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.