The first Iron Banner event in Season 19 is over and with it a brief and turbulent time. Why PvP in Destiny 2 sank into chaos and why it was a constant “Slap”, you will learn here.
This is what happened in the Iron Banner: The popular and knightly PvP event “Iron Banner” took place from January 3rd – 10th. It was the first in Season 19 and had its incentives to participate thanks to an extremely stylish armor set, shader, and a new mode.
Despite these incentives, the event literally sank into chaos. Players refused to fight each other. Instead of winning matches, defeats were preferred for ranking points. Additionally, instead of the desired Iron Banner armor, often only the Crucible rocket launcher “Slap” was obtained.
This time, Bungie actually designed the Iron Banner in such a way that players simply didn’t want to be forced to grind for their loot.
Guardians prefer to dance than fight each other, and that out of protest
Why did the Iron Banner sink into chaos? In Destiny 2, almost everything is designed for farming or completing tasks. Players earn their loot well-deserved through hard work and a significant time investment.
Often, Bungie itself was criticized, as players claimed that the developers did not respect their invested time in Destiny 2.
However, once the Iron Banner was active, players did not want to be forced into grinding. The shader in this regard was used as an incentive by many players to play the PvP mode, yet few wanted to voluntarily play 12 hours of Iron Banner, just to be able to dress their Guardian in chainmail.
It even went so far that players did not fight each other in matches, but rather went dancing, as a video from reddit shows:
For this reason, Guardians also met to lose. A new strategy to more easily and casually earn reputation points for the Iron Banner. A team was created, 5 like-minded Guardians were invited, a match was started, and everyone just waited until the round was over – a movie could also be watched in the meantime.
Ultimately, the Iron Banner was also not well playable for a while, as a weekly task required playing with the Void or Stasis class. Titans took advantage of this, and teams with 5 Bubble Titans were formed, creating a purple bubble on each zone. You can imagine how that ended.
Instead of Iron Banner loot, there were slaps
How good was the loot in the Iron Banner? The armor and weapons to be earned are always a highlight in the Iron Banner. They look old-fashioned, knightly, but exactly fitting for the theme behind Lord Saladin’s PvP mode. Many Guardians therefore wanted to farm the whole armor set. But instead of wolf armor, it often only rained the rocket launcher “Slap” after the match ended.
Basically, every further obtained rocket launcher felt like an endless disgrace. One only wanted the armor set, but the loot luck of many Guardians was simply too poor. For this reason, the reddit user SteevahnUneevurse simply made new ornaments in the style of the rocket launcher from his slaps by Bungie for his Titan.
See for yourself:
Will anything change in the next Iron Banner? The PvP event is only available twice per season since Bungie’s change. It is therefore very unlikely that the developers will make any changes in Season 19. Nevertheless, this is the last Iron Banner before the new big DLC “Lightfall”.
The developers also want to give Guardians fresh air in the PvP event, so it is likely that Bungie will go through player feedback and thus make changes in the new DLC.
We will have to wait and see what Bungie has planned for Season 20 and what adjustments will take place. What do you think of the Iron Banner event in Season 19? Did you have fun or did you avoid it? Let us know!
