Destiny 2 is slowly getting into the hot phase until the new DLC “Lightfall” is released. We therefore met with Bungie for an interview in order to be able to give you a few special insights into the new super ability “Strung” in advance.
Where does the information come from? Bungie has conducted an interview with many editorial media outlets, including MeinMMO. The focus here was on Strang, the new ability in Destiny 2: Lightfall. Our interviewees were longtime Combat System Design Lead, Kevin Yanes, and Eric Smith, Gameplay Feature Lead.
We have asked many interesting questions for you.
Since the interview was very extensive, we decided to split it into several parts. So stay tuned to see what we were able to elicit from the Bungie developers over the next few days.
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What do the developers say? With the DLC “Beyond Light” (Beyond Light) a class of darkness was already implemented. At that time, however, players had to laboriously unlock them in order to be able to exploit the full potential of the Super after a tough grind. This should be simplified in 2023 with Lightfall in relation to strand. Eric Smith says:
[…] Strang is unlocked by beating the campaign, and you’ll know as you continue playing that you can unlock more subclass kit items. One thing we want to avoid is making it too grindy when trying to unlock your entire class.
So it should be easier to unlock the full strand ult to enjoy the full potential of your new element. Kevin Yanes adds:
[…] We did a lot of “Born in Darkness” [der damaligen, langwierigen Stasis-Quest] learned. There are definitely some cool things about Born in Darkness, like a meaningful journey to a permanent upgrade. But the grind there was way too big, especially for new players who came in and couldn’t see the new stuff. […] From there we created something of a “take a gift type system” where you can tackle things however you want and want to earn.
You can then decide for yourself at what speed and above all what you want to unlock. So you won’t be forced to shoot green crystals in Neomuna with a new Exo like was the case in Beyond Light.
There will also be no quests like “Go to location X and kill Y enemies”. Bungie wants to say that it shouldn’t feel too grindy or be too complicated and annoying.
However, Strang will keep you busy for a while: As Bungie has revealed to us, Strang will also evolve seasonally throughout the expansion year, similar to Stasis.
The plan for this was to bring more strand aspects into play throughout all seasons of Lightfall. So by the end of the DLC year you will have a fairly complete subclass kit that will be able to match your existing powers. And you’ll likely discover a playstyle in it that’s not currently available to you. With Strang you should “feel like a god”.
Of course, the feel of the game itself is particularly interesting. So the question was whether there will be synergy mechanisms in Strang again that players can use? And here Bungie gave us a glimpse of the so-called “skeins” you can expect with Strang.
[…] Any opponent who gets through a [Strang]-Strand has been weakened will turn into a tangle when killed. A skein is a sort of swirling, fleeting bundle of strands. So after weakening an enemy with a melee attack or with certain grenades, you can turn them into a tangle. Pick up the ball and you can throw the opponent like a bomb. Or you can shoot the tangle where it is. Holding on to a tangle doesn’t cost you any grapple or grenade energy, so you can use the tangles to set up ‘Grab Arenas’.
Explains Eric Smith
There will be various aspects to this, exotic armor that will change tangles in many ways. So, the core paraphrase of Strang will revolve around binds, weaknesses, and dynamic gameplay.
And starting with Lightfall, Bungie lets you choose, as Eric Smith notes: “Use your instinct to just say, oh, I’m going to change paths. I’m going to change the way I attack this encounter because I see a tangle there. […] If I can change everything in a dynamic way, I think I’ll be able to maximize my effect.”
Kevin Yanes specifically notes, “Things like grabbing a ball of yarn, throwing it, and grabbing it, seeing said ball of yarn, and going after it with a grab swipe is something you can’t do with any other subclass. But when you string these actions together, you feel like a god.”
A question that many players have already asked with great concern is: “How will Strang behave in PvP?.”
When Stasis was released with Beyond Light, the new ability was not only very powerful in PvE, but also in PvP. Players were able to crush enemies in the blink of an eye with Glacial Grenade and its fragmentation. Also, the amount of time you were frozen was just too long.
So it wasn’t just raining shards, but also a lot of criticism, since the melting pot was in an almost unacceptable state.
Will Strang be as annoying as Stasis in PvP? Bungie wants to reassure players about these concerns. Strang isn’t meant to be as dominant and annoying in PvP as Stasis was back then. Eric Smith explains:
Yes, I think you know that Stasis was delivered with a 5 second stun in PvP […] It’s like you’re frozen and can’t really fight back. We wanted that hard crowd control [CC] avoid and this time give you a chance to fight back. […] If you get caught by Strang in PvP and are bound, you still have some movement control. You can still defend yourself with shooting and hip fire. So you won’t feel so helpless when you [Strang]-Debuff getting caught.
Nevertheless, with all the preparation, it will always be a balancing act. Above all, the Bungie team will only notice with the release of “Strang” where there may still be sticking points that may need to be repaired.
Stasis is a very strong crowd control ultimate, and Strang aims to head in that direction as well, just with a smoother nature and better entry experiences.
What did Bungie challenge on strand? However, the development behind Strang was not characterized by lightness either. When asked which aspect of Strand the developers found most difficult to implement, Bungie named two new Strand features:
For swinging, it was mostly about how players can use this feature of the strand grappling hook outside of the new Neomuna destination.
That sounds a lot like Destiny 2 going much faster from Lightfall onwards. Strang will probably give you a new kind of mobility and thus more freedom, which can also take you to the virtual afterlife if you go too fast.
The second and more interesting issue is how the new talent “Bind” behaves in PvE and PvP.
In PvE, Wardens can use Strange to easily ‘hang’ other enemies like Cabal, Vex, and Fallen in place. While that’s fun in PvE, it’s different in PvP because it makes you helpless.
Even with stasis, complete helplessness was a shortcoming that many Guardians despised. With Strang, however, Bungie wants to avoid exactly that and has now created something that behaves differently in PvP. Rather, you will suffer a debuff that will allow you to hang around swinging in the air, but will not be completely at the mercy of the hail of bullets.
We’ll probably only find out exactly how Bungie has thought this out when Lightfall sees the light of day. Until then, what do you think of the above insights that Bungie shared about Strang? Are you excited to see how Strang will behave? And what serious question would you like to ask Bungie? Please leave us a comment!
New Exo in Destiny 2: Lightfall will bring a smart Stasis ability to every class soon