Rediscovering Destiny (Destiny)
by Ragashingo 
, Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, April 18, 2015, 02:49 (3753 days ago)
edited by Ragashingo, Saturday, April 18, 2015, 03:01
Two days ago I deleted and started the process of remaking my Titan. I wanted to play through Destiny's story missions again and this doing them in order at or below the proper level (instead of the 32 my Titan was at!) without all my super powers and exotic abilities and so on. It's going well so far. Really well.
A few thoughts:
1. Mission and Strikes are actually somewhat challenging again!
Running The Devil's Lair without much more than the base Ward of Dawn and a fairly crappy Pulse Rifle and a shotgun that often runs out of ammo was a blast. I died a good bit and so did my randoms, but not in a dumb way. The strike was legitimately challenging and that was a lot of fun! Same for the mission up to Venus. I'm running them on Heroic as often as possible and they're a good amount of fun when I can't just tank and overpower every single enemy.
2. Destiny actually has a ton of cool sets of armor. You just never get to see them over level 20!
I can't wait to get back to my high end armor, but there's a lot to be said for the cool look of the sub-20 armor sets. I think my Titan looks more awesome right now than he is going to look once I put that stupid Saint-14 fan hat on. A few of the Exotic armor pieces are pretty cool looking, I really like the Knucklehead Radar for instance, but a lot of them are odd or distracting or don't really suit what I think of my Guardians as. I'd take the look of just about any of the lower level Titan helmets (except the Unicorn ones) over the Helm of Saint-14, for instance. I want to get my high end armor back for its abilities... but I'm kinda dreading the way my Titan will end up looking. :(
3. I wondered how bad Crucible was going to be with merely Uncommon weapons...
...and it's not that bad! I've found an Uncommon Pulse Rifle that feel pretty similar to Three Little Words. I miss my always on radar but I can reach out and touch someone pretty well. My Uncommon shotgun is crap and I don't foresee myself getting anything better before level 20... but I make the best of it. There have been a few times that I lose a shootout because I'm having to use non-Legendary weapons... but for the most part a level 9 - 13 can hold his own against even level 32. That's fun!
4. I really miss my blinding bubble!
I've come to rely on my blinding bubble for so much. Armor of Light is more or less all you need to defend a bubble in the Crucible, but the blinding effect is amazingly useful in PvE. Yeah, I'll be wearing a dumb looking helm to get it, but it's worth it!
5. It is total crap that you don't earn any reputation or marks until level 20.
I'm saving the entire planet but that's not enough to buy a gun from a vendor?! I think you should earn Vanguard and Crucible marks and reputation from the very start. That way, even if the vendors still require you to be level 20 at least you'll have a decent store of each built up by the time you finish the campaign. Maybe not enough to buy anything yet... but you won't be starting from zero after playing the game for several hours... It's really disappointing the way it is now. I'm not a huge detractor of Destiny's "grind" but this one part feels staged and artificially limited even to me.
If you haven't played Destiny from 0 in a while I highly recommend Vaulting all your stuff and rerolling a character. It's a lot of fun!
Rediscovering Destiny
by CruelLEGACEY 
, Toronto, Saturday, April 18, 2015, 11:38 (3752 days ago) @ Ragashingo
I kinda had the opposite experience when I made my Hunter and Titan back in December. I found the 1-20 portion of the game painful to replay.
For me, Destiny's combat doesn't become enjoyable until level 26 or so. Once you have the majority of your abilities unlocked, and you have some more diverse weapons and armor, then the combat really comes to life. I enjoyed the early game the first time through, despite the combat. I loved exploring the worlds and taking in the sights and sounds. But after almost 600 hours of replaying these missions, the sights and sounds alone, spectacular as they are, are not enough to keep things enjoyable for me. It's the combat that keeps me playing over and over and over.
It's cool that you enjoyed replaying it from scratch though. I wish I'd had the same reaction to it.
Rediscovering Destiny
by Ragashingo , Official DBO Cryptarch, Saturday, April 18, 2015, 16:00 (3752 days ago) @ CruelLEGACEY
I kinda had the opposite experience when I made my Hunter and Titan back in December. I found the 1-20 portion of the game painful to replay.
For me, Destiny's combat doesn't become enjoyable until level 26 or so. Once you have the majority of your abilities unlocked, and you have some more diverse weapons and armor, then the combat really comes to life. I enjoyed the early game the first time through, despite the combat. I loved exploring the worlds and taking in the sights and sounds. But after almost 600 hours of replaying these missions, the sights and sounds alone, spectacular as they are, are not enough to keep things enjoyable for me. It's the combat that keeps me playing over and over and over.
It's cool that you enjoyed replaying it from scratch though. I wish I'd had the same reaction to it.
One part of that might be the difference between class powers. My Defender Titan was bascially complete power wise extremely early on. His sticky grenades are his first option. Armor of Light is the first extra in the Super column... and really that's all you need to run a competent Defender. A Gunslinger doesn't get the options I want, like the flaming knife or the dual knives, until much much later. The Bladedancer dosn't get Fast Twitch or Hungering blade until the very end of their skill tree. If anything the Defender is an awesome class but also a boring class as a lot of their extra abilities feel a bit unnecessary or nice to have but not anywhere near as essential. Void Walkers don't get Axion Bolts until very late. Sunsingers don't get their self-revive or Flame Shield or burning grenades or dual grenades until well past level 18. Even Striker Titans don't get "esentials" like Transfusion or Shoulder Charge until late into the end game!
The other part is I haven't played really any of the story missions in months. Are they as good as a typical Halo mission? Nope. They're too short. They're too abrupt. They don't connect well. And really there's only one or two unique battles to each mission. But they're still fun to go through once especially if you put them a level higher than you are so they aren't cakewalks. I won't play through them a second time anytime soon but I'm enjoying the challenge for now... that and I'm almost done. Just have Mars left...
That's a really good point about the different classes.
by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, April 20, 2015, 13:04 (3750 days ago) @ Ragashingo
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