Similar to so many D2 players, I embarked on the Thorn quest almost as soon as it became available. Well, that is not entirely true. I first finished the Allegiance Quest on my Titan and then went to pick up the Thorn quest once I knew where it was. Making my way over to the fireplace, I landed out of bounds twice. Why check the obvious path if you can break the game on the way there, eh?
Well, the initial quest steps were done the slow and silly way. A combination of PvE and PvP objectives, but all of that still pushed me to the final long step pretty fast. But oh boy, that last step in Quickplay. Damn, would not recommend. It literally took me an entire Saturday to grind those Void Hand Cannon kills. I did split my time between using A Cold Sweat, an old Trials favorite and the Ikelos hand cannon. For whatever reason, my old Ikelos hand cannon was set to Solar, not Void like it appears in the collections these days. Going at a steady pace and matching mostly other Thorn quest participants (or your regular run of the mill Dust Rock Blues + Not Forgotten + Wardcliff Coil boring ass players), I got it done by the time the Saturday evening rolled by. Found two people for the end strike. Was positively surprised that the Thorn strike actually offered some challenge. Still not back to the nail-biting D1 Nightfalls, but close enough. Spent a few tries in the boss room, but not too long.
Thorn looks very much like the D1 counterpart. While this is in no way a detriment, I was expecting more. The new perk that leaves behind green globules of Thorn power-up energy works fine in PvE, but feel redundant in PvP. And of course, the slower archetype (150 RPM against the more popular 180 in PvP) means that in a 1v1 fight, the Thorn user is more likely to lose. For now, this will be a nostalgia item in the Vault, not a go-to game play tool. The Bungie Store Rewards for Thorn should go up on the 19th of March 2019, so I guess it is time to get those.
