Summary
The inclusion of Battleground Heists intoDestiny 2’s Grandmaster rotation brings with it a significant boost in difficulty, one which Bungie looks to ease with Update 7.2.0.5 alongside a variety of other patches.Grandmaster strikes, inherently, bring with them a harder experience where players can earn some of the best PvE loot outside of raids and dungeons, specifically the various adept Nightfall weapons which rotate weekly. However, some player feedback to the difficulty of Grandmaster battlegrounds from the current and previous seasons appears to have been enough to see the studio attempt to make the experience somewhat easier.
Battlegrounds have been a staple ofDestiny 2’s seasonal content since they were introduced in Season of the Chosen, where they became an instant hit with players. While it has been slightly modified to fit seasonal themes, the activity generally throws three players into a chaotic fight where enemy density is significantly higher compared to strikes and even some raid or dungeon encounters. Season of the Witch seasonal content did not include any new Battlegrounds, though its DNA is present in the Savathun’s Spire and Altars of Summoning.
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While Battlegrounds were popular when introduced, their inclusion in the Grandmaster rotation was met with a more mixed reaction from the game’s community due to the difficulty, which the studio attempted to address in the latest update. The patch notes for Update 7.2.0.5 revealed thatHeist Battleground Mars, the Grandmaster Battleground at the time of writing, would have its “combatant count and frequency” reduced for select encounters “in higher difficulty levels.” What this means is in certain combat spaces, players will not have to contend with as many enemies when the Heist Battleground is set to a higher difficulty, such as master or grandmaster.
The enemy density in Grandmaster Battlegrounds has been the crux for many players since the Heist Battleground Mars was added to the rotation in Season of Defiance. Given how much stronger enemies are inside Grandmasters as it is, that combined with the sheer number of enemies in Battlegrounds led to many players complaining about how the activity now felt like a chore to run. Complaints only continued with the additional Battlegrounds added in Season of the Deep andSeason of the Witch.
It remains to be seen how much of a difference the latest patch will make on the Battlegrounds in the current Grandmaster rotation. As of this writing, the patch has only been live for a few hours and with ongoingDDoS attacks onDestiny 2, players have still been struggling to play the game. Ultimately, it may be several days until players have an accurate idea of how effective, or ineffective, this change is to Grandmaster Battlegrounds.
Destiny 2is currently available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
