Shifting everything to roaming supers is cool, but arcrunner still looks like bladedancer with a staff to me.

Yeah, but bladedancer with a staff is 98% cooler.

I'd have to check the clips again, but it has more anti-trash utility when you can hit more than one target with a swing, and when you can engage with a death-from-above attack instead of slowly fall down to slashing height. Is it as flashy a change as the other two? No. But I think it will probably take the utility that Bladedancer had and ratchet it up accordingly. To make it less erratic.

It looks to be much more flexible than Bladedancer. With Bladedancer you are limited to single target impacts, and you move with erratic dashes and lateral aerial attacks as a primary function. While Arcrunner appears to have more sweeping attacks that don't seem limited to single targets, as well as a more aggressive aerial smash.

I think it is all a case of replacing the least viable/flexible subclasses, relative to the changes to sandbox. Shifting everything to roaming supers means that Defender needed a full revamp, so Sentinel. Changes to the general power of abilities (sticky grenades and melee power) means that Sunsinger needed an actual core capability. And Bladedancer ancer was basically, in my experience, not worth popping your super except to clear adds poorly and PvP use is to be erratic and auto-aimed melees.

Shifting everything to roaming supers is cool, but arcrunner still looks like bladedancer with a staff to me. Unless it also conveys damage avoidance, I feel like it will generally be used just as you describe bladedance: You'll be clearing adds with it but it won't be useful for popping vs. bosses. Though I should mention that blade dancer did have boss fight utility - you could turn invisible on super activation, which made for excellent clutch saves when your whole team went down - it just wasn't any good for boss dps.

Obviously we don't know very much about any of the new subclasses; my initial impression was that it looked like a bit more of the same.

I think it is all a case of replacing the least viable/flexible subclasses, relative to the changes to sandbox. Shifting everything to roaming supers means that Defender needed a full revamp, so Sentinel. Changes to the general power of abilities (sticky grenades and melee power) means that Sunsinger needed an actual core capability. And Bladedancer ancer was basically, in my experience, not worth popping your super except to clear adds poorly and PvP use is to be erratic and auto-aimed melees.

To your second point, dense blocks of text are underrated and evocative in ways other methods of storytelling are not. I hope Bungie doesn't make 343's mistake.

I see no reason Bungie couldn't have included that stuff. Look at how many books are beside the speaker. How many could you read? Zero. Would it have broken immersion if you could have read them? No.

I'm pretty sure I only say Dongblades romping the gameplay videos...

Dawnblade, Gunslinger, and Striker were the only 3 playable.

really? no Sentinel or Arcstrider?

Also, does anyone else feel like Arcstrider is kind of... uninspired compared to Sentinel and Dawnblade? From the video, you appear to just be a bladedancer with a staff instead of knives. Big whoop.

Uhhhh... Shen. That isn't a void subclass. We don't officially know what the warlock void subclass is.

I assumed voidwalker bc of the purple glowing in his hand.

I'm pretty sure I only say Dongblades romping the gameplay videos...

Dawnblade, Gunslinger, and Striker were the only 3 playable.

void subclass with an orange symbol above the weapons? or is the subclass in a different spot now?

Meh, I don't mind going to talk to people in between. It seems more realistic than wall-to-wall action. Is your frustration more a function of not having compelling reasons to do what you're doing? All that said, I look forward to not having to jump into orbit in order to travel short distances on the planet I'm on. Not having access to the director outside your ship always seemed a bit silly.

i just didn't like running errands. I don't mind taking breaks for cinematics. obviously some of this is fixed in D2 by having the director available in-world, so there will be fewer loading screens. Checking in to complete a quest wouldn't be so bad, but having to check in after every single step is a bit much, especially if you are going right back where you came from.

Now, if there were little outposts in the patrol areas themselves, I don't think i would mind running back and forth b/c i would be actively engaged instead of passively looking at a loading screen.

They seem to be really selling it now, if the cut-scenes are any indication. I'm really curious how they are going to do it within in the gameplay through. I'm hoping for more then just "go here" then, "exposition BOT-BEEP-BOOP" kill-this-thing, "It dies" "exposition BOT-BEEP-BOOP" then fancy cutscene. (Ha ha! Air quotes.)

I started replaying the game from the beginning (b/c i've always had 3 warlocks and decided to finally have 1 of each class), and the going back and forth to the tower is driving me bonkers. "Go to mars and do this, then go see ikora, then go back to mars, then go back to ikora, etc etc." What is especially infuriating is needing to see the speaker in the Tower, picking the tower from the director, then watching a cut-scene, and then getting sent back to orbit even though i had engrams to decrypt and other people to see in the tower.

Hopefully, D2 is more streamlined, and uses radio chatter more.

Meh, I don't mind going to talk to people in between. It seems more realistic than wall-to-wall action. Is your frustration more a function of not having compelling reasons to do what you're doing? All that said, I look forward to not having to jump into orbit in order to travel short distances on the planet I'm on. Not having access to the director outside your ship always seemed a bit silly.

Also, the Last Array is still my favorite mission and song in Destiny.

Amazing score. And something dramatic actually happens in the world!