Bungie interview: Destiny 2 players won’t lose Supers at Witch Queen

At their Destiny Showcase last week, Bungie revealed that Destiny 2The old subclasses of Light will receive the Stasis treatment, beginning in The witch queen expansion and will continue through year 5. While players seem to universally prefer the less rigid Stasis upgrade path to the original Light ones, players may have had some concerns about what they might lose in the conversion. But in an interview with Polygon, Destiny 2 Game Director Joe Blackburn and General Manager Justin Truman allayed those fears.

“There are no plans at this time, for us, for the players to lose anything substantial in the conversion,” Blackburn said. “If you’re talking about something like Nova Warp, or if you’re talking about something like Spectral Blades, we want to make sure all of that is there. One of the things that we are really passionate about is when players log in on the first day of The witch queen and they’re exploring Void 3.0, they don’t feel like a lot of things have been taken from them. “

Last year, then-game director Luke Smith, now director of the Destiny franchise at Bungie, told Polygon that players could lose access to certain Supers if Bungie ever decided to convert subclasses. In one example he gave, if the developers refined the identity of the Voidwalker Warlock, they could choose to focus on Nova Bomb Super, which Smith called the “IP definition,” and remove Nova Warp Super, which was first added in Abandoned.

While Smith only posited potential futures, the Destiny community exploded. Fans have spent nearly a year asking the studio not to eliminate the Supers if the time ever comes to switch subclasses. Bungie’s announcement that Void, the item Nova Warp uses, would be the first subclasses to face conversion likely made some players nervous. But Blackburn and Truman say they want gamers to be surprised by the possibilities Void 3.0 offers them, not to be filled with a sense of loss.

Sandbox Discipline Leader Kevin Yanes confirmed on Twitter, when Bungie revealed the first details of Void 3.0, that the studio has no plans to remove Nova Warp specifically. But what Blackburn and Truman told us should apply to all known Supers.

“I would think about this [conversion] much like what you think about the Stasis system, everything, “said Blackburn. “Think, ‘Hey, what does this system look like when there are only multiple Supers to insert into this system as well?'”

Void 3.0 and future subclasses of Light should offer more customization for players, moving them away from the current system where players can choose from a group of four perks. Dawnblade Warlocks currently have to select a very aerial version of the Daybreak Super, or a healing-focused Super called the Well of Radiance. By selecting one or the other, they get a number of perks that work for that style of play and little flexibility. But reworking the subclass will free players from those limitations and at the same time allow them to rebuild those synergistic playstyles.

In speaking with Blackburn and Truman, we offered a hypothetical situation where a Warlock player could create a hypermobile healer setup, combining advantages from both playstyle trees. Blackburn acknowledged that something like this may be possible when Solar 3.0 launches late next year, but also delved into how that highlights improvements to the Stasis system.

By untying the advantages of the Supers, players have a lot more options when it comes to playing. Bungie mentioned on their weekly blog that players can combine a Void Titan ability typically used to kill large groups of enemies, with the more defensive-focused Ward of Dawn Super. Instead of just using the healing-focused tree, players can use a damage-based Super with healing passives, or the other way around. Guardians could combine a sustain advantage like Warlock’s Devour with the mobility of Nova Warp. It opens up a lot of weird combinations, and Truman said he hopes players will create combinations that Bungie doesn’t expect.

But as Bungie mentioned on his blog last week, some things will continue to change with conversion. Familiar and key playstyles like Devour will still be there, and there will also be new perks and abilities for players to use. Definitive is the focus here, but not everything reaches that level of importance. “Some of our tumults in some of these [existing] trees, and some of our liabilities weren’t that exciting, ”Blackburn said. “Some of them are like ‘yeah, okay [to lose], ‘We knew that was a weak point in the tree anyway. ”

Blackburn didn’t offer details, but players who expect every passive and melee in the game to move may be disappointed. Some Supers that are functionally the same, such as multiple Arc Staffs or Fists of Havoc, can also be consolidated and use the Aspect system to differentiate them. Maintaining each playstyle and identity, like the difference between Nova Warp and Nova Bomb, is key, not a one-to-one conversion.

For gamers who might read that and fear that something unimportant to Bungie might be important to them, Blackburn touched on his high-level goals for the project. “It’s really important for us that when you log in on the first day you’re not like, ‘Bungie took a lot from me,’” Blackburn said. “[…] That’s a big non-target for us. “

Blackburn and Truman went on to say that players also won’t need to regain their skills through missions the way players had to earn new Skins and Shards for Stasis each season. And while the duo didn’t announce future additions to the Light or Stasis subclasses, they did say that the new Stasis system allows Bungie to add skills and passives over time, potentially giving players more options depending on the season.

“The sensation of the following year The witch queen Releases are going to be really different from the feel of any previous year that we’ve released in terms of the amount of evolution that they’re going to see, ”Truman said. “Not only because of the weapons meta, but also because of your fundamental abilities. I think it will be a higher bar than we have reached in any previous year. “

Players will have to wait a bit longer for the full breakdown of Void 3.0, and they probably won’t find out about Arc 3.0 or Solar 3.0 until later. The witch queenIt will be released on February 22, 2022. But fans who fear change have a lot more to hope for when it comes to the big underclass conversion.