Destiny 2 ditches Sunsinger rez because waiting to Super is boring, additional class roles possible in the future
Destiny 2 makes some significant changes to subclasses, and more may be coming.
Destiny 2 ditches one of the most popular tools in the combat sandbox: the Sunsinger's ability to self-resurrect via post-mortem super attack.
In the original Destiny, Warlock players frequently chose to play as Sunsinger so that if the worst came to the worst they could save a group from a team wipe. Unfortunately this often meant these players would avoid using their supers to deal damage, bringing down overall DPS - and missing out on one of the most fun aspects of the Destiny combat sandbox: unleashing hell with superhero-like powers.
The ubiquity of Sunsinger meant Stormcaller and especially Voidwalker were seen far less often, which isn't the kind of balance developers like to see. Speaking to Kotaku in a podcast, Destiny 2 director Luke Smith spoke a little more on this subject.
Smith said that always holding a super in reserve in case of death removed the opportunity to make tactical choices about when to use a super for greatest effectiveness. When the hosts said they liked to have the super there so they had a back up plan if they didn't play well, Smith acknowledged this but said waiting around to use your super is boring.
The discussion also touched on the way all Titan classes can now place barriers, similarly to the Defender subclass in the original game. The Titan "bubble" is a slightly controversial issue in the Destiny community because some players feel it is essential to complete certain activities, and won't group up without a Defender on board. This is boring for Titans who want to play other roles, and frustrating for groups unable to find a Titan.
In discussing the Titan class, though, Smith praised the bubble and barrier abilities by saying they allow players to change the game environments in interesting ways.
Asked whether Destiny 2 might implement matchmaking that restricts groups to particular compositions, the director said he believes Bungie has done a good job of designing activities that don't actually require specific classes and roles (this is technically true as you can certainly complete any raid or whatever with any group composition, but getting people to believe it when LFGing is another thing). He also noted that Destiny carefully avoids the "holy trinity" design, most familiar to MMO players, of tank, healer and DPS.
Smith also said that Bungie might look at adding more class roles, like support, in the future. It's probably worth noting here that Destiny 2's Warlocks have a class ability that heals nearby teammates, so there's some shift towards more non-DPS-boosting support abilities already.
Destiny 2 releases in September on PS4 and Xbox One, with the PC build following in October. So far, we've been briefed on four of Destiny 2's nine subclasses, and I'm really excited to learn more about the remaining five in the weeks leading up to release.
How do you feel about Bungie ditching the self-rez in Destiny 2? I can understand Warlocks feeling a bit sore about it, but if my main class had gained the ability to fly about on wings of flame with a great big sword and open healing rifts, I wouldn't be complaining.