The Story
Destiny 2: Warmind – Ana Bray and Rasputin
Poor Mars really can’t catch a break. Between the Cabal running amok, Phobos careening towards it, and never getting a raid in Destiny 1, the red planet just always seems to have things going wrong. Things don’t appear to be changing in Destiny 2: Warmind. It’s finally back as a location, but only because Rasputin, everyone’s classical music loving weapon of mass destruction, has awoken and decided that he wants to melt the polar ice caps, for, um… reasons.
Your tour guide, or “cornerstone” as Bungie put it during the reveal stream, is Ana (or Anna, we’re not sure) Bray. She’s a Guardian that is investigating her old life, which apparently is a no-no. If her last name is familiar, it’s because it’s matches Clovis Bray, the corporation that was responsible for research and construction on Mars during the Golden Age of Humans.
We’ll likely learn a lot more about Bray, the Golden Age, and of course, Rasputin, during our adventure with Ana.
The New Enemy
Destiny 2: Warmind – New Frozen Hive
While we’re still not entirely sure if Rasputin is friend or foe, we’re pretty certain that the Hive that is appearing from underneath the ice on Mars, are not our pals. During the stream, we got to see these gnarly new enemies. They’re essentially still the regular standard fare Hive, at least as far as we can tell so far, however, they all kind of look like Yeti monsters. They are partly frozen, and all pissed off.
The Hive are going to be the stars of the new Escalation Protocol activity (see below) and are probably the premiere enemy of this expansion as far as we can tell. Oh and speaking of the Hive, the Hive Sword is back (you know, the one from Destiny 1) and is something that you can pick up and use during Escalation Protocol and maybe some missions as well, we’ll have to wait and see.
New End Game Activity
Destiny 2: Warmind – Escalation Protocol
There’s still going to be a raid lair, don’t worry, but Bungie is adding something else into the mix this time (thank goodness). Escalation Protocol is Bungie’s answer to Destiny 2 being too easy most of the time. Read here to get the full scoop on Escalation Protocol as we know it so far, but here are some cliff notes.
It’s a wave based public activity that might give you some Court of Oryx or Prison of Elders vibes. I name drop those two activities because it is public and out in the open, and can be triggered at any time by players like Court of Oryx, but it will also have some “horde” like elements such as what you experienced in Prison of Elders if you played House of Wolves.
There are seven waves, with rewards scattered through the lower waves, but the true prize is clearing the whole thing, including wave seven. Wave seven spawns a boss that will rotate weekly, each with their own unique drops, and strategies for taking them down. If it goes the way that I’m sure Bungie is hoping, it should prove a worthwhile and fun activity to mix in between raids.
That covers most of the expansion specific content, but there’s quite a few major changes that all players will be able to enjoy as well including Sandbox Updates and changes to PvP.
Sandbox Updates
Changes for Season 3 – Better Exotics and More Interesting Legendaries
We knew that sandbox exotic weapon changes were coming in Warmind, but we got a very close look at some of them in action, including Fighting Lion, Graviton Lance, Skyburner’s Oath, Sturm/Drang , Hardlight and more. During the stream, team members mentioned that nearly every exotic weapon is getting a touch up of some kind. It may not be as dramatic or flashy as the homing explosive rounds from the Skyburner’s Oath, but most are getting some kind of buff/change. Only a few that are in a really good spot already are getting left alone. They weren’t clear on which, though.
In addition to exotics getting some much-needed love, it looks like Bungie is in the business of adding some more unique legendary weapons as well. Something that will hopefully get the bad taste of the forge weapons from Curse of Osiris out of our mouths (which was a cool idea by the way, just poorly executed).
They showed off a new super exclusive PvP weapon called Redrix’s Claymore pulse rifle that has its own unique perk called Desperado. It’s tied to the new Crucible PvP rank system, and you’ll need to get a Glory Rank of “Fabled” to get it. Which according to the developers during the stream will be very very hard. Speaking of the Crucible…
The Crucible
Changes for Season 3 – Valor and Glory Ranks
The Crucible is getting a facelift to make it more of a desirable place to invest your time into. If you’ve been playing since launch, there really isn’t much of a reason to play other than fun, and depending on your opinion of the current PvP meta, you might not even want to play for fun. When season 3 launches with Destiny 2: Warmind, there will be two new types of ranks that players can earn: Valor and Glory Ranks.
Valor is the more casual of the two and simply rewards time invested. Whether you win, lose or draw, you’ll level up your Valor Rank. Winning earns more progress towards it, but a loss won’t be worthless either. Glory Rank are for the hardcore competitive players to add some much needed edge to their games. Progress is earned in Competitive mode, and wins will earn you progress while losses will set you back with winning and losing streaks amplifying that progress in their respective directions. Glory will have the flashier of the rewards, including the Redrix’s Claymore pulse rifle we mentioned above.
Finally, private match functionality will make its long awaited return and both the casual/competitive community can go back to organizing their own events. Hard to complain about that one.
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