Posted by About two weeks ago, Bungie released the gameplay trailer for The Final Shape and shared some information about the upcoming expansion. The three main points of interest are the new enemy faction, the return of exotic class items, and the new Prismatic system.
The best Destiny DLCs always introduce a new enemy faction. The Taken King saved Destiny from its rocky first year, then Rise of Iron kept the game alive with another stellar year’s worth of content (the Fallen Splicers had new models so I’m counting them as a new enemy faction). Then in Destiny 2, Forsaken brought the Scorn, which again saved the game from a rocky first year. Since then, we haven’t gotten any new factions. Sure expansions have introduced new enemies and units, such as Beyond Light bringing Fallen Brigs, The Witch Queen giving us the three Lucent Hive Guardians, and Lightfall introducing Tormentors, but none of those additions are factions. And, if you really want to nitpick, none of the new factions introduced were every actually “new.” The Taken are familiar enemies corrupted from other factions; the Fallen Splicers are a modified version of the Fallen; the Scorn are Fallen corrupted by the Darkness. The Dread is truly the first new and unique faction, and I’m incredibly excited to fight them. The community has been asking for a true “Darkness Faction” because The Witness and its Disciples need an army. Tormentors are cool, but they aren’t enough. The Dread, however, are more than enough. Judging by the promotional image on The Final Shape Bungie.net page, we get six brand new enemy types, and Tormentors finally get the rest of their faction. From what we’ve seen in the trailer, the Dread look like they have some unique gimmicks, so I’m very excited to see what they’re like.
The return of exotic class items is an interesting choice. Back in Destiny, exotic class items were basically just cosmetics. They were tied to faction reputation and you could wear them with a second exotic armor piece equipped. They didn’t do much. The new exotic class items in Destiny 2 are a major upgrade that are going to transform buildcrafting because they allow you to combine two exotic perks into one. For example, Liar’s Handshake and Assassin’s Cowl are both potent Hunter exotics used for similar but different Arc builds. With the new exotic class items, players can combine weakened effects from both of those exotics and use them at the same time. I’m very excited to mess around with these new class items and see just what kinds of builds we can make.
Finally, The Final Shape introduces a final subclass: Prismatic. Prismatic combines elements of all five other subclasses into a new system. For example, as a Warlock I can now throw out a Coldsnap Grenade to freeze a group of enemies and then pop my class ability to send out some Threadings to blow them up. I’m really curious to see what kind of crazy builds I’ll be able to make. I’m already thinking about how I can maximize grenades, aspects, and exotics to create a Warlock summoner power fantasy. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to mix and match every single ability in the game; we have a curated list of abilities to choose from. While I know that Bungie has already released this list of what each class gets for Prismatic, as well as what exotic perks can be mixed together on the class items, I’m not going to take the time to break it all down, especially because we don’t know how it’s going to behave. The community is already beginning to theorycraft the best builds, and write off some entirely, but I don’t see a point in doing this until the Prismatic system is actually in the game. I also tend to disagree with some of the community’s beliefs when it comes to builds (for example, the community largely believes that Arc and Strand Warlock are some of the weakest builds but I would make the reverse argument saying my Arc and Strand builds are some of my strongest). Prismatic and the new exotic class items marks an interesting, and logical, shift in the game’s evolving sandbox. When Destiny 2 first released, subclasses had set skill trees. Beyond Light brought Stasis, and with it came a new subclass system where you could mix and match powerful abilities unique to each subclass. The three Light subclasses saw similar overhauls. Now, we’re taking the mix and match system, but throwing select skills from every subclass together into one big pool. I know that it’s gonna result in some interesting builds, and I can’t wait to try making some myself.
Overall, I was never particularly hyped for The Final Shape. I knew it was the last big expansion, but nothing about it grabbed me like previous expansions and the new systems they offered. The gameplay reveal changed all of that. I’m incredibly excited for the new levels of freedom and variety that The Final Shape is going to make possible.
Broad Scope Entertainment 