Beta PvP (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Sunday, July 23, 2017, 01:28 (2725 days ago) @ BeardFade

I wanted a thread devoted to PvP in the Beta, since frankly, that's all I care about. Sadly, all I have is a list of gripes.

• Hunters feel weaker than ever before. No blink strike. A practically useless Golden Gun. Awesome. But at least we all get dodge, right?

Hunter is the one class I haven't tried in the Beta, so I can't speak to that.

[*] The radar is more useless than ever. So glad they got rid of the elevation information. As if there was an overload of information before.

I didn't have trouble with it myself, but you're far from the only person I've heard from who isn't digging the new radar. Hopefully it'll get tweaked.

[*] Sniping sucks. I'm pretty sure everyone else is happy, but given that I've run NLB/sidearm (and the sidearms I've gotten suck, too) exclusively for the better part of a year, it really sucks to know I may only get a handful of chances to even do it. Ever. It's a joke. God, I miss Y1 Destiny and ammo. Now I legitimately have to defer power ammo to someone who wants to play with something more practical, or who is superiorly skilled. Way to kill the fun, Bungie. Let's have less people participate, feel powerful, etc. Good job.

So I know we're on complete opposite sides of the fence on this one, but good riddance as far as I'm concerned. Sniper rifles did nothing but harm PvP in Destiny, IMO. I'm so sick of every single sightline being covered by 2-3 enemy snipers, just sitting back and hard-scoping. At best, it sucks all the fun out of a match because you know the entire game is going to be spent sitting and hiding, trying to outsnipe the enemy team. It's the most boring possible gameplay. And at worst (when you're up against a highly skilled team of snipers) it is just a rage-enducing slaughter as you get sniped from every possible angle, at any range, non-stop.
Bungie never figured out how to balance snipers such that they wouldn't dominate at long, medium, and close range. I'd be happy if they were just obliterated from the PvP game all together.

[*] I know people think 6v6 is too many. But number discrepancies/AFKs are far worse to experience in 4v4s. In 6's, a person missing from action was only a 16.7% difference. Now, it's a 25% difference. Also, there's no where to hide a bad player. Because they make up a greater portion of the team, their poor performance is a bigger factor. Which leads to.

I think 6v6 was too many in D1 for several reasons. Most of the maps weren't large enough, abilities and supers were too rampant, and the scenario of going up against 5-6 snipers just crushed map flow. With how the D2 Beta plays, I'd be curious to try 6v6. With fewer supers and grenades, plus fewer snipers, it might actually be fun now. But we'd certainly need larger maps.

[*] Solo play sucks even more. "Well, play with friends Beard!", I hear you say. To which I say, "I'm on the West Coast, which has a smaller number of players around to play by the time I'm ready. You East Coasters are going to bed before I'm done with dinner."

Yeah that's going to be an issue, I think. So much of it will come down to the nuances of matchmaking, and how party size/skill level is factored in. I share your concerns, but there are flip-sides. If I go into D1 as a solo player and go up against a party of 6, that is typically worse for me than going up against a party of 4 (all other things being equal). I still stand a chance of outplaying a team of 4 (unless matchmaking has put me and 3 other random against a party of 4 equally or higher skilled players, in which case wtf are you doing matchmaking?). But those chances are way smaller against a party of 6.

And while playing with a full group isn't always easy, it's easier to get a group of 4 together than a group of 6. And even if you don't have a full group, you and 1 friend can jump in together and bam: half your team is now coordinating well, which is more than most of the teamed you're likely to get matched against.

We'll just have to wait and see how this part shakes out.

Honestly, I love playing with y'all, but they are killing the fun out of PvP for any of us who aren't God-like players.

I don't see it that way myself. I think they're shifting the focus of the combat towards primary weapons and away from ability spam. I like having diverse abilities to play with, but too often in D1 I felt like supers and abilities and special weapons would dominate the flow of the game. I like giving players who are at a disadvantage tools or possibilities for turning the tide. But I'm not a fan of outplaying an opponent only to have them hit their "win button" and kill me, which happens all the freaking time in D1. So I think shifting the emphasis a bit towards primary weapons is a good thing at any skill level.

But hopefully they'll include some form of Mayhem variant (maybe a touch less insane than Mayhem in D1) that features faster cooldowns and more power ammo for those who enjoy that side of the game.