As part of their latest Weekly Update, Bungie uploaded the full Twitch stream of the Destiny: The Taken King’s Dreadnaught Strike, which was recorded earlier this week. “Join Bungie for a Strike against a rival Cabal invasion force inside The Taken King’s stronghold,” the description reads.
Continuing their look at The Taken King and all its content, Bungie talked about the endgame activities that unlock after completing the new story campaign, which is where “Strikes get even more challenging.”
First up, Creative Director Luke Smith recapped how they want Strikes to move forward in Year 2 of Destiny:
- Strike replayability is augmented by variability.
- Bosses with more interested combat phases and less vitality.
- Strike-specific rewards: E.g., Armor drops that look like trophies from the Strike boss; E.g., weapons that only drop from certain Strikes
As for the Nightfall Strike, Bungie wants it to be an experience where you get together with your friends every week and optimize for gear. So, for The Taken King, they now require Level 40, wiping no longer returns Fireteams to Orbit, and there’s now a 30 second time-out penalty for Death (same as Raid Normal).
Smith adds:
Burn skulls motivate weapon rotation and now the Burn resist talents found on chest pieces will rotate armor.
The death penalty of being kicked to orbit often leads to players feeling forced to play too safe, rather than running through the world as a monster killing machine.
Another thing we didn’t like about the Year 1 Nightfall was how players could feel forced to play Nightfall as early as possible in the week to maximize the benefit from the Nightfall buff. So, we’ve shelved that buff until we can reform it into something closer to its original intent – a mark of prestige for having achieved something challenging. We’ve adjusted sources of XP and Reputation up to account for its absence.
There’s also some changes coming to Weekly Heroic Strikes, including the fact that it now requires Level 40, while a dedicated Strike will be replaced by a new playlist: the Vanguard Heroic Playlist. Additionally, accounts receive Legendary Marks for completing the first three Weekly Strikes , the Weekly Cap on Legendary Marks has been removed, a Legendary Engram drop is guaranteed from a character’s first clear of a Weekly Heroic Strike, and Legendary Marks are received at the Account level rather than the character level.
Looking at the Weekly PvP Ritual, once you complete the PvP Intro chain on Lord Shaxx, you’ll receive access to the Weekly PvP quests on Lord Shaxx and the PvP Quartermaster. “Each week, Lord Shaxx has a Bounty called ‘The True Meaning of War’,” Smith adds. “Completing this Bounty each week (which requires completing the PVP weeklies) grants players Nightfall tier rewards.”
Finally, to reduce the grind of the Daily Heroic and Daily PvP for players with multiple characters, Bungie “increased their rewards and made them an account completion. We want players to choose which characters they want to play on and earn Legendary Marks on.”
[Source: Bungie]
