#5 - Elemental Primaries
Elemental primaries were around at the games launch, however there were very few elemental primaries and an even fewer amount were strong weapons. Originally obtained only through a hard mode raid, Vault of Glass, for vanilla Destiny, new elemental primaries were introduced with each expansion. In The Dark Below there was Crota's End hard mode and in The House of Wolves there was either going flawless in Trials of Osiris or doing Lvl 35 version of Prison of Elders. However with The Taken King expansion, Bungie did not add any elemental primaries into the game and all old ones were left behind and not brought forward to Year 2. In this Game Informer article, Luke Smith, a leading game designer at Bungie, states that this was to create more diversity in which primary weapons are used. This strategy definitely succeeded but they made an exception to their rule which is why I put this on the list. The exotic auto rifle Zhalo Supercell has arc damage, the only primary weapon in The Taken King which has an elemental damage type. This creates an irregularity with the arc element in Taken King, much like how Solar burn was rarely used in Year 1 activities because of the potency of Gjallahorn, Black Hammer and Vision of Confluence, arc burn will most likely take a back seat because of how strong this one weapon will become in those activities. If arc burn is used, any player without this weapon will find the activity much more difficult than those who do. The idea of getting rid of them was sound, but there was no reason for this exception.
#4 - The Loss of Old Content
Destiny was a game criticized for a lack of content on release. Each expansion has added more content so this criticism is no longer entirely true, but is still relevant because with each new expansion, some of the old content seems to be pushed away. The previous end-game activities are no longer of use to players, except to play them for nostalgia or if they missed out on the opportunity in Year 1. The rewards are no longer end-game, and are not even from Year 2. The daily story mission before any expansion had been released, used to go in order through the story missions, and then start the cycle over after it had been completed. When the first DLC was released, this pattern has stopped and never resumed. Instead, it focuses on the few missions added in the DLC and a couple from the base game. In Taken King, the hope of breaking this pattern has all but vanished, as two missions introduced are directly related in receiving two of the new exotic weapons. If the cycle would return to pre-DLC, these exotics would only be available once a month. The loss of content is not limited to PvE, but also PvP, as many older multiplayer maps fail to make an appearance in newer playlists. This trend has been noticed by many players of the community and to read those thoughts you can click here.
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| Old maps are available in separate playlists |
This trend in Destiny is mainly referring to the Crucible. When Destiny first launched, Auto Rifles were the undisputed number one choice for weapons, due to their range and accuracy that matched the precision weapons of scout/pulse rifles. Auto rifles were quickly nerfed into the ground in accuracy, range, and base damage. Around this same time, the Thorn and other handcannons received small buffs, and became the new powerhouse of the Crucible. However, handcannons reign was different from that of the auto rifles. Auto rifles across the entire weapon type were superior, but handcannons it was only the exotics that were extremely overpowered. After almost 9 long months of these weapons being at the top, Update 2.0 nerfed the whole handcannon class, and pulse rifles rose into power. Certain pulse rifles were already making their way into Crucible before the demise of the handcannons and when they were nerfed, it just opened the floodgates. Pulse rifles may be the strongest out of the three weapon types to hold their grip over the crucible in their primes. Like auto rifles, almost any pulse rifle can be used, they have superior range and a significant amount of flinch or stagger on opponents due to the burst nature of pulses. The reign of auto rifles lasted for around 3 months, handcannons close to 9 months, it will be curious to see how long pulse rifles will be left in the limelight.
#2 - The Double RNG Issue
The double RNG issue is a change introduced in The Taken King's raid King's Fall. Not only do players only have a chance at acquiring the best gear in the game, but the stats of that gear is also randomly picked from a range of values. Now with the reworking of leveling in Taken King, the small difference in the range of values is not really noticeable when playing, but dedicated players have already begun to feel the frustration and recognize the long grind ahead of them if they want to reach the max obtainable level. The other end-game activity, Trials of Osiris, also includes this range of values for its drops, but these drops are only given for going flawless on a ticket (going 9-0 or going 7-1 with the boons purchased) in brutal crucible matches against other top tier players. In this week Bungie Weekly Update, the statistic was published that only 16% of players who participated in Trials were able to make it to the Lighthouse. This small percentage is a fine number in my opinion as Trials is supposed to put the best against the best, but it also shows how many number players will be reliant on the double RNG of the raid for the best gear in the game.
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| The Lighthouse chest on Mercury |
Simply put, the economy in Destiny is a mess. With each expansion new currency is introduced into the game in an effort to help delay players in reaching max level or completing all the content too quickly, and once another expansion is released all that currency becomes useless. Some currency has been used since the games inception, but what it can be used for has changed dramatically. The two best examples of this are Motes of Light and Weapon Parts. In vanilla destiny up to the House of Wolves expansion Motes were not a piece of sought after currency. They could be spent on special class items from the Speaker in the Tower, or used to buy exotic engrams from Xur. In House of Wolves they were introduced as the currency to upgrade armor and weapons. In The Taken King, they are no longer used at Xur, but can now be traded in at Factions for reputation, are used in infusing weapons and armor to higher levels, and can be consumed to add experience to weapons and armor. Weapon Parts are, like their name, used in upgrading of weapons. In vanilla destiny dedicated players had stacks of a couple thousand of this currency. In House of Wolves those stacks took a hit as Bungie introduced reforging for weapons, and although they removed reforging in Taken King, Weapon Parts are used in purchasing items at the Gunsmith, infusing weapons, ranking up weapons and have had their drop rate reduced leaving those stacks of thousand a thing of the past. A recent reddit thread was created discussing the issues with the economy as a whole and particularly for new players who never had the chance to build of vast quantities of certain materials.
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| A view of several currencies of Destiny |
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