This is being discussed all over the place. I want to make my own point and see a discussion based on it if we can be civil peeps..
Quick note about me and my Destiny experience. I'm a day one player, I bought the CE, and I've pre-ordered the CE of The Taken King. I play a Hunter who is a level 34. I love the game and it's world, though I have my qualms with much of the rich story being behind grimoire cards. I love a lot of the weapon designs and armors though I believe many of the better names and designs were wasted on blue items. I wish the game had activities that didn't involve replaying missions (Sparrow Racing, Guardian Soccer, etc.). My first time running the Vault of Glass will remain a prized memory in my gaming history.
Now onto why I made this post. The first question I'd have to ask is: Why? What metrics are being measured and how that brought us to this point. The point I'm referring to is the new proposed weapon balances. I understand the absolute necessity in weapon balancing to keep the game somewhat challenging while ensuring players feel powerful. Balancing allows certain roles to be fulfilled (sniper vs cqb) and lets a degree of strategy creep into your loadout in some circumstances.
Let's be honest though, the most coveted weapons and thus the weapons most named in this recent outcry are coveted for a reason. Not because they're pretty, not because of an achievement, but because they make the more menial task just that much less menial. I'd love to jump off my sniper perch during the wave defense on the Archon Priest strike, but given that yellow Hobgoblins can practically auto fire their near one-hit kill weapon across the map with [i]distressing[/i] accuracy, nah, I'll keep Ice Breaker handy. I'd love to get up close and personal with [i]any[/i] boss type character, but alas, [b]every. single. one.[/b] has a ground pound attack with enormous range and strength that makes Black Hammer my go to.
Atheon, Skolas, Deathsinger, Phogoth, Valus. Do you know what they all have in common? Uninteresting bullet sponges. Guess where Gjallahorn comes in? You guessed it, leveling the playing field. We didn't ask for a broken weapon, but when the majority of boss characters amount to the same thing which is: Enter arena, release bad guy. fight insane amount of over-leveled minions, do like 5% damage, fight more minions. etc. then Gjallahorn becomes the answer to an otherwise monotonous fight we've already done 100 times over. We struggled to get our Gjallahorn, and now we're reaping the rewards. We found our strategy because you didn't design one. Yes this is the part where it takes a more serious tone.
When you drop in a bullet sponge enemy to any situation there is only one "strategy": do massive amounts of damage as fast as possible. As stated above, the answer was given to us some time ago, the Gjallahorn. I don't think you're truly grasping the trust you're "dismantling" (heh) by saying "we take it all back" and nerfing all of our favorite weapons to use in the encounters [b]you[/b] designed to be uninteresting and definitely unfair. There's no possible way to make an encounter fun after 100 playthroughs, but if we finally find a way to make that bearable do you really mean to tell me that the only answer is to take that away from us? You're creative, show it.
I understand your concerns for these encounters and wanting them to play a certain way, but did you ever think that tweaking the encounter (read: [b]not[/b] the player) would be a better idea? Here's a list of a few improvements I can think of:
Archon Priest: Either less Hobgoblins in the wave fight or lower damage hobgoblins, decrease amount of minions or lower a level.
The Nexus: lower the splash damage on those attacks. When cover isn't even an option.......
Phogoth: give his melee attack a little more of a tell and buildup so that close range is actually viable
Valus: those rockets fire [b]way[/b] too often. They could be set to do more damage if they fired half as much, making them a little more interesting and way less annoying.
Omnigul: I'll be honest, this is just the worst strike in existence. This thing needs so much work I can't.....
You've made a lot of tweaks, you've added a lot and changed many things for us despite what some gamers would say. However, nerfing our prized possessions: these items went to hell and back for, stayed up long nights for, restarted that checkpoint countless times for, these weapons that have their own stories in our minds, and are what [b]made us Legend[/b] is the absolute worst way to tackle the issue. I've got so much faith in you guys, but you've really got to look at us and see [i]why[/i] we use these weapons, and not [i]how[/i].
Thanks for your time everyone.
-
I agree with pretty much everything you said. Very well presented!! I hope bungie sees this and really thinks about it.
-
You read my mind. For the third time since HOW has released I think about deleting Destiny from my PS4. Ill do trials this weekend and see if I am done. Most likely I will be. My seven year old son does not play anymore - because he is bored and deleted Destiny from his HDD.