Warning: this is a LONG post. If that's not your cup of tea, then you should probably click off this post. Take it easy. For those of you that want a read, well, here you go. I've been hearing A LOT of complaining about Stormcaller warlocks and Striker titans recently. Especially after the hunter and sunsinger nerfs. Inevitably, when there's a large amount of complaining, then there's going to be nerfs. I'm begging you Bungie, don't nerf these classes. I'll do my best to explain why in this post. Let me preface this by saying that, yes, I do main a warlock. I've been playing a lot of stormcaller lately since the subclass patch (I used to be a die-hard sunsinger, but have changed up my playstyle). But before any of you forum trash-talkers come at me with "Of course you're defending warlocks, you play as one." Or "You just don't want you precious subclass nerfed! Us hunters had ours nerfed!" Let me remind you: I'm defending both Stormcallers AND Strikers. And I haven't even PLAYED a striker titan on all my time on Detsiny (I have played all 3 hunter subclasses and defender, however). So let's just take a chill pill and stop writing that angry comment now. So, a majority of the complaints I hear about Stormcallers focus around their super and their amplitude melee. I'll talk about the super first, then the melee. Stormtrance. Like any other super, it can be used to great effect when used properly. A lot of the complaints I hear focus around the chaining lightning ability and how they can rush into a room and clear it out with little effort. First off, I agree that it takes less aiming (and thus, I guess, "skill") to use than other supers. It CAN clear entire rooms of enemies when used right. However, there have been numerous times that I've been killed in my stormtrance. We're not invincible. Far from it. In fact, the super itself is hindered by a wide variety of things. First off, it's not an instant-kill. It takes 3 ticks of 73 damage to kill an ordinary guardian. It has a very limited range; although it may seem impressive in close quarters, you won't be mapping people with it like Hammer of Sol or Golden Gun. Lastly (and this is a big one), THERE IS NO HEALTH REGENERATION. Both Hammer of Sol AND Arcblade have this one key thing that allows for insane survivability while in their super. You know what's easy to take out? An arcblade running straight at you. You know what's NOT easy to take out? An arcblade that's zig-zagging all over the place and regenerating health with EVERY. KILL. While stormcallers have the ability to hit multiple targets at once (at less damage, I might add. The chaining only does 37 per tick instead of 73), we don't have the ability to regenerate health, and thus can be gunned down fairly easily by competant players. Ionic blink serves as the only survival trait that we have, and even then, Arcbladers can bop and weave and Sunbreakers have access to the Twilight Garrison (in addition to their regenerating health abilities). Now am I saying that those two supers are more powerful than Stormtrance? Hell no. They can't hit multiple targets at once (I guess Sunbreakers can, but not to the extent of Stormcallers). What I AM saying is, is that each super is very unique and powerful in its own way, with each having its own benefits and drawbacks. You'll notice me reference this again later on, and this serves as the sort of theme of this post. Onto the melee. Yes, the amplitude perk on the Thunderstrike melee makes it have INSANE range. This has lead to A LOT of complaining about it. But guess what. You know what Thunderstrike CAN'T do? It can't get one-shot kills to the back. It doesn't grant you an overshield. It doesn't do 154 base damage. It doesn't regenerate your health on a hit. Each of those things I mentioned are perks on other melee attacks that make them powerful and (cough) UNIQUE. There's that theme again. Yeah, stormcallers have an extended melee range. But bladedancers have backstab. And sunsingers have flame shield. And voidwalkers have life steal. It's not overpowered whatsoever. It's unique. It's a perk on a melee comparable to any other perk on any other melee. It's something special that can make your base melee attack better, like any other subclass can do. In my opinion, the hate Stormcallers receive for their melee is unwaranted in every single way. Let's suppose they DO nerf amplitude, supposedly into oblivion. What then? Where do we stop? Do we then nerf backstab? Do we nerf flame shield (again)? Do we nerf life steal? Why are stormcallers getting singled out for a perk on their melee attack when every other subclass has perks on their melee attacks that make them equally as special and unique? Let's move on to strikers. Now as I said, I haven't actually PLAYED on strikers. So I can't talk about them as extensively as I can stormcallers. I'll instead talk about the entire subclass in bulk. Strikers have been receiving a lot of hate lately due to a large amount of things. Lightning grenades, juggernaut, shoulder charge, etc. And although I've done my fair share of raging against strikers when I get panic fisted in the Crucible, I again feel that any actual criticism they receive is just as unjust as stormcallers. Strikers are one of the few remaining classes that has been virtually untouched (er, un-NERFED) since launch. The only reason people are complaining now is because everything is being dumbed down. Hunters got hit with a nerf. Sunsingers and Stormcallers got with a nerf. Now, in relation to other things, strikers seem stronger than they ever have been. In truth, nothing about them has changed. As I said, the only reason we're complaining about them now is because everything is being dumbed down. I'll give an example. I recently went back and watched a Dark Below-Era review on Necrocasm (remember, the era in which high RoF autos were considered unusable?) Well, what I realized was that high RoF autos RIGHT NOW, are only doing ONE more base damage more than they were in the Dark Below era. And yet, people still complain that Doctrine of Passing is OP. Why is this? Certainly 1 damage isn't responsible for the massive gap between "OP" and "Unusable." Instead, it's because all (or most) other primaries were hit with some sort of nerf in their life cycle. High RoF autos were never "bad." In relation to other primaries at the time of Dark Below, yeah, they were unusable. But now, when everything has been dumbed down, they remain in nearly the same spot and yet are considered OP in relation to everything else beacuse, quite frankly, everything else sucks compared to what it once was. Why was counterbalance nerfed? Because in relation to the (let's be brutally honest, sh*tty) perks added in with TTK, it was considered too good. Everything's being dumbed down. There's some food for thought. That's an extensive topic that I may go into on a different day. But back to my point. Strikers. There's nothing wrong with them. In relation to the other subclasses now, yeah, they may seem powerful. But I urge you to remember the fact that they are virtually the same since launch. Perhaps Bungie is going to stick to their model of nerfing things that are considered "OP." Not because they actually are in the timeline of Destiny, but because they are compared to the other piles of garbage that they're up against. I believe that this is fundamentally flawed because it begs the question: at what point do we stop? I GUARANTEE there will NEVER be a point when everything is going to be "balanced" and nothing will be "OP." Which means that SOMETHING will ALWAYS be considered "OP." At what point will Bungie stop the cycle of nerfing things and realize that everything kinda sucks? I'm not one of those people that is like "OMG BUFF EVERYTHING BUNGO" because I think that's the wrong answer. But I feel that SERIOUS consideration needs to be taken into EVERY potential nerf, because we're getting damn close to the breaking point. I again bring it back to the theme: uniqueness among classes (and to an extent, exotics and all weapons as a whole). Many exotics have been hit with nerfs. They've been struck down because what made them unique was apparently too powerful. My thought is that we are getting WAY to close to the point of everything losing it's uniqueness; it's special thing; it's luster. Soon we'll be in this dull state where everything is just copy-and-paste; the exact same thing. I don't want Destiny to become that. Which is why I again urge the developers to take serious time and effort into determining what REALLY needs more nerfs.