Before I get to the main topic, let's take a trip back in time. Recall a specific loot drop that made you go [b]insane[/b] with joy. I remember pulling gjallarhorn from the gorgon chest. Now recall your best taken king loot drops, and think these questions over: -what made the loot drop great; power level, perk roll, specific exotic you wanted? -has that one loot drop made a meaningful impact to your destiny experience; has it created a lasting memory of your time in destiny? -compared to pre-ttk, how meaningful was this reception of loot; how bonkers did you go? By nature of taken king loot, drops are far less meaningful, and create little impact on the player's development. Taken king loot focuses on a large number of small power increases, rather than a small number of tremendous power increases. This is good, as it gives way to the infusion economy that exists now and it makes reaching high level a bigger commitment than doing a couple of arenas. Seriously, getting to level 34 was a joke. But just as all things go in the constantly changing world of destiny, bungie over-corrected. We've seen this in weapon balancing; things that are too powerful get nerfed into the ground and things that are too weak become the next best thing in the game. Bungie has an act for making extremely radical changes that completely flip the landscape, however giving it the same magnitude of imbalance. For example, it took them a full year to properly balance thorn; started off real shitty, than became the only gun used in crucible, then months later became reasonably balanced. The same thing happened with the level system. It started off as a set of substantial power jumps. Bungie decided after a year that the system wasn't exactly intuitive, and was unforgiving to the leveling process. The old and new light systems are polar opposites of each other. The new system is comprised of a large number of trivial power increases. These increases are so small that they aren't perceivable on the battlefield, and give way to a loot system that is highly unforgiving and devoid of the same meaning the old system had. Honestly, I can't think of one instance in ttk when I was excited about a climb in light level or receiving a new piece of gear. This is because the effects of the rewards are both random and negligible. In the old raids, I would have dropped my controller and woke the neighbors when I got that last piece of armor to be the highest level. When I got that raid gun, or that exotic I wanted, I would've said something like "[b]holy -blam!-ing -blam!-, I got the -blam!-ing fatebringer! -blam!- -blam!-ing yes![/b]. Now, I get a piece of armor that's a couple defense higher than the one I have, and I could hardly care enough to say "woo, I'm one fifth of a single light point higher now. There are two factors contributing to the meaninglessness of taken king's loot drops. 1 - power levels. Oh, how random and infuriating they are. All endgame gear should be rewarded in tiers. None of this 313, 317 bullshit. Have normal raid loot drop at a solid 310, hard mode loot at 320. Have exotics drop in similar tiers based on the player's light level in a way that is more forgiving. 310 drops should be guaranteed if the player is 300+. 320 should be guaranteed if the player is 310+, etc. Infusion is somewhat of a joke in the same way, in that the power jumps are so small, and occur at the cost of a piece of gear. I can scrap a piece of high end gear to make this other piece of gear more powerful, and jump up a fraction of a light level, of which there are three hundred twenty. Again, that change is so trivial that it makes the current progression system unforgiving, meaningless, and contrary to the player experience that you gave us in the previous year. Infusion of one tier to the next should allow the gear piece to inherit all of the power. 2 - randomness of talents. This one isn't as big of a problem, but it contributes to a good deal of the disappointment surrounding endgame loot drops. Raid weapons are supposed to be unique in that they are given a specific set of talents that caters to a certain playstyle and gives players something to hope for. But randomness of talents not only shatters this uniqueness, but adds yet another layer of randomness (therefore punishment) to the system. In the old raids, it was bad enough being at the mercy of cruel RNG to get that weapon or armor you wanted. But when you got it, you knew what you were getting; you know how much power it would give you, and you knew what exactly it could do. Now, not only do you have to hope for the weapon, you also have to hope for a power level worth considering and a perk set worth utilizing. Seriously, nobody wants an already bad hand cannon made worse by hip fire and a low power level. Nobody wants to get the weapon they desire, only to find out that it is the lowest possible level. In terms of player experience, and high end loot systems, you took several steps back. I want to see raid weapons have pre-selected talents; that worked in the past. I want power levels to be more predictable and forgiving; that worked in the past. Not only did it work, it made people happy. Right now, people aren't happy. constant disappointment fills the upper right hand corner of their screen upon the fell of a raid boss. I want that shiny new piece of gear to make me say "holy shit" again. I want that exotic to mean something. I don't want to be at the mercy of three different levels of randomness when receiving my deserved rewards. Recall the player experience you created in vanilla. Recall the reactions people had when they got their shiny raid weapons, and their exotics from chests. Recall the measurable and meaningful impact it made on their destiny experience. That is what makes destiny what it is; it is why I play ttk and feel constantly underwhelmed, under-rewarded for the carnage, and rather disappointed. I know you can make it better. I only took the time to write this because I love destiny, and I have faith in its future. So please, stop shooting yourself in the foot.