This week Bungie released Iron Banner as part of their latest update. With Iron banner being one of my favorite crucible challenges, I was extremely excited about the release date. Even after the anticipation of the Destiny 2 release, I would play Iron Banner each month, especially if control was the game-type. Control happens to be my favorite game-type. I know Iron Banner is just your standard Crucible match, but there’s just something about listening to Lord Saladin’s voice that gets you excited about battling fellow guardians. Don’t get me wrong, Lord Shaxx is cool, but Lord Saladin just sounds cooler. I think that is what excited everyone about the Rise of Iron update in Destiny Vanilla.
Iron Banner Gear
I must say the I am very pleased with the gear that iron banner is offering. As normal you can only earn Iron Banner gear from playing Iron Banner matches. All the gear is unlocked the same way as other activities in Destiny 2 by gathering token or completing millstones for that activity. If you win an iron banner match you receive five tokens, you receive two tokens if you lose the match. Just like all the other vendors in the tower you need twenty tokens to rank up. Also like all other vendors you receive rewards when you rank up. The more tokens you have, the more rewards you receive. You can receive current power level rewards by completing milestones. The gear is completely worth playing Iron Banner for several hours to rank up. The armor alone makes you want to chase after all the pieces. My favorite is the Warlock helm, although the titan helm has longer horns I prefer the warlock helm. The Iron Banner Warlock Gear makes Warlocks look like Samurai.
Iron Banner Weapons
The weapons are just as nice; you don’t need to add a shader as the color scheme truly looks amazing. So far, I have found that the scout rifle has a kick and causes excellent damage. The Guiding Site has a kinetic damage mod. It would be cool if you could add a legendary mod, but it’s a primary. What I like about it is that it has armor-piercing, which defiantly helps with that kick.
I like (The Time-Worn Spire) pulse rifle, it has a fast fire rate and good stability. I think a perk that stands out the most for me is Zen Moment as it helps with recoil and increases stability. Which we all know that stability with a pulse rifle is key. I am not a huge fan of hand canon’s but the Iron banner hand cannon called (The Steady Hand), has nice perks and very high impact. Which for a weapon that has high recoil, being able to do more damage can help in a fight.
Predictable Loadout
When I go into crucible as a Warlock, of course, I tend to do things differently in comparison to my fellow guardians. I know that most players are coming into the crucible with the usual weapons: Primary (MIDA Multi-Tool), Secondary (Uriels Gift), Power (Rocket Launcher). Nothing is wrong with this weapon loadout; it’s just predictable. You do have a few guardians that will run with a Sniper as their power weapon, but most have a rocket launcher. There is nothing wrong with this is as I also use a rocket launcher. I strongly feel it is mostly because power ammo is not as common as it before was and you have a greater chance of getting a kill with a rocket launcher these days than you do a sniper rifle. The chances of getting power ammo now are slim, mostly because only one person can grab the power ammo at a time.
My Loadout
My thought process is a little different, which is part of my normal crucible gameplay. I like to go in with the following weapon loadout: Primary (Vigilance Wing), Secondary (The Number), and sometimes for my Power Weapon (Sins of The Past). It’s something about pulse rifles I like, especially one that shoots a (five round bust) versus a (three-round burst). I will say I do enjoy using scout rifles, but not that much in the crucible. In my opinion, it takes shots to make a kill with a scout rifle that it does a pulse rifle. I am not that much of a fan of auto rifles in crucible either, but I do enjoy using Scathelocke as I like the way it handles. I also like the fire rate of the Scathelocke; it reminds me of the Doctrine of Passing. As I mentioned above, I prefer using a pulse rifle for crucible altogether.
Destiny 2 has not disappointed with the release of Iron Banner. The game-type is just the challenge a guardian would be looking for in battle. Control is one of those matches that requires all four players to move as a team to take each flag and maintain it. With a good team, you can reach the goal of five tokens per win. At times, even with random guardians you can pull off a few good wins and grab those tokens to receive your awards from Lord Saladin. I hope other guardians are as pleased as I am with this month’s Iron Banner. Along with the gear and weapons that are being rewarded for completing a match. Even though Iron Banner is not over yet, I am excited to see what they do next month, I am sure the gear will be the same, but we might get the chance to get other types of weapons.
My game loadout is what I prefer to run into the crucible with, by no means does it mean other guardians must use the weapons I do. All the weapons in Destiny 2 are good and can be used in Player Versus Environment (PvE) and Player Versus Player (PvP). Some weapons are designed for PvP more than others, and those are the weapons you see people using more often in the crucible. I would like to see different weapons in battle. Each guardian’s opinion of how well weapons work can differ and can be highly essential. How can we all give our view when we all use the same weapons. We have new players joining our Destiny community, and they need to know what we know. If we use the same weapons, how will they see the benefit of the other weapons in the game and how well the function in the different game-types.
