Bungie, I don't know who's really in charge of balancing at this point, and I don't really care. You need to fundamentally re-think how you're going about it, because it's not working.
If y'all don't want to read this, bottom line is -- vanilla was pretty good, so why have you screwed with everything so much?
You've steadily made your game less fun by taking a sledgehammer approach to each meta, smashing the dominant weapons and classes into the ground for your playerbase to move to the next best thing. That's not how good devs approach balancing. Your approach should be creative and should reflect a desire to make everything equally playable, not an approach to consistently push everyone to "what isn't terrible now."
Let's look at a couple of changes and how they can be improved:
Regarding firebolt, you've combined tracking + DOT, which is why it's so good. The "bolt" should strike later (which was incorporated, GOOD CHANGE BUNGIE), but think of creative ways for fusion or solar grenades to be better. Something involving the blast radius, increased recovery, or increased agility would probably go a long way.
Shadestep is pretty balanced conceptually, it's the combo of tracker+shadestep that is broken. Graviton Forfeit should give -1 recovery or something. EDIT: shadestep is a horizontal blink, which is why it's good. My spammability comment was off.
Likewise, arc grenade never needed to be dumbed down damage-wise, it needed a longer delay in damage-output so you could jump out of the way. Killing its damage output just meant bladedancers needed to run to the next best grenade. Arc grenade was great because it punished poor positioning -- my fix emphasizes that role the grenade plays, yours simply makes it unplayable.
Blink has been nerfed to death, and actually isn't very good right now. A better solution would have been to significantly increase airborne accuracy for normal jumps, so you can choose between speed (blink) or firefight mobility and lethality (jump).
The entire point of the sunsinger class is to be the warlock king of small-scale engagement (if that's not the point I have no clue what the point was). That is so painfully obvious, from the melee shield to its grenades to a super that's really only good in 3's or less. So nerfing it into the ground doesn't help anyone. Instead, Voidwalker should have the best warlock 6v6 neutral game ever -- axion bolt should have 3 bolts if there's 4 or more opponents or something, and the voidwalker should have stronger recovery, etc., if there are more enemies. This is similarly balanced because the Stormcaller class is obviously geared around the super (terrible grenades and workable melee, but insane 6v6 super), so you have a class for each.
If you're not getting my drift, people are flocking to Titans now and calling the Striker's charge overpowered. It isn't, never was, but it's indicative of the approach people will take. Striker was in a good place (mobility, high armor, good grenades), but now you've made it much better.
Similarly, pre-nerf SUROS, Vex, Thorn, TLW, Hawkmoon, and MIDA all in one meta together would make for a great meta. No need to nerf shotguns and snipers into the ground if primaries are a real threat. You've been nerfing shotguns and snipers for months now -- why? You really think that snipers were that good pre-TTK? They were fine, but a guardian with a SUROS could reasonably give a sniper trouble, or a good TLW user could take out the shotgun threat. Post nerf, the sniper user will just murder the SUROS user, or bodyshot him and then pull out MIDA and one-shot him. Does that make MIDA overpowered? No. Does that make snipers overpowered? No.
Balance isn't a function of numbers. Not 2% ("2.5%") vs 6% vs 10% vs 122 vs 90. Sometimes it is, but sometimes it's a difference of the way you play the game. Helm of Saint-14 isn't amazing because of some number, it's amazing because it fundamentally changes the way you play.
Look at the best weapons you've had in metas past -- pre-nerf SUROS, Vex (post-first patch, not 56 damage!), Thorn, TLW, Hawkmoon, and MIDA (EDIT and pre-nerf Red Death), and look at what we've got now -- Hawksaw and Grasp of Malok. If you'll notice, Hawksaw and GoM aren't particularly *good* at anything. They're just mostly functional and happen to do their job better than anything else. Look at MIDA -- it does everything well -- it's accurate, it makes you fast, it gives you radar, and it's awesome when strafing. Look at Thorn -- it's accurate, it gives BURN, and it allows you to track. Look at Vex -- it changes a fusion rifle into a short-ranged auto-rifle murder machine. Most importantly, they're fun to use. They make you feel powerful. Hawksaw and GoM aren't fun to use -- they're functional, and get the job done, but no one is really excited about it, and the reason you use them is simple -- because they're the best. With more interesting and exciting options that are powerful, weapon selection comes down to personal choice, not because it's barely better than everything else.
I've played competitive games my entire life. I played Halo, Halo 2, and Halo 3, I played CSGO, and I was a top-ranked Guild Wars player (when the pvp scene was hot). Destiny is one of the most compelling games I've ever played (up there with GW and Halo 2 for me), and it's become steadily less and less fun with every patch.
I've dropped over $250 on your game. I've bought every expansion, and I've bought a ton of silver (you can check my account). If your message is that this is the future of Destiny, and its eventual sequel -- a game that starts off dynamic and fun, and is followed up by something bland and generic -- I have to ask, where did all of the fun go?
[spoiler]Moderator edit: This thread has been moved to #Feedback forum so that other Destiny players can weigh in. See [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/139533839/0/0]Cozmo's thread[/url] for more information about the #Feedback tag and its uses.
Feel free to private message the moderator who moved your post, link to topic for further clarification about why this topic was moved.[/spoiler]
-
You said it right, now it's on bungie to set it right!
-
Couldn't agree more.
-
Good post. While I don't agree with all your points, the overall message is spot on and somethign I've been trying to rally people to for a long time now, which is they don't know what they're doing. They have the right goals in mind, they've just been approaching them all wrong. Shotguns for example, should NEVER have had shotpackage removed. Since then they've been even more inconsistent than ever (though the fact that they became so dependant on a single perk speaks volumes, much like how many guns depend on counterbalance). Instead of simply making the damage drop off much more severe (which would negate the benefit from the extra pellets hitting at a distance) they chose to nerf the entire platform into the ground much like they did Fusion Rifles and Auto Rifles. And am I the only one who misses Bad Juju being viable in PvP? Goddamn that brief 2-3 month period where it was dominant was fun, now it just sucks in PvP (the PvP sucks as a whole but that's another topic). And I've been firm in my stance that both Thorn and Suros were near-perfect in their initial incarnations. The only changes either needed was for Thorn's poison to do more damage (instead of jacking up all its base stats to obscene levels) and for Suros to lose the healing chance and instead be a pure dps Gun/Last Man Standing deal because I loved how much damage it could push out, but the healing on top of that made it OP (along with how dumb AR range was in vanilla, ARs were fine damage wise just too much range). I mean seriously, they still haven't put the headshot multiplier back to 1.5x, which would solve a lot of issues with ARs. And then you have the massive nerfs they've done to perks in year 2, on top of a lot of them already being garbage. Remember when Corrective Measure had 301 bullets and magazine of 100? That was awesome. A bit OP in Crucible, but freaking awesome (which is easily fixed by heavy ammo changes and maybe specific nerfs to the gun's capacity in PvP). But no, screw doing that, they'd rather just nerf LMGs wholesale AND Field Scout. Just like they just nerfed counterbalance, instead of making other perks like Rodeo or Eye of the Storm good. Don't even get me started on how they've ruined Aggressive Ballistics or the on-going joke of a gun that is Necrochasm (such a great ability too...) I could go on at length at all the things they've cocked up (and I have) but at this point it's probably best to just hope most of this gets fixed for Destiny 2. It's important to stay vocal like this and let them know what's up, I just wouldn't hold my breath on any big meangingful changes. I mean who REALLY was complaining about Icebreaker's ammo? Or Throwing Knife damage? If you get 1-tapped by a headshot + burn guess what, that's what you get for running low armor in PvP it's a risk like anything else. God forbid we have build diversity (something Destiny fails at miserably because of numerous design flaws, up to but not including the exotic limit, RNG and stats being tied to armor rather than Light Level and player choice)
-
AS a day one beta player (because I'm on Xbox) I have asked myself this same question: What happened to the fun? All the fun weapons, the fun maps, the feeling of a powerful character its just not there anymore. I miss original Destiny.
-
6 Replies"Fusion grenades to be better" U wut m8" This is the easiest grenade to use in the entire game...
-
-
-
And POE Challenge has been trashed, 0 points is utterly indefensible and so it feels: Once we were able to work reasonably to obtain the Sigil, within a nice timeframe. This week, however, thanks to the download, the enemy refuses to co-operate period.. that's a given actually. No, they are moving faster, teleporting beyond comprehension, and excuse us, but the melees are [[b]b]wimpy[/b][/b] and downright shameful, embarrassing really since dying is now a preoccupation. Our higher level compatriots who are so helpful at some trying efforts, are even falling under the unusual circumstances which is completely surprising to them and not only us. If it wasn't for a onetime glitch that had the cabal leader hitched tightly to one of our usual shooting platforms we probably won't have finished the pit fight. With the compulsion to try and punch every moving thing, and our guns being inadequate to work on the boss, the reducing of points hard earned is beyond frustrating and even insulting to our efforts! This increased and seemingly unbalanced change to a once satisfying challenge stretches the credence that improvements and corrections would shake things up. Yes, it has, much to our disappointment.
-
1 ReplyThank you for an insightful and informative post. Excellent points and ones which I almost entirely agree with. I hope someone at Bungie reads it...and understands it.
-
Im just tired of them telling us it's our game and you need to play it our way.
-
They purposely make it unbalanced to keep it fresh with the buffs and nerfs. Keeps the game changing and prevents it from going stale. I can't believe you all think bungie are that stupid. Everything they do is for a reason.
-
It'll never be balanced because of the community. Bungie is trying to balance the game but everyone is using everything that gives them an unfair advantage.
-
Edited by dngodsell: 6/20/2016 3:40:10 PMI agree with all of this. The game is less than half as fun as it used to be, and on top of that pve sucks too
-
what was bungie thinking when they decided to do omnigul as the nightfall and giving everyone gom?
-
6 RepliesI looked at the topic of points you've made. You're wrong as f* and sheep as f*. All you want is a gun or ability to get free kills with little effort/counterplay.
-
1 ReplyI'm pretty sure your answer from Bungie is going to be for them to nerf fast rate of fire pulse rifles. That will pretty much cement the vanilla flavor on all primaries. After that I suspect we will see another round of nerfing on secondary weapons.
-
This is way more though out then my complain bungie is just giving the crybabies in the communtiy what them want. Good job great idea WE NEED PEOPLE LIKE YOU TO WORK AT BUNGIE. ;)
-
Totally agree! I personally think just like the Gjallarhorn has made a comeback after a year destiny 2 will have all these weapons come back in original form. It's seems to be a marketing strategy to have a huge carrot for people when they release Destiny 2 and give people a huge reason to upgrade the game.
-
-
Great post
-
Preach brother(or sister)!!!
-
9 RepliesShow me a list with at least one shared world shooter you've created to make yourself seem credible. I'd say they've done alright so far. Even with ridiculous content droughts, you, and many others are still here.
-
Basically, you disagree with what the devs think about the game. How [i]you[/i] think it should be balanced is 100% irrelevant because you're not one of the devs who helped make the game, nor are you the creator. You're just someone who plays it. Your opinion on matters is duly noted, but in the end, only Bungie has the ability to balance the game and they'll do it however they see fit.
-
You speak the truth. Especially on the weapons part. I've noticed that when I play crucible, I don't know what to use anymore. I don't have my "go-to" weapon of choice. I look at my inventory and see Hawksaw, Grasp of Malok, and my baby Hawkmoon. I use Hawksaw not because I like it, but because I feel like I'm forced to in order to keep up with everybody else. I actually really don't like the weapon. I miss how Hawkoon, TLW, Nirwen's Mercy, and Red Death used to be. Maybe you call that easy mode. But I called it fun mode :/ I don't have a favorite primary anymore. They all feel so...average. Nothing special. Except for the MIDA. It has been with me for a long time. I guess it's all that's left. But then they nerfed one of its special perks so now I get domed by a sniper while pelting them in the head more often than not. Kinda sucks. Hand cannons were always my favorite followed by medium rate of fire pulse rifles. I want those returned to their former glory :/ Except for Thorn. That one can stay right where it is.
-
3 RepliesThis guy gets it. I have dropped the same amount of cheddar with a ton of time invested. I am so tired of the weapons I enjoyed BECOMING SHIT! Really thinking about not buying the expansion and moving on. Bungie your approach to balance is just wrong and makes the game after every patch taste sour.
-
Well said. I can agree with that. If something is overused in crucible BUFF everything else. This makes the game more fun with more options of things to use AND doesnt screw the PvE players