The Thorn bounty is teaching me to love PVP (Destiny)

by electricpirate , Wednesday, July 22, 2015, 14:43 (3649 days ago)

So I was pretty cool on PVP up until last week. I was sitting at a sub 1 K/D, and I just felt like I was banging my head against the wall. Every time I sat down to play, I'd drop into the daily playlist for the rewards, get bumrushed and get out. Last week I started the thorn bounty, and given that my only void weapon was an ok shotty (Hard Luck Charm) I decided to go for it.

After a few rounds I realized I'd been playing Destiny PVP all wrong, and suddenly, I can't get enough of it.

I used to play Halo aggresively, there was no conflict I couldn't jump it, toss some grenades, melee some faces and come out of without at least a kill. It wasn't the most efficient, but I could keep an okish K/D, and if i was with a crew I could add a lot to the team. In Destiny PVE, I find agression and daring also works best. Unless you are cheesing encounters there are few safe spots, and getting to the next best cover often involves aggressively moving through enemies.

Destiny PVP however is based around patience. Without the thorn bountie I was charging in and getting slaughtered. With the thorn bountie I started caring about Dying much more. Suddenly it clicked. Forcing myself to wait a bit, or to take the non obvious path made me better, and the game much more enjoyable. I also went from a ~.7 k/d when I was ready to give up in crucible to a ~1.2 k/d and climbing. I'm also nabbing some better PVP weapons, (My new Pulse rifle, the Spare Change is preeeeetttty beastly) and have gotten into this great virtuous circle of "Get better" -> "Have more fun" -> "get better stuff" -> "get better" etc.

My recent highlight was after getting obliterated one round of skirmish by a group relying on The Last Word, I got matched with them again, this time a man down. "Well shit I thought" I ended up going to town, racking up over 20 kills and a 2.1 k/d. I also moved about 60 points on the ole thorn bounty. That'll teach you to dance on my orb :)

I know people like to highlight the Xyor fight as the best part of thorn bounty, but I think the void kills are the most interesting, as they opened my eyes to how much fun Destiny PVP can be.