Somebody posted this drivel below, I made it in this separate reply because the "stupid" needs to see the light of day.[quote][b]The Ogrelord17[/b] Strike playlists are more rewarding, End Game Quest lines, New Raid, Trials, Court of Oryx, Iron Banner, and Exotic Quests. It's an improvement over what we have now. Plus old raids will more than likely have their loot tables updated so you can still get exotic drops from old content.[/quote] Lets compare, shall we? [b]TTK:[/b] 1 New Raid, but at the cost of two Raids and ToO and PoE being relegated to "nostalgia only" status where you can only get severely under-leveled gear when compared to Y2 maximums. Edit 1 = ToO is moving forward into Y2, but aside from changing the loot table, what's the point? Thew story-based reason for running it has become moot/non-existent, and more than anything it becomes grinding for the sake for grinding the grindy-ness. And while you'll still have access, you'll never be able to use ToO to go any higher than level 34 (as I explain and DeeJ confirms at the bottom of this post). [b]TTK:[/b] Five (5) new Strikes (only 4 for Xbox), but at the cost of 6 Strikes being made irrelevant and also relegated to "nostalgia only" status. [b]TTK:[/b] Iron Banner, not happening until Bungie feels a significant enough percentage of the population has hit level 40, so that could be in 1 day, a month, never... it's really up in the air, which is bullshit. [b]TTK:[/b] A massive new armory of weapons for players to choose from, at the cost of an equal amount of weapons and armor being removed from ever being possible to be used again. That's not "expanding" on anything (as Bungie claims it does). When you remove just as much as you add, it's called a zero sum margin. In fact, considering there's the base game and two DLC already, Bungie is really removing [b]MORE[/b] weapons and armor than they are adding, so the game shrinks quite a bit at this point. [b]TTK:[/b] Nightfalls are now locked until you hit level 40, and "face and survive the wrath of Oryx" (those are specifically Luke's own words. So, not only do you have to grind your way to 40, you have to beat the TTK campaign before you will have access to end-game content that you [b]PAID FOR WITH THE BASE GAME!!![/b] Daily Heroics are being removed and placed behind the same wall as you won't have access to the new Heroic Playlist until the two requirements are met, nor will you have access to the new PvP Heroic Bounties playlist as well. So, the ultimatum is clear: Bungie is saying "If you don't buy TTK, you get [b]ZERO[/b] end-game activities, even though you paid for them with the base game." So, they're making the game smaller with this change, not "expanding" it. This is the exact same thing as saying: "If you don't buy TTK, don't bother playing our game." [b]TTK:[/b] TDB and HoW campaign content becomes irrelevant once the Taken start invading the Inner Planets like Bungie said they are going to. Really, what's the point of TDB and HoW? Why even play through that content? Bungie is neutering the "imminent danger" of Crota and Skolas by removing the changes to the Patrol open-environment. No Knights... no roving bands of Wolves... without those, how much of an "imminent danger" are those two enemies if you see nothing of them? It gets even worse for a new player. New players going through all of this content for the first time. The game is taking about Crota's armies invading the Cosmodrome from the Moon. Skolas supposedly broke free of the Prison, but if none of those are present in the world, what kind of threat do they really present? Even more, if Bungie tries to explain it away as "The guardians who came before you fought long and hard to stop these imminent threats to the remainder of Hummanity..." the new player has to stop and think: "If the Y1 players already beat and stopped these threats, and they did it so well that Bungie removed them from the open environment, then what the hell is the point of [b]ME[/b] playing through it? I mean, it already has been stopped, right?" Once you do a proper comparison, it's actually quite easy to see that Bungie is making Destiny [b]smaller[/b] with TTK. You're actually getting [b]less[/b] for all the money you've already dropped into this game than you have right now in the week-and-a-half before TTK drops. How [b]ANYONE[/b] could still be defending Bungie is just.. I can't figure out how to justify any defense of Bungie. [b]Plus, with this weeks update (September 3rd, 2015), DeeJ confirmed that you either buy TTK, or don't play.[/b] Some of the players' worst fears about TTK were confirmed as absolute truth by DeeJ yesterday. It's as I've been saying for two weeks now: If you don't buy TTK, and grind to 40, you cannot access the Nightfall or any other "end-game" activities. "But Vampire, " the fanboy's said; "You only need experience now to hit 40, Bungie never said you had to buy TTK or get locked out of the Nightfall!!!1!!" Wrong. From the September 3rd Weekly Letdown:[quote]Character • Character Level Cap for all players will be raised to 34 • Level Cap for The Taken King will be 40[/quote]Ergo; you cannot play in the Nightfall, Vanguard Heroic Strike Playlist, of Crucible Heroic Bounties unless you hit level 40 and "face and survive the wrath of Oryx" were Luke's words from the August 27th update. Now, if you don't buy TTK [b] you will never hit level 40[/b] as you max character level will be 34. Since you cannot ever hit 40 without buying TTK, the Nightfall (a game feature you paid for with the base game) will be forever locked out from you. That doesn't even begin to touch the other fact that you must complete the TTK campaign to access it even if you do buy the DLC and hit 40. So the ultimatum still stands; "Buy TTK or don't bother playing our game." Edit 2 = [quote]If you’ve bought Destiny, whether you’ve pre-ordered The Taken King or not, we’re sending you into the Crucible to experience new modes of battle on every brand new map. [b][u]One thing to note: You won’t have the use of your new Super abilities yet. You’ll have to visit your class Vanguard in The Taken King to earn your new subclass.[/u][/b] For now, though, you can and should check out the new slate of maps on offer, and two of the new modes.[/quote]That third sub-Class everyone has been so excited about? Not available in any way unless you buy TTK. Since you have to be [i]in[/i] The Taken King to get your new sub-Class "awarded" to you, if you don't buy TTK there will be no Warlock-Sith Lord for you. No Legolas Hunters. No Mjolnir-wielding Titans. More content locked behind a paywall that should be available to all. [b]Edit 3:[/b] Bungie confirmed their ultimatum again this week. For those who have doubted my interpretation of Bungie's Update regarding Character Level for the last week, Bungie proved me correct in every way. [quote]Character • Character Level Cap raised to 34 for all players. •Your character level will be grandfathered into your highest possible Light Level from all gear in your inventory and Vault. • Character Level Cap will be increased to 40 on 9/15 (requires The Taken King)[/quote]There it is. Straight from the [url=https://www.bungie.net/7_Destiny-Update---09082015/en/News/News?aid=13474]September 8th Update and 2.0 Patch Notes.[/url] It's not that: "Oh, I'm sure that everyone gets 40 now, but I don't believe that Bungie would make lvl 40 dependent on buying TTK. It's simply that everyone gets 34 now, then can hit 40 once TTK releases whether you buy TTk or not." Nope. Bungie said it right there in black and white. Grinding past level 34 [b]REQUIRES[/b] a person to buy TTK. Which then loops back to my Nightfall/Vanguard Heroic Strike playlist/Daily Heroic Crucible Bounties argument; Features that you paid for with the base game are locked out to you unless you shovel more money to Bungie. And there's Bungie's Ultimatum; "Buy TTK or don't bother playing our game." Now can we see how Bungie is screwing over their own players? [b]Edit 4:[/b] Here's my take/review after a night with [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/152464390/0/0]Weapon Imbalance 2.0.[/url]