the shield works in Vault of Glass. I mean its a cool call back to that raid mechanic, but honestly… mostly just feels weird and removes any mobility that the character had. Standing still is never a good option regardless of how many shields you are generating. As a result I doubt I will be spending any premium pulls that that I have saved up on this banner.
We were told that we would be getting a free copy of Kabr, and that is true… within a specific frame of reference. Right now Kabr the Resolute exists on his own banner with his own new currency… which instead of pink and blue boats…. is apparently a bright red boat. During the course of this introductory event, doing dailies will get you a currency that will eventually unlock 6 sets of 10 pulls each… and since the pity for this banner is at 60 pulls, that means you are in fact guaranteed to pull Kabr during the event if you hop in and do all the things every day. Additionally you have access to the other four stars on this banner like Ikora, Attal, and Rossi… and in truth I could actually use more talent points for both Attal and Rossi. I will be doing the thing and jumping through the hoops to get my free copy… but I will be slightly annoyed that they didn’t just hand me a copy and let me move on with my life.
There is a brand new game mode that went in with this update called Bullwark Ops. Essentially it is tower defense for Destiny Rising. There is a building phase that lets you place down turrets and other things to help control the waves of mobs spawning, and then those encounters follow a fixed path through the map. Between you and the turrets, your goal is to make sure they die before crossing a finish line. So far it feels like Blight in Path of Exile, where you are the strongest turret, but that might change as I get into higher difficulties. I played a round of it this morning on Maru and it was pretty easy, but then again… Maru is my most built out character with a fully upgraded exotic single shot grenade launcher. I will be interesting to see how this plays with different characters.
There is also a limited mode version called Armed Enclave that I have yet to play, but there are a bunch of limited upgrade currencies gated behind it that I need to finish out some of my characters. Since we shifted into an Arc and Solar meta with this season, that means I need to spend a bit more effort building out Arc and Solar characters. Right now I have Estela, Jaren, and Helhest in a pretty good state with Ning Fei not too far behind. I am certain Jaren will be in the limited list of characters that we can play for Grandmaster content, but I thought Estela, Ning Fei, and Helhest would be as well. However that is not the case… of my built out characters the only two that I will have access to are Jaren and for some reason Jolder. Rossi and Attal are both pretty much in the same spot and would need copious upgrades to get them into the 64k range required for the activities. I will be honest that I don’t really like either of those champions enough to spend resources on them. It might be a REALLY rough week for Grandmasters. I am hoping we can maybe do the Gauntlet.
There is new story that involves us seemingly traveling to the Destiny 1 universe specifically. It was so cool to hear the original version of the Destiny theme song playing during this point. Essentially we meet up with our friend Xur who explains that there are many worlds and while Crota is building power in our world… we are not ready for him. So the storyline seemingly involves us discovering and very likely eventually raiding SIVA technology to make us stronger and more likely to take on Crota in his full force. Thing is… for anyone who knows the lore of the Iron Lords from Destiny 1… you will know that it was trying to capture SIVA that brought the downfall and ultimate death of most of them. Are we doomed to repeat history and see most of our Iron Lords dead and trapped in the chamber with SIVA while our Wolf character and Saladin escape… just like it happened in the Destiny 1 universe? I am very interested to see how this all plays out.
The most hilarious thing about this is… it seems like they were not able to secure the voice actor for Radegast to deliver new lines for this event. As a result they did quite possibly the dumbest and most ridiculous thing they could have done. Instead of voice lines…. Radegast delivers a bunch of Tim Allen from Home Improvement style grunts. Before I started this Ace had warned me about it… but I was in no way prepared for just how silly this ended up being. I was almost crying from laughing so hard by the time the cutscenes finished. I mean I guess this is a choice that could be made. I remember when the last GW2 expansion dropped during the actors strike, and we got silent dialog… and I am thinking maybe that was the better call.
Anyways. Looking forward to another season and a bunch of new events to learn.