Destiny 2 will stop making you get new armour every season to use new mods
And we'll get to change elemental affinity, for a cost
Some much-needed changes are coming to Destiny 2's 'Armour 2.0' gear system next season to reduce grind, most notably (to me) opening up the seasonal mod slots to also accept armour mods from the previous season and the next. This means you won't need to replace your gear every season if you want to use the new mods. As someone who plays too much damn Destiny but still doesn't have outfits with stats as good as much of my gear from last season, I welcome this change. We'll also become able to change the elemental affinity of armour pieces to use other elemental mods, though at a cost.
'Armour 2.0' hit Destiny with the launch of Shadowkeep in October. Unlike than the old system, where armour dropped with a random small choice of perks, Armour 2.0 lets Guardians pick and choose unlocked mods from a big long list. It also lets us change the look of armour pieces with ornaments (a step below transmogrification). But it tied mods to different elemental affinities, so for example spacetrousers which dropped with Void affinity can only equip Void-affiliated mods - meaning no Shotgun Scavenger, no Submachinegun Dexerity, and so on. It also moved the new mods added in each season, including from Seasonal Artifacts, to their own slot only accepting mods from that season. And armour got random stat rolls too, meaning loads is inherently garbage.
Altogether, this means a whole lot of grinding if you want to kit yourself out with all the gear you want to suit every role. If you the right stats and armour mods for your current weapon and skill build, you're looking at stockpiling at least three full sets of gear - and then in a few months you'll need to start over again for the next seasonal set. I am very glad Bungie are changing this.
"You'll soon be able to change the Elemental Affinity on any piece of armor to either of the other two Affinity types directly from the item's inspection screen by hovering your cursor over the armor's energy icon, Bungie revealed last night. "This is intended to mitigate the experience of getting an armor drop with a stat roll you want, but the wrong Elemental Affinity."
They clearly don't intend for this to be an easy hotswap, mod. It'll cost you one Upgrade Module plus, if your armour is upgraded at all, all the upgrade materials it took to reach its current level. That would be ridiculously expensive for Exotic items in particular. I'll be glad for the option to change elements (starting to feel I'll never get a Celestial Nighthawk in Void) but the cost seems excessive.
"We also received a lot of suggestions on how to improve Seasonal mods," Bungie continued. "Starting next Season, the Seasonal armour mod socket (e.g. Undying Mods, Dawn Mods) will also be able to use mods released during the Seasons before and after the armour piece was released."
That's great. Not as great as just making Seasonal slots accept any mod would be, but far better than the current system. While I'll still need to get new gear eventually to use the latest mods, I won't need to do it every season.
I still don't have great stat and elemental rolls on my Season Of Dawn armour, so I'm still often using some Season Of Undying and Shadowkeep gear. I've not really explored Dawn's Seasonal mods much because they're tied to such a faff I can't be bothered (beyond using Powerful Friends for the bonus 20 mobility like the bouncy little Hunter I am). I've not really touched the 'Charged With Light' system either because of this. Maybe next season, eh?
Still on my Destiny armour system wishlist: turning all old armour sets into ornaments, not just a select few; giving Exotic armour a Seasonal mod slot; letting me select any shader I have unlocked, not just from the handful in my inventory. Pretty please, Bungie.
Oh, also, hotfix 2.7.2.2 launched last night to fix the bug allowing infinite Dawnblade supers. Thankfully, this patch didn't steal characters' cash and necessitate another rollback.
As the Season Of Dawn starts rolling towards its conclusion, the Crimson Days PvP event is live this week and Iron Banner will return one last time on Tuesday the 18th. Remember to cash in Polarized Fractaline for Timelost Weapons - it's a real easy way to get good rolls. The communal donation effort has hit stage 5 of 7, and it's looking like this will probably fuel the return of Trials next season.