One argument against this (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Tuesday, June 20, 2017, 00:24 (2950 days ago) @ Claude Errera

This is totally valid given the current loot system.

That being said, if the hard mode was rebalanced to be cosmetic items only, you would get things like oracle killer from the normal mode, and need them for the hard mode. It would be a situation where the hard mode would be every bit as finely tuned as it is now, but would not require current hard mode loot - it would require the best available normal mode loot because (hopefully obviously) hard mode loot wouldn't exist.

Like if Bungie just added a new, SUPER hard mode VoG that was light 410, dropped no loot at all save a guaranteed spaceship and shader on final kill, with a guaranteed emblem if you do it with no wipes. It would be hard as hell compared to 390 VoG, right? But still fully doable (I imagine), and doable without a need for weekly farming unless you were obsessed with getting flawless. Not doable for every raid group, but doable for the ultra elite groups who simply want more challenge.

You could even do a raid that, once anyone had cleared it, got 1 light level harder the following week for everyone attempting it. Then it would just be an endgame competition for the best of the best, purely for bragging rights. The initial balance would be upended by player ability, and not by somewhat arbitrary designer guesses as to what an appropriate difficulty should be.