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Destiny 2

Discuss all things Destiny 2.
4/12/2021 11:30:50 PM
1

The impending Quickdraw nerf is ill-conceived. Here's why. Thanks for reading. (warning, long post)

Aggressive frame shotguns are the most reliable OHK distance-killing shotguns in the game. This is why they are the preferred shotgun archetype in Crucible. All other shotgun archetypes (which I would argue require a buff, in fact) are inferior in consistency with respect to one-hit-kill-range. This immediately skews the pool of preferred shotguns. Felwinter's Lie is the only aggressive frame shotgun in the game with shot package, a perk that inherently renders the weapon superior to all other aggressive frame shotguns because of the consistency it provides. If every other barrel/mag/perk is identical on another aggressive frame, Felwinter's will be the superior pick because of this single perk. If you are looking to pair an energy shotgun with a kinetic primary, there is quite literally no better choice available to you if your goal is to maximize your one-hit-kill range capacity with consistency. This is not because of quickdraw. This is because of shot package. Anyone who owns a god-rolled Astral who is not being contrarian for the sake of such will agree, author included. Astral, to date, is one of very few kinetic aggressive frame shotguns, in part buoying its popularity. Recall that aggressive frames provide the most consistent OHK-range for shotguns, as stated in #1. This is coupled with the fact that Igneous Hammer is an S-tier meta primary pick at the moment, again buoying its popularity. Additionally, Astral is the easiest kinetic aggressive frame shotgun to farm, due to its existence as a 3-win weapon in Trials, as well as a potential drop from tokens, which can be manipulated through the use of alts to limit the rewards pool when turning in tokens. Were there more kinetic shotgun options available with the ability to farm, Astral would not be such an outlier. More to the above collective points, if there were more shotgun options, in terms of other archetypes, that provided more consistency, they would be used. There are not. Hence, you have players utilizing the two most readily accessible shotguns within the single most reliable and deadly archetype of shotgun. Of those two shotguns, Felwinter's is king. There is no comparison. Now, to the perk of quickdraw itself. Quickdraw enables quick play, promotes both aggressive play styles, as well as promotes defensive play (from rushers, ironically, calling into question the logic), and enables a variety of weapons to exist in a space that is supposed to prioritize gunplay and movement. Think snipers making switches on the fly from a hand cannon to a longer range weapon before being flinched. Think fusions making switches when seeing an oncoming push. Nerfing quickdraw on shotguns, and removing it from Astral and Felwinter's altogether will not remove these two shotguns from dominance. What it will do is promote the use of dragon shadow, ophidian aspect, dexterity mods, quick charge mods, etc., particularly when aggressive frame shotguns will remain the most reliable and deadly shotgun option. I presume Bungie would not go so far as to nerf all the various substitutes for nerfing quickdraw. And again, that would be counter to the notion that the Crucible should prioritize smooth gunplay and movement. Moreover, the use of other substitutes for quickdraw will still enable players to engage in combat described by Bungie in the TWAB as an alleged problem. If the real issue is Felwinter's, which I imagine it is, the real solution would have been nerfing shot package ANDDDDDDDD buffing other shotgun archetypes to permit viable options. Affecting a single non-damage-inducing playstyle-based perk across the game is overboard and addresses an issue that does not exist. Removing the perk altogether from Astral and Felwinter's will not promote a vaulting of the two weapons, but rather a focus on other avenues to reproduce quickdraw's effect. Ultimately, the QD nerf will harm the overall playstyle within the Crucible, promoting passive, DMT-heavy style play, and reduce the effectiveness of a wide variety of weapons in the Crucible. To summarize, this nerf is ill-targeted and masks the true issues with shotguns atm. It further disrespects players' time. Finally, threat detector would have been a better replacement for quickdraw on Astral and Felwinter than surplus, as it synergizes with the weapon types. Moreover, when using a shotgun, you are likely going to be using abilities, as well, again suggesting the counterintuitive notion of replacing QD with surplus. Surplus is better on say, a sniper, where you will likely be at range with more chance of your abilities charged given the removal from more hectic play. This should have been considered before deciding that surplus would replace QD.

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  • (Long reply, TL;DR at bottom ) Somewhat agree. The QD is Ill targeted, but it doesn't miss. Destiny PvP consistency and movement rule. With different weapons capitalising on one or the other, one way or another. Shotguns make use of movement to allow for one shot kill scenarios whereas something like a sniper relies on consistent aim. The problem with Destiny PvP in general is that Destiny is a kind of pseudo movement shooter with so many movement options. So generally speaking, weapons that make use of good movement rule. Weapons such as: Hand Cannons (primarly used because of the ability to peek shoot, although consistent aim helps, as with most things.) Sidearms & SMGs (very similar, capitalise on movement but generally fall in shotgun range, so don't see much use over HCs, although both are very good and severely underused) Shotguns (duh) This is why we tend to see a pretty consistent meta (HC + SG, Sidearms and SMGs were meta when SGs were heavy) with few outliers (ARs, Prometheus, Graviton and MT come to mind). Although most outliers were good because they didn't need consistency or movement to be good. They just had ludicrous damage output. Point is, to better switch things up slowing things down is the way to go. But nerfing QD is using a very broad brush. It helps reduce the shotgun dominance, but not the Felwinter's dominance with respect to shotguns. Shotguns in general should have some kind of nerf. Imo, if they are able to capitalise on movement as much as they can then they should be very inconsistent to make up for it. Felwinter's is almost like the antithesis of this. Being very consistent. I suppose what I'm getting at is that while Felwinter's is the biggest problem, shotguns (and also in some capacity, HCs) in general are the problem. QD helps with the wider problem, but doesn't help much with Felwinter's dominance with respect to shotguns. So imo Felwinter's needs additional balancing. TL;DR Movement and consistency rule, with destiny almost being a movement shooter, guns that use movement rule. Hence SGs dominance. QD helps with the general SG dominance, but not the Felwinter's dominance. Imo Felwinter's needs more tuning. Thanks for listening to my ted talk.

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