So, admittedly I haven't run through Kings Fall Hard Mode yet, but I have heard grumblings that it is not hard enough to justify the the title. So, to that end and to give us more insight into the lore / mechanics of the Destiny Universe, I propose the following:
[b]Let Guardians get Taken.[/b]
Hear me out. I think that this could work and would provide the players a much harder Kings Fall raid, along with providing insight into how being "Taken" works.
So, as far as I can understand (and my understanding may be flawed) the only real difference between the Guardians and a normal person is that a Guardian is infused with the Light of the Traveler, allowing them to manipulate the Light, be reborn, go above and beyond the normal Human / Awoken / Exo. So, what I think should happen during the course of the Kings Fall Hard Mode Raid is this:
If a guardian dies with at least a little light in their super bar, then death goes as normal. BUT, if a guardian dies with a completely depleted bar, they are Taken. If this ends in a wipe, if any of the Guardians did not get Taken, they re-spawn as normal. However, if ALL of the Guardians get Taken, the raid group triggers a Sub-Quest called "Taken" and the raid diverges from its normal course quite a bit.
First, the Guardians are all transplanted to a shadowy, hard to see area where they await Taken displacement to another area. All the Guardians have been stripped of their normal shader, and a new "Taken" shader has been applied to them. Their subclass has been replaced with a special "Taken" subclass with the following attributes:
[u]Hunter: Taken Vandal Subclass[/u]
Jump: Double Jump
Melee: Standard Melee, no special ability.
Special (LB+RB): Create hemisphere shield.
[u]Titan: Taken Captain Subclass[/u]
Jump: Lift
Melee: Standard Melee, no special ability.
Special (LB+RB): Throw damaging, blinding, sphere.
[u]Warlock: Taken Acolyte Subclass[/u]
Jump: Glide
Melee: Standard Melee, no special ability.
Special (LB+RB): Create Acolyte Eye, throwing out damaging ray at randomly chosen close enemy.
While in the Shadow area, the raid group is surreptitiously being matched against other guardians in a crucible match. This time may be used to explore the area, and potentially figure out parts of the second section of the Taken Sub-Quest, which I will get to in a second. After the group has been matched, they are displaced into the crucible and are expected to win the match into which they have been thrown. If they do not, the raid ends in a wipe and they respawn in the shadow room, still taken, waiting for another crucible match.
Once the Guardians have completed a crucible match, they are taken to the second part of the Taken Sub-Quest, Regaining their Light.
Now, I think that this part would be mostly up to Bungie and how they want to portray the act of regaining Light and becoming, for lack of a better word, Un-Taken. Returned? But that makes you sound like a zombie . . . . They'll think of something I'm sure. But here are some ideas to that point:
A series of six "challenges" that have to be completed while fighting a boss that can only be hurt by people that have light. Each Guardian will have to face their challenge alone. The challenges can be something along the following:
1) Jump puzzle that utilizes Taken Displacement to create something around as challenging as the "Hive Ship" jump puzzle.
2) Regain your light as you zone into your challenge and the game creates a Taken copy of yourself to fight.
3) Straight-up horde of taken to kill to get to your light.
4) The Guardian spawns into a Taken version of the Gorgons Maze. An invulnerable Taken Minotaur follows the player around the Gorgon Maze and the player must locate and recover their Light (which could be inside of enemies or hidden chests or in breakable Oracles)
5) The Guardian spawns into a map that looks like the Cosmodrome. Regaining their Light causes a Massive explosion that the Guardian has to outrun on their Sparrow.
6) The Guardian has to complete a Taken version of the Crota Lantern Run.
7) The Guardian has to play a game of Simon Says with Taken Vex, destroying them in the order in which they spawn.
After they have completed the challenges and then killed the Ultra that guards the Taken realm, they are free to proceed with the Raid as normal.
So, that's my idea on how to make Kings Fall more interesting / Harder and give us a fun peek into the mechanics of being Taken. I know that this was a wall of text to get through, so good job on getting through it. Thanks for your time.
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You should complete the hard mode raid before you state that it is not hard... Having said that, these are some pretty cool ideas.