Destiny's Iron Banner returns - and power "still matters"

The Iron Banner is returning and according to Bungie, your Light in Destiny: The Taken King "will absolutely make you more dangerous" in the Crucible endgame.

Those wanting to know how, senior designer Derek Carroll spilled all - and did so with numbers.

"The Power Curve is a way of measuring the damage you do to players with a differing Light level," said Carroll. "There's a lot of secret math that gets done behind the scenes that I’m not going to get into, but for the purposes of this article, you may assume that every 10 units of Light equals 1 Level on thr graph.

"For example: If I’m sitting at 280 Light, and attack someone with 300 Light, my disadvantage would be a delta of 2."

I understand none of this. Below is the graph he was talking about.

In this week's Crucible events, the bottom of the curve is still 10%, and it punishes players who are under-leveled. The Power Curve for The Taken King is "more aggressive" than any previous release for the first three levels, so if everyone in the group is close to max-level "minor differences in power will matter more than ever."

"We’re assuming that matchmaking will do its thing and keep skills close, so your gear will give you the edge or hold you back when playing in power-enabled playlists," Carroll added.

Again, I understand none of this. Head over to Bungie.net for a better explanation.

Below are some of the patch notes pertaining to Iron Banner.

• Iron Banner is now enabled for the week of 10/13 - 10/19
• Requires a minimum Character Level of 40
• Recommended Light for Iron Banner is 230
• Game completion rewards have been reworked to be a more valid source for Iron Banner rewards
• End-of-match rewards now include both weapons and armor (including items available on Lord Saladin)
• New Emblems have been added to Lord Saladin's inventory
• Lord Saladin now has three daily bounties and three weekly bounties that award Legendary Marks
• Gear purchased from Lord Saladin now requires Legendary Marks (instead of Glimmer)
• Tempered buff is now automatically applied to your character and continues to grow in effectiveness each day of the event week