Renown is easily the best thing to happen to D2 in a while. (Destiny)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Thursday, June 07, 2018, 13:51 (2438 days ago) @ cheapLEY
edited by Korny, Thursday, June 07, 2018, 13:57

Okay, so only being able to pledge to a single faction sucks, and on paper, having to hit rank 50 to get the weapon catalyst (they made sure not to tell us that before the rally began, didn't they?) is even worse...

But the renown system is pretty fantastic, and I even take back my criticism of the continued focus on Lost Sectors.

I ran it with Cody last night, and was pretty astounded at all of the good that comes with the Renown system.

-Enemies are scary for the first time.
Death has a price now. It may be small, but when the difference is a fair amount of tokens, you really want to survive (Exploder shanks are serious business!). Dying makes you stronger, yes, but your rewards diminish. Still, because you are stronger, you are more helpful to your teammates, so it's a tradeoff that saves some frustration.

-More loadout variety is encouraged.
Last night, I equipped the cobweb-filled Flash and Thunder grenade launcher. I never looked twice at it before, but now that enemies can drop you quickly, being able to stun groups is invaluable (especially on the capture zones). It proved to be an excellent tool that kept us alive. With our diminished health regen, I was also strongly considering the Alpha Lupi chestpiece, given that the Titan wall was already proving to be a lifesaver, and having a team health regen would keep us on the offensive. I was actually considering ways to change my playstyle in order to be better, which the game generally never requires of you.

-You're encouraged to interact with the randoms in the world.
When I see Blueberries helping capture zones out in the wild, I feel a huge sense of relief. We're weaker, but as a group, things aren't so bad, and it was getting pretty hectic (especially during Public Events while you already have a stack or two). And not only were Cody and I communicating enemy positions and movement, but I was sure to keep an eye on what the randoms were doing, and helping them when it looked like they wouldn't be able to hold back the rush. It felt like an actual battle.

-You can't just rush to the end.
I was having a lot of fun, because the same tired old Lost Sectors were now interesting battlefields where I was carefully planning my every move up, because a single enemy (or in Cody's case, a single jump) could prove fatal.

-The rewards are worth it!
We didn't run it for long, but I was impressed with how continuously satisfying it was to open a Lost Sector cache again, and seeing that solid number of Faction tokens drop. Hitting rank 50 in a single week is totally doable! Also, when I inspected my gear, hoping that I had at least 50 tokens, it turned out that I had 85, so that was a good feeling.

I don't even know how I would improve the system other than letting us throw in personal modifiers for reward multipliers. Would also help specialize each player in a Fireteam based on weaknesses...