Keeping the ratings separate. (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, March 31, 2016, 16:52 (3253 days ago) @ Funkmon

Crucible is light level independent. It allows you to play how you want, except for special modes. They do damage based on impact alone.

In vanguard, guns do damage because of both light level and impact. The two ratings are needed to keep this aspect of the game intact.

What I'm thinking though is that I would prefer a system where in Vanguard, impact is all. If you removed light levels from the game, you could still have some weapons do more damage than others, and that info could be more directly and accurately communicated through the weapon's stat tree. So my green hand cannon would have far lower impact than my blue HCs or purple HCs, for example.

What got me thinking about his was the point in the stream where they reintroduced some Year 1 legendaries at level 330. On the one hand, I'm excited to get to try some of these guns because I missed them the first time around. But if I put on my "skeptical" hat, it is a little too easy to for me to wonder "just what are they giving us?". Bungie is giving us the ability to grind, yet again, for weapons that many of us already have (or have had in the past). Weapons that we were able to acquire through the grace of RNG, then sunk hours into grinding to earn the materials and XP to upgrade them, only to later delete many of them because the numbers above the new enemies' heads were higher than the numbers on the gun. Now we get to do all that again... and that's a good thing? (again, I'm playing Devil's advocate a little bit here. My feelings on it are mixed).

If there were no light levels, this loop couldn't possibly exist. Bungie could still release new content and new gear to go along with it. But the new gear wouldn't automatically make the old gear obsolete. Ironically, that right there is one of the only possible arguments I can think of in favor of light levels... it gives Bungie a way to cycle old gear out of relevance in favor of new gear (It's the only reason we don't still see Ice Breakers and Gjallarhorns everywhere). Personally, I think what we have now is a bit of a case of "throwing the baby out with the bath water". I'd rather have new gear that can co-exist along side all the stuff we've already got. If an old weapon is too powerful, tweak it. It would also mean that new gear would need to be actually new, and not just the same archetypes and specs with a higher light level attached.