The Changes in Hard Mode King's Fall Raid

The much anticipated hard mode version of the King's Fall raid launched yesterday, and due to the mechanic heavy design of the raid, many people were expecting the hard mode version to be significantly more difficult, with even more complex mechanics. This hope was somewhat shattered when hard mode was cleared for the first time by a group of six in just 1 hr and 17 mins. Many people still at work or still in school were shocked to here that the raid had been able to be cleared in such a short amount of time, and began to question how much more difficult the hard mode version could actually be.

Difficulty Bump
The most obvious change in hard mode is the base level of all the enemies has been raised, making it more difficult by default. In normal mode King's Fall, the recommended light was 290 to start the raid and scaled to 300 recommended by the final boss fight at Oryx. In hard mode King's Fall, the recommended light to start the raid is 310 and scales to 320 by the Oryx fight. Of course, the loot you can get in hard mode has been raised from a 300-310 drop table to a 310-320 drop table to compensate as well. The loot is also exclusive to hard mode in design. Weapons and armor are titled "Harrowed" and have had color change from the white/red design to a black/red design. Bungie also kept the same mechanic of not being able to revive your teammates when they die until the next checkpoint is reached, as they use in previous hard mode raids, so Sunsinger warlocks become much more valuable.

Pre-Warpriest Encounter Changes
This section sees the least amount of changes. Opening the raid in the Court of Oryx is the same as normal mode, although it does seem that you are not allotted as much time as you were in normal mode in between awakening each statue. On the ship jumping puzzle, there is simply no checkpoint halfway through. The ledge where the checkpoint used to be was removed entirely, so just stay on the ship until the next one spawns instead of going for the checkpoint. In the totem section, the only change is that hallowed knights will spawn once you are over halfway done opening the door.

Warpriest Changes
The change in the Warpriest fight is my favorite change in the hard mode King's Fall. It gives the fireteam the option to pick their poison in what mechanics they want to face. The damage buff is obtained the same way as normal mode, but when the Warpriest activates the Oculus, and consumes one of the pillars he will gain a new mode of attacking. If the left pillar is consumed, the Warpriest gains the Axion Dart ability like that of Taken Centurions, if the middle pillar is consumed, he will gain Taken Hobgoblin sniping capabilities, and if the right pillar is consumed, he gains the Taken Captain blinding attack. The Warpriest will gain multiple abilities if he consumes more than one pillar.

Golgoroth Changes
This fight sees a very minor change but something to be wary of. Upon capturing the gaze and entering the pools to damage Golgoroth, a few members that stand in the pool will gain a debuff titled Unstable Light. This debuff is on a short timer and upon hitting zero the guardian with the debuff will let out a small area explosion that will kill any other guardians in range. Whoever acquires the debuff should simply run out of the pool and away from all other members at around 2 seconds left to gain plenty of distance to keep your fireteam safe.

Daughters/Deathsingers Changes
The jumping puzzles before this encounter have no changes and the deathsingers also see a very minimal change like Golgoroth. After claiming the invulnerability buff from a deathsinger, and doing as much damage before the timer runs out. Immediately after the blinding light that kills any guardian not near the buff holder, the next timer starts. In normal mode there were about 10 seconds in between starting the next timer, in hard mode the timer starts immediately. This makes communication extremely important so your group does not waste time figuring out who is the runner and who should stand on which platform.

Oryx Changes
Oryx sees another small change but a very aggravating one. As each of the light-blighted ogres is killed, a knight will spawn slightly behind the platform that is opposite of you on the same side. The knight will take a diagonal path towards the blight left behind by the ogre and will consumer the blight if not killed before it reaches it. To gain a better perspective on where the knights spawn, on the side where Oryx initially shows his face, the knights will spawn where the taken thralls spawn at the start of the encounter. On the other side, the knights will spawn out of the small puddles of water behind the platforms. The knights are sword wielders and are not hallowed, so they are relatively easy to snipe.

Destiny Reflections: The First Iron Banner of TTK

Iron Banner is a week long crucible event that many Destiny players look forward too, especially for those who prefer PvP to PvE. It is a monthly held event in which level advantages are enabled, which are not in normal crucible, and is a 6v6 control gametype. Iron Banner has its own exclusive gear, weapons and armor, and also includes emblems and shaders only available through the event.

Changes in this Iron Banner
Obviously this being the first Iron Banner since the launch of the Taken King, one of the big changes for this event is the introduction of several new maps, weapons and the three new subclasses to choose from. Other than this, the only change to the event is that the tempered buff, which increases your reputation gained from winning games and completing bounties in the event, is automatically applied and increases each day the event is live, is automatically applied to your characters, instead of having to purchase the buff each day.

Weapon & Class Choices
Iron Banner did not stray from the crucible meta that has become prevalent since the launch of the Taken King. Pulse rifles dominate the choice for primary weapons, with a few scout rifles or auto rifles with strong perk rolls sometimes making it into the mix. Shotguns and snipers dominated the choice for secondary weapons, and it mainly comes down to player preference or which map is being played on to determine which weapon to equip. Heavy weapons saw a mix of rockets and machine guns, and as expected, swords were non-existent.

Titans saw the least variation in subclass choice with Sunbreaker being dominant. Most people stray from the defensive/supportive style of the Defender subclass, and the Striker subclass is completely out performed in offensive capabilities by the Sunbreaker. Warlocks primary choice was also the new subclass introduced in the Taken King, Stormcaller. Similar to Sunbreaker for titans, this subclass allows for the mass chaining of kills and can completely turn the tide of a game if used correctly. Voidwalker was also used to some extent, but mainly used to eliminate one trouble person in their super, or for the maneuverability of the blink jump. Hunters saw the most variety of choice in which subclass to use. Gunslingers are long favorites to one-shot enemies at a long range and the new Nightstalker class to make use of the ability to cancel the supers of others, and for the flashy plays with the evade skill. Bladedancers saw the least amount of use as can easily be killed out of their super, and lose trades to almost all the other supers in the game.

The Loot Table
With every Iron Banner two weapons and two armor pieces are available. In this event, the sidearm and pulse rifle were available for weapons, and the class item and boots were available for armor. The loot can be obtained from the host of the event Lord Saladin by purchasing them with legendary marks, or obtained through random drops for completing Iron Banner matches. The general consensus is that the drop rate was hilariously low, several people reaching max rank in the event before getting or even seeing one piece of loot drop. Bungie has already noted that the rate of loot dropping was low and will most likely be increasing it in the next event. Personally, I received five pieces of loot, two hunter class items, two pulse rifles, and one sidearm.

The next Iron Banner will most likely take place during mid to late November. Crucible players will not have to wait that long to get their end-game PvP content however, as Trials of Osiris should be making its Taken King debut before Iron Banner returns.

The "Waiting" Trend in Destiny

The Taken King expansion for Destiny brought with it a sleuth of new content for players to enjoy, but why must some of that content be blocked by time? What I mean here, is not the time scheduled of release of content in the Taken King, such as the raid not becoming available until the Friday the DLC launched. This kind of waiting allows players to prepare for the difficulties of the end game content, by grabbing weapons and armor with strong perks, and time to complete the previous content so they do not have to make a choice on what content to pursue. The type of waiting I want to discuss is the waiting for content in the game to be triggered, and why the trend of this waiting time needs to be fixed in the next expansion for Destiny.

Public Events
Public events have been around since Destiny was released one year ago. They occur on each of the destinations, except for the Dreadnaught, and involve taking down a mini-boss enemy, or small groups of an enemy depending on what planet you are on. They were designed to need a small group of people to complete if you are the same level as the event, but higher level guardians and well-equipped ones have no issues soloing these events. Initially, thought to be random and triggered by a certain amount of guardians being in the area, these events are actually on a schedule. If you wanted to do a public event for quest purposes, potential rewards, or grimoire it was a simple matter of checking destinypublicevents.com to find the next event in the cycle.

Off-Public Events
I am calling this next section of events off-public events because they still happen on patrol, but are on no set schedule and are similar to regular public events. In this category I would include, the Blades of Crota event from The Dark Below DLC, the Pack of Wolves prowling event from the House of Wolves DLC, and Taken Forces Corrupting the Area from the Taken King expansion. The completion of these events is often linked to bounties, grimoire, and the potential for some decent loot. The problem with these events is, there is simply nothing to do while you wait for them to spawn. You wander around the patrol area aimlessly killing the few enemies that spawn to pass the time, Sometimes you wait just a couple minutes, and sometimes you seem to wait for more than 15 minutes to get the event you are waiting for.

Bounties/Quests
As I said earlier, this will not include the timed release of content but will include bounties/quests that have timing gates built into the quest-line. The first instance of this happening with Destiny was in The Dark Below DLC, in which in the small bounty based quest-line from Eris after the main story was complete. A part of this bounty-line included buying an item from Xur, a vendor in Destiny that only is available from Friday mornings until Sunday mornings. Depending on when you reached this bounty in the chain, you may have to wait several days for the chance to complete it. This trend continued with the House of Wolves DLC and the Elder Cipher bounty-line to get one of three new exotic weapons introduced. One part of the bounty-line included waiting, simply waiting, for the next part to be available. To make this section worse, the time was completely random, waiting times ranged from just ten minutes to three days. Lastly, in The Taken King, there are several quests that involve waiting. The three quests for the exotic swords all require you to wait until Armsday (Wednesday) as a part of their quest line. The Chaperone quest, requires you to wait until the next weekly reset (Tuesday), as the final part of the quest-line. The quest for The First Curse exotic handcannon also is time gated requiring you to wait until Armsday, just like the exotic sword quests.

The Problem
Dedicated players, although they will be annoyed by having to wait for their rewards, will complete the quest-lines regardless of the waiting time. However, for those people that can only play maybe an hour a day or less on average, having to wait for these events to spawn, or having to wait potentially a whole week for the next step in your quest-line to be available can be quite aggravating. These waiting times may lead to players thinking the game is boring, or cause them to simply stop playing while they wait for the quest-line to be available. This cannot be a strategy going forward as Bungie continues to look to attract new players to the game. These players need to be excited about the experience and the gameplay, not forced to simply pass the time while waiting for the rewards of that gameplay.