Destiny 2 fans will finally get some much-needed changes with patch 7.3.5, which is set to release on March 5. During the February 22 This Week in Destiny blog, the PvP notes regarding the teased Crucible changes.
We've detailed changes coming to a fan-favourite dungeon, Prophecy, which is getting a refreshed loot pool with new weapons, an Origin Trait, and more. Now it's time to see what the PvP has to show Destiny 2 fans.
Destiny 2 PvP changes - All 7.3.5 patch notes
The blog is incredibly long and we recommend you check it out on your own if you're interested in the finer details. With that said, let's begin.
Crucible map changes
Already live
- Addressed spawn traps for Altar of Flame, Cauldron, Endless Vale, Midtown, and Meltdown.
Update 7.3.5 on March 5:
- Additional map spawning quality of life pass.
- Addressing spawn traps for Eternity and Fortress.
- Removing all backfield spawns for non-Rift modes: The Citadel, Cathedral of Dusk, Disjunction, and Convergence.This will effectively make these maps play 30-50% smaller than they do currently and reduce the amount of time spent running back to combat after spawning.
- Major tuning of the initial spawning, Heavy ammo crate, and tiebreaker zone locations for all maps.
May update:
Adding three new maps to the Crucible:
- Eventide Labs (Europa)
- Cirrus Plaza (Neomuna)
- Dissonance (Terraformed Pyramid Ship)
Rewards
Already live
- Increased end-of-match rewards, including more Glimmer and higher chances for Enhancement Cores and Crucible Engrams
- Created double rewards boosters for PvP
Competitive
- Added weapon focusing.
- Added a second tier to the Competitive weekly challenge that awards Ascendant Alloys.
- Adding a third tier to the Competitive weekly challenge with a new reward of Artifice Armor. This tier will be unlocked for all players who reach rank Gold III or above each Season. This tier will require match victories instead of completions. Upon completion of the challenge, each victory thereafter will have a chance to drop Artifice Armor, and the drop rates will increase alongside your rank.
- Competitive matches will also have an increased chance to drop Exotic weapon catalysts on victories.
Trials of Osiris
- Added 50% chance to get a Trials weapon on wins. With Update 7.3.5, this will be updated to exclusively drop the weekly weapon reward to better allow for targeted farming of the specific weapon you want.
- Added Flawed card rewards.
Update 7.3.5:
- For Passage of Ferocity, if you have not been Flawless for the week, losses after 3 wins will reset you back to 3 wins instead of Flawing your card.
- With the new Passage of Persistence, losses following a win will remove the win from your card. Consecutive losses do not remove additional wins. Getting to 7 wins grants you a drop of the weekly Adept weapon, regardless of how many losses you have taken.
- This passage works like a trailing backstop. Once you have at least one win recorded on the passage, a loss will remove the most recent win instead of Flawing it. Since consecutive losses will not remove additional wins, winning two games in a row adds a permanent win to the card, and win streaks longer than two add additional permanent wins.
- You can only go Flawless on this passage if you do not have a win removed. Once a win has been removed, you can no longer get Flawless using this passage, but you can still earn a roll of the weekly Adept weapon.
- Adding rewards for match completions by three-person fireteams in Trials. Although you do not need to win to earn these rewards, they are participation-gated, so simply jumping off the map or sitting AFK in spawn will disqualify you from getting them.
- Additional 50% chance to drop the non-Adept Trials weekly weapon reward.
- A 50% chance to get a Trials Engram drop.
- Additional Trials reputation.
Game modes
Already live
- Created Sparrow Control
- Added 3v3 Clash to Crucible Labs
- Updated the Countdown Rush ruleset for Competitive
Update 7.3.5:
- 3v3 Clash will be moving to the 3v3 Quickplay rotator, and we’ll be making these updates to the rules:
- Heavy ammo will no longer be shared.
- Respawn timer increasing from 5 to 7 seconds.
- Match timer increasing to 10 minutes, but the score to win remains 40.
- A new 3v3 king of the hill mode, Collision, will enter Crucible Labs.
- A single, larger zone will rotate between five points around the map on a timer. Capturing and controlling it will earn your team points.
- This mode will also test an alternative Special ammo crate system.
- The Special ammo crate system will feature four shareable Special ammo crates that spawn simultaneously at the beginning of the game or round and then on a timer afterwards.
- Each control zone location (A, B, and C) will have an associated Special ammo crate, and the fourth crate will be in a neutral location.
- Players who currently have Special ammo will drop Special ammo bricks on death.
- Iron Banner Tribute has undergone multiple changes, including:
- Simplifying objectives and scoring, including changing the trigger for the Hunt from depositing max crests to a team score threshold.
- Removing the “wall hacks” on players carrying max crests.
- Cleaning up the user experience by decreasing the distance at which crest icons can be seen. We’re also reworking how quickly the beacons de-spawn and rotate and significantly decreasing the time it takes to interact to dunk crests.
- Reducing the number of turrets that spawn with the Hunt beacon from 4 to 3.
Update 7.3.6:
- Checkmate will be back in Crucible Labs, returning in a form closer to its original iteration
- 30% penalty on ability cooldowns.
- No starting Special ammo.
- Melee damage will not be increased, so it will take 3 base melees to kill.
- Primary weapon optimal times-to-kill will be shifted to allow for a more tactical sandbox, in line with the original goal of Checkmate as a modifier.
A new modifier, Hardware, will be tested in Labs.
- It’s no abilities, only weapons! Grab Special and Heavy ammo from crates located around the map and get to shooting.
The Final Shape
Private matches will have more options for players to set per mode.
- Modifiers such as Mayhem or Scorched will be options in any game mode. Play custom matches with your clanmates and friends or leverage Fireteam Finder.
- Added more custom tuning for existing game modes, so you’ll have better control over things like Special ammo delivery, ability cooldowns, reviving, respawning, and more