This week, two Destiny 2 employees from the weapon design team sat down for an interview with podcaster Destiny Massive Breakdowns. MeinMMO summarizes the most interesting topics from the podcast for you and reveals how Bungie thinks about the weapons of the Black Armory.
Who are the Bungie experts in the interview? The podcast was led by Bungie’s senior design lead Chris Proctor and game designer Vivian Becks.
Chris Proctor is Senior Weapons Lead at Bungie and has been responsible for the design of the core combat systems for years. Vivian Becks works at Bungie primarily on weapon designs for exotic and legendary weapons, as well as perks and balance changes. For example, she created the enormously powerful, legendary perks “Voltage Shot”, “Incandescent” or “Repulsor Boost” for players in Destiny 2, as well as the exotic weapons “Heart Shadow” and “Tender Grave”.
Together, the two Bungie employees answered questions from Destiny Massive Breakdowns as well as a few questions from the community.
These 4 strong topics were addressed in the podcast:
In this article, MeinMMO summarizes the most important topics of entertainment for you. You can listen to the full interview directly on the Massive Breakdowns website.
Stronger fusion of weapons and abilities
One theme of the podcast was the merging of weapons and abilities. Some players in Destiny 2 feel that fewer skills would benefit the game. Especially in the Crucible.
But Vivian Becks sees it differently. She says, “We’ve always wanted weapons and abilities to merge into one cohesive whole.”
In order for this to succeed, there is the 3.0 skills system. For Bungie, the 3.0 skill system aims to completely change the way weapons and skills interact with each other for the better. Balance is always the priority.
Vivian Becks explains that this also means that weapon perks that use 3.0 verbs are largely “one and the same” as abilities. The only difference is that the duration of a verb’s effect can be adjusted more individually to balance weapon perks.
Bungie especially likes the elemental perks, which help them characterize a weapon’s damage type. They should also show the players “which modifiers and shields each weapon is really good for” and encourage you to use them instead of just using your skills.
As a result, Bungie believes that if a player knows what a particular ability verb, such as weaken, suppress, or buff, does in their abilities, they expect the same behavior from their corresponding weapon perk, and thus take advantage of it. Shooting should remain a more viable option.
With Witch-Queen, Bungie introduced weapon crafting for the first time and showed where the journey for the loot shooter is going from 2022:
Everything you need to know about Destiny 2: The Witch Queen in 2 minutes
Lightfall will not have craftable raid weapons
Bungie recently announced that they want to take a look at the master or adept weapons again and revise them if necessary. Legendary raid weapons can be built with improved perks and are simply better. Chris Proctor has now dealt with this problem in more detail.
He says, “The main issue is the tension between craftable raid weapons and master versions of the same weapons.” Bungie’s goal is to make master weapons from Trials of Osiris or Vanguard Dawns “extra sharp.”
Chris Proctor mentions that the guardians from the Lightfall Raid can acquire master weapons with improved perks. However, these raid weapons can then no longer be crafted.
However, he also mentions that there should be a kind of “chasing” instead and promises more details on this in future update information.
Master weapons were only planned as “Cosmetics”: For players, the master weapons in Destiny 2 are primarily associated with a lot of prestige. Craftable weapons can hardly keep up with that at the moment.
The reasons for this are clear:
Chris Proctor says in the podcast that the master weapons weren’t originally supposed to offer that much prestige and benefits in Destiny 2. They were initially only intended as a cosmetic variant of the base weapon. Not more.
It was only later that Bungie decided to add small improvements, thinking it wouldn’t make much of a difference. However, the Destiny 2 community was far more interested in master weapons than Bungie expected.
So it is understandable that players would like master weapons to become more viable again compared to craftable weapons.
Should you disable Enhanced Perks when crafting? Destiny Massive Breakdowns therefore asks Proctor whether it would make sense for Bungie to remove the improved perks of the craftable weapons. Eventually, this would ensure that master weapons are the only weapons that receive enhanced traits, giving them more room to breathe.
However, Chris Proctor says, “Improved traits are at the heart of the crafting system and provide an incentive to use the system. There is definitely a power surge in the crafting system. 5-10% in the outliers, which we agree with. Ultimately, this isn’t all that different from master weapons, which are “2-5%” stronger than the normal versions.
Bungie’s long-term goal is therefore to overhaul the weapon mod system, and Chris Proctor is likely willing to accept “the small amount of power creep that master weapons with enhanced perks present”.
Destiny 2 will have more craftable Exotics
Most notably, the crafting system puts customization entirely in the hands of the players. The craftable Witch Queen Exo Osteo Striga (submachine gun) was a particular highlight here.
Vivian Beck wants to continue to be unique in her work at Bungie Exotics as the sandbox evolves. It is also mentioned here that exotic weapons are the most expensive content that designers make in Destiny 2. Bungie needs half a season for this, i.e. 1.5 months. In comparison, a legendary perk is already ready after a few days to a week.
Still, exotics, especially when they’re craftable, are something players want. Even if the Witch Queen Exo “Osteo Striga” was not as free in the craftable version as the legendary weapons.
Chris Proctor says that when we started Beyond Light, the team’s goal was to get players investing in their weapons through a hunt and/or customizing an Exotics to suit their playstyle. The Hawkmoon exotic handgun was a trial run for random rolls. However, he doubts that Bungie will produce more randomly rolled exotic items in the future. But they definitely want to bring more craftable exotics into play.
Are Black Armory weapons making a comeback? At the end of the interview, Chris Proctor lets the eyes of the players shine, who have been hoping for a return of the weapons from the Black Armory for a long time. The excellent shooting irons once fell victim to the sunsetting and have not yet found their way back into the game.
When Destiny Massive Breakdowns addresses the return of certain weapon groups that could also be given heritage traits, Proctor specifically addresses the Black Armory.
The reintroduction of weapon sets depends on the story beats with a specific character. The moment there’s a Black Armory story beat or an Ada story beat, you can expect the Black Armory weapons to come back as well, or if there’s a really strong 14 Saints beat… or Rasputin.
says Chris Proctor in an interview with Destiny Massive Breakdowns
They want to “start doing this type of content every season or every other season… old raid weapons, maybe dungeon weapons, maybe other sources.” However, as already announced in the last “This Week at Bungie” blog, the weapons from the Deep Stone Crypt are now at the top of the update list.
What do you think of the details from the podcast interview? Do you think master weapons should be worth more than craftable weapons in Destiny 2? Please leave a comment about what you personally prefer.