Destiny House of Wolves: New Ascend feature is a game-changer

Bungie truly is listening to your feedback. It was evident in today's livestream when the developer revealed today a new feature in Destiny's upcoming expansion, House of Wolves, called Ascend.

What Ascend does is allows you to upgrade any legendary or exotic weapon or armor piece to the highest possible level. Ascending a weapon will bring it up to 365 Attack, while ascending a piece of armor will bring it to max light and armor value (level 34) — regardless of whether or not it is from an expansion. What's more, there's no reset on the item's progression, meaning you won't lose the perks and upgrades you've already unlocked. Remember all that grinding you had to do when The Dark Below released? Bungie listened.

The addition of Ascend also means that you aren't limited to only the highest-end gear if you want to hit the max level. If you have a weapon or piece of armor that you found in Vault of Glass or Crota's End, and you really love it, you can actually Ascend it and it will be worth something.

So how do you Ascend? Well, you'll need a new material called Etheric Light (along with other materials) which can be found in all end game activities — Prison of Elders, Trials of Osiris, and even the occasional Nightfull runs and Iron Banner matches — meaning you won't need to own House of Wolves in order to hit the new Level 34 cap.

In addition to ascending, Bungie making Reforge, a feature that allows you to change your weapon perks, a permanent feature. Previously, this was exclusive to Iron Banner gear. Like ascending, reforging an item will require resources, like Glimmer and Motes of Light. Thankfully, the Speaker is now able to exchange materials for you, requiring less grinding on your part.

On top of all this, you'll be able to upgrade any exotic you have without Xur being present, which means no more waiting for that annoying vendor to pop up on the weekends only and hoping he has the piece of gear you need to upgrade.

These are some big changes coming to Destiny, and it's all part of Bungie's renewed vision to keep things "as simple as possible," according to creative director Christopher Barrett. Regardless of how you feel about Destiny at this point, it's at least nice to see Bungie is actually listening.