I was going through a bunch of my old Destiny images and I came across this screenshot from pre-Dark Below times.
This image alone gave me a huge hit of nostalgia. I remembered the complete satisfaction of having all the Vault of Glass Hard Mode gear I wanted (I never knew the struggle of forever 29. Forever 26 though...). Coming back each week for the Nightfall, excited about what elemental burn it was going to be. Eager to complete the weekly bounties to level up the gear I had. It wasn't much content in the way of end game, but it was more than enjoyable.
The Dark Below drops, a few things change. Some weapons are sadly left behind for unwanted, newer, more effective ones. More endgame content. I remember doing Crota's End Hard Mode EVERY WEEK and I still didn't get that damn Crux! To this day, I don't have it. I found the Dark Below enjoyable, but the gear I had worked hard for during vanilla was made redundant. That left a bad taste.
House of Wolves drops. I loved this DLC for two reasons. First and foremost, you could get a material to bring your old weapons and armour to the current max level standard. I loved this. The first Etheric Light I got my hands on went straight into my Vault of Glass helm. The next went into my FateBringer. The rest of my beloved gear was eventually brought to standard too. This made the Prison of Elders another weekly routine, one of each stage was done with friends. Then came my first PoE Exotic Bounty and I went straight for that sweet, sweet Lord of Wolves. To actually get my hands on a Captain's Shrapnel Launcher was one of my favourite times in Destiny. Soon after, I got the QueenBreaker's Bow, another gun I was really happy to use because it was an actual Wire Rifle. Using [b]actual[/b] Fallen weapons instead of weapons themed after them was an awesome experience. House of Wolves had to be my favourite stage of Destiny's post-release development.
And everything I had worked for was made redundant again. It was a bit of a slap in the face, but I eventually adapted. Bungie had done a real number on Destiny when they released the Taken King. New Strikes where the bosses WEREN'T bullet sponges, actual gun foundries (something that gives a lot more character to Destiny's universe, like Borderlands' weapon foundries), SWORDS (I goddamn love my Raze Lighter) and much, much more. After doing the King's Fall Normal Mode, getting some cool Hive guns and eventually the Touch of Malice, I gave the raid rest for a little while. Then I started seeing all this talk of Mouldering Shards having the chance of giving you MORE Moldering Shards at the end. This kinda scared me off doing any more raiding. What's the point in a consumable giving you the chance to get more of the same consumable? Leaving the raid to be, I spammed Heroic Strikes for a good month before Destiny started to feel like a chore. It got to the point where I would turn on my Xbox, reach the login screen, go "Eh" and switch to another game. I've just been playing Rust for like, two months now.
Anyway, that's the kind of chain reaction of thoughts that the image above brought to me. How I felt about Destiny from the start, how I feel about it now and everything in between.
TL;DR I saw a pretty picture and it reminded me of vanilla Destiny during the olden days. I miss all my old gear and I liked how Etheric Light worked. rip Vex Mythoclast.
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I can still find Randal in the forgotten shore every now and again