Bungie Re-Tuning Destiny 2 PVP Ranking System to be Less Punishing, Other Crucible Changes

In a Destiny 2 update earlier this year, Bungie introduced a ranking system to the Crucible, Destiny 2’s PvP experience. Since the launch, they’ve received a lot of feedback from players. Most people were happy with the intent behind the ranking grind, but felt that it could often feel too punishing. On the Competitive side, loss streaks meant losing Glory points at a rapid rate, while on the Quickplay side, Valor could only be gained from one single playlist which made other modes feel like wasted time. In addition, players were unfairly saddled with games-in-progress that would often cause them to lose win-streaks.

In the upcoming Destiny 2 update 1.2.3, Bungie is planning some updates to the Crucible ranking system to make it more rewarding for players, diminishing some of the elements that haven’t been received all that well. Valor will be able to be earned in all playlists, so grinding out Glory in the Competitive playlist no longer means missing out on Valor ranking. Win streaks are also being adjusted so that they aren’t lost nearly as easily through things outside of player control. Loss streaks now punish less when stacked so that they don’t feel overwhelming when losing multiple matches in a row.

Below is a preview of the patch notes from update 1.2.3, which will release on July 17.

Crucible Ranks Update

• Players will be able to earn Valor rank from additional playlists:
  • Competitive
  • Crucible Labs
  • Iron Banner
  • Trials of The Nine

• Joining a game in progress will protect your Valor Win Streak for that game
  • If you lose: No penalties incurred to your Valor Win Streak
  • If you win: Valor Win Streak increases

• Players will be matched using their Glory rank
  • This means your opponents will be of similar rank to you
  • The higher you climb, the tougher the opponent

• Glory Loss Streaks will be re-tuned to be less punishing over time
  • Consecutive losses will decrease the Rank Points lost instead of increasing
  • Streaks will still cap out at 5

• All Rank Streaks will no longer reset once they hit their cap

All of these changes will make Crucible ranking feel more rewarding overall to players who want to invest time into this side of the game, mitigating the frustrating and punishing elements that quickly took the fun out of the grind.

In addition to re-tuning the Destiny 2 PvP ranking system, the Crucible is getting a number of long-requested changes that will make it feel a lot more like the first Destiny. Moving on from their 4v4 experiment, Quickplay will now be a default 6v6 playlist. Competitive will reamin the smaller 4v4 teams with its own tuning. Rumble (free for all) is being added as a permanent game mode now, instead of just a limited time playlist. These changes will also go into effect with Update 1.2.3 on July 17, and Bungie offered a look at what will be changing.

Crucible Playlist Update

• Quickplay
  • Increasing player configuration to 6v6 and updating the playlist description
  • Removing Supremacy from the pool of available game modes
  • Control
    • Updating Control win score to 150
    • Control Zones will initially be neutral
  • Clash
    • Updating Clash win score to 100

• Competitive
  • • Bomb Fuse timer in Countdown lowered from 40 seconds to 35 seconds

• General
  • Rumble will become a full-time playlist
  • Supremacy will be added to the weekly featured playlist, updated to 6v6, and have a win score of 150

These changes come ahead of Destiny 2: Forsaken and update 1.3.0, which will bring even more hotly requested features and fixes on September 4. This update will allow players more than a month to work on their Crucible ranking during season 3 before the launch of Forsaken kicks off Destiny 2’s fourth season.

Bungie been teasing out details of the coming Update 1.2.3, including some big Exotic armor changes that will make a few pieces of armor a lot more useful and exotic feeling. Don’t forget that the Destiny 2 free weekend starts tomorrow, so if you or a friend wants to try out the base game in full through Tuesday morning, you’ve got all weekend to play.

[Source: Bungie]