Posted by I have a lot experience with Crota’s End back in Destiny. Even though it was short, easy, and the DLC it came in wasn’t great, Crota’s End allowed me to meet people who I am still friends with to this day. It’s also the raid that allowed us to get the Flawless Raider achievement since the raid was so easy, and buggy (i.e. the bridge). That being said, I’ve been hoping that Bungie would revamp it as a dungeon in Destiny 2, but I suppose them adding it in as a full fledged raid is good enough.
By and large, I’m impressed with Bungie’s revamped Crota’s End. I think that it expands a lot upon the initial raid from The Dark Below and really makes it feel like a raid. I’m not going to break down how to beat the raid because this isn’t meant to be a guide, but more of a review, reflection, and comparison of the raid with its predecessor in Destiny.
The reprised Crota’s End differs quite a bit from the original, even from the beginning. In the original raid, players entered the raid proper by standing on a plate until a bride built. Now, players are met immediately with the new mechanic that runs throughout the raid: the chalice of light and enlightened buff. I wasn’t initially sure what to think of this new mechanic when I first watched streamers struggle through contest mode during the first 48 hours. My friends and I waited until contest mode was disabled, and we finished the raid in about 3.5 hours this afternoon, and after having played through the raid myself, I don’t mind this new mechanic. I think that the new mechanic adds some nice complexity that was lacking in the original raid.
The Abyss: The first encountered received a rather large rework. Instead of just running through the abyss from lantern to lantern avoiding thralls and pits, players must now pass around the chalice of light and use their enlightened buffs to activate lamps while occasionally depositing the chalice so that they can activate the lamps. Oh and now there are a ton of pendulums swinging around that can easily kill you or knock you into a pit. I don’t mind the changes, but this section easily took my friends and me the longest time out of any of the other encounters. The original abyss was very straightforward. The new one one, not so much. On the one hand, some of the new mechanics and designs (mainly the pendulums towards the end) are a little annoying and basically mean that you can’t leave a dead man behind or else the revive timer will expire and wipe the fireteam. Oh and there’s also a wipe timer constantly ticking down, which truth be told, was rarely actually an issue once we got into the swing of things. The changes do ultimately make the encounter more engaging, so while it does act as anti-cheese mechanic that forces players to slow down, I don’t mind it.
The Bridge: The second encounter is largely unchanged. The biggest changes are that players need to be enlightened before they can use the sword, and now the player with the chalice can also cross the bridge. I don’t have a whole lot to say about the bridge because it’s effectively the same encounter with a few adjustments here and there. My biggest complaint is that it does feature a strange addition in triggering the final wave of gatekeepers after the whole team has made it across. I don’t know why you have to expunge on two wizards (basically using your enlightened buff to kill them instantly) to trigger ogres to spawn that then trigger the next wave of gatekeepers, but it’s such a minor step that it seems like more of a nitpick than anything else.
Ir Yût: The third encounter received the largest change. Instead of just rushing to kill all of the enemies in the room, then Ir Yût while a timer ticks down, the Deathsinger is now a proper boss fight that requires players to use the enlightened buff to enter rooms and kill wizards that lower her shields. I really like the changes to Ir Yût. She really feels like a boss fight now, and a pretty fun one at that. I also really appreciate how her encounter uses new areas in the arena that were previously unused.
Crota: The final boss of the raid is similar to his Destiny iteration, but like father like son. Now instead of damaging Crota’s shield with weapons (usually rockets) and killing him with a sword, players must break his shield with a sword, then kill him with weapons. I don’t mind the change. I think that it makes the fight more engaging for all players. There are a few other changes, such as how the Presence of Crota debuff now prevents you from passing the chalice of light to other players aside from in a designated area, and the Oversoul is tied to the duration of the damage phase. Crota is also incredibly deadly, even on normal mode. My friends and I opted to use Legend of Acrius, and our final kill against Crota was a trade where we killed him, but he also killed all of us. Overall, Crota is definitely deserving of his title of Raid Boss now.
The Loot: First and foremost, I am very happy that Nechrochasm is back as a quest exotic. I have suffered immensely in the past with RNG exotics (it took me around 56 clears of Deep Stone Crypt before I got Eyes of Tomorrow), so I’m happy that Necochasm isn’t completely painful to attain. As for the rest of the weapons, I’m fine with them all. I do think it’s a little strange to not bring back Hunger of Crota (the rocket launcher) or Black Hammer (the sniper rifle), but there are so many strong rocket launchers in the game at the moment and snipers haven’t been super useful in some time now, so I don’t care too much. As for Light of the Abyss, there are so many strong fusion rifles in the game that I doubt it would have differentiated itself much from them. That being said, I am very happy that the Swordbreaker shotgun is back. I really enjoyed that one in Destiny. The guaranteed red border weapon chest is also very easy to activate, so that’s always a positive. Finally, I have a mixed opinion on the armor. I don’t mind the fact that the Destiny Year 3 Moments of Triumph glow ornaments are the ones brought back, but it frustrates me that I can’t use the original armor without a glow. I may be in the minority for thinking that, but my rationale is that the Warlock hemet is my favorite helmet in Destiny history and I prefer the original version, not the glow version, so it sucks that I can’t run the original and make my character look like the Witch King of Angmar from the Peter Jackson LOTR movies.
In the end, I think that Bungie did a good job with Crota’s End in Destiny 2. It really feels like a fully fleshed out raid, and it’s a lot of fun. I look forward to running it with my friends in the weeks to come as we grind out our Nechrochasms. Season of the Witch continues to impress me, and I look forward to what the rest of this season brings.
Broad Scope Entertainment 