With Season 4: Season of the Outlaw set to end on November 27th, it’s becoming evident that Bungie is prepping to deploy Black Armory. This will be the first content expansion from the Forsaken Annual Pass. The only official time-frame we have is December 2018, and a December 4th release window has been rumored. If true, this places the release of Black Armory a week after the assumed start of Season 5: Season of the Forge.
As I’ve mentioned in my video going over some of the rumors and leaks, it isn’t unheard of for Bungie to release content the week before a release. With how organically the story of Forsaken has unfolded over the past couple months, it makes sense that the week of November 27th might provide context for Black Armory. While we all anticipate next week’s reveal, let’s take a quick look at what we know is coming in Season 5 and Black Armory.
Seasons vs. Annual Pass
To clarify, content marked as part of a season launch is free to all players of Destiny 2: Forsaken without purchasing the annual pass. Let’s start there. Season 5 is titled Season of the Forge. While we still don’t know details on the reasoning for the title, we do know a couple things.
Firstly, machine guns are making a return to Destiny. Originally a heavy weapon option in Destiny 1, machine guns were removed for Destiny 2 as they didn’t fall in line with the power fantasy of a power weapon dealing a large amount of damage in a short amount of time. However, I never really believed that. They were likely removed due to the overcrowding of the year 1 power slot. Either way, they’re back!
As we saw this week, the beloved Destiny 1 exotic Thunderlord was the first to make a return. This time it’s even more spectacular than you remember. The chain lightning perk is much more pronounced. Now it also summons lightning strikes on your enemies for a serious bump in damage and general wow factor.
More machine guns will make their debut in Season 5. They will be free additions thanks to the reward pools for live events like Iron Banner, Faction Rallies, and holiday events. These have been confirmed to continue providing free content to owners of Forsaken.
Thunderlord Exotic Machine Gun
Aside from that, there will be the return of The Dawning, Destiny’s winter event. Likely to debut towards the end of December, the event is sure to bring a slew of new cosmetics. Hopefully, it will also be taking a page from the success of the Festival of the Lost with a fun new activity which rewards real, awesome gear.
Gambit is receiving a pinnacle chase weapon in season 5, similar to those offered in the Crucible. At this time, it is not yet confirmed if ownership of the Annual pass is required.
Such Annual
Now the real question is whether or not the Annual pass is worth it. After all, you can’t purchase the 3 individual DLCs separately. The $30 Annual pass is an all-or-nothing affair that is asking players to invest more money into Destiny purely on faith after the success of Forsaken.
The releases are Black Armory, Joker’s Wild, and Penumbra. These are set to release in December 2018, Spring 2019, and Summer 2019 respectively. Black Armory is tasked with the job of convincing us that the $30 investment was worth it, even though it’s representing a third of the whole package. With what we know so far, and can safely infer about the upcoming content, it seems like it’ll be worth it. Now let’s discuss what do we know about Black Armory.
Black Armory Rundown
The first couple line items from the graphic above are likely tied together. They are “Access to the Black Armory” and “New Forges of the Chain Activity”. The Black Armory itself, being the namesake, seems to be what this expansion will be known for.
What we know is that we will be granted access to a prestigious set of weapons that are among the best created during the golden age of humanity. Rumors suggest that these weapons may feature something a bit more interesting than the potential for good rolls. The main rumors suggest that the weapons feature a unique trait or new element type.
Forges of the Chain is the name of a new activity coming in Black Armory. We have no details on it. However, based on the word “forge”, we may be looking at a wave-based re-playable activity to grind out materials or reputation towards the acquisition of the Black Armory weapons. Personally, something along the lines of a mix between the Escalation Protocol activity and Archon’s Forge from Destiny 1 would be great. I enjoyed the idea of seeing how far you can get in an activity that continuously scales in difficulty.
Escalation Protocol Gear featuring the infamous Ikelos_SG
Finally, the third big ticket item in Black Armory is the first raid lair. Sadly, it seems we’re moving away from the notion that raid lairs are a smaller extension of the primary raid. In year 1, the raid lairs Eater of Worlds and Spire of Stars complemented the main Leviathan raid and continued the narrative. This is mainly based on the leak that the first raid lair will be taking place in the Last City. As awesome as that sounds, it doesn’t discount the idea of it continuing the story of Forsaken’s raid Last Wish.
Aside from that, we have the promise of new legendary and exotic gear. On paper, it sounds like it’ll be well worth the $10 price tag, but it all remains to be seen. Hopefully the reveal stream will reinforce this faith.
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