Old vs New: Weapons (and Armor) (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Saturday, March 12, 2016, 15:14 (3272 days ago) @ red robber

I've made a few posts on this subject in the past... I feel pretty strongly that the weapons sandbox in year 2 so far has been a big step down from year 1. Primary weapons in particular have been hit really hard. If you look at the current PvP landscape, I think it's pretty telling that Mida and Last Word seem to be the 2 most dominant primary weapons (with Doctrine of Passing right there with them, if you get the right roll). Mida is basically the same gun it was in year 1. It was always very good, but in year 1 it just couldn't compete with many of the better hand cannons or Pulse Rifles. But they've all been nerfed to the point where Mida now blows them out of the water in most situations. As for the Last Word; it was one of the best PvP guns in year 1, then it received a substantial nerf, yet it is still better than most other weapons in year 2.

I think the year 2 weapons lack the diversity and overall performance of the year 1 weapons. There are hardly any guns that behave the way I would like them to. Or to put it another way, I find most year 2 weapons feel disappointing in one way or another. "This would be great if it just fired a little faster" or "I almost love this thing I just wish the range wasn't so terrible". Almost every gun has a major flaw that prevents it from feeling awesome in any situation, unlike some of the year 1 weapons that felt awesome in almost every situation.

So my knee-jerk response to your question is "yes, please make year 1 weapons viable for end-game content". Obviously there would need to be a few tweaks here and there (thorn is a big problem, as you already mentioned).

But I think what I would like even more than that is to have new Year 2 weapons introduced that were as fun and exciting as the guns in year 1. I know I play this game way more than the average player (so I have more weapons than the average player) but at this point it has been almost a year since there's been a raid drop I've been excited about. I miss that feeling. That loop of playing my favorite activity in the game, getting a cool new toy that was loads of fun to use, then going back into my favorite activity and enjoying it in a whole new way because of my new toy! That's been missing from Destiny for a very long time for me, and I'd love to see it come back. Giving us the ability to bring year 1 guns up to year 2 level would be great (and for those who perhaps missed certain weapons the first time around it would fill the gap I'm describing) but I think I'd like to see all new stuff even more.