Bungie dropped a big gameplay reveal for Destiny 2: The Final Shape today, loudly declaring that the MMO's next expansion is going to take a sledgehammer to every single build currently available with wild combinations of new and existing abilities.
The Final Shape is adding a new subclass after all, but it also sort of isn't. The new Prismatic subclass is a mix of Light and Dark, letting players combine abilities from all five bespoke subclasses in their own way. Melee, grenade, class, and Super abilities from the three Light classes and two Dark classes are all up for grabs, with Prismatic packing a new Transcendence bar, fueled by dealing Light and Dark damage, that grants a stackable weapon damage bonus and instantly refreshes your abilities to use special grenades that combine two different elements for each class
Bungie describes Prismatic as an "advanced" subclass with more Fragments, more Fragment slots, and much wider buildcrafting potential. It's hard to imagine ever using anything else, but we may see some buffs to mono subclasses to compensate. It seems that only select abilities will be available via Prismatic, but folks, we saw an Arc Warlock using Strand melees, Stasis turrets, and triggering Void Devour – the possibilities look endless, and that's somehow only the beginning.
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Years after the original Destiny, Destiny 2 is also reintroducing Exotic class items, but in a frankly terrifying new way. With The Final Shape, players can chase randomly rolled Exotic class items that, for the first time, combine two Exotic armor perks into one slot. The kicker is that the Exotic perks you roll don't even have to come from armor available to your class. We saw a Hunter using a cloak featuring the Exotic perk of the Titan Exotic Synthoceps, for instance. Here, too, the possibility matrix is almost scary. The catch is that these duo Exotics are explicitly tied to Prismatic, which only makes the subclass more appealing.
Here's a snippet of concept art, apparently cooked up ages ago but only shared during today's reveal, that encapsulates the Light-on-Dark hybrid theme:
The blueprint is clear: all our existing powers, plus the all-new Exotics and Light kits in The Final Shape, reworked into absurd new custom loadouts. It's the kind of thing that Destiny players have fantasized about for years, and even Bungie reckons "it feels a little game-breaking."
"We want it to feel a little broken," one dev says of the new Exotic class items. That sounds about right, based on the combos shown today.
It sounds like we'll need these powers to take on the enemies coming in The Final Shape. Answering another major player request, the expansion is adding a proper new enemy race called the Dread, with last year's Tormentors apparently serving as the first taste. There are warriors like the Subjugator, flying enemies with proper wings, and Strand-equipped weavers packing crowd control that I'm already raging at. There's also a bat with a gun called the Grim, otherwise known as the "Gunbat." Great.
It's a lot to take in, and it all seems incredibly cool. The sheer volume of possibilities is catnip to hardcore buildcrafters, and the allure of the perfect Exotic subclass sounds like a potent RNG carrot to chase. There's been some understandable trepidation in the Destiny 2 community since Lightfall, but this reveal has certainly brought a lot of excitement to The Final Shape's lead-up. Onward to June 4.
For now, the new Onslaught mode is out with today's Into the Light update, and it also seems mighty promising.
