‘Destiny 2’ Players Hate Edge Of Fate’s ‘New Gear’ Grind Plan

Yesterday, Bungie had a lengthy livestream about The Edge of Fate, Destiny 2’s upcoming expansion that drops in mid-July. But it wasn’t really about The Edge of Fate itself outside of a small preview at the top of the stream. Rather, it was going over the upcoming larger systems changes in the game for what has to be the second or third time by now, making for an odd presentation.

This was, however, probably the most-watched look at the new changes given how many players tuned in, and in at least one area, they’re confused and at least initially seem to hate what they’re hearing about a “New Gear” system the game is getting.

There are two pieces to this, but both revolve around the same concept. “New Gear” (proper noun) will be introduced to the game, similar to the armor and weapons we got every episode/season before this. But it will be used in conjunction with the upcoming gear “Tier” system.

The armor concept seems like the worst of the two. Bungie is instituting a system where you will get a stacking damage-resist bonus over time by using New Gear armor sets and then also getting higher tiers of those new armor sets. In a given stretch of time (I believe six months? Not three months? Not sure if that’s official) if you get a full set of Tier 5 armor, that will equal a significant 15% damage reduction. Lower tiers, still of New Gear armor, will offer less than that. Non-New Gear armor gives you nothing.

The problem becomes that this will then “expire.” There will be new, New Gear armor after 6 (3?) months, and you’ll have to do it again, not only getting Tier 5 New Gear armor, but also playing Jenga with the new stat system that requires a lot more finagling than before to get a good build. It seems to be an attempt to get players to grind armor in a way they haven’t for a while, but it feels more like a penalty than a bonus if you’re not doing it. Some players may downplay the damage reduction as not that big of a deal, but it at least feels bad that you’re grinding out sets that will be fundamentally worse in a few months.

The weapon concept is similar, and while it’s perhaps not as bad, it’s more complicated. I’m pretty sure I’m going to get some of this wrong below because that’s how confusing it is. And if it’s confusing to me, 11-year player of the series, this idea that these new systems are supposed to be more accessible to new players is pretty absurd.

Here, New Gear weapons will have a stacking damage bonus up to 10% depending on the tier of the gear, with Tier 5 getting that full bonus. Again, this seemingly puts everything that is not New Gear at a flat disadvantage.

Some are saying this is similar to surges in the Artifact now that offer temporary bonus damage throughout a season, but the way damage is calculated with stacking and non-stacking formats, it doesn’t seem like it will work out the same. Additionally, surges offer a wider range of options rather than almost exclusively focusing on that season’s gear.

It also creates the situation, as I saw pointed out by u/wandering_caribou yesterday, that you can get a god roll T1-3 weapon that does less damage than a T5 weapon because of this system, but once you end that New Gear period, the lower tier will be better than the higher tier without that stacked damage bonus.

I’m not sure just how impactful all this will feel, but in many ways, perception is reality, and presenting this as a confusing system that mainly seems to be about lengthening a grind with less yearly content now, it’s easy to see why it’s turning off players. A lot of this seems like fixing problems that don’t exist (the recent normal/adept/shiny weapon system has been fine) or poor solutions for problems that do exist (no real reason to ever grind more than a set or two of armor outside of cosmetics).

I am concerned about the new Frontiers era of Destiny 2 in a few ways, but I think this New Gear system is something players are predisposed to hate, and I foresee major changes coming to it in the future once it’s live. Hell, maybe even before.

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