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Edited by RPColten: 12/10/2016 7:00:15 AM
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Topic Discussion: Role of Elemental Damage

Are you prepared for a somewhat incomprehensible wall of text? I sure am! Note: I may make comparisons with Digital-Extremes game "WarFrame" which showcases weapons with elemental damage types, as is the case within Destiny. I will be providing context when needed only about the elemental damage and it's context/affect within game, nothing else. Please don't think this will be a rant on comparing one title against another. I am making this post in the hopes to provoke a discussion about the elemental damage presence in Destiny and how it affects players of a whole. [b]Why though? :[/b] Any active user on the Bungie.net forums will often see posts proposing for the re-introduction of elemental-damage to primary weapons, a feature that was present on all 'end-game' primary weapons (excluding Iron Banner) pre-Taken King. Weapons from the Vault of Glass/Crota's End raids, Prison of Elders and Trials of Osiris (Lighthouse reward tier) had the 'kinetic' damage replaced with an elemental damage type. Since Taken King, this has been a hot topic of discussion with a sizable majority of the players speaking out agreeing that the removal would be seen as a "poor choice" and some state that the introduction would only "promote a wide-variety of weapons for usability". Rarely do I see topics discussing the current presence of elemental damage in Destiny and what effects it has on a players choice of equipment. What are it's affects on gameplay? How does it affect weapon loadouts? Can it be changed? Should it? [b]What of it? :[/b] Currently in Destiny players are presented with the ability to have three types of elemental damage modifiers on secondary and heavy weapons. This includes: Solar, Arc, Void. What the effects they have on enemies in the game environment is currently limited to two effects: [b]1. [/b]Increased damage against enemy shields of like-damage, e.g: A solar damage shotgun will deal increased damage against a solar shield. An elemental damage type will however have no negative/positive effect against shields of a non-like type, e.g: A solar shotgun will have no negative/positive effect against an arc shield. [b]2. [/b]The second instance involves players participating in an activity that has an "Elemental-Burn" modifier, e.g: Arc-Burn. This "Burn" doubles the damage of player attacks and triples the damage of enemy attacks. That's it. That is all that it does. Kind of shallow is it not? What seems to be the vocal desire of players for elemental damage? Adding it to primary weapons. While it varies from "being only present on Exotic-tier items" to "any legendary/exotic-tier weapon can have elemental damage", they all agree that it would be a "major benefit" and would only seem to make the options more vast. Give players something to chase in Raids and end-game activities and so forth. Hypothetical question though, what if the elemental-burn modifier no longer affects primary weapons? Only secondary and heavy benefit from it. Would those same people vying for elemental damage on primary weapons still want it if they no longer benefited from the elemental-burn modifier? How many people would actively use the Zhalo-Supercell in PvE activities if it's innate arc damage was removed? Perk functions remaining, but no longer dealing arc damage. My guess? Not as many people would as much. The desire, at least from what I can tell, stems from players being able to benefit from those elemental-burn modifiers in the strike playlists. Not from the ability to deal bonus damage to an enemy shield. A specific TYPE of shield, not just all of them. The weapon has to match the enemy to have any meaningful benefit. That is where I feel the elemental-damage presence in Destiny falls apart. It lacks the impact and depth that can provide players with a sense of mechanical progression that the game excels beautifully at in seperate aspects. Players get a real sense of progression and power increase as they level-up and make their way to level 40 and max-light after that. On the other hand though, elemental damage makes no benefit to a players sense of weapon choice and the effect it would have on their enemies. There is no palpable sense of impact with choosing between a solar or void fusion rifle. It does the exact same thing to the enemy. Can this field benefit from a change? Possibly. In "WarFrame" (a game that is difficult to describe) players are capable of utilizing eight different types of elemental-damage types. These each have a unique effect on enemies and play a major role in weapon choice and understanding enemy types. Effects can include: Increased damage against enemies, reduction/negation of enemy defences such as armour(reduces incoming damage) or shields(recharges over time), the capability to bypass shields and deal damage to health directly, and deal "status-effects" such as igniting enemies, slow/freezing/stunning, and causing a percentile damage-over-time. What does this mean for a player? It means making a choice of one damage type over another can have a significant impact on a players capability in defeating the enemy. Is it necessary to understand the elemental-damage types to succeed at the game? Not entirely, they are simply 'bonuses' to dealing normal damage. Just like in Destiny, the elemental damages are not necessary to the core game play loop of the game, or end-game content for that matter. This is the primary reasoning behind my standpoint of believing that having elemental-damage on primary weapons does [b]nothing[/b] for players. It provides little to no benefit to the casual players(of which the majority are), and minimal benefit to players in end-game (Nightfall and random Heroic-Strikes). The damage buff against shields is minimal to even speak of. That I feel is also where it shines. Destiny is at its core a casual shooter. Its core game play loop (the average players day-to-day activities) consist of Patrol, Story Missions, strike-playlist and Crucible matches (excluding Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris as these are high-level/end-game). The average player that logs on will not stop to consider the implications of what their solar sidearm will do compared to the other arc one. I think that is good though. The effects it presents on the game are small enough to not drastically affect game play, but are enough to warrant a small amount of consideration when entering specific activities. Wrath of the Machine raid? Plenty of void shields, void damage will come in handy. So on and so forth. Can it be expanded on and added benefits to elemental-damage be made? I think so. Is it necessary right now? I do not think so. What are your thoughts on elemental-damage in Destiny? Should any changes be made to how players interact with it? TL;DR : Elemental-damage has minimal impact on Destiny game play and as such has minimal impact on player weapon choice.

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  • Why does wanting elements back have to have a deep spiritual meaning for you? It's just fun that's all. Bungie took it away and it was unnecessary. Giving it back is only a positive. People who wanted it back will be happy and the people who didn't care, still won't care.

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    • I really like your insight on this topic. I personally think that they should add elementary primaries but like year one keep them locked behind end game content such as hard mode raids and ToO. They could have an option to apply a certain burn to a weapon through a ornament type of item obtainable through the hard mode raid or ToO once per week.

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    • Ok i thought their would be a wall of text but this is the great wall of China!!!!

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