In Destiny 2, the first Iron Banner in the DLC is coming up. Weapons and armor await in the PvP event, but they also bring criticism.
Here are the important times: The 1st Iron Banner in Season 12 and Beyond Light starts right on time with the Weekly Reset on Tuesday, December 08. You have a week to prove yourself to the Iron Lords in the Crucible until the PvP event ends on December 15 with the reset.
During the Iron Banner, you will meet Lord Saladin in the Tower. With the rugged Titan, you can receive bounties, a quest, and exchange tokens for rewards.
However, since there is a large download on December 08 and two other changes are coming to Destiny 2, the effective start of the Iron Banner may be pushed back a bit:
What is the Iron Banner anyway? Every month in Destiny 2, the Iron Banner takes place for a week as a PvP event. Here, you must equip your strongest gear as level advantages are activated: You deal more damage and take more damage if you have a higher power level than your opponent – conversely, you are disadvantaged with a lower level.
During the Iron Banner, Lord Saladin also distributes the rare top-tier loot. This is the only way you can reach the last power levels from 1,250 to 1,260.
The gameplay features a modified version of the Control mode:
- You must capture and hold 3 zones in two 6-player teams.
- If a team holds all 3 zones at the same time, these zones will be temporarily locked, and the hunt begins.
- During this time, you earn triple points, and enemies should hide well.
- Afterwards, all zones must be captured again.
This is the new playlist: For the first time, you can try a freelance playlist. There, you will only face solo players and cannot team up with your own group.
However, the classic playlist is available in parallel. Here, there are no restrictions regarding the number of players.
In addition, there is the quest “A Rebuilt Tower.” In this multi-stage series of tasks, you must achieve kills with specific weapons and abilities as well as complete other minor tasks in the Iron Banner.
However, keep in mind that your artifact power is disabled in the Iron Banner. Only the level of your weapons and armor counts.
These weapons and armor are available in the Iron Banner of Season 12
This loot is available: In Season 12, the Iron Banner expands the loot pool to 2 weapons:
- The scout rifle “The Forward Path”: Fires slowly (150 RPM) but with high damage and is carried in the kinetic slot
- The hand cannon “The Steady Hand”: Belongs to the slow-firing revolvers with high range, the 120s, which were previously the 140s before Beyond Light. This weapon is also carried in the kinetic slot
Additionally, there are other Iron Banner weapons from past seasons.
You can also earn the “Iron Will” armor (see title image). If you have unlocked armor ornaments during past seasons, you can apply them to the armor from Season 12.
The mentioned gear has the maximum cap from the Season of the Hunt. It can reach a maximum of power level 1,410 and is useful for the entire year 4. In Season 16, they will then be “retirement”.
The exclusive perks: The scout rifle and the hand cannon can drop with exclusive Iron Banner perks from Season 11.
- Iron Grip: Significantly improves stability (+20) but greatly reduces reload speed (-40). This perk, however, is not found on the scout rifle.
- Iron Gaze: Significantly improves aim assist (+20) but greatly reduces range (-40).
- Additionally, new perks from Season 12 and even from the Beyond Light Raid can be found on both weapons.
- On the “Iron Will” armor, the new combat mod slot is available, and traditionally, the armor comes with very high stats.
The Guardians are annoyed about the “new” loot
At the start of Beyond Light, players were dissatisfied with the loot diversity. Too few weapons replaced the retired guns. Why is there now criticism about the Iron Banner loot?
This is the criticism: The two weapons and the armor set are not brand new. They are reskins of previous Iron Banner items. Only the perks are new.
- The hand cannon and the scout rifle could be obtained by players in 2017, in year 1 of Destiny 2.
- The armor also visually existed during year 3 of Destiny 2.
Especially veterans are upset about having to hunt for already known items again. Bungie has not done itself any favors with this. In general, Guardians with a PvP focus are disappointed. Because the Trials have been postponed repeatedly due to issues and will take place for the first time in Beyond Light on December 18.
What do you think? Is it okay to reintroduce the two weapons into the game, and are the fresh perks and higher max level enough for you? Or is there nothing driving you into the Iron Banner this time?
What many find troublesome in PvP are the new Stasis classes. As cool as it is to freeze enemies, being frozen can be quite annoying. Players complain in Destiny 2: “PvP is now a nightmare”
