Review
This past week in Destiny was primarily about Iron Banner. I usually try to do all of the weekly bounties on all characters every Iron Banner and this week was no exception. I decided to track my games to see if my impressions of Iron Banner matched my actual experiences or if a couple of outlier experiences were having an outsize effect on my opinions. I tracked my games in a Google Docs spreadsheet, which you can see here.
I played on each character only until all four of the weekly bounties were done. The four bounties this week were Defeats with Zone Advantage, Matches Completed, Ability Final Blows, and Weapon Final Blows. All of my matches were solo queue except for a few matches on PC with two or three friends.
In all, I played 78 IB matches: 27 each on Titan and Hunter, and 24 on Warlock. More than a third of those matches ended in mercies, 11 where my side won and 17 where my side lost. So my impression that mercies are common is correct. On the other hand I only ran into four stacks (defined as a fireteam of four or more), and only two of my matches were Freelance, so 66 out of 70 Xbox matches in the regular playlist did not feature a stack. With respect to the bounties, the Weapon kills took the longest on every character, needing six additional games on Warlock and ten additional games on each of Hunter and Titan after all other bounties were completed.
Overall I enjoyed my IB experience this week, despite losing more than I won (I went 36-42). I had some games where I totally got destroyed as well as some games where I did well. It was not overrun with stacks, and while there were a lot of mercies those games were usually over quickly enough that they did not feel like they dominated the experience.
Preview
This week Solstice of Heroes returns, with the European Ariel Zone (EAZ) activity, with new armor and glows on offer. In addition the Master difficulty for Vault of Glass launches, and there are changes to 120 RPM handcannons, shotguns, and Dead Man’s Tale that will affect how crucible plays. The Grandmaster nightfall is Fallen S.A.B.E.R.
I am most looking forward to the Master-level raid and getting a first look at Timelost weapons. I also plan to spend more time than usual in the crucible trying to understand the weapon changes. I see Solstice of Heroes/the EAZ as an activity to be done over time. My usual weekly Destiny routine this season can be found here.
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