Let's talk PvP Weapon Balance (Destiny)

by Claude Errera , Tuesday, June 21, 2016, 17:11 (3019 days ago) @ Kahzgul

Now, it wouldn't be problematic if special ammo wasn't so scarce, but when you get into situations where you have no special, you're really screwed in this game right now. "secondary" weapons are everyone's go-to guns. They're not specific role weapons at all - they're playstyle defining, and they certainly aren't of secondary nature compared to primaries.

I'm having some trouble with your argument. Either everyone's running around with secondaries all the time, or secondary ammo is so scarce you can't actually use them in emergency situations... I don't think you can have both.

Both of the scenarios you describe are happening now. A team with board control also has ammo control and effectively has infinite secondary ammo. A team without board control has no ammo at all for their secondaries. The result is lopsided contests which are over from 1:30 in, but have to play out for the next 8 minutes in a way that isn't fun at all for the team that can't even get out of their spawn to get ammo. I've been on both sides of these matches, and it's totally fun to dominate the other team, but I think more can be done to at least give the poor guys a chance here.

Ah. Now I understand what you were saying. (This doesn't happen to me TOO often, so I have trouble saying it's a problem that needs fixing, but I'd feel differently if the majority of games I was playing were like this. (Or even a significant percentage.))

This is exactly my thesis statement: The game is both the most balanced it's ever been and horribly unbalanced. Secondaries are balanced well for other secondaries. Primaries for other primaries. But the game between the two is massive. Secondary vs. secondary is fair. Primary vs. primary is fair. Primary vs. secondary is not fair at all.

Heh - I can't even tell you the number of times I'm trying to snipe someone from across the map (say, door of C's lower building to top of B ramp on Black Shield) when I get killed by the guy I'm trying to snipe... where he's using a scout rifle. It's embarrassing.

I see it happen to others in the games I'm in, too. And I do it, sometimes. I think you and I play in different leagues; at my skill level, Primary vs Secondary is fair enough of the time. (It shouldn't ALWAYS be fair - otherwise, what would be the point of more powerful secondaries?)

Case and point: It took me 5 games of 10-20 kills per game to actually get 10 hand cannon kills last week. If that had been "get 10 shotgun kills in a game" I could have easily done it in one game, but with a hand cannon, even if I'd intentionally done nothing but hand cannon, I'd have gotten far fewer kills (and my K/D would have been in the basement, meaning my team would probably have lost the close games, too). Even with my best primary, the pulse rifle, I almost never get more than 5 kills per game with it (I know because I've had the same "games with 6+ pulse kills" bounty for over a month). and, again, I'm almost always in the 10-20 total kills per game range. I mean, when was the last time you even bothered trying to complete a "get 9+ kills with x primary type" bounty? In year 1 that would have been a gimmie. In year 2 it's nearly impossible.

Heh - again, I finish the Scout one almost every week it's available, on my Warlock, using Tlaloc. You and I have very, very different playstyles. :)