After the console beta for Destiny 2, there were a few common critiques and question marks shared by many of the game’s fans, which revolved around Destiny 2’s new weapon system and ability cooldowns. While ability cooldowns felt far too slow in the beta and some walked away unconvinced of the rearrangement of weapon slots, Bungie assured fans that the beta was a months-old build of the game and that many of those complaints had already been addressed. But in a new interview with Edge Magazine, Destiny 2 game director Luke Smith detailed more about the weapon slots, abilities, and how exotics and perks and meant to work together to keep players active.

Some common feedback about the change to Destiny’s weapon system is that the adjustment was made to make PvP easier to balance. Smith acknowledged that the change does make it easier on Bungie’s design teams to more easily predict how much damage players will be able to dole out. But Smith also said the change benefits both PvP and PvE.

One of those ways it affects PvE, says Smith, is that it further emphasizes planning and communication ahead of an activity. In addition to locked loadouts coming to some higher level activities, weapon choice becomes a point of discussion within a team of players.

Smith used the example of Destiny 1’s Vault of Glass raid. Because weapons that previously went in the Special slot in Destiny 1, they will now be grouped in the Power weapon slot alongside things like rocket launchers. In the scenario of the Vault of Glass, it may become more important to make sure one player has a sniper rifle for taking out threats at distant ranges, while another brings a fusion to quickly take out shielded, bigger minions. Bungie is hoping players will think more about their loadouts and what is most effective along with their subclass and perk choice.

Speaking of perks and equipment, ability cooldowns (which will get an overall increase from those seen in the console beta) will be much more dependent on players taking an active role increasing their recharge rate versus it being dependent on the Intellect, Discipline, Strength armor stats from the first game. To demonstrate, Edge writes about the Dawnblade and its perk that increases the recharge of grenades when enemies are killed while airborne. Pair that with an exotic chest piece that causes the Warlock to hover in air while aiming down sights, and suddenly it takes just four to five kills to fully recharge a grenade with the perk and exotic working synergistically.

That news will ease the worries of some, but many will likely wait to see the whole game in action before making a final judgement on the changes present in the sequel.

Destiny 2 releases on September 6, 2017 for PS4 and Xbox One, and on October 24, 2017 for PC.

Source: Edge (via Destiny Reddit)