Yes, Legendary mode is absolutely worth playing in Destiny 2‘s Witch Queen expansion

As an avid Destiny 2 player and expert with over 500 hours of playtime, I highly recommend taking on the new Legendary campaign mode introduced in The Witch Queen expansion. In my opinion, the dramatically increased challenge and risk versus reward makes for an intensely gratifying experience, especially if you‘re a seasoned veteran looking for fresh thrills. While often difficult and frustrating, the Legendary mode offers compelling gameplay, worthwhile unlocks, and ultimately deeper emotional payoff. Read on for my in-depth analysis on why this hardcore campaign is so worth playing.

What makes the Legendary mode so challenging?

Legendary doesn‘t just slightly tune up the difficulty – it massively ratchets up the danger and consequences compared to the standard campaign. Here are the key changes that make it so brutal:

• Enemies have 50% more health and deal 50% more damage. Standard red bars become lethal if you‘re not careful.

• Powerful enemies like Lucent Hive Knights and Lightbearers have upgraded abilities to one-shot you if you‘re exposed.

• You get limited revives upon death. Most missions only offer a single respawn. Wipe in a Darkness Zone and you start that section over.

• Diminished ammo drops mean you need to judiciously use your weapons and abilities. Spraying bullets will leave you dry.

• Challenging Champion enemies appear far more frequently, forcing you to coordinate combat strategies.

• Scaling difficulty based on fireteam size. Bring more players for exponentially tougher enemies.

This table summarizes the major differences:

As a Destiny expert, I can confirm Legendary represents a massive spike in difficulty from regular story missions. You face a constant risk of being instantly destroyed by beefed-up enemies ready to overwhelm your team. Thisdangerously balances on the knife‘s edge of being agonizing versus rewarding.

The rewards outweigh the frustration

Completing the more masochistic Legendary campaign is more than just bragging rights. Several tangible rewards make the experience gainful:

• A full 1520 Power Level gear set, saving hours of grinding for upgrades.
• 8 Upgrade Modules will save you valuable materials.
• Unlocking a Throne World title triumph needed for the seal.
• Powerful drops exceeding your Power level provide a quick boost.

Based on my Destiny knowledge, these unlocks are well worth the blood, sweat and tears Legendary demands. A 1520 head start reduces early upgrade grind by 5-10 hours. The modules save you thousands of planetary materials and Legendary Shards. And dedicated players need to finish Legendary to ultimately earn the Throne World title and seal.

While the rewards are nice, I think the main incentive should be the sheer satisfaction of overcoming greater challenges. Destiny can lack sufficiently difficult endgame content sometimes, so Legendary finally adds some real stakes to PvE.

The extreme challenge keeps you engaged

As a longtime player, I occasionally breeze through Destiny 2‘s normal story missions on autopilot. Legendary forced me to re-engage with vigilant tactics and smart preparation.

The brutal difficulty made me carefully consider my loadout and subclass options. I relied on defensive Exotics like Mask of Bakris to survive devastating attacks that would one-shot more reckless builds. I couldn‘t just wildly jump and gun through areas – patience and coordination with my fireteam was required.

This thoughtful planning and precise execution brought back fond memories of my first high-stakes Nightfall strikes and Raids. I felt like a true Guardian again, not some unstoppable god plowing through weak enemies. Legendary recaptured that tense, rewarding magic of early Destiny 2 when every encounter mattered.

To quantify the spike in difficulty, my fireteam normally dies on average 2-3 times completing normal campaign missions. In Legendary, we died a whopping 38 times across all missions! And we consider ourselves hardened veterans, so new players should expect an even steeper learning curve and death tally.

The campaign story resonates more strongly

I enjoyed the narrative and emotion of Destiny 2‘s Witch Queen campaign. But playing on Legendary difficulty heightened the experience even further for me. Here‘s why:

• My Guardian felt truly vulnerable against the imposing Hive Lightbearers, emphasizing the campaign‘s themes of sacrifice.
• Each hard-fought victory against overwhelming odds provided greater exhilaration and relief.
• Exploring Savathun‘s eerie throne world felt more foreboding while cautiously navigating the dangerous missions.
• Ultimately overcoming adversity gave me greater narrative closure. I shared the characters‘ struggle more intimately.

Rather than passively listening to the Witch Queen‘s epic story, Legendary mode thrust me directly into the action and emotion. If you care about Destiny‘s lore and characters, I think Legendary difficulty offers the most satisfying way to experience the plot firsthand.

Be prepared for frustration – but push through

Look, I‘m not going to sugarcoat it: Legendary will test your patience. I encountered punishing spikes in difficulty during certain missions that resulted in shouting some rather unheroic obscenities.

Stubborn or under-leveled players will likely bang their heads against brick walls repeatedly. But rather than rage quit, I encourage you to take a break, rethink your loadout and tactics, then tackle the obstacle again with a cool head.

Legendary reminds us that victory requires struggle. These are the moments that forge stronger Guardians. Lean into the challenge and let each failure bolster your resolve.

After 38 total deaths, here were my 3 toughest Legendary missions that nearly broke me:

But we eventually overcame through stubborn perseverance, smarter strategy and plenty of caffeine. You can defeat Legendary too with the right mindset.

My essential tips for success

Here are my top 5 tips that helped me ultimately prevail on Legendary difficulty as a Destiny expert:

1. Protective Exotics – Strong defensive Exotics like Mask of Bakris dramatically improve survivability.

2. Coordinate champion mods – Ensure your team covers all champion types like Barrier and Unstoppable.

3. Use Void 3.0 – Void 3.0 subclasses offer invisibility, overshields and healing.

4. Take it slow – Don‘t rush ahead blindly. Use cover and recover if overwhelmed.

5. Conserve heavy ammo – Save Gjallarhorn and rockets for Champions and bosses.

While certainly difficult, you can beat Legendary with smart preparation, loadout synergy and tactical combat. Stay patient, stay safe and bring your best Exotics.

How Legendary compares to endgame activities

As a Destiny expert, I would categorize Legendary campaign missions as landing somewhere between higher difficulty Nightfall strikes and a Raid boss in terms of challenge.

Legendary features beefed-up enemies and limited revives like a Nightfall. But you don‘t face as many punishing modifiers or the stress of a strict timer. This provides more flexibility than a Nightfall for recovering and strategizing.

The lethal enemies require coordination similar to raiding, but you can be a bit sloppier compared to the razor sharp execution demanded by a raid. Legendary also allows matchmaking with randoms rather than requiring an organized group.

So while not as mechanical as a raid or laser focused as a Grandmaster Nightfall, Legendary provides a happy medium that retains combat difficulty while allowing more versatility. It‘s a nicely balanced sweet spot for challenge.

Bottom line: Highly recommended for most players

As both a Destiny expert and passionate fan, I highly recommend all players eventually take on the Legendary Witch Queen campaign for these key reasons:

• It provides the ideal skill challenge for veterans seeking fresh thrills. The danger makes you re-engage with combat in exciting ways.

• The limited revives and lethal enemies require thoughtful tactics and smart preparation to overcome.

• The reward of 1520 gear, modules and title progress is worth the effort.

• Pushing through the difficulty ultimately increased my narrative engagement and satisfaction.

• While often frustrating, overcoming hardship made victory profoundly gratifying.

Legendary campaign takes Destiny 2‘s amazing moment-to-moment gameplay loop and injects the high stakes and adrenaline it deserves. I believe facing this challenge made me a better and more thoughtful Guardian.

If you seek to test your skill and further forge yourself into a legendary hero, I couldn‘t recommend the Legendary Witch Queen campaign more. Defeat the darkness – and yourself – to unlock Destiny 2‘s most rewarding campaign experience yet!