Destiny‘s two big multiplayer events, Trials of Osiris and the Iron Banner, are coming back in a little more than a week. The first year-two Iron Banner will begin on October 13th, with Trials of Osiris kicking off later that week on the 16th.
In this week’s update to the company blog, Bungie’s PvP designers have laid out how both events will change for Destiny‘s second year. First up is Iron Banner, the week-long competition that turns up every month or so and allows players to fight against each other with the Crucible’s usual number-filing removed.
Per Bungie, here’s what’s changing with the new Iron Banner:
- The tempered buff is now automatically applied and continues to grow in effectiveness each day of the event.
- The alt catch-up buff and Iron Medallion mechanics are unchanged.
- Potential match completion rewards now include both weapons and armour, matching the same items available from Lord Saladin during each event.
- Drop rates have been increased and are intended to be the primary source of rewards from Iron Banner. If you don’t get what you’re hoping for, you have the option to visit Lord Saladin instead.
- Gear purchased from Lord Saladin now requires Legendary Marks instead of Glimmer.
- New emblems have been added to his inventory.
- All new bounties including 9 Daily bounties (3 per day) and 3 new Weekly bounties which reward Legendary Marks.
- Recommended minimum Light for Iron Banner: 230.
- Only Level 40 Guardians can lead a Fireteam.
I’m happy to hear about the automatic tempered buff, because I would constantly forget to get it at the start of a day and then remember too late. As for the changes to Saladin’s inventory — the drop rates for gear will hopefully be significantly higher than they were in year one, because it will be tough to earn enough legendary marks in a week to buy everything I might want across three characters. (I hope Saladin has the new Trials sidearm. That thing seems like a beast.)
As for the 230 light minimum, I have no clue how balancing will work with the new light system. Bungie says they’re “adjusting the damage curves to work with the new measurement systems.” We’ll see.
Iron Banner will also be the first major test of Destiny‘s re-tuned matchmaking system. As fun as it can be, Iron Banner has historically been a bit of a lag-ridden shitshow; given how odd year-two PvP matchmaking has seemed and how prevalent annoying red-bar lag has continued to be, I’m not optimistic that will change. I’d love to be pleasantly surprised, though.
Meanwhile, Trials of Osiris will be back that same week. (Fuck yes.) It will start up on the 16th and is also getting some changes. Per Bungie:
- Trials gear will now drop exclusively as end-of-match rewards for winning teams.
- The more you win, the better those drops will be!
- There’s no need to return to Brother Vance, all rewards come directly to you.
- Passage Coins still drop for the losing team. Trials is still about winning, but Coins can help make that easier.
- Trials Passages now have a Details page containing your active buffs.
- You won’t be able to add buffs once you’ve started your Trial, so make sure you buy them first!
- Players that go undefeated on their Passage will continue to be invited to The Lighthouse.
- Players may continue to play in the Trials past 9 wins (but they won’t get any better gear).
- Brother Vance now has Trials Bounties available each weekend to provide players with a way to get sweet Trials gear, even if they’re not reaching the Lighthouse.
- Regular Crucible Bounties are also still valid in Trials.
- We will attempt to match up teams with similar win counts. If you have 1 win, we will try to match you with another team with only 1 win. If you have 8 wins… yup.
- If we can’t find a high-quality match, we will loosen the win requirements first (in other words, we will not prioritise “wins” over low-latency matches).
- Overtime timer in Elimination will now show 0:00 instead of stopping at 0:01 when time expires.
- Teammate and enemy Revives now have distinct audio cues.
- Recommended minimum Light for Trials of Osiris: 290.
- Only Guardians with at least 251 Light can lead a Fireteam.
That change to the way you get Trials gear is a big one — I presume that means that you won’t be gunning for that six-win package, or the seven-win weapon. Taken King director Luke Smith already alluded to the matchmaking change when Jason and I interviewed him last week, and it seems like a good one. Elite teams will mostly be throwing down against one another, so ordinary mortals should have a better chance of being paired against other mortals. As for the 290 light recommendation… same thing as Iron Banner. We’ll find out how it works soon enough.
I’m looking forward to both events, and have gotten my Titan into a pretty good place for PvP. My Red Death and my flame-hammers are ready. See y’all in a little more than a week.
Comments
9 responses to “Destiny’s Iron Banner And Trials Of Osiris Are Getting Some Changes”
Ah, I can’t wait to head back to the lighthouse… or try to.
Keen to try some pvp that matters in this patch.
I haven’t actually found high light weapons to replace my staples yet. So it will be interesting.
Why doesn’t Bungie fix the lag issue? They are always trying to promote players to play more Crucible (Iron Banner, Quests) but the lag is so bad that it is unplayable. They really need to fix the lag and people who abuse lag (by forming fireteams with players far away) before they promote Crucible events.
Does it seem like scout rifles are super OP at the moment compared to hand cannons and auto rifles also?
Really? I love scouts in PvE but never used it in the Crucible. I’m still rocking my Hopscotch…
Not that I’ve noticed. I rock a handcannon still, and can still dominate a scout. Its all range now, scout rifle will kill me over a distance, but when i get close enough the handcannon usually wins out
That sweet solaire helm will be mine! praise the sun! \[T]/
Some decent changes, only one i’m not realy keen on is the legendary marks instead of glimmer for iron banner rewards. Have way better things to be spending my marks on, so hopefully i’ll get what I need as a drop instead!
Still a bit dark about trials, put so much time into getting all that gear that is now obsolete, I dunno if I want to go through that again! The challenge was fun, but the frustration was real lol