I think Bungie dropped the ball... (Destiny)

by MacAddictXIV , Seattle WA, Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 17:12 (3262 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY

So I will say that I also love raids, but I'm more of a PvE fanboy and not really much of a fan of PvP. Don't get me wrong, I like playing PvP, but if Bungie asked me what I wanted them to work on next, I would say PvE 120%. This is just to show you where my loyalties lie :-)

Okay, so I understand your grievances. I share some of those with you.

So what can be done?

The shining star of the House of Wolves expansion is Etheric Light. With this currency, we can take any gear we want and bring it up to max level. We can build out our characters however we like, to suit any playstyle. Awesome. If only etheric light wasn't such a pain in the ass to find.

This is true. It is. But so are some exotics (ask Cody)

Well actually, it isn't a pain to find at all... for PvP players. 1 hour of playing Trials of Osiris granted me 3 pieces of Etheric Light, plus 2 awesome new weapons, plus a great chest piece, and a fist full of other worthwhile rewards (coins, motes of light, plenty of glimmer). And that was just 1 play through with a single character.

Maybe I'm unlucky, but I have never gotten a Etheric Light. And I've played about 5-6 hours of ToO. I would lean on the side of saying that you are really lucky to get 3 in an hour.

If I run ToO every week with multiple characters, plus the Iron Banner once a month, I'll get a nice steady flow of Etheric Light and plenty of great gear drops along the way. And even when I'm not playing ToO or Iron Banner, standard crucible matches now dish out rewards at a fantastic rate. Last week, 2 hours of the skirmish playlist got me 3 great new legendary weapons.

I think this is largely due to the increase in loot for PvP. In comparison to PoE, I think they overcompensated the loot drops to the other side of the spectrum. I don't approve.

I think Bungie needs take this approach and apply it to PvE end content. I've run 6 nightfalls and 3 raids since House of Wolves dropped... not a single piece of Etheric Light. I earned better gear in less time playing Skirmish than I did by completing all 3 nightfalls this week.

Agreed.

If the ultimate promise of Etheric Light is to allow us the freedom build our characters however we want, speced out for whatever activity we want, then it seems to me that a wider range of reliable ways to earn etheric light would be in keeping with the spirit of that goal.

The most reliable way to earn Etheric Light is actually in PoE. Everywhere else it's random (as far as I know).

They should still be rare, just not as rare as they are now. Make them slightly more common drops during raids, nightfalls, and daily/weekly heroics. Perhaps 1 guaranteed piece of etheric light every time we rank up our Queen's rep.

I actually think that End game loot in HoW is really split between the actually new loot and Eitheric Light, which essentially means upgraded items.

And I think that is how it should be. However, I think it's almost too easy to get both of these things. I think Etheric Light should actually be harder to get.

Let us treat Prison of Elders as the occasional diversion that it really is, rather than forcing it into the prime-time spotlight as the primary end game activity.

In my eyes PoE and ToO are both end game content. I understand that you want to compare PoE to a raid in terms of end game content, but you just can't. It's not the same. Bungie has said that they wouldn't have a raid and have tried to make up for that with PoE AND ToO.

I don't think PoE has lived up to my standards, but I also think that the beauty of PoE is it's ability to evolve in months to come. Not just the randomness week from week. Raids aren't going to get bigger, more sections added to it, different loot drops. PoE can evolve well beyond any raid. That is what I'm looking forward to.