The way swords work in Destiny 2 will be getting a substantial rework in March’s content update.
Bungie went into detail on the upcoming changes in the This Week at Bungie blog, giving us information about how the sweet science of sword-swinging will be altered. Swords have operated the same way in Destiny ever since Crota initially swung one into your skull, so a rework has been on the cards for a while.
Sword energy will be one of the most significant changes. Guarding with your sword will now cost energy instead of heavy ammo, and this will need to be balanced with attacking, as some attack types will also utilize the energy bar.
Light attacks will loop indefinitely, instead of the current three-hit combo, which then leaves you wide open to a stomp attack from a boss. Cleaving, previously only available on Aggressive Swords, will also be present on all swords, meaning you can chunk down groups of enemies that are standing close together.
Heavy attacks will also consume Sword energy. You can still make heavy attacks if you have no sword energy, but doing one with a full energy gauge will increase the damage. The hint here is quite apparent, Bungie wants you to open with a sword attack, then use light attacks to follow up.
All swords will be able to bypass elemental shields with a percentage of their damage, and all swords will be getting changes to their damage profiles, and perks.
It looks like a brave new world for people who like to use swords, but it doesn’t change the biggest problem that close combat has in Destiny 2, which is the omnipresent stomp attack that a lot of enemies resort to when you are too close to them. Hopefully, frantic light attacks will help to interrupt this defensive technique.
The one part of the community that won’t be too happy are speedrunners. Bungie has confirmed that the changes will interrupt the current sword skating techniques, a method speedrunners use to rapidly traverse the game. Hopefully, there are some new tricks they can discover to help them get those super-fast runs completed.
How it all fits in with the broader picture of Destiny 2 combat and the multitude of weapons to choose from remains to be seen, but we do look forward to trying out the new swords in March.
