Shoulder charge is back? (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Thursday, August 09, 2018, 19:04 (2374 days ago) @ Ragashingo

Query: If you don’t want a near-instant TTK, why are you running a build designed to play into natural reactions to net you a near instant TTK?

Because I think there should be several synergistic builds you can aim for that demonstrate a mastery of load out and skill. By starting with a long TTK and allowing players who understand the game the best to lower it significantly by both their gear and actions you create a more nuanced and adaptive game.

If you just set all TTK's to almost 0 you don't do that. It starts to almost not even matter what gun or armor you are using when every melee battle ends before the enemy can react. When every gun battle ends before the enemy can even aim down the sights what does gun selection even matter?

Strategy, adaptability, retreat... all will be much less possible when your enemy's first attack instantly kills you. Take my The Wall Upon With EVERYTHING Breaks video. Under the new rules, the Titan I shoulder charged might have very well traded kills with me (generally if I'm low on health with the current rules, it probably means I'd be dead under the new Forsaken ones) meaning the next three Guardians I killed based on knowing my armor, weapons, and abilities would not have happened.

It's that kind of thing I'm very much afraid of. That the game is going to move much more towards dying instantly over and over again to someone with a shotgun rather than more protracted battles where things like skill, map knowledge, and load out actually matters.

But Destiny has never delivered particularly deep, protracted PvP battles (not a knock against Destiny... just a comment).

The TTK has always been quick enough that if you sustain any damage during an engagement, your chances of being picked off by another opponent a moment later are extremely high. Especially in a game where most game types are 6v6 on small maps.

That’s why an emphasis on faster TTK actually rewards skilled players. It puts the emphasis on the initial ability to target and aim quickly. Since taking any damage at all is such a huge disadvantage when dealing with multiple opponents, a fast TTK swings the advantage back towards the player who is able to aim and shoot faster than everyone else. It also makes knowledge of map layout and sight lines MORE important, not less.

Now, I’d be equally in favour of pushing Destiny in the other direction; longer battles, with more tactical gameplay and mechanical variety. I love games like that too. A perfect example is (drum roll...) Titanfall! Titan vs Titan combat in that series is highly rewarding to strategic positioning and thoughtful use of each Titan’s unique abilities, knowledge of each class’ strengths and weaknesses, etc. But in Destiny, the 3 classes really aren’t that different, and their abilities aren’t impactful enough to steer the combat in meaningful ways most of the time. And in the rare circumstances where they are impactful, they’re on such long cooldowns that they rarely get the opportunity to shine.

The reality of Destiny PvP is that abilities are a minor part of the mix. It doesn’t matter how good I get with grenades or barricades or shoulder charges, none of that is going to come close to matching the 20-30 kills that I get every single control match using Graviton Lance. I’ll get another 5-7 kills with supers, maybe 1 grenade kill if I’m lucky.

My point is that Destiny is far far closer to the quick TTK, twitch shooter end of the spectrum than it is to the methodical, tactical combat side of the gameplay spectrum. So if it’s going to lean into it’s strengths, I think going slightly faster is the more logical choice.