From what I've seen all you need to do is watch the CGI scenes on youtube, then watch a full walkthrough of the raid on on youtube, finally read the grimoires on any site that offers them. After this you basically experienced the best of the new DLC. You can also observe footage of new guns in use, and look at images of the new armor online. Not only do you save yourself time and money, but you can play other games in your library.

I'm totally unimpressed with this new dlc. I've played so long now since the alpha, that even all the weapons feel similar to me, all have, since the removal of elemental damage on all primaries. I've eagerly awaited new content, as it's always been needed, but this ROI feels weak....very weak. I don't feel as though I'm building a character anymore, I feel as though I'm levelling the same weapons and armour just chasing that cap... when battlefield 1 lands I think my destiny addiction will be finally cured. a pity really, as despite its faults, yr 1's weapons fealt powerfull, different dependant on elemental damage and situational requirements.

What is it about 'recycled content' that always comes up as an argument? There was significantly less recycled content in rise of iron than any previous expansion, and even than some games. New iron banner weapons New iron lord armour Trials armour Trials weapons Archons forge armour Raid armour Splicers Siva The plaguelands Sepiks perfected the ogre in the wretched eye strike The archon in the wretched eye strike This expansion gave us all of the above that wasn't reskinned, recycled, or anything else people insist on calling it. You don't want to buy rise of iron? Fine, I don't care. But don't use the 'recycled content' bullshit argument.

Okay, so I'm back to give my input on the topic of why I did not reup for RoI. I'd first like to state that I agree with pretty much EVERY point the OP made, but in addition to all of them, I have other reasons for holding back on the DLC. Like the OP, I'm also a Beta player, and I was hooked from the beginning. Even though I was slightly disappointed when I reached the endgame phase of Y1 Vanilla, it quickly faded as I immersed myself into the lore and wonder of the VoG. Spent countless hours in there. I was there when we could push Aetheon off the Edge. When we could fight the Templar on the island on the left side of the Templar Well. I've seen pretty much everything Y1 had to offer. I would say Ditto for Y2, but I avoided Trials like the plague. One of the main reasons why I didn't re-up for RoI is because I see it as an extension of the TTK formula, which I did not enjoy. I know this is a post regarding RoI, but I really can't discuss why I refuse to buy into RoI without discussing the shortfalls of TTK. I think the transition from Y1 to Y2 was handled very poorly and in many ways, Y2 wrecked what made Y1 so much fun. Sure, Y1 was not perfect, and TTK improved on Destiny's story-telling, but they watered down or downright removed things that players actually ENJOYED. These are some of the things that really ruined Destiny for me when TTK launched: 1. Removal of "nightfall" modifier on the nightfall strike and adding stupid rewards to the drop table, and adding more layers of RNG to your rewards. By doing all of these things, Bungie really de-emphasized the nightfall as a source of high-end loot. TTK's nightfalls are famous for repetitively dropping stuff you don't need (how many ghosts at or under my Light Level do i need?) or dropping things that seem like a slap in the face (3oC, sparrows, emotes, etc.). Sure, those things might be fun, but not when you are still trying to obtain gear upgrades. Even though the nightfall modifier was removed, the nightfall could still be a pain due to other modifiers they added, most notably trickle. Trickle + no shield recharge + burn = not running it that week. It's simply not worth the time/effort because the rewards are so bad. 2. The nightfall is even further devalued because 3oc makes getting loot SO much easier from other sources that there really isn't a point in doing end-game content for your loot. I can kill 3 taken zealots in the time it would take to do a nightfall. That's 3 chances to get exotics. This argument also applies to the raid. Sure, the raid is fun, but because the loot is so bad and you can get end-game loot elsewhere, why do it? The raid gear was just trash... 3. Exotics are weak and far too common + no elemental primaries = no endgame loot worth getting. In TTK, we have a lot of different guns that we can get, but none of them are real difference makers in the way Y1 guns were. Exotics in TTK had their power neutered, they were made WAY too common, and they are little more than infusion fuel at this point. Because exotics are so weak and because there are no elemental primaries, there is really NO gun that reduces grind in Y2, which makes replaying the same content a major drag because there is NO end to the tedium. The ONLY thing to grind for is light level, which leads me to my next point... 4. Light level is the ONLY thing worth grinding for, and it makes little difference in 90% of the content. Remember that light level is functionally capped in certain activities to make sure you always feel challenged. It's why a LL 335 guardian can't hit a level 4 dreg in patrol for 4,000,000 damage. This applies pretty much across the board except for in the raid or nightfall (IB or Trials) where light level is uncapped because you are facing enemies on an even power level as yourself. So whether its TTK or RoI, I see no point in continuing the grind just to increase my light level a little bit. It's simply not enough to keep me on the hamster wheel. 5. PVP/PVE Balance - too much focus on PVP. Due to the stagnation of PVE content during the TTK era, the game pretty much turned into a PVP focused game, and I see that trend continuing in the future. Since PVP is becoming more of a focus, you can understand that there would be occasional balancing patches. However, since these patches apply across the board in both PVE AND PVP, PVE players ultimately end up suffering for the sake of PVP Balance. Bungie has been stubborn about refusing to separate the two, and they CLEARLY place higher priority on PVP balance and they really don't care what they do to PVE. I'm tired of losing things as a PVE player for the sake of PVP and most of the community wants full separation - yet Bungie refuses to do so, in spite of the fact that twice in the past, they showed that they could balance them separately (shotguns and PR's in HoW era). 6. Devaluation of endgame content and overemphasis on strikes as endgame content. Basically, this may be a repeat of a point above, but because 3oC makes it so easy to get your loot elsewhere (patrol ultras, storyline ultras, strikes, pvp, etc.) there is really no need to actually complete endgame content. I think this was a move made to cater to casuals and solo players, but I don't think it is an overall improvement for those hardcore Destiny players. There needs to be some kind of compromise position. 7. Questification of too many good exotics - not enough RNG prizes worth chasing. I think adding quests for exotics is a good thing, but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. I DO think we need quests for some exotics, especially those with great backstories. The quest can be used to tell the lore of the gun. I DO think, however, there needs to be some truly ELITE, grind-reducing weapons to chase after in PVE and they should only be RNG. Not only that, they should only be RNG from certain activities so that we actually have a good reason to repeatedly play that content (nightfall, raid particularly). I sense myself running out of space so I'm going to wrap up this wall of text by saying that RoI could have taken many steps to address some of these issues. It could have brought back elemental primaries (and when the hard raid is released, maybe they will return?), they could have added some RNG unicorns to chase after in endgame content, it could have removed 3oc to make exotics more rare and justify an increase in power, it could have fully separated PVE from PVP, it could have added some grind-reducing weapons to chase after in this game. But so far, it hasn't. And I don't expect that it will at this point. RoI is just a continuation of the TTK formula, which strayed WAY too far from what was successful in Y1 IMO. I enjoyed TTK FAR FAR less than I enjoyed Y1, and that is taking into account Y1 had a dysfunctional story. I love a good story, but Destiny is all about the endgame activities IMO. I want a REASON to play the nightfall. I want a REASON to play the raid. I want great weapons to chase after, not a pile of mediocre ones that look special or have a special effect but don't really boost my overall killing power. I want exclusives so that my guardian isn't just like everyone else - I want his gear to tell the story of the legend of my guardian, where he has been, what he has done, etc. I thought that was going to be the plan, especially after HoW made everything relevant. But it hasn't materialized. "Become Legend" was simply replaced with "Become Like Everyone Else." RoI is just more of the same. And more of the same simply isn't worth the $30.00 price tag. Maybe I'll get the DLC when the price drops to $10.00. MAYBE. That will depend on if elemental primaries return. But if not, I've already pre-ordered Skyrim Remastered. 28 more days till I can play...

I'm going to be honest with you---> it's an uninspired expansion. 2 of the 4 crucible maps are dog poo. The new area just feels like... The Cosmodrome because thats what it is. The Splicers don't really do anything different than the regular Fallen counterparts. The weapons mostly really feel like reskins. The axe is meh. I'm almost over it already. The raid is alright. The Gjallarhorn is great. My favorite thing about this expansion is Private Matches, which i dont think you even need RoI to play, right? You aren't missing much. I'm not salty about the money spent or anything. It's just underwhelming content. Playing with friends makes it bareable.

I would like to personally thank Bungie and the people in charge of Destiny for taking us hostage until we agree to spend $30 on DLC that we don't need. Thank you for making it impossible to play Control, or any other traditional match for lack of Rise of Iron. Instead of creating another playlist for DLC holders, you've simply removed the ability for me to play the game online. I now have only 3 choices. Classic 6v6, Classic 3v3, or Classic Free For All. I just wanted you to know that you've lost both a player and a fan of the game. Thanks for your time, if anyone has even bothered to read this feedback.

You're missing literally nothing at all by not buying it, I absolutely promise. There's no new content, just a new terrible looking area to do the same things

You definitely have valid criticisms, and in a somewhat rare move, you constructed a well thought out post, without the typical whining/complaining. Nicely done. I do agree, the "story" still isn't there as it should be. You also nailed it saying "an entire expansion based on what feels like a side quest". That sums it up. You nailed it when you said the story feels like just a build up to the raid, but the raid provides no answers. The game is still a solid shooter, some new stuff, a lot of recycled stuff. Not much different than pre-ROI.

This game is lacking in so many area's that it's not even funny. What makes it worse is knowing when the D2 comes out sometime or shell I say way late in 2017 as the rest of this game has been. Bungie will most likely try to wipe their slate clean and act like none of this happened. Only to pull the same things if not worse on what they have done this last couple years. Alot of what happened to this game was literally Bungie's fault. One of the biggest mistake they made was signing a contract with the Devil and gamers try to act as if Bungie didn't know what they were doing. That's like saying Bungie was drunk so it's not their fault. Then they made the mistake on taking the original story to this game and chopped the shit out of it anlong with the content. To sell later leaving this so-call expansion. But the biggest mistake was trashing the original Bungie's work that it caused a major amount of issues within the company that Bungie lost some great employees that made Halo. Since y1 this games story and content has turned to trash leaving way to many things unanswered to be just left behind. Grime cards are a joke and an insalt knowing Bungie trashed the original writers work that caused him to quit. Leaving them not knowing wtf to do other then grim cards. Now Destiny is stuck with this idiot that has no idea on wtf he is doing that has left this games story far worse off then it was. I don't even believe he did anything with VOG knowing how Kings fall came out. I think he took credit for someone else's work because kings fall is garbage compared to Vog. Luke smith the idiot is also responsible for removing primary elemental among other stupid decisions. So knowing he will be lead. This game is -blam!-ed...

If you want more story then play a dedicated rpg, that's what I do but the gameplay in Destiny is the best as far as fps goes, it's so smooth if I try to play another fps I can't even do it, it feels so clunky and awkward. Also $30 nowadays isn't that much money, I'm more than happy with the content and Destiny sets the benchmark for fps, I love this game.

Destiny and its DLC is like a book of short stories. Each DLC might be entertaining but none of them are particularly good, and none of them continue where the last one ended. They just start a new, totally unrelated story arch. We fought the Hive plenty in vanilla, so why was there no mention of Crota? Hell, there was barely any mention of the Vault of Glass. There was no mention of Skolas, or a Fallen uprising, during The Dark Below so when skolas showed up it was completely random. Hello, who are you? Don't know, don't care, I'm just gonna kill you for sweet loot. At the end of The Taken King there's mention of Cabal sending a distress message to their Emperor. So what do we get in our next DLC? You guessed it---blam!-ing nanomites that no-one has ever heard about before that are somehow evil and go by the acronym SIVA (which nobody knows what it's short for for by the way). The way Destiny does it's storytelling is quite horrible, and incredibly boring. The villains don't feel threatening, not when they only have 5 or so story missions to develop their character.

Like it or not it only $30 ........ it's only $30

Like you, I'm a day 1 plus beta player and I didn't get RoI either for the same reasons you stated and a bit further..... lag. Through the last few months I played, (mid July was when I quit) the lag was a real issue. Not just in crucible, which I throughly enjoyed most of the time, but also in other activities (raid, strikes, patrols boot errors and the like). In all the posts about lag I made myself to all the posts I saw here on the forums, not once did I see a bungie rep respond or even acknowledge the lag existed. Instead, DPS always blamed it on player connections and personal networks. Sorry but that many people didn't come here leaving feedback on lag issues if it wasn't a real problem that wasn't addressed. Skill based MM was a horrible idea and yet it remained.... You covered the nerfing so I don't need to say anything else there, but the artificial 'meta' loadouts that went along with said nerfs made the game most un-enjoyable towards the end of my time on this game, and I stuck it out hoping for improvements for months, even after the April 'update'..... which was a bit silly but to each their own there. All in all, a solid and well thought-out post much deserving of a bump and hopefully bungie will indeed notice. As for the trolls, weak minds can't see the forest for the trees..... remember that.

Yes it has a lot of recycled content, but so did The Dark Below, House of Wolves and The Taken King. You make a lot of valid points, but they're points that really could have been applied to Destiny since it launched over 2 years ago. Personally I'm enjoying Rise of Iron much more than TTK mostly because I am liking this new raid much more than I did Kings Fall; but there can be no doubt that it still suffers from many of the same failings that have plagued Destiny since vanilla. I suppose I have learned to temper my expectations after so many disappointments with each expansion, but there is no way around it Destiny is getting stale. Here's hoping Destiny 2 comes with something fresh sooner rather than later.

It's just more of the same. It's ok, cause destiny feels great to play. But not sucking me in. And the little it had brought me back probably won't last long. We need a fresh reboot bad!