I fundamentally agree with sunsetting, but also understand the valid concerns people have. I'll go through my thought process about sunsetting and why I think it is necessary. Additionally, I'll explain my thoughts about why I think bringing back old weapons is in a way "the lesser of two evils", making it acceptable even if there are more ideal options. To start with sunsetting, the best example I can give is Mountaintop/Recluse (bear with me, I know these are both Pinnacle weapons). Even after they have been nerfed, they continue to be the most used weapons in the entirety of the game. If you want examples of this, go to warmind.io and check out the most used weapons in raids, dungeons, and nightfalls. With the exception of Prestige raids where loadouts are curated, Mountaintop/Recluse are at the top of every PVE activity. This goes to show you that if there is a meta option, people will use that meta option. Even excluding Pinnacle weapons, other legendary gear has the same issue to an extent. Without sunsetting, how many people would try getting a replacement for a Rapid Hit/(Multi)Kill Clip Spare Rations? or a DSR/Rampage Summoner? or a Relentless/Whirlwind Sword? We have already obtained 'god rolls' of most weapons in the game, and the only way to replace them is to offer something better, but if you do that for too long, you risk the problem of power creep. Legendary armor has a similar problem where once you get a fully optimized/modded armor set, nothing will replace it unless something better is released. Sunsetting allows for a method of shifting the sandbox/meta without outright nerfing old weapons/mods allowing them to be used in casual content. One of the best advantages to sunsetting that I see is the potential to add more powerful weapons and mods to the game without fear of completely messing up the sandbox. We have already seen this through the Artifact Mods, Seasonal Mods, and weapons like Falling Guillotine. These powerful weapons and mods can exist in an evolving sandbox because they will not last forever, making them much easier to balance. There are two primary concerns I have with sunsetting: 1. The armor grind has typically been a much more arduous endeavor to get an optimized armor set. Given some of the changes in the past couple seasons, I'm feeling optimistic about this becoming less of an issue. I find myself getting 60+ stat rolls reasonably often through Prime Engrams and endgame activities. Other methods such as the Season Pass armor and the Prismatic Recaster focusing help us to obtain new high stat gear sets. In order for armor sunsetting to be acceptable, we need to continue to have ways of obtaining high stat gear. 2. We will be re-issued weapons that were previously sunset, making us re-grind the same weapons. [b][u]I am not a fan of this in principle[/u][/b], I want to make that very clear, I did a literal face palm when I first saw that this was happening. I spent some time thinking about it and trying to develop a better solution, and I ended up making the same decision Bungie did. I first thought about the idea of simply removing all of the re-issued world drops from the game, only keeping the brand new legendary weapons. If you did that, we would receive 6 new legendary weapons this season. We also received 8 new legendary weapons in Season of the Worthy, 12 new weapons in Season of Dawn, and 27 new weapons in Shadowkeep/Season of the Undying. That's over 50 brand new weapons over the course of the year which is at a minimum consistent with the amount of new legendary weapons released in most DLCs in Destiny's history. With sunsetting, which I've given my view on why it's necessary, this means that at any point in time, only 50 weapons would be relevant at any given time, which poses an issue. If more weapons need to be added to the loot pool, either more weapons can be created, or old weapons can be recycled. Ideally, I agree that bringing in new weapons is the better option, even if it is a form of a reskin, but here's the dilemma. I'm not a video game developer, but I suspect making a new weapon does not happen overnight. The weapon needs to be designed aesthetically, play tested, revised, etc. I think it would be reasonable to assume it takes at least one week of development time to design a new weapon (and I suspect that is on the low end). This season, we received 23 re-issued weapons (including Iron Banner), so this would require at least 23 weeks of development time to make brand new weapons to replace them, probably more. If that development time could instead be used to create a new cinematic story mission or improve mechanics for future endgame content, I think it is the lesser of two evils to reuse old weapons. I would personally have preferred re-skins with a slightly altered perk pool, but I understand why using the same weapons could make sense. I think of it as additional 'bonus' loot to make the overall loot grind a little more interesting. A final thing to note which puts things a little bit more into perspective, although this is the first time we have had gear sunsetting on this scale, we have seen forms of sunsetting throughout the life cycle of Destiny. We first saw it in TTK when we could not infuse up D1Y1 gear. We then saw it a second time at D2 launch when we left behind our D1 gear... I mean, the Cabal blew it up... We then saw it a third time in D2Y2 when weapons and armor were significantly reworked. We then saw it a fourth time in D2Y3 with the release of Armor 2.0. If we could constantly bring forward old gear, many of us would still be using our D1Y1 Fatebringer, which detracts from the pursuit of loot in a game like Destiny. In summary, I think sunsetting is necessary and I understand why many of the decisions regarding loot were made. It doesn't necessarily make it the best solution, but I see it as a practical solution. I am optimistic about the positive changes made to loot drops, specifically armor, but they will need to continue in order for sunsetting to be a success moving forward. I understand why people are skeptical and sympathize with their position; if Bungie does not deliver in September, we'll definitely agree on a whole lot more, but again, I'm remaining optimistic. Sincerely, An optimistic crayon-eating, Bungie-supporting Titan