The only change that breaks this Chicken's little heart is that you can't sword fly across the bridge anymore.

I can definitely get out of the map on Bridge like before, so maybe sword strat ain’t dead yet! I’ll keep you posted. :P

Perhaps a two-person run is possible.

As someone who absolutely loved the original, I was wary of the changes they brought that nerfed our solo abilities. The changes they brought were a lot of fun in my opinion. The Ir Yut and Crota parts are especially more fun because of the movement they require across the battlefield. Mistakes can be recovered and there are a lot of paths to success. Having Crota chase you around the Arena feels a lot better too.

I loved it as well, though felt the opposite when it comes to recovering from mistakes. Old Crota was great because there was a dwindling effect throughout; you had six folks, but only really needed three at most to survive encounters. With the Chalice mechanic, it really feels like if the wrong guy dies at any given time, it’s a wipe. If an Enlightened person messes up at all on Ir Yut, it’s a wipe.
Overall, the good changes far, far outweigh the bad, so I’m super happy with the improvements to this Dungeon (and the fact that Challenge-mode raid was two-manned day 1 or 2 shows that there is totally a way to recover from mistakes, it’ll just take more time to work out the kinks).

The only change that breaks this Chicken's little heart is that you can't sword fly across the bridge anymore.

I can definitely get out of the map on Bridge like before, so maybe sword strat ain’t dead yet! I’ll keep you posted. :P

What are your thoughts?

I loved that there are streamline starts already in play (skipping lanterns was fun).
I’m eager to run it more (when I don’t fall asleep as the game runs, lol).

Also, I don't know what it is, but I genuinely love the "pass the status effect back and forth or die" mechanic, ever since Skolas. I really don't know why, but it's always just been a fun thing to manage in Destiny for me.

There's a new mechanic - you pick up a chalice, and a charge builds. (It builds faster the more you kill.) If someone takes this charge before it hits 100%, it starts building for them, and you go back to normal. If you let it get to 100%, you become Enlightened... but if nobody takes it within 10 seconds, you die. Being enlightened allows you to do a number of things throughout the raid, so the mechanic is juggling the chalice to allow the things that need doing without exceeding the time given.

In the Abyss, you need enlightenment to remove the weight of darkness.

On the Bridge, you need enlightenment to pick up a sword from a swordbearer (and you need the sword, or the chalice, to cross the bridge).

Ir-Yut does not become vulnerable until you kill witches in the side rooms, and you need enlightenment to enter those rooms.

The swords to down Crota can only be picked up when enlightened.

In general, the addition of this mechanic makes most encounters need more cooperation than the D1 version of the raid.

I haven’t played it, obviously, or watched any videos or anything.

The only change that breaks this Chicken's little heart is that you can't sword fly across the bridge anymore.

What are your thoughts?