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14 January 2021
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This Week At Bungie - 1/14/2021

This week at Bungie, we're back in action.

It's been a while, hasn't it? Since the last TWAB, you've gotten your hands on Hawkmoon. The Dawning has come and gone. Next-generation consoles received some wonderful enhancements. You've released a crow from their cage, and Lord Saladin watched as you decimated your foes with Stasis in the Iron Banner.

On the Bungie side of things, we took a breather. This last year has been full of challenges that none of us expected. Even through everything 2020 had in store, we were able to get Beyond Light and Season of the Hunt in your hands. This did come at a bit of a cost, though, and we needed some time to recharge our batteries for a new year. We have no doubt that 2021 will have mountains to climb and unexpected surprises, but we're all excited to get back into the groove for a new year of Destiny development.

So, let's get this party started. We've got four TWABs between you and a fresh Season of Destiny 2 content. You're hungry for what we've got planned, and we're eager to dish out the goods. First up, we'll be looking at a few changes to vendors, Dreaming City and Moon rewards, and some sandbox tuning for Hunter Stasis abilities in the Crucible.

Rewards Update: Dreaming City and the Moon

Since the launch of Beyond Light, we've been collecting what feels like a metric ton of feedback on various Destiny systems. While we've shared some plans related to rewards, DDoS protection on consoles, crossplay and transmog, we have new details on rewards from two of our more recent destinations: The Moon and the Dreaming City. Rewards Area Lead Justin Dazet will be walking us through some changes in response to player feedback.

Justin: Last month, Assistant Game Director Joe Blackburn spoke about some changes we were making to gear in Season 13 in response to some feedback. Today we're going to briefly chat about what some of these changes are as they relate to our back catalog of expansions, and the reasoning behind them.

First let's review a list of what you'll see starting in Season 13:
  • Reissued Dreaming City Reverie Dawn and Moon Dreambane armor.
    • These will also drop with high stats when earned in Shattered Throne or Pit of Heresy.
    • The final chest in Pit of Heresy will no longer drop a fully Masterworked Dreambane armor piece.
    • Instead, the Dreambane armor piece that drops will have 7 armor energy and is guaranteed to drop with at least a +16 in two different stats and higher stats overall.
    • Dreambane class items will not drop from this chest.
  • Reissued 4 weapons for Dreaming City with new Perk Pools.
    • Waking Vigil, Sleepless, Vouchsafe, and Retold Tale.
    • Dreaming City weapons that drop in the Shattered Throne dungeon can roll with perks that are unavailable from drops from other reward sources.
  • Reissued 4 weapons for the Moon with new Perk Pools.
    • Premonition (Pit of Heresy only), Heretic, Blasphemer, and Apostate.
    • Weapons that drop in the Pit of Heresy dungeon can roll with perks that are unavailable from drops from other reward sources.
  • Expanding Lost Sector Legend and Master rotation to 4 Moon Sectors.
    • K1 Logistics, K1 Communication, K1 Crew Quarters, and K1 Revelation.


We are making these changes to help preserve the relevancy of the destinations, specifically some of the pinnacle end-game activities that still exist there. To get more specific around the actual experience, activities where re-issues are acquired will be heavily weighted towards rewarding re-issued gear over capped gear -- though the exact weighting and mechanisms may differ. For example: In the Dreaming City if you have already obtained an infusion capped weapon, it will not drop for you again.



While not every gear source or Legendary reward will be kept up to date for the entire lifetime these destinations are available, we do believe there's high value in targeting some specific activity drops for continued relevancy to give you more options for where to spend time as you seek to improve your arsenal.

Turn in those Tokens

Since Destiny 2 launched, Guardians have been amassing vendor reputation tokens. These could be turned in for Legendary gear, which would usually be dismantled for Legendary Shards and materials. Looking to the future, the team is excited to update the ways in which you earn reputation with ritual vendors and the rewards that come from them. Dazet, back to you!

Justin: The rewards for continuous ritual playlist completion has been a subject that's come up several times as we've looked over Beyond Light feedback, and we're happy to announce some changes coming soon to Gambit, Crucible, and strike reward structure.

Firstly, we'll be adding two new unique weapon rewards to each of the three playlist rituals (so six total across all three activities). These weapons are in addition to the ones added in Season of the Hunt, and continue to have a small chance to drop at the end of each activity.

Second, starting in Season 13 for Gambit and Crucible (Valor) and in a future Season for strikes, rank rewards will be visible on the ritual vendors. Each Season you'll be greeted by a row of rewards, progression toward which will be earned automatically as you complete relevant playlist activities.

Instead of having rank rewards dropped automatically into your loot stream, they now will be picked up manually from the vendor lists. We feel this gives much better visibility into what you'll be earning as you progress, and helps you make better choices about where to spend your time.



Progression is on a per-ritual basis. You can be on Rank 10 for Crucible and Rank 4 for Gambit, for example. You'll reset your rank right at the vendor by picking up the final reward.

Rewards for each individual ritual are as follows:
  • Rank 4: 3x Upgrade Modules
  • Rank 7: 3x Enhancement Cores
  • Rank 10: Seasonal Ritual Shader (changes to 3x Enhancement Cores after resetting your rank)
  • Rank 13: 2x Enhancement Prisms
  • Rank 16: Seasonal Ritual Emblem (changes to 2x Enhancement Prisms after resetting your rank)
  • Reset Reward: Ascendant Shard (changes to Exotic Engram after resetting your rank)


Every rank-up awards a base Ritual Engram just like before. Additionally, each of the above ranks also awards a Prime Ritual Engram.



Due to this automated progression, Crucible Tokens and Crucible Token Gifts are no longer needed and will be deprecated into junk that will delete as a full stack starting in Season 13. So, cash those tokens in before the end of the Season, and get ready to earn some Masterwork materials!

Taking a pass: Revenant Shatterdive & Fissures

The conversation and feedback on rewards wasn't the only thing we were tracking over the holiday break. Many of you have been spending time in the Crucible, experimenting with Stasis and all of the ways in which it can change the flow of a PvP match. Prior to the break, we had a round of tuning for Warlocks. Next up, we're looking at Hunters, but also have some comments on our approach to future Stasis tuning as we head in to the new year. Please welcome Combat Area Lead Tomonori Kinoshita back to the TWAB to talk through our goals for Stasis abilities in PvP.

Tomo: Over the holiday break we saw Trials go live, and with that a wealth of valuable feedback from the community. Along with this feedback, we have been tracking data from Trials and identified some short-term changes, as well as more mid-term goals we are focusing on in the coming weeks and months.

Short term goal: Address outlier Stasis abilities to keep subclass decision making interesting.
  • Reduce the potency of Shatter Dive + Whisper of Fissures against Guardians, going live with Update 3.0.2.
    • Shatterdive
      • Now has damage falloff vs. unfrozen targets
      • Max range damage reduced from 50 to 5
      • Damage reduction during ability reduced from 50% to 25%
    • Whisper of Fissures
      • Reduced max-min damage vs. non-super players from 42-22 to 30-4
      • Reduced max-min damage vs. super players from 42-22 to 16-2
      • Reduced detonation radius vs. players from 10m to 9m
  • Investigate the efficacy of the Stasis Titan Behemoth Super. We want to let the above change settle to see where the Behemoth stands in our PvP hierarchy, but this is next on our radar.


Mid-term goal: Improve PvP subclass usage and win-rate balance.
  • Addressing Stasis ability outliers will help us lower the ceiling, but we also want to pull up other underperforming Light subclasses.


Mid-term goal: Review our ability-to-gunplay balance in PvP.
  • Destiny is a game about both explosive space magic moments and intrinsically satisfying gunplay. Especially in our 3v3 playlists, the usage of abilities has climbed as we introduce more and more ways to charge them quickly.
  • We're still in very early discussions, but we're looking into restoring a better balance where proper gunplay is rewarding in these playlists.

A few of you noticed that prior to our holiday break, we were able to get a few sandbox changes delivered faster than expected. Thanks to changes on Destiny 2's backend and the Destiny Content Vault, our patch pipeline is indeed better than before! That said, some changes won't happen at light speed, as our team wants the appropriate time to collect feedback, check the data, and test proposed changes.

Once these changes have been validated, we'll be eager to get you details via TWABs, blog articles, and more.

Worldwide Community

Sometimes, it can be difficult to think of how large the Destiny community has become since 2014. It seems no matter where you may be in the world, you might bump in to a fellow Hunter, Warlock, or Titan. Last year, we bolstered our efforts with the addition of two international community managers. Join us in welcoming a third to the team! Introducing our new Russian Community Manager, Ivan Yanyushkin.

Ivan: Privet!

My name is Ivan and I'm the latest community manager added to the team for Russian speaking Guardians. In Destiny 2 I enjoy making raids more complicated by doing them with fewer than six people and endlessly roaming around Europa on my Warlock, which for me is a meditating experience.

Some of you might know me from my past work at Blizzard Entertainment, where I worked as a community manager for different titles. This experience will help me, but I will also be thankful for your guidance. Feel free to reach out to tell me what works, what doesn't, and how things can be improved for the Destiny community. One day, when real-life gaming events finally become possible again, I will be happy to meet you in person. But for now, let's stay in touch on Twitter, VKontakte, and on the Russian Bungie Forums.


It's an honor to work with such an amazing community. My job will be to pass the voice of the players to developers, help local content makers grow, manage Russian social media channels, and take care of many other duties. I'll do my best to be Ivan the Great not the Terrible!

P.S. Hopefully one day I'll even get used to the fact that Hydras explode after death :)

Spasibo.

Keeping You Updated

Through the holiday break, Destiny Player Support was at the ready, providing vital information to players encountering bugs, seeking workarounds, or just asking for help with their network setup. This week, their eyes turn towards an upcoming Hotfix, preparing you all for the incoming update.

This is their report.

UPDATE 3.0.2
Today, January 14, background maintenance for Update 3.0.2 will begin. Below is a timeline of events:

  • January 14, 10 AM PST (1800 UTC): Destiny 2 background maintenance for Update 3.0.2 begins.
  • January 14, 2 PM PST (2200 UTC): Destiny 2 background maintenance for Update 3.0.2 completes.
  • January 19, 8 AM PST (1600 UTC): Destiny 2 maintenance for Update 3.0.2 begins.
  • January 19, 8:30 AM PST (1630 UTC): Players are removed from activities and won't be able to log back into Destiny 2 until 9 AM PST when Update 3.0.2 is available.
  • January 19, 9 AM PST (1700 UTC): Destiny 2 Update 3.0.2 is rolled out across all platforms and regions. Players can log back into Destiny 2 at this time. Ongoing maintenance is expected to conclude at 10 AM PST.
  • January 19, 10 AM PST (1800 UTC): Destiny 2 maintenance is expected to conclude.

UPCOMING RESOLVED ISSUES
Below is a list of some issues expected to be resolved with Update 3.0.2:

  • Hive bosses, In Ananh, Brood Queen and Xillox, were not counting as Hive boss kills in bounties.
  • Some players couldn't respawn if they died during the boss fight of the Inverted Spire strike.
  • Players could get out of environment in several Crucible maps.
  • Some quest items were not dropping in the Moon Freeroam activity. This prevented completion of several "Essence" quests, such as Essence of Rage, Essence of Insanity, and Essence of Servitude.
  • The Unrelenting perk was not triggering health regeneration.
  • MIDA Multi-Tool's catalyst wasn't dropping from Competitive Crucible wins.
  • Taken Psions were replicating too rapidly in some Prophecy dungeon encounters.
  • Garden of Salvation flawless completions were not awarding the "Inherent Perfection" Triumph.
  • The High Celebrant sometimes wouldn't take damage nor go to the Ascendant Plane.
  • Fixed an exploit where players could have "Shelter From the Storm" permanently applied in the Deep Stone Crypt raid.
  • Fixed an issue where Cloudstrike hits on the Divinity cage counted as two precision hits.
  • Fixed an issue where the Grandmaster Nightfall timer was set to 30 minutes.
  • Fixed an issue on PlayStation 5 preventing clan rosters from loading.

DUST AND ECHOES
Almost nine years ago, stats and files from our previous franchise, Halo, stopped getting updated on Bungie.net. Since then, all stats, files, and other data from Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, and Halo: Reach have lived on in remembrance at halo.bungie.net.

On February 9, the halo.bungie.net website will be taken offline permanently. Everyone is welcome to save their stats and files, however they can, if they'd like to save anything. Please keep in mind that our News articles, Forums, and Groups were imported into the current version of Bungie.net back in 2013.

KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:

  • The Exotic Ship Reward from the High Celebrant mission is not properly showing that it is a "Rare" chance reward in the activity description. Chances for this reward increase with each activity completion.
  • Portals aren't opening when the High Celebrant leaves because the black orbs take no damage. Players can mitigate this issue by not using Sidearms and not shooting the orb as it immediately spawns.
  • Enemies in Crucible and PvE aren't colorblind-friendly when highlighted.
  • The Special Finisher mod no longer unlocks for new players.
  • Bomber mods don't work when Hunters have the Dragon's Shadow Exotic equipped.
  • The Overload Shot on Auto Rifles doesn't proc if you hold down the trigger right after reloading, even though it does the Overload animation.
  • Some players receive the BIRD error code trying to get to the Wall of Wishes in the Last Wish raid.
  • Sometimes the Vault encounter in the Last Wish raid won't let you read icons nor spawn enemies after slamming on a plate or finishing a phase.
  • Sometimes Riven doesn't get stunned on the second level in the final encounter of the Last Wish raid.
  • The Forfeit Shrine Ascendant Challenge completion doesn't count towards the Ascendant Champion or Honed for Speed Triumphs, blocking the Cursebreaker Seal.
  • The Run the Gauntlet Triumph doesn't unlock when completing the time trial in the Cimmerian Garrison Ascendant Challenge.
  • Ahamkara Bones are missing in the Shattered Throne dungeon and multiple Ascendant Challenges.
  • Players will sometimes go into a Nightfall with 16 people when they try loading into the Tower.
  • Sometimes dialogue gets cut off at the end of a Wrathborn Hunt.
  • For Hunters using the Way of the Warrior subclass, Combination Blow sometimes stops working and doesn't give Gambler's Dodge back.
  • Non-Exo characters are receiving Exo specific dialogue on Europa.
  • The Light of the Dawning emblem cannot equip stat trackers.
  • The Coaxial Bonds ornaments for Ophidian Aspect causing the bottom-left of the screen to glitch/flicker.

For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.

Home Streaming Device


It's been a little over nine months since I've been to a theater. While I definitely miss the smell of fresh(ish) popcorn and mind-blowing visuals on a massive screen, I've been keeping myself busy with Destiny clips, montages, and videos from our amazing community. Let's see what we've got this week:

Movie of the Week: Confectionary Ghost

Movie of the Week: Deep Stone Lullaby Cover

Movie of the Week: Goodbye 2020 - A year of Crucible

Movie of the Week: Cloudstruck

Make sure to put a link to your Bungie.net profile in the description of your video. Why? We have a sweet emblem to grant you for your troubles. As always, upload your finished product to the Creations page.

Doodling


Since we've kicked off the weekly artist features, I've found myself doodling more often. Thinking of what my Guardian would look like in the heat of battle, or just chilling on a couch after getting some sweet loot. Thank you to all who continue to inspire members of the community to embrace art! Let's kick off the year with some fun pieces.

Art of the Week: Rogue Hunter

Art of the Week: On Ashen Wings

Art of the Week: Fire and Ice

Art of the Week: Atraks-1

If you'd like to be featured, make sure to tag your art with #Destiny2Art on Twitter, Instagram, or wherever you happen to post it!

While we may not be in the office, it feels great to be back in the saddle. Always enjoy diving through feedback, discussing the future of Destiny with the team, and figuring out how to tackle the challenges of a new year. Cheers to all who've walked this path with us since 2014. It's always crazy to think how far we've come, and we still have so far yet to go.

See you in the wild.

Cheers,
dmg04

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