It's time for Skolas. "But Wort, Skolas isn't a Raid!" Maybe, but he's still on the same level of a true Raid in my eyes and deserves to be treated as such. He's also Destiny's best Villain IMO, mainly because his goals aren't inherently evil. Variks himself even shares Skolas' goal of reuniting the Fallen under one banner, but is trying to accomplish peacefully unlike Skolas. Skolas is Destiny's Jul 'Mdama; they're both relatable villains with justified motivations and reasons for their actions, their goals necessarily aren't evil but it's the manner they go about trying to accomplish them that puts them in the role of antagonist, and both were completely and utterly wasted at the time of their death. So I'm going to try and fix that wasted potential for Skolas in hopes that future characters like Jul and him don't get completely shafted for sake of simplicity. The way PoE is structured prevents gameplay changes for the most part and I'm only going to change one round, and the story/atmosphere changes will be less numerous as previous posts. 1. Variks and Skolas argue over the course of all 6 Rounds. The fundamental goal of the Fallen (to reunite themselves with the Traveler and become Legend like they were before) is something that Skolas and Variks have very different views of and it's the core force behind their conflict. The fact that it's not ingame in any aspect is utterly criminal and it's why HoW's story comes so close to being good but fails without the inclusion of those differing perspectives. Skolas believes that he is the Kell of Kells, the star-catcher with a thousand arms that will raise the Fallen to a higher state. He believes that might and force is the only way to achieve patronage from the Traveler and that Humanity is the only standing in their way. Noble goals, but a means fueled by anger and frustration and by watching every other species in Sol rise as the Fallen continue to fall (if you haven't read Skolas: Captured and Skolas: Defeated yet, I highly recommend you do right now). Variks shares that goal of reuniting the Houses, but it's actually implied that he doubts the Traveler and the promise it gave them before Oryx found them and shattered their civilization. But he wants the Fallen to rise together as a peaceful and noble race as they were before, not as conquerers. That's why he betrayed Skolas multiple times: he disagrees with his violent methods and feels they will only dig the Fallen a deeper hole. He's just as frustrated as Skolas with the place of the Fallen but he doesn't let it control him. He wants peace, not domination. And all of that depth and perspective is present in only one line in game "...I could not stomach his (Skolas) hate" (Variks, Silent Fang Story Mission). PoE is not like a Raid where narration or story is intentionally silenced. Variks is giving you objectives and commenting on your efforts the whole time. So I suggest this: every time an objective is completed (mines, boss, etc), Skolas and Variks exchange a few lines. Doesn't have to be intrusive and interrupt the critical objective alerts, doesn't even need to be more than a few lines. There's so much more to the Fallen and it's a crime that it's never touched upon in game. It's one of Destiny's best aspects that none of the enemy races are inherently evil (the Fallen just want survival, the Hive were tricked and manipulated, the Vex just want to exist forever, and the Cabal are just following orders). They all have depth past just being evil alien invaders. The Fallen most especially. 2. Round 5 (Pilot Servitor). First things first, I'm completely changing up the Boss Fight. The Pilot Servitor is now replace by a Wolf Servitor, otherwise known as Kaliks Reborn. Makes more sense to me to have the second highest member of the Wolves' leadership to be in their Raid than some generic Pilot Servitor. The mechanics of Kaliks Reborn remain unchanged. 3. Skolas. I'm not changing up the Devouring Essence or his other mechanics since they were hard enough back in Y1 and I don't want to mess with that. Instead, I'm changing his additional PoE objective. Instead of the two rounds of Dismantle Mines, both rounds of objectives are now completely randomized. Skolas' modifiers changed each week so why not have his PoE objectives change as well? Gives his boss round a bit more variety. Not necessarily harder (since Dismantle is the hardest objective already), but mixed things up a little. 4. Skolas' death. I've made it a point to make every final Raid Boss' death a spectacle befitting of their character and power. But I'm going to do something different with Skolas. When you kill him he doesn't just disintegrate and turn to ash the way he does now like other Ultras. Instead, he falls to his knees, clutches his chest, and falls forward. His soul then exits his body and fades away. The point is that Skolas isn't some God or a Time controlling machine. He's just a guy, a politician with extensive combat experience. He doesn't have powers, he has words and followers. His death shouldn't be a spectacle. It should be subtle, simple, and devoid of fanfare. Also add in some Variks dialogue or comment about Skolas' actions and good intentions or something like that. I'm pretty crap at writing dialogue so I'll leave that to people who can. 5. Checkpoints. Yes, I'm adding checkpoints. One after Round 2, another after Round 4, and the final one after Round 5. I'm treating Skolas' Revenge as a Raid and all Raids have checkpoints. And I know that the community was begging for them back when Skolas was relevant. So yeah. Checkpoints. Boom It may not be a true Raid, but it's certainly just as difficult if not more back when it was endgame. It certainly deserved my attention and even if you disagree. Next week will be King's Fall. It's gonna be my shortest, since it does what Crota's End does in terms of atmosphere and it manages to pump the Raid full of decent mechanics and encounters. Don't worry though, when I get to Wrath of the Machine, oh boy... Vault of Glass: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/224350741/0/0 Crota's End: https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/224968761/0/0