Despite being on “vacation,” I managed to play a good amount of Guardian Games yesterday on my trusty Razer Blade, enough to form some opinions about this newest iteration, which looks like its about to have Hunters win day one, as predicted.
Guardian Games has made some improvements this time around, encouraging players to “main” a single class rather than shuffle through all of them, and there’s a new strike playlist that bands together a single class at a time.
After a large number of Warlock strikes and a million laurels, something feels like it’s missing from this system.
I know we are on day one here, so the gold, silver and bronze bonuses aren’t active yet. But I mean, fundamentally, the main draw of the event is…a 1100 power strike playlist. 1100 strikes are effectively the single easiest activity in the game short of public events or lost sectors (well, non legendary lost sectors) and given that the ranking bonuses will only apply to this playlist feels a bit ho-hum. They’re just not needed. Why do I need better health and recovery or primary or elemental damage for strikes you can already breeze through? And one negative modifier (increased enemy melee damage, no radar) is not really going to do much either, I don’t think.
It feels like this event would have been a lot more interesting if the daily placement bonuses applied to everything in the game except maybe Crucible, to avoid a balancing nightmare, or Ordeals, to avoid cheapening gilded Conqueror. I’m imagining running dungeons or raids or even Gambit with those bonuses active, which would be a lot more entertaining than using them in a 1100 strike playlist that is already a cakewalk.
I’d venture to say that Guardian Games is more fun on social media than it is in the game itself. Yes, this is an improvement over the entirely bounty-based system of last year, but it’s not that much different. The contender cards still just feel like bounties in their own way, and I’m on my sixth strike one and I have yet to get anything different than “arc, solar or stasis kills.” It also feels like I’m practically capped at 500 laurels at all times running strikes where they’re plentiful, and there’s nothing really to spend them on other than…more contender cards.
The one “quest” for Guardian Games I’m actively engaged with is the Heir Apparent Catalyst, which drops after a gold medal turn in and requires at least a bit of work to complete. I heard the catalyst actually buffs shield strength by a full 75%, which isn’t nothing, so I’m eager to pick it up. I’ve always liked this gun.
More than most, Guardian Games feels like an Eververse focused event with a zillion items in the store but relatively little to do or earn in the game itself. The new class items are cool, but past that you can earn…last year’s Ghost shells, last year’s new exotic or a single sparrow.
I am probably the most curious about this period of time that is the “closing ceremonies” which is new from last year and we don’t know anything about it. It also leads directly into next season and I believe that means there should be some sort of story component to it.
As for who will win? No idea. It’s too early to tell and we knew Hunters would take an early lead. But that 10% last place bonus will add up quickly, and we’ll know more after week 1 here.
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