Destiny 2 is enjoying a lot of success and praise at the moment due to the 30th Anniversary Pack's release, which includes plenty of new content to explore for all players, both those that did purchase the DLC and those who didn't. Dares of Eternity is one of Destiny 2's best activities, as it perfectly blends fun dialogue with a compelling gameplay loop that manages to be always diverse and very rewarding, making it an improved version of Season of Opulence's Menagerie. This is something Bungie has been trying to achieve for a long time with its various seasonal activities, but Dares of Eternity finally succeeds beautifully.
The second bit of content in the 30th Anniversary Pack is the Grasp of Avarice Dungeon, which has some of Destiny 2's best loot to date in the form of Artifice Armor - armor pieces with an extra mod slot that is solely used for artifact mods. The Dungeon is incredibly well done, and it packs a challenge that many Destiny 2 players were happy to accept on day one in order to obtain the famed Exotic rocket launcher, Gjallarhorn. Despite all the great content, one of the best things to come to Destiny 2 with the recent patch was the sandbox balance update, combined with new great weapons and plenty of perks to choose from, which are already dramatically changing the endgame experience.
How Destiny 2's Endgame and Meta are Changing
For starters, it's important to note that Gjallarhorn always was a very powerful weapon - if not the most potent in the whole franchise - that shaped the endgame in a way that made it a must-have for all encounters. There were many posts on LFG apps stating that players would be kicked if they didn't have Gjallarhorn, and this could have been a problem in Destiny 2 as well if it wasn't for a very important addition: the new Pack Hunter perk. Pack Hunter allows Gjallarhorn users to buff all nearby allied players to grant them Wolfpack Rounds, which means that moving forward Raid teams might only need one or two Gjallarhorn copies and a bunch of powerful Legendary rocket launchers to really shine.
A similar level of power was achieved by Arbalest, which is a Kinetic linear fusion rifle that comes with Compounding Force, a unique perk that increases the damage dealt to enemy shields regardless of their element, and Disruption Break, which increases Kinetic damage after breaking a shield. With the recent patch, however, Arbalest also got intrinsic Anti-Barrier rounds, making it exceptionally powerful at dealing with Barrier Champions as well. To top it off, Arbalest also has a catalyst now, which makes it generate Orbs of Power and it provides the weapon with Genesis, a perk that restores ammo from reserves when dealing damage to enemy shields. This makes Arbalest one of the best weapons in all of Destiny 2 to take along in Grandmaster Nightfalls and other hard pieces of content.
A new Exotic was added to the game with the 30th Anniversary Pack, and that's the Halo-inspired sidearm called Forerunner. This weapon is quite exceptional because it is a Kinetic sidearm that uses Special ammo, and it deals massive amounts of damage in both PvP and PvE from immense distances. The Forerunner's Exotic catalyst also provides it with an extra perk that allows players to sacrifice part of the weapon's magazine in order to throw a fragmentation grenade, which is not very impactful on its own, but it triggers all grenade-related perks, mods, and abilities players might have. Furthermore, it enables Hunter builds with the Exotic gloves called Mechaneer's Tricksleeves, which have never been very impactful on their own.
Another weapon that might change Destiny 2's endgame experience simply thanks to the fact that it was introduced is the Retraced Path Legendary trace rifle. Destiny 2 currently features six Exotic trace rifles, but prior to the 30th Anniversary Pack, there hadn't been any Legendary ones. The fact that this weapon exists is great because it means that Bungie can toy with Legendary trace rifles and their perk pool moving forward, eventually enabling them to obtain seasonal mods going on. Overall, these things combined with all the new perks available, like Golden Tricorn and Eager Edge, will all dramatically change Destiny 2's endgame, and in fact, they already are doing so.
Destiny 2 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
