Yes, you read that headline correctly, the Destiny 2 community has decided to play Gambit instead of the competitive PVP mode, Iron Banner. This is in protest of Iron Banner, which has several issues from a frustrating game mode to a boring loot pool to poor matchmaking quality. Inversely, Gambit is offering quite a few solid weapons such as Trust, Servant Leader, Borrowed Time, and Dead Weight. It also helps that this week offered double experience for Gambit, allowing players to fly through the ranks with ease.
Inversely, trying to rank up in Iron Banner can be a bit of a frustrating experience. Not only are players largely required to wear specific armor (or ornaments) to improve the experience they earn, but the way challenges are rolled out ensures that most teams are comprised of the same sub-class types. Further drawing the ire of players is the Eruption game mode, which both rewards and actively punishes players for performing well. See, if you manage to go on a kill streak your abilities will recharge faster as the cost of your position is marked for the enemy team. Additionally, if you don’t kill any enemy within a specific time limit you’re instantly killed, ending your streak. This leads to some rather frustrating moments — especially on some of Destiny 2’s larger maps.
This has caused many Destiny 2 PVP players to turn to the PVPVE mode Gambit, which is notoriously been left unattended for well over a year. Despite the minuscule map pool and lack of any balance changes, Gambit is still offering fast matches that have the potential to reward users with some seriously great gear. Plus, solo players can use the Freelance option to match with other solo players which is a feature lacking in Iron Banner.
I can’t say I am entirely surprised at this turn of events. Destiny 2’s PVP has been plagued with issues, but the introduction of The Immortal submachine gun was the straw that broke the Iron Lord’s back. Utterly dominant since its introduction a few weeks ago, this submachine gun has been running rampant in the Crucible due to its bonkers range, high-damage output, and terrific perk pool. The gun is so popular, that both the regular and Adept variants have remained the most used PVP gun since they were released.
While I don’t expect any radical changes to stem from this, it is nice to see Gambit finally getting some love from the community instead of being used solely for a Pinnacle drop each week.
