Just a matter of life the past week. I didn't even get to turn in my tokens, so I'll see what they have next Rally I guess... There's almost no way I'm hitting 50 in multiple let alone one faction.

I'm not all that fussed about it, I don't care about collecting everything unless that a particular thing is meta. The only negative for me is I enjoy the idea of the factions, I just usually have life get in the way of focusing on any particular single week long event.

I hear you. With respect to the meta, the only thing I'm aware of that came out of the rally that would affect it are the catalysts. I haven't heard of any specific faction weapons that dominate. Although I've really enjoyed playing with Truthteller (blind/staggering pro-pipe) and Escape Velocity (high ROF sub w/melee reload).

~M

Return to D1 style factions. Doing any activity earns you Rep with your pledged faction, which you can change at will like in D1. Earn weapons and gear and shaders and whatever else whenever you play.

Then bring Faction Rally back like now. You cannot change your pledge for the full week. Rallies could have an exclusive shader, maybe exclusive ornaments or even select weapons or gear. Give them neat exclusive things to work for during rallies, but let folks earn the baseline gear and shaders and weapons whenever they want.

I had no FWC gear for my Warlock, and I didn’t get a full set until I was around Rank 25. So I spent half the rally without being able to earn certain ornaments or get the Renown bonus.

Just a matter of life the past week. I didn't even get to turn in my tokens, so I'll see what they have next Rally I guess... There's almost no way I'm hitting 50 in multiple let alone one faction.

Can't you still turn them in? I had a few leftover after the rally ended and I turned them in and my level increased.

I started off this rally with probably 3 pieces of the DO set, so I was able to take advantage pretty quickly. I ran into more than a few people who had the full set except for the Mark/Bond/Cape; and were struggling because it wouldn't drop for them. It seems like for folks in that boat, the next Rally should go smoother. Given they pledge the same way, I guess.

1. I got to level 83 and did not get a FWC cloak.
2. The exotic catalysts mean pledging to the same faction the second time is Dumb with a capital D.

Right, because I didn't manage to get the New Monarchy catalyst this week, I either opt not to obtain it or I opt to not obtain one of the others.

I started off this rally with probably 3 pieces of the DO set, so I was able to take advantage pretty quickly. I ran into more than a few people who had the full set except for the Mark/Bond/Cape; and were struggling because it wouldn't drop for them. It seems like for folks in that boat, the next Rally should go smoother. Given they pledge the same way, I guess.

1. I got to level 83 and did not get a FWC cloak.
2. The exotic catalysts mean pledging to the same faction the second time is Dumb with a capital D.

If you reached at least 50 with the 1st faction, yes. I'm guessing some people didn't. I made it with just a few hours to spare.

1. I got to level 83 and did not get a FWC cloak.

RNG is RNG, the following is probably all nonsense.

I recall a reddit post where someone did a rather extensive analysis of how the faction engram drop rate of armor vs. weapons changed when varying the time between decodes. I searched, but I can't find it. The crux was that when the time between decodes is less than two minutes, there is a higher incidence of getting the same thing (a dupe weapon or dupe armor).

I also think that there may be a small bias to drop more items corresponding to your weakest power level slot.

So when I turned in my tokens, I first put on my set of power level 10 damaged armor and turned in 20 tokens every 2 minutes. When I got an armor piece, I immediately put it on. I did this for both my Warlock and my Hunter, and had full sets of armor for both in about 40 decodes. The downside is I spent an hour just decoding stuff and watching TV.

But RNG is RNG, and all the above is superstitious hokum.

You’re not wrong.

I have a hard time coming up with anything good to say about folks that think they deserve a bunch of extra stuff in a video game because they played it more, so I’ll leave that alone.

I absolutely think it’s fine to recognize that every player won’t have everything. I think that’s cool. I don’t think locking upgrades to already powerful weapons behind week long limited event grinds is the best way to do that though.

I do believe that anytime they reference “Set” it includes the associated class items, whether the name is in line or not.

I was a bit confused about that. The requirement for DO was wearing the "anti-extinction" set, but I never saw an "anti-extinction" cape. There was a DO cape that dropped, and I wore it, and I believe I was getting the 4 renown for heroic events, but I'm not sure I wasn't getting it without the cape-- which made me wonder if the "extinction set" was only the other items and there wasn't a cape, or if the DO cape that wasn't labeled "anti-extinction" counted.

My understanding was you had to be wearing ALL DO gear. I don't think "Anti-Extinction" was the hard requirement; even if that's what the text said. It may have just been mis-indicated. I believe on at least one of the two characters I was running during the event, only one had all Anti-Extinction gear. The other had at least a few pieces not labelled as such.

At any rate, I think the point was to offer some things that... well, not everybody would be able to get. There are already redditors screaming blue bloody murder just at the *thought* that Y1 gear might be light-capped, because they wanted to make sure that Destiny 2 players returning to the game for Forsaken wouldn't be on a level playing field with those who stayed with the game.

Yeah, there's a difference between exclusivity by feats (like Raid/EP/CRU gear) and by RNG; and I understand some of the motivation behind folks wanting their investment to confer them an advantage, but those folks can take a flying leap at a rolling donut. That kind of exclusivity is already in play. Faction gear doesn't need to work by those limitations, and I'd argue that it SHOULDN'T at all.

I think there needs to be a balance between providing unique rewards for people who feel compelled to play a lot, tick all the boxes, what have you, while still remaining friendly and accessible to new, returning, and more (ahem) "casual" players.

Absolutely agree, and I think Bungie has done that with the ornaments. They don't confer any advantage, and yet they are pretty eye-catching, even to more casual players. Completing the feats for the ornaments certainly left me with a sense of accomplishment, and if I want to show that off, I have the perfect way to do that without skewing the meta for the more casual folks who didn't commit in the same way to the grind.

As a bit of an aside, light-capping Y1 gear, frankly, would be a shitty move. I see that as a way to sweep things off the table with respect to the PvE meta, and it would sort of invalidate the investment of a lot of players by requiring them to grind for new gear. I agree that it's a comparatively soft touch compared to other choices that they might make; and in general I support the idea of forcing players (especially the hardcore) out of their comfort zone as a good thing. And it didn't really seem to send things off the rails in D1 like many feared, but not everyone plays CRU, so. I have sympathy for those that would feel kneecapped by such a decision.

In the end, as long as the CRU meta still keeps the Y1 stuff viable, I won't have too many complaints. I'm just hoping Vigilance Wing and Graviton Lance can be put in check by either Bows in general, or a meta tweak. I have a feeling Bungie have put themselves in a position where one or both of those guns will have to have specific changes made to them to keep things balanced. Things are starting to feel like H2 again.

~M