So as I have made some posts regarding PvE, updates and general discussion about Destiny that have garnered a lot of attention in the past, I have had some people message me asking for my opinion on the newest update. I planned on making a post anyways, but now that I have had 3 days to pretty much experience most of the changes and new things, I feel it's a good time to write it up. Keep in mind I am someone who has had an overall mostly postive experience with Destiny, but has also been very critical of Bungie's decision making, and have not been afraid to voice those concerns. Here we go... [u][b]AND PLEASE, COMMENT AND SHARE YOUR OPINIONS AS WELL. PLEASE BE MATURE AND CIVIL.[/b][/u] [b]I want to start by absolutely applauding Bungie for the quality of life changes. [i]For the first time in a long, long time I actually felt like I was actually enjoying playing, and not just going through the motions. For the first time maybe ever, I felt sufficiently rewarded for the time I spent playing.[/i][/b] [b][u] Some examples of positive changes[/u][/b] [b]Increased reputation gains for Vanguard, Crucible, Variks, Patrols and Factions are fantastic changes.[/b] With the rep booster I was getting 260 vangaurd rep for each strike. My friend and I hopped into the strike playlist, played for 2 hours and ranked up from 5% to 100% to earn a package. Losses in crucible were giving 90ish rep, and wins over 100. Patrol missions giving 40ish rep. It felt GREAT to actually see real progress while completing these things, and made it much more enjoyable to grind them out. [b]THE NEW LOOT SYSTEM IS -blam!-ING AWESOME..FINALLY![/b] Finally. I am almost speechless. For the first time, 75% of my legendary drops are actually useful. With the loot having a much higher chance to be even or within +5 of current light level, I can use those bad rolls or dupe items to upgrade what I am using. Even though my vanguard package gave me a worthless choleric dragon rocket launcher, IT WAS 329. I could actually use the damn thing, and infuse my Raze Lighter or Dragons Breath to set everything on fire. Which leads to another point... [b]1:1 Ration for Infusion[/b] I don't think I need to explain why this is good. - I actually enjoyed the new Poe/CotE. Although it was rewarding to beat Skolas, I never really was a fan of the original. I was not looking forward to redoing it again and again when the update announced it was coming back. But this new system is fun. It was something you can jump into and run and 20-30 mins later be done and have some loot. I am dreading the week the SYLOK!!!! THE DEFILED!!!!! is matched with solar burn, though. The quicker fight makes the no checkpoints from year 1 version a non-issue. It forsure seems more friendly for casual players. - Unlocking the rest of the shaders/emblems from Rahool packages, strike and crucible rewards. They shouldn't have been locked in the first place, but it is nice to finally have them available. I jumped into the crucible tonight for about 3 hours, and tried a variety of weapons. I mainly rolled with Mida/Doctrine up until now, and was excited to try other things out. I used Hawkmoon, SUROS, a PoE scout rifle, my old hopscotch (too lazy to transfer Nirwins lol), my Thesan FR, and a Her Fury (new queens sniper). Overall I was pleased by the performance of all the weapons, and found a variety of weapons being used by others, too. (except the douche with thorn/matador/firebolts lol - go play the year 1 playlists). Hawkmoon felt really good again. Slow RoF pulses felt good. My only disappointment was that AR's still felt week and outclassed. I would probably ask for a bigger buff than 2.3% per bullet, as close range they are beat by TLW/Doctrine style AR's/Secondary, and farther range beaten by pulses and scouts like Mida. When they do 26ish damage per bullet, that percentage only adds 1 damage per bullet anyways, and seems like a non-factor in the grand scheme of dps. Ammo changes in crucible were OK with me, and it personally was just more enjoyable fighting Primary vs Primary more often. I rarely was killed by a sniper/shotgun, ran into many more fusions, and had more primary weapon engagements. It just felt more fun and closer to the experience you got out of Vanilla crucible. [b][u]Below are some of the disappointing things I found with the update.[/u][/b] Note: It is probably best on holding off on completely judging PvP until the meta establishes itself. Some things such such as hit detection, lag, and some issues with sub classes still persist. I still think sunbreakers need some power restored to them, and something can be done about viking funeral. Level 42 PoE is easy. VERY easy. I am not sure if it is because the modifiers this week are meant to make it easier and get people to try it, or because it is just easy by nature. Only time will tell. I do not see CotE holding people over until the assumed expansion comes this fall. Perhaps that would be the case if the light level increase was more than 15 levels, but as it is now I have a feeling hardcore players will be max in 2-3 weeks, and casuals within 2-2.5 months. And that is OK. Play other games too. Games are fun. The rotation of strikes/crucible maps seems like it could be better. During our 2 hour strike run, we played Psion Flayers 3x and Echo Chamber 3-4x. We played Omnigul, Taniks and Winter's Run (non taken sadly) once each. In crucible, we got the same map 3x in a row. I know with switching hosts it can obviously happen, but it seems to happen a lot. I am still holding out hope Xur shows up with the missing exotics, but don't think that will happen. I can see myself playing for the next couple months, but don't see this lasting until Fall. Ideally, in late June/early July another update would come, and in it contain revamped versions of VoG, Crota and the rest of the year 1 strikes, add some more year 1 weapons, and some new crucible maps. That would be great but I don't think that will happen either, judging by the wording Deej used in the update today and them stating the CotE is going to be different each week for the next 16 weeks (which puts us in Fall.) I guess it depends on how many resources and how much money they are willing to dedicate to the Live Team. [u][b]Overall, i would give this update a 8.5/10. I think there is still more to improve upon, but this seems like a very solid step in the right direction. The changes to quality of life and rewards far outweigh the negatives. These positive changes lay groundwork that can be implemented into the next expansion and Destiny 2. [/b][/u] My take on Silver/Sterling Treasure is in the spoiler [spoiler] I am indifferent to this subject. I have given it some thought, and honestly am having trouble choosing which side to be on. I understand why people are terrified of them. Look at what a game like GTA has done. They have essentially made it impossible to play GTA Online and have the full experience without purchasing their "Shark Cards", which if you didn't know is purchasable in-game currency. It is simply so damn expensive to buy anything, that you probably will never get to buy that cool car or gun mod without grinding for 500 hours. So, people buy the cards for the instant ability to access that content. Well, they just announced that they have made $500 million off of microtransaction purchases of these shark cards. HALF A BILLION DOLLARS. Just the sales of the game alone were around $2 billion, as someone stated correctly. They have really forced people into buying these to enjoy the content, so I fully understand why we should be wary of them. On the other hand, I understand the the people that are OK with them. If I want to spend my money on something, I should be able to. Some people don't want to spend all that playing time to earn the boxes and have a RNG chance at getting the taken gear. Some people want the rewards now. And I am OK with that too. I don't think I would consider it pay to win, because you still have to play the game to earn the high level gear you eventually infuse into it. But, at the same time, someone can spend $1000 to get the perfect roll they want, that will eventually be useful. So is it pay to win? NO. But it can be abused to a certain extent. I purchased some silver, and bought some boxes. I make pretty good money, and work 60-70 hours a week, so I don't always have time to grind for it. I would also say that on strictly armor, it doesn't have as much of an impact that allowing weapons to be purchased through Eververse would have. I never want to see weapons for sale, because that would be pay to win. Buying boxes until you get a god roll, that can be made into a high level weapon immediately. Absolutely against selling weapons/boxes that contain them. They'd be better to bring rerolling back and not make people pay for it. So overall, I would lean towards the sterling boxes are OK for now, since we can earn them legit anyways. And you still have to earn the pieces you infuse into them. But I am completely against weapons being sold. In an ideal world, we could earn more boxes than 3 per week, and the emotes could be earned as well.[/spoiler]