[quote][b]What do you like?:[/b][/quote]
While I disagree with the special ammo nerf over all, I do like the pacing and primary focus that it brought to the game. more on this in a moment. Oh, and handcannons, those are nice now. More on those, too. Oh, oh, and high caliber rounds! thanks for fixing those.
[quote][b]What do you hate?:[/b][/quote]
I hate the fact that most of the weapon tunings were punitive in nature without actually adressing the problems with the weapons. Take Clever Dragon for example: What was wrong with the weapon that made it OP? Well, aside from every other primary being inferior, that archetype of pulse had a VERY forgiving damage drop-off that made it really effective at most ranges that are relevant in pvp given the size of the average pvp map. Also, HCR was broken and the gun flinched other players way too much. Based on this, I would think the solution to fixing the clever dragon would be to tighten up the damage falloff a bit, fix HCR and flinch in general, and then work on buffing other primaries to compete with that standard.
But no: while you did fix HCR (again, thank you), you decided to nerf ammo capacity, stability builds in general, and TTK by slowing down the rate of fire. Half of this nerf didn't actually fix what was wrong with the gun, it just punished the gun for being good at being a gun. Seriously, Clever Dragon (and others of the same type) were never really OP (HCR notwithstanding), they were just good primary weapons. Now this gun is a total chore to use in pvp, and it'll never compete with my pdx-45. pve? Not a chance. There is no way that anyone is going to use a fast firing pulse with 18 rounds that can't stagger enemies very well in pve.
The same logic applies to shotguns. SO much is weird about shotguns in general, and it's plain disingenuous to say that "shotguns are over-used in the crucible". No, shotguns aren't, but 3 or 4 particular shotguns are. Matador 64, party crasher +1, Last Ditch 001, and sometimes the Curtain Call 44. NO OTHER SHOTGUNS were overused in the crucible, just those. Tweak those specific weapons? Or maybe buff other shotguns at least so people don't have to grind the crucible and get killed a billion times by an OP shotgun just to get the best OP shotgun? Nope, nerf all shotguns completely, even the weak ones. gdi....
A quick side note, and this will showcase what I mean when I say that "SO much is weird about shotguns". What's wrong with the matador? It has the best range and impact of all the shotguns in the game. But what's so bad about that? It has terrible stability and a garbage reload speed and rate of fire, so there are some really good things about the weapon and some really bad things about the weapon. That's balanced right? No, not when you consider that those negatives are not really all that negative in the crucible. Stability isn't necessary to shoot somebody one time from a crazy distance with a high range, low rate of fire shotgun that, for some reason, can roll with double range perks and full auto. Slow reloads are also not a problem when you consider that these shotguns have a comfortable 5 round magazine (usually), and you normally only need to reload once everyone else is dead and you have plenty of time to reload anyway. This is also why the range perks themselves are broken. One reduces reload speed , and the other reduces stability and these don't even negatively effect the weapon at all. again, slow reloads are not a big deal, and follow up shots are rare with this kind of impact so stability nerfs are pointless.
Let's recap: These shotguns have some of the best stats for the crucible with almost no practical drawbacks, and they can roll great perks that further increase those amazing stats, and even make their poor stats better as well. Meanwhile, there is a landfill somewhere on the outskirts of the cosmodrome filled with brand new Jingukogu-D shotguns that nobody will use because they have "meh" range, terrible impact, only 3 rounds in the magazine anyway, and none of their other stats are all that impressive to counter these. I have never, EVER seen this weapon used, in pve or pvp. Weekly armsday videos will intentionally pass over this weapon every time because it's so weak that it isn't even worth talking about, especially since the matador was released back into the game.
So, why are all the best stats and perks stacked on a few shotguns, but many other shotguns have absolutely nothing appealing about them? The whole shotgun family needs a fix, not a blanket nerf.
Anyway, moving on......
[quote][b]What did you think is good but could be better?:[/b][/quote]
First, the special changes did bring more of a focus on primary gunplay, but also on sidearm gunplay for obvious reasons, and it did it in a way that is entirely artificial. People aren't using their primaries because they want to (although to some degree that is true), but because they don't have any special ammo in the first place. I feel like you could've left special ammo entirely alone, and if you fixed shotguns properly while buffing most primaries, people would start favoring their primaries over their special weapons without having to be forced to do so.
Don't get me wrong, I understand that both methods of focusing on primary usage are effective, and this is mostly a subjective gripe that I have. But I like to imagine a crucible where there are no artificial barriers to any particular weapon or class options.
Second, While I LOVE that you fixed the initial accuracy on handcannons, I don't think that nerfing the range down to 35m was necessary. It's not a huge problem, but it's certainly going to make it easier for sidearms to dominate the crucible. Don't be afraid to give players some more power with their primary weapons.
[quote]
[b]What would you change?:[/b][/quote]
Buff all auto rifles base damage by a noticeable amount. Ideally, I think they should actually have a higher max TTK than other weapons simply because of how poor they are at range. At a distance they should suck, but up close and personal they should absolutely melt people. This change alone might've been all you needed to do to deal a serious blow to shotgun rushing titans; give them a reason to think twice before rushing in blindly.
Reverse the nerf to hand canon range, leaving it at 40m
Reverse the nerf to high rate of fire pulses, and then actually fix what was wrong with them.
You might consider the same change you just made to hand canons applied to fusion rifles. They feel inconsistent when they have low range stats, probably because when they got nerfed a long time ago, range was the biggest thing you hit. rebuff the range in order to restore consistency, but then adjust the damage falloff to keep them from mapping people from crazy long ranges. This is just a suggestion, and something that I would thoroughly test before implementing, if it were up to me.
Rebuff gunslinger tripmine damage, and make them detonate faster.
Rebuff Sunsingers like crazy. Reduce the melee cooldown, make touch of flame an intrinsic perk that is always active no matter what, Make solar wind kill teammates again (because kek demands sacrifice), and rebuff firebolt grenades to proc faster and detect at vanilla ranges. Also, make it so that anyone who touches a solar grenade is afflicted with the viking funeral debuff instead of just someone who was hurt by the initial explosion (this is mostly a necessary pve buff, but it would have great implications for defensive play in pvp as well).
[quote]TL;DR -- none for you. If you take an issue like this seriously, take a few minutes to read a long post, and then provide feedback.[/quote]
EDIT: I totally forgot the health regen perk business. I can understand why hungering blade was nerfed (because of special ammo now), but it should only stay if special ammo stays the way it is, and it shouldn't affect every other health perk in the game. I think it's obvious that it's a glitch, and no matter what is decided about special ammo and hungering blade, the ten other perks that were accidentally nerfed should be fixed ASAP. I mean, Bungie, not fixing this would be like walking into a room, breaking a couple of expensive vases, saying "ya know, I kinda like it better this way. It makes the floor look glittery" and not cleaning it up. No matter what else you do, don't do that.
English
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Edited by kellygreen45: 2/17/2017 1:06:13 PMYour riff on Clever Dragon and Matador gets to one of the core problems here: [i]The people who are making changes to the game can't tell WHAT is wrong, but they don't understand their own game enough to be able to tell you WHY it is happening, or predict the outcome of the changes they make.[/i] So they just randomly weaken CD, instead of realizing that it's overused because it's only one of a handful of primaries that kill fast enough to keep up with the games speed. So they don't buff any of the other games other primaries. They just break shotguns and try to starve the game of special ammo entirely, instead of realizing that shotguns are a problem because of small maps, fast moving players, and slow-killing primary weapons. Setting the stage for sidearms to simply step into the void left by shotguns once people figure out that they can use them the same way. Smh....
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Who in there right mind would read this book?
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I did.
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How many hrs it take? Lol
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Thank you for this. Excellent clarity on how just a few archetypes were dominating and how it's a perk/trade-off problem rather than a weapon/type problem. Always surprised and grateful to find a voice of calm reason in the forums.
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Very well stated sir. I enjoyed the read, as well as agreed with everything you said.
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Well said agree with almost every thing. I just think side arms should have no ammo upon death. I've had many matches where everyone is using one except me. Trying to use primary is useless now crucible is just full of side arms at short to medium range. Personally I think they do do enough damage and fusion rifles are fine if they were any better at range no one would use primary like the side arm situation now. Totally agree with fast pulse well said. They useless now
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You forgot the health regen debacle. If you don't say anything it will stay. Have some love for the PVE crowd. Health regen issue is bad.
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You're absolutely right. I was tired when I wrote this post, so I totally forget.