Bungie’s latest Destiny 2 showcase was a big blowout for its upcoming expansion, The Final Shape.
Breaking the game First up, Bungie led the showcase with the introduction of the newest subclass, which it’s calling Prismatic.
Players will now be able to use aspects of both archetypes of subclasses simultaneously and it looks fucking bonkers, dude.
Speaking of, transcendence also grants damage bonuses that stack on top of ones that players might get from other class abilities or existing weapon perks.
The Final Shape will also introduce a new exotic class item that steals the perks from other exotic gear and combines them into one super-powerful item.
This new enemy faction is called the Dread and they are abominations.
Two other enemy types, called Attendants and Weavers, will be able to use Stasis and Strand abilities on the player, respectively.
The Weaver in particular will be able to pull players from across the arena, which is one of many firsts among the new enemy faction.
The most recent Destiny 2 showcase from Bungie was a major tease for the game’s impending expansion, The Final Shape. A new subclass, an enemy faction, and an intriguing new class item that could potentially unlock the full potential of buildcrafting in Destiny 2 are among the revelations that the studio has been holding back on revealing. The expansion will wrap up the ten-year story that the studio has been telling since the first Destiny launched in September of 2014.
breaking the rules of the game.
The latest subclass, which Bungie is dubbed Prismatic, was first introduced during the showcase. Essentially, Prismatic is Destiny 2’s version of multiclassing, as opposed to the previous Light and Dark subclasses’ emphasis on a single element. It looks fucking crazy, dude, that players will now be able to use elements of both subclass archetypes simultaneously. Players have long imagined something like this, but it isn’t feasible to implement it because it would completely ruin the game, according to some. Nevertheless, Bungie is moving forward with it, and it appears extremely dynamic and chaotic.
Anecdotes from Bungie employees during the showcase make the builds sound completely broken. A team member suggested using a stasis grenade to slow down opponents, hurling a shuriken to disperse the group and neutralize the enemy force, and then using a second solar grenade that can be shot to explode to clear the area. An alternative combination involved releasing Strand hatchlings, which act as a pet that hunts down adversaries, and simultaneously launching a Stasis turret to transform into a crowd control device.
Players who wield the Prismatic subclass will see two gauges representing the Light and Dark above their weapons and abilities. The gauges fill up as you deal damage with Light or Dark abilities, enabling players to reach “transcendence” when both are fully charged. Transcendence functions similarly to a second super ability, giving the player additional benefits. Each class that becomes transcendent will be able to use a new type of grenade that combines two distinct subclasses, such as a hybrid Stasis/Void grenade for Warlocks or an Arc/Strand grenade for Titans.
The ability to use grenades and melee weapons again after they have been on cooldown is another benefit of transcendence. This means that players can chain the use of both into a transcendence and then use them again to deal a lot of damage. In relation to that, transcendence also bestows damage bonuses that players can stack with existing weapon perks or other class abilities.
As an “advanced subclass where you have more build crafting options, more potential combinations, more fragments than you normally get, more fragment slots to socket than you would normally get,” Prismatic lives up to the developers’ description.
A new exotic class item that absorbs the benefits of other exotic gear and combines them into one extremely potent item will also be unveiled in The Final Shape. This includes class-specific benefits for exotic equipment, such as the ability for Titans to take abilities that were previously reserved for Warlocks and vice versa. Bungie hopes that by allowing players to combine stolen perks with exotic perks, players will be encouraged to seek out exotic perks in addition to gear, which will allow them to create combinations of abilities that can break the game. The exotic perks on the class item will be randomly assigned. We want it to feel a little broken, said one developer. “.
An awful new foe.
A whole enemy faction inspired by them and the Witness, the main antagonist at the heart of Destiny 2, is being added by Bungie, building on the terrifying enemy type called Tormentors that was first introduced in last year’s mediocre Lightfall expansion. Tormentors served as mini-bosses throughout the campaign. The Dread are a new enemy group that are abominations in the world. I’m eager to battle them. Acrobatic “melee bruisers” known as Husks and a winged “gunbat” known as the Grim, who can scream to suppress player abilities, are among their ranks. The team refers to this as a Geist that will emerge from Husks who are killed “the wrong way” and pursue players.
The player will be vulnerable to the use of Stasis and Strand abilities by two additional enemy types named Attendants and Weavers, respectively. One of many firsts for the new enemy faction is the ability of Theaver in particular to draw players from across the arena. It’s great to see Bungie invest heavily in a faction that isn’t just a reskin of an already-existing one, as it has been a while since Destiny 2 saw the introduction of a completely new enemy type.
