A lot of people are assuming that because Bungie is dropping the patch shortly before the Taken King, that means there will be the possibility to ascend current weapons. I mean, why would they change these weapons if they were going to be obsolete? There's plenty of reasons:

1. Attack doesn't matter in PvP, so ascension doesn't matter. Old weapons will still be used.
2. You are starting the Taken King with old weapons. You will still use them for a time in PvE content.
3. Attack power doesn't matter as much as you think. Remember how a 300 fatebringer was still better than any other 331 hand canon on Dark Below? Well, weapons like Black Hammer and Gjallarhorn would still be better than their Year Two counterparts given their unique perks. Guess which weapons got nerfs? :-p

Don't expect to be able to ascend your weapons just because they are balancing current ones in PvE. Just remember my prediction…

A lot of people are assuming that because Bungie is dropping the patch shortly before the Taken King, that means there will be the possibility to ascend current weapons. I mean, why would they change these weapons if they were going to be obsolete? There's plenty of reasons:

1. Attack doesn't matter in PvP, so ascension doesn't matter. Old weapons will still be used.
2. You are starting the Taken King with old weapons. You will still use them for a time in PvE content.
3. Attack power doesn't matter as much as you think. Remember how a 300 fatebringer was still better than any other 331 hand canon on Dark Below? Well, weapons like Black Hammer and Gjallarhorn would still be better than their Year Two counterparts given their unique perks. Guess which weapons got nerfs? :-p

Don't expect to be able to ascend your weapons just because they are balancing current ones in PvE. Just remember my prediction…

I suspect you're right when it comes to legendary weapons, but I think they'll let us continue to upgrade our exotics.

I agree. And I suspect the end of year 2 we will see something similar. I'm on the fence on if we will see original items hit year 2 max at some point, but I bet we will. Definitely not in the next expansion though.

Part of me wants them to force us to re-acquire exotics for year two. Just to give me a reason to run nightfalls again.

Part of me wants them to force us to re-acquire exotics for year two. Just to give me a reason to run nightfalls again.

Forcing us to re-acquire exotics is like offering a long time recovering drug addict a big ol' fat crack rock.

That said, I'm in. I'm so far behind, I don't care if they make all the current weapons useless. I don't have many of them anyway, so screw it. Let the loot chasing begin!

My main concern with making old loot obsolete is us having new loot to replace it. Even with two expansions under my belt, I still trend toward using exotics from the original game rather than Dark Below or House of Wolves. Some good exceptions, like Lord of Wolves on occasion or Ruin Wings if I'm soloing for awhile.

On the other hand, I'd really like a good excuse to diversify. Kinda sick of my helmet of saint 14.

Think how terrible that would be for someone who got a new exotic the day before TTK came out! My hope is that they'll continue to support all the guns, even the old ones, and the nerfing of some of the more insane perks was a way to do that.

My main concern with making old loot obsolete is us having new loot to replace it. Even with two expansions under my belt, I still trend toward using exotics from the original game rather than Dark Below or House of Wolves. Some good exceptions, like Lord of Wolves on occasion or Ruin Wings if I'm soloing for awhile.

On the other hand, I'd really like a good excuse to diversify. Kinda sick of my helmet of saint 14.

Bungie has already chosen their method of content delivery. More frequent and in smaller quantity. This is inferior to less frequent and of more quantity, but the choice is made.

They have a problem, because old weapons are very good, and they messed up with perks and stuff on the old weapons. Fixing the perk situation in HoW only made the weapons that much more inferior to the old ones.

There are two choices: let us keep upgrading our gear, or start over. Keeping old gear makes new content too easy. Starting over doesn't feel good and is a loot treadmill.

i feel like at some point we will just need to start over, after they figure out a way to introduce new weapons that will be desirable alongside the old ones. A very challenging endeavor when you have frequent content packs, but perhaps a problem they can solve. It could have been avoided in the first place if there were 4 Destiny games, with no taking gear between them.

My main concern with making old loot obsolete is us having new loot to replace it. Even with two expansions under my belt, I still trend toward using exotics from the original game rather than Dark Below or House of Wolves. Some good exceptions, like Lord of Wolves on occasion or Ruin Wings if I'm soloing for awhile.

On the other hand, I'd really like a good excuse to diversify. Kinda sick of my helmet of saint 14.

Bungie has already chosen their method of content delivery. More frequent and in smaller quantity. This is inferior to less frequent and of more quantity, but the choice is made.

They have a problem, because old weapons are very good, and they messed up with perks and stuff on the old weapons. Fixing the perk situation in HoW only made the weapons that much more inferior to the old ones.

There are two choices: let us keep upgrading our gear, or start over. Keeping old gear makes new content too easy. Starting over doesn't feel good and is a loot treadmill.

i feel like at some point we will just need to start over, after they figure out a way to introduce new weapons that will be desirable alongside the old ones. A very challenging endeavor when you have frequent content packs, but perhaps a problem they can solve. It could have been avoided in the first place if there were 4 Destiny games, with no taking gear between them.

You did read about the upcoming weapon changes, right? Where they are decreasing the bonuses given by the old stability, range, and ammo perks so that the newer "plus this minus that" perks make more sense. And they've already shown a willingness to tone down (or up!) anything from individual weapons to entire weapon categories as needed. So why can't the plan going forward just be to keep everything and fix problem spots as needed? It's not like the old guns were so awesome that the newer ones are useless. Case in point, most of the weapons I use today are House of Wolves era and I don't can't remember the last time I was killed by a legacy Legendary...

(Also keep in mind that we're going to be told more about weapons and weapon foundries next week so there might be stuff revealed soon that will make both our theories moot!)

I agree that it is a completely selfish wish, just something that I would personally find fun.

Well... you can make it happen, for you, if you really want it to! :p