Some players are calling last week's Iron Banner the worst it's ever been. Besides lag, terrible drop rewards, and questionable new game modes, reputation gains were so awful that Guardians formed six-player groups to deliberately throw matches because losing two matches quickly gave you more reputation than winning a single match slowly. This led to the bizarre scenario of Iron Banner matches descending into hacky sack games when two losing teams met. And all of this wouldn't have happened if Bungie hadn't placed what is probably the greatest shader ever made at the back end of Saladin's second reputation track.
Anyway, it was awful, and Bungie has definitely taken note. In yesterday’s TWAB, the Destiny 2 developer announced new changes are coming to the next Iron Banner on January 31.
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To start, reputation gains are getting an overhaul. The amount of bonus rep gained from wearing Iron Banner gear is being doubled and the amount of rep gained from simply completing challenges is being halved. Wearing an Iron Banner Emblem will "significantly increase" your multiplier, too. Bungie expects the sum of these changes will "decrease the number of games needed to earn a Rank reset by around 40% and make it more worthwhile to play earlier in the week."
When Iron Banner is so shit teams are actively boycott matches for Rep. from destiny2
On top of that, Iron Banner will come around three times per season instead of twice starting next season. There will also be an Iron Banner Emblem available on the rewards track so that new players can get one, and there will be more information coming with the launch of Season 20.
Elsewhere in the TWAB, Bungie noted that every non-Raid armor mod has been unlocked, so even new players can enjoy the full range of options when build-crafting their Guardians. Focus requirements for Trials of Osiris, Iron Banner, Crucible, and Gambit engrams are also being reduced, and the Glimmer cost of focusing regular ritual weapons is being halved.
All that is great news, but bugs are still a problem in Destiny 2. The latest bug, however, seems to be the worst yet. After getting a "contacting Destiny 2 servers" error message, one player found their character had been deleted after logging back in.