‘Destiny’ Changes Coming To Skolas Fight In Prison Of Elders
Destiny players who have taken on Prison of Elders ultra-boss Skolas already are more than aware of its peculiarities. The encounter can be easy with certain equipment one week or deadly and frustratingly difficult the next. Bungie detailed how it plans to even out the boss fight in the PlayStation and Xbox shooter with a patch due out next week during E3 2015 festivities.
Creative Director Christopher Barrett dropped the plans on how Bungie plans to deal with Skolas’ wild variability in the Weekly Update released Thursday afternoon. He admitted that the difficulty of the fight “swings too wildly from week to week” and that the average playtimes are taking longer than anticipated.
Despite warnings of EXPLOSIVE PROJECTILES, this Weekly Update is harmless. For the most part. https://t.co/O9ecgsIUkq pic.twitter.com/nXT7fLEvxV
— Bungie (@Bungie) June 11, 2015
These wild swings in difficulty are primarily due to the elemental burn modifiers that give increased damage to both Guardian and enemy weapons. Skolas can one-shot players with his cannon on weeks with a Solar burn while Arc burn weeks make the minions that spawn during the encounter absolutely killer.
Additionally, Solar burn weeks encourage Destiny players to use a single tactic to deal with Skolas. You can easily find listings in “looking for group” sites like DestinyLFG asking for players with Gjallarhorns. Putting the boss on the receiving end of the rocket launcher during a Solar burn means that you can kill him in as little as 40 seconds. That allows players to essentially ignore the intended mechanics of the fight.
As a result, Bungie will release Destiny Hot Fix 1.2.0.3 next week to even out the fight by making the following changes.
- New Modifier combinations (Arc, Void, and Solar Burn will be removed)
- Boss health is reduced (to compensate for the lack of burn)
- Minions will spawn at predictable health intervals
- Minor adjustment to the unit makeup of the combatant waves
Making the minions spawn according to Skola’s health level is another welcome change to the fight. They currently spawn at timed intervals regardless of what is happening in the rest of the battle. This can result in the arena being flooded with Fallen enemies that can overwhelm players.
Comments from Bungie Community Manager David “Deej” Dague indicate that the 1.2.0.3 Hot Fix will be deployed in time for the weekly reset Tuesday at 5 a.m. ET / 2 a.m. PT.
Another good bit of news from Bungie is that the Connection Recovery feature introduced with “Trials of Osiris” will be spreading to other activities as well. Bungie hasn’t detailed which ones exactly, but any PVP events are a safe bet. This attempts to reconnect players to their game when network errors are encountered, and it is something I previously listed as one of the ways that “House of Wolves” improves Destiny without requiring you to buy the expansion.
If you need some tips for Prison of Elders, please check out the guide I’m putting together starting with the general guide and individual boss fights.
What do you think of the Skolas changes for Prison of Elders? Sound off in the comments below.
[Images via Bungie]
