Always on Time was the exotic sparrow from SoTP that can be bought from the kiosk for more than 200 Spoils of Conquest. As any proud and lucky owner knows, it is the fastest sparrow in the game despite the fact is is displayed as having a speed of 160.
Due to the high cost of this exotic, it has become apparent to me that it has crept into player use across all activities. This exotic has been too meta for far to long.
Frankly, I’m surprised Bungo hasn’t nerfed or buffed any other sparrows to compete with AoT. It has been dominant in the sparrow meta for at least two years, and I’m tired of it. I wanna use the Micro-Mini sparrow on my titan. If I do, I feel that I’ve put myself at a disadvantage.
There is one specific instance that comes to mind of this, the mine race in Grasp of Avarice. In master mode, it was practically mandatory to survive. Of the three people in my fireteam, two of us had AoT and the other one had another Exotic sparrow. You know who made it to the end? The other teammate that had AoT. Why? It’s exotic perk Stealth Tuning greatly increases your survivability by decreasing your chances of aggravating enemies.
This is one very recent instance, but it’s not the first. This is the same problem in the opening area of the Devil’s Layer, “Rainbow Road” section in Prophecy, and any other Master or GM nightfall where you can use a sparrow.
I know what you’re thinking, “You have to be either stupid or that whiny!” Or “I bet you supported D2Y1 PvP!” And my personal favorites “Skill issue” and “Bungo needs to fix trials rather than fix one cosmetic.” No I’m not whiny, no I did not support D2Y1 PvP, but yes I’m not that good at Mario Cart. However, this is something bungo does need to fix.
Cosmetic items affecting core gameplay and Bungo’s monetary system has happened in the past with the taunt emote in D1 and the pre-nerf Leviathan ghost shell have done so, respectively. So, it’s not out of the picture for Bungo to fix AoT.
My proposal:
have all sparrows come with Stealth Tuning intrinsically and make them as fast as AoT
Or
Nerf AoT to be in line as other exotic sparrows and make Stealth Tuning intrinsically on all sparrows
-
Sparrows are good for one thing. Going from point A to point B and AoT just happens to get there faster. I personally don’t care what my sparrow looks like but if it allows me to do what I want to do quicker, you bet I’m going to use the more efficient one