Destiny 2’s latest DLC titled, Forsaken, brought a great number of new objectives and areas for players to explore but it also brought a new raid. The “Last Wish” raid dropped on September 14, 2018, but it wasn’t until the next day that the first group of guardians defeated the final boss. Six players from clan Redeem were the world’s first to complete the new raid. It took these six guardians almost 19 hours to complete. This is the longest a Destiny raid has gone undefeated, breaking the previous record by four hours.
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If that completion time is any indication, the “Last Wish” raid is hard. The raid consists of five different encounters, each with completely different mechanisms to figure out and overcome. The highly recommended light level of 550 will make things hard for many guardians, especially since many players are just reaching the light level required for the first boss three weeks after the raid released. Matters are not helped by the fact that each boss requires successively higher light levels to beat, with the last boss, Riven, requiring a light level of 580. With the level cap at 600, Riven will continue to be challenging until the cap is raised.
Beyond the difficulty of reaching an adequate light level, the fights themselves ask your fireteam to cooperate, communicate, and to play skillfully. The mechanics are difficult and require every single player to be at their best. Slip-ups are extremely detrimental and one miscalculation may cause your team to completely wipe. In this sense, the raid is one huge skill check. You have to rely on everyone playing skillfully and communicating in order to beat each boss.
“Last Wish” is one of Destiny’s best raids. However, some players may be upset with the revelation that Bungie will not be adding a prestige mode to this new raid. This will be the first raid not to have a hard mode in Destiny 2. Bungie communicated that their intentions when creating the Last Wish raid were to “create an experience that offered the truest forms of every encounter from day one” and that offered “some of the most powerful rewards in the game to anyone who could succeed”.
Still, given this information, there may be a few players who are wary. There is a question about if “Last Wish” will remain rewarding. Once guardians reach a high enough light level, will the raid continue to drop high light level gear for them so they can continue the grind to the top? Given many other raids have dropped with low light level requirements, most players were required to play the prestige mode in order to continue to get high-level gear.
In comparison, “Last Wish” given the minimum light level required to start the raid and that of the final boss, 550 and 580 respectively, most players are only now reaching that light level three weeks later. With the cap at 600, we can assume that the raid will continue to drop high-level gear up until the cap increases again. There is a bright side to not having a prestige mode. With this new raid, you won’t have to worry about learning new mechanics and you’ll still get appropriate level gear.
However, if you’re like me and find the idea of learning new mechanics and overcoming new challenges fun, there is a downside to not having a hard mode. Thankfully, Bungie has been very good about introducing new challenges as the weeks go by. A dungeon called “The Shattered Throne” was released this week and features enemies with light levels up to 590. So, for now, there are plenty of new challenges popping up every week to tackle. Otherwise, Petra’s run is also available.
With “Last Wish”, you are able to cast wishes. These wishes alter the raid in a variety of ways, such as allowing access to multiple loot chests, teleporting guardians to specific encounters, and unlocking the Halo Easter egg: Grunt Birthday Party, in which precision kills cause an explosion of confetti with a slide whistle sound effect. But, the 13th wish is the only one that imposes a challenge to those who cast it. It requires you to beat the raid without a single person dying. If a player dies, the entire team is sent back to orbit and is forced to start from the beginning. Completing the raid with this wish active unlocks the “Petra’s Run” triumph. There may not be a harder mode, but attempting to complete “Petra’s Run” is a task in and of itself.
So, does the raid really need a prestige mode? While I wish there was a prestige mode for the raid, because I enjoy the challenge that new mechanics bring, I can sympathize with what Bungie is trying to do. Unlike other raids, “Last Wish” is hard enough to keep even high level players on their toes and is also very rewarding. Overall, Bungie not adding a prestige mode will not harm or detract from the game.
