As part of an unscheduled maintenance, Bungie has now disabled the artifact power in the PvP pinnacle activities Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner with update 2.8.0.1 for Destiny 2. What does this mean exactly and what effects will it have for the players? What does this step mean?
This is what happened with the recent update: On the evening of March 19, Destiny 2 received a new update on all platforms – the Hotfix 2.8.0.1.
The patch contained only 2 changes, but one of them will likely have a noticeable impact on how the Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner will play. Bungie has disabled the artifact power in these two pinnacle PvP activities.
What does this mean in concrete terms? In detail, this means that the additional bonus power levels that can be earned through the artifact will no longer have any effect in the Trials and the Iron Banner.
From now on, the regular power level of the players achieved without the Season 10 artifact will apply there. The artifact power will no longer contribute to the total power of your Guardians in these activities.
What does this step mean for the players? Many have hoped for and awaited this. Bungie is responding to loud criticism from the community and with this step, they are ensuring more fairness in the Trials and Iron Banner from now on.
In contrast to the other Crucible modes, power level advantages are active there – meaning players with a higher power level deal more damage against Guardians with a lower power level and take less damage from weaker players.
However, with the additional artifact power, players with a lot of time could earn significant advantages. Because it was possible to level far beyond the seasonal power level cap.
Many feared in the Trials that a small “elitist” circle of frequent and professional players with high power levels would emerge shortly and that normal Guardians, who cannot play around the clock, would no longer be able to catch up or defeat them. In short: many feared that the artifact could make the Trials unbearably unplayable for many in a very short time. In the Iron Banner, some Guardians are already plagued by the same problem.
With this step, Bungie is now putting a stop to the problem. Because when the additional artifact power is disabled, you can now only rise in the Trials and Iron Banner to the current power level cap. In Season 10, it is essentially capped at power level 1010.
This is a solution that many players can absolutely live with. Because this way, everyone essentially has a realistic chance of reaching this cap in a reasonable time or at least getting close enough to have a real chance against max-level Guardians.
Will it stay like this forever? No, this is a temporary solution. The artifact power will remain disabled until Bungie can implement a sensible power cap feature for the bonus power levels of the seasonal artifact.
However, when that will be is currently unknown. For now, it remains at the current solution.
Will you play Trials this weekend? If you want to play Trials again this weekend or check out the Trials of Osiris for the first time, here you can find everything important about the returned Trials of Osiris: Destiny 2: Trials of Osiris explained – Everything important for the start of the Trials
