How a Floating Skull Is Killing Destiny 2’s Buildcrafting

As is typical, Destiny 2’s The Desert Perpetual raid race caused a bit of a stir in contest mode. With less time than usual to prepare builds for Destiny 2’s latest challenge, many players entered the raid more underpowered than usual, without many of the high-tier weapons touted as being so useful by Bungie, and met fierce resistance. Even fans watching the race from the comfort of a stream will have noticed there was something off with the raid’s difficulty, and it wasn’t just down to mechanics. Enemies were tougher than usual, and as many teams raced to the finish line, many more were beaten back by Vex with dreaded skull healthbars.

But that skull wasn’t just for show; it meant business. Enemies marked with skulls are significantly higher level than the player character, dealing huge amounts of damage while soaking it up in return. A lot of players have since remarked on the unreasonable tankiness of many of the raid’s bosses, and many competent teams were stretched thin, unable to concentrate all the firepower required into tight damage windows. As if that wasn’t bad enough, though, many more players are reporting that older content has become significantly more difficult, and combined with Edge of Fate’s armor and weapon changes, Destiny 2’s build crafting is facing its biggest challenge yet.

Destiny 2 Dev Denies ‘Stealth Nerfs’ With the Edge of Fate Expansion

Bungie developers officially deny that the studio added stealth changes to the game balance introduced with the Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate expansion.

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By Dave Francisco

Destiny 2’s Sudden Difficulty Spike Is Ruining Edge of Fate’s Build Crafting

As if The Edge of Fate needed any more problems, the damage problem faced in the raid is just another issue on Bungie’s plate. Nor is there a consensus on the issue either, as it isn’t clear right now if this difficulty spike was intended by Bungie, and the studio overestimated player power, or if something is bugged. The Edge of Fate has changed Destiny 2’s core systems to the point where armor and weapons have changed so much that it could feasibly have recalibrated enemy scaling. The fact that older content is suffering the same difficulty spike, too, is the bigger issue, as players who avoided the raid race will probably not like feeling much less powerful.

Guardians Were Incredibly Powerful, but It Feels Like an Overcorrection on Destiny 2’s Recent Past

No matter what new measures Bungie has introduced over the years, the one constant since subclass 2.0 is that Guardians have been getting far too powerful. Destiny 2 ability builds are a lot of fun, but they have been running amok in even the game’s premiere content for far too long. Introduced in Lightfall, Prismatic was the apex of this problem, providing the ultimate power fantasy that made weapons feel secondary to many activities.

The Edge of Fate has scaled that back a lot, incentivizing players to grind for better stats on new armor, which could have been the plan by Bungie since these systems were unveiled. Given that it’s unclear if any of this was intended or not, there are some worrying implications. With Destiny 2 encountering so many bugs all the time, it can be hard to know if something is functioning as it should, or if Bungie is about to come swinging in with a fix.

Bungie needs good news at a time when Destiny 2’s player count is at an all-time low, and unplanned spikes in enemy power are only going to cause more players to disengage. The studio has faced many problems in the past, and has often produced its best work when its back was against the wall. This time, though, it feels different. With a heavily reduced headcount, and the diminishing scale of the game, Destiny 2 is going to need a lot more good news.

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