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SO, now that that's out of the way, hear me out. Whenever we think something is overpowered or needs balancing, (whether it actually is op/needs balancing or not) we tend to vocally express that opinion on the forums.
Very often this causes a nerf to happen to the thing needing said balance.
However, most of the time we nerf something, we fail to realize that that op thing was countering something we couldn't see until we already nerfed it.
I have three examples.
The first example being in Year One. When fusion rifles were nerfed, there was nothing to keep the shotguns in check.
The next example is in Year Two. After the reign of terror that was Thorn, a blanket patch was placed over hand cannons nerfing all of them.
This caused Pulse rifles (and certain exotic Hand Cannons) to outperform other weapons because the only thing keeping Pulse Rifles in check were Hand Cannons.
( And the only reason Hand Cannons started reigning supreme was because of the great Auto Rifle nerf. Since the ARs had been nerfed nothing kept the HCs in check)
My final example is from the very beginning of Destiny and carries all the way to this year.
After Blade Dancers were nerfed, there was nothing to keep Gun Slingers in check. After Sun Breakers were introduced in the Taken King, they stopped the Gun Slingers, but nothing could keep THEM in check.
As a result we nerfed Sunbreakers, and suddenly there was nothing keeping Stormcallers and in check. So we nerfed Stormcallers, and there was nothing to keep Night Stalkers in check.
So we nerfed Night Stalker, which gave birth to Sunsingers, Gun Slingers, Storm Callers (again) and Blade Dancers reigning over Crucible for awhile being hell to deal with. It was annoying to deal with and Crucible wasn't as fun to play anymore.
So we nerfed them all and now Striker Titans seem OP. Because we nerfed every counter to them! And what happens when we nerf them? A new ability will show itself and will be considered OP again and the cycle will continue because even though we don't know it now, the Striker Titan is keeping that ability in CHECK.
Do you see the pattern? No matter which class ability we nerf, a new one will appear because the ability we just nerfed, was the only thing that was able to counter the new one that showed itself.
(A personal example (and opinion) is I feel that the Sunsinger's old Viking Funeral with Touch of Flame and Firebolt Grenades, and Hunters old Throwing Knives, kept Shoulder Charge in check. Now that they changed the perks, Strikers aren't as worried running in for a Shoulder Charge because the fear of a throwing knife head shot or a high damage burning Firebolt isn't there.)
SO HERE'S MY SOLUTION!
Rather than nerf the next OP thing let's make a counter for it. Not every class needs a counter to everything and that's OKAY because it will provide balance.
In other words let's make a very advanced Rock, Paper, Scissors. This ability has a higher chance to beat this one and so on. Of course we all have our guns to counter abilities, but I feel this way is better of handling it.
So for instance which ability would be a good one to counter Shoulder Charge and how do we buff that ability without making it too OP?
Examples I personally would pick:
Hunters Smoke Grenade.
(Slows down the momentum deactivating the Shoulder charge perk.)
Hunters Blink Strike
(it should be quick enough to hit first and stop the momentum deactivating the Shoulder Charge perk, but not too much as to where the Titan can't Storm Grip your ass if you're to slow.)
Sunsinger's Solar Wind
(This perk is useless as of right now and the pitiful amount it did push enemies away, I don't even think works correctly anymore. Buff the amount it pushes enemies back and reduce the amount of initial damage it does while keeping the burn damage. I'm not saying like Phalanx strength push but enough to where if the two perks collide at the same time, Sunsinger's will be safe and Strikers will have to readjust.)
Defenders Supresion Grenade
(Buff radius so when thrown at a running Striker it suppresses the Strikers (or any Guardians) abilities.)
Storm Callers Amplitude Melee
(We don't need greater range on this melee. It's already long enough. Rewrite it so it blinds the enemy it hits. BUT EXTREMELY TEMPORARY. Enough to disorient but not enough to where your enemy can't do anything. OR make it so it forces your enemy to do a 180 when hit with it. Or just make it so it stops momentum of a moving person for 2 seconds. Kind of like trying to move in a vex detain bubble. You can still aim shoot and use your abilities, but you can't move in any direction very well for like a second and a half. After all it is electricity coursing through you.)
Now I'm not saying implement those ideas. Those are just examples I came up with off my head to show that instead of nerfing everything we should apply SMALL buffs to SELECT abilities to counter other one's without making said abilities too OP.
Instead of buffing or nerfing whole Classes, lets buff select abilities to help promote better growth for the balance between our subclasses.
What do you guys think?
Also i know gun balance is a thing but thats a whole other topic for a later time. Let's work on our Characters first.
Do you think this idea would work better?
Also please like this post if you vote, for I am trying to get as many people to see this as I can to provide proper feed back.
Edit1: Spelling
Edit2: 253 Votes Guardians!!
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5 Repliesi can see what you are attempting to do, and your ideas are well thought out and concise. But may i say one thing? in your examples of how the subclasses would work with your solution (everything having a counter); you seemed to really only focus on neutralizing the striker's abilities. in each of your examples; you had it so that almost any ability could neuter its automaton-like power. if they did alter the game to have a more rock paper scissors feel; it would mean everything has a counter. not paper beats rock, scissor beats rock, and paper/scissor are immune to all of rock's advances. also i'm not sure if bungie could implement this correctly anyway. if everything had a specific counter; what would occur if one team countered an entire other team? is the other team expected to change their subclasses to win so they can counter their competitors? and will they not have the same idea? both sides will just constantly change abilities, or one side will essentially just have to concede, or completely rely on their weapons. and what will that lead to? more weapon nerfs; despite the fact that every type of weapon type thus far has had a nerf destiny just isn't built to be that sort of game. instead; bungie's best bet would be to make it so that every class, subclass, and ability has its own discernible pros and cons. this way their is no answer to every problem in one build. rather; only what the player believes is their best bet in majority of contingencies. which they have already accomplished with a few subclasses should i use a vampire voidwalker build? or should i use a supernova build? should i use a greased lightning stormcaller build? or should i use a transcendence build? etc, etc neither build is factually better than the other. one will simply shine in scenarios where the other won't. this is truly the only way for the game to reach a point of no nerfs. these should be the inquires we, the players, ask. we should choose what class, subclass, and abilities we are comfortable with; without having to worry of others using the meta build of the time, because it is the most capable. bladedancers at the end of year 1 shouldn't have been punished because meta hoarders saw their subclass was the most capable at the time same for the sunbreakers during their time, and the stormcallers for their's. etc etc in short, i fathom we should have a system where everything is just as capable as anything else. but that thing has its own pros and cons. somethings will preform well in x scenario and terribly in y, whilst others preform vice versa