Strikes in Destiny 2 are really good. They're much more involved, with more interesting encounters and bosses.

Why do they feel so insignificant compared to what they were in Destiny 1? Am I just remember incorrectly? I feel like Strikes were the thing to do in D1, the thing everyone ran over and over and over again. And this is even before the Y3 Strike Scoring and Skeleton Keys and whatnot were introduced, as I wasn't playing when that happened.

I rarely run strikes now. I do my milestones for them, and help people with Nightfalls. I generally enjoy them, but I don't feel like they're they thing to do like they used to be. Is the rest of the content in Destiny 2 just so good that strikes feel lackluster by comparison? Or am I just imagining things?

Once you complete the milestone, the drop at the end isn't worth the time. And the only point to play Destiny now is for the drop. (So it seems, to me.)

Personally, strikes were always the last thing I did when playing Destiny. I enjoy them when I do them, but I rarely choose them when all things are equal. With the addition of Gambit as an activity, that's just another thing I prefer that they have to compete with.

Strikes in Destiny 2 are really good. They're much more involved, with more interesting encounters and bosses.

Why do they feel so insignificant compared to what they were in Destiny 1? Am I just remember incorrectly? I feel like Strikes were the thing to do in D1, the thing everyone ran over and over and over again. And this is even before the Y3 Strike Scoring and Skeleton Keys and whatnot were introduced, as I wasn't playing when that happened.

I rarely run strikes now. I do my milestones for them, and help people with Nightfalls. I generally enjoy them, but I don't feel like they're they thing to do like they used to be. Is the rest of the content in Destiny 2 just so good that strikes feel lackluster by comparison? Or am I just imagining things?

I feel like Strikes is the best content to do solo. It's easy enough to play with randos and not get trashed. Bungie has upped their game in more content that is relatively easier to play causually with friends of all skill levels like Gambit, crucible, nightfall, even the raids. I feel like in D1 it was strikes, or super sweaty crucible and trials. Back then it was harder to get raids going in my mind so they were something in between. So yeah, Strikes were by far the easiest thing to do.

Now a days there is just so much easier stuff to do with friends or solo. Strikes have definitely gotten better in my mind but it's hard to just play strikes.

I think the major difference between d1 and d2 strikes is that in d2 they don’t really fit into the overall progression of the story on a planet, whereas in d1 they were often the pinnacle of the missions on that planet (At least that’s what the devils lair was). In my mind this made it feel important to me, like all the missions I had done in that zone were leading up to a strike deep into enemy territory to take out this super important target to the region.

Strikes were always in a somewhat weird place in D1 in the sphere of importance. They were always a great fall back. And in general I did focus on them as my primary PvE activity. Patrol was a good idle activity and Raids weren’t chill enough. Nightfalls were much easier to solo because the boss encounter spaces allowed for it more easily. And the Nightfal Experience Buff meant it was part of almost everyone’s reset ritual. Since D2 launched I have probably run less than 30 Nightfalls. Over time Strikes also evolved as an activity, with alternate versions of bosses and more possible encounters. Strike exclusive gear (not just NF) was also a thing.

I think some of this plays into Strikes in D2 not being as engaging. The changes to make the encounters more varied is great overall, but there aren’t enough possible encounters in a strike to be okay with running the same one 4-5 times in a night of play. As has been discussed the reward dynamic of D2 also means that you play 3-4 in a week outside of Nightfalls. The Year 2 Vanguard Gear is really disappointing, too. So from a rewards perspective, that’s about an hour of your week (30 minutes if you get stuck with speed runners) spent in Strikes and then no further motivation unless you are after a NF reward.

Add in that D1 let you grind out Faction Rep at the same time as any activity and Strikes were generally pretty reliable for Engrams (gotta rank up our Cryptarchs) you had additional motivating factors. Even in D2Y1 we had ornaments. But now we a spread of core activities for progress (I play more strikes myself when I am basically at the power cap) so you have your Flashpoint, Clan Engrams, Strikes, Daily Story Missions, Nightfall, Gambit, Crucible (both of which have a linear ranking progress which strikes do not have), multiple Raids, Dreaming City content, and now Forges. Sadly I think that puts Strikes just above Daily Story in the overall scop because of the valuations people make for how rewarded they feel doing it.

It is kinda sad. I miss Strikes as a core activity.

Yeah, I think ultimately it’s about the lack of payout. D2 does a good job of nudging you to play a variety of modes throughout the week. And since it feels like I’ve been needing to chase Powerful Rewards nonstop all year... Strikes kinda get left behind. I like the Strikes. They have good variety and interesting final bosses and good in-Strike dialogue. But a few tokens that will add up to gear that’s like 50 power lower than where I’m at? I probably just open the Director and find something with a Powerful Gear marker...

So:

• More fun things to do in D2
  
• Strikes only pay out guaranteed Powerful Gear twice a week
  
• Despite being better, Strikes by themselves do almost nothing to help me get ready for a Raid or Forge or anything.