So we've had a year to experiment with and perfect weapon crafting to our liking. It's been a rocky dream come true for people like me who want to have more control over our weapons and a more reasonable deterministic path to obtain them. The current system has plenty of flaws, and a good amount of them are being addressed in Lightfall courtesy of today's article. The new changes to the crafting system are welcome, but I would like more information about what we can expect going forward. So, to provide better context about what I'm asking for and why I'm asking for it, allow me to explain my view of Destiny 2's weapon crafting: [b]Some weapon crafting stats:[/b] We were given 78 Craftable Weapon Frames. 5 Exotics, 32 Primary's, 29 Special's, & 17 Heavy's. [i]I have collected them all.[/i] I have 75 Crafted Weapons. 3 Duplicates, 2 Exotics, 31 Primary's, 25 Special's, & 19 Heavy's. I have 53 Crafted Weapons that are at least level 20, 21 at least level 30, 14 at least level 40, and 7 above level 50. [b]I believe that if you value your time that all weapons should be either:[/b] 1. Craftable 2. Target Farmable (e.g. Moon Bounties, Focused Vendor/Umbral Engrams) 3. Roll with Multiple Perks (e.g. Ritual Playlist Weapons) The time and effort required on average to obtain your ideal RNG weapon is no longer worth committing when we have better, more efficient, more respectful, and more rewarding systems available. For example, I really like Unforgiven, the Void SMG from Duality. I absolutely love the weapon and the roll that I have, but it took me 350+ clears of Caiatl and 2nd encounter to obtain the serviceable 3/5 roll that I have now. I do not wish that pain on anyone, which is why I advocate for the 3 above systems. [b]What I love:[/b] 1. [b]Guaranteed to get the roll you want.[/b] It doesn't matter how much you have to grind to obtain the weapon frame, the fact that you know you'll have what you want at the end of days or weeks of grinding an activity is priceless. You know that your efforts will be rewarded. Fully RNG weapons don't offer that safety net; you could spend 10x more hours farming a dungeon and not get the 5/5 you want or even a serviceable 4/5 or 3/5, and that's infuriating and disheartening. 2. [b]Control over every aspect of the weapon.[/b] Perks are what everyone focuses on, but it's the barrel, magazine, and masterwork that can make or break a weapon. This is especially important if you're like me and want to get the most out of your arsenal or are at a point in the game where it's 5/5 or bust. 3. [b]Ability to adapt a weapon to unique scenarios.[/b] Once I've obtained a weapon frame I can make variants for PvE, PvP, and different uses cases for each mode. This saves so much time in the long run since I don't have to regrind the activity for a different RNG roll on a weapon I've already obtained. [b]What I hate:[/b] 1. [b]Cluttered currency systems. ADDRESSED[/b] I appreciated the creation of a new economy for weapon crafting so I and other players didn't have to tank our stores of legendary shards or masterworking materials, and it made weapon crafting a lot more accessible and affordable for newer or poorer players. However, the problems became more noticeable the longer crafting was available. Enhanced Perks were too expensive. Base weapon frames were too cheap. The ratio of collected, stored, and used Resonant Element did not match efficiently so I and many other players were stuck storing completed Deepsight weapons in our Vaults as a secondary bank. I currently have 86 Deepsight weapons stored away, and the most I had at one time was 167. 2. [b]No way to test weapons before spending materials.[/b] Enhanced Perks are expensive, and the only way to test them is to buy them. These costs add up and can quickly drain a player of their crafting materials, especially if they aren't aware of outside resources like the Destiny Data Compendium. 3. [b]The lack of a proper Firing Range.[/b] Accurate damage testing and perk testing are invaluable. There is currently no reliable place to test a weapons or perks full capabilities without extensive setup in a raid or multiplayer environment. The discs in the Enclave do not provide accurate damage numbers, don't show accurate ammo reserves, and don't active perks at all. Tribute Hall in Season of Opulence was the closest thing we had to a proper testing ground, and even that wasn't perfect as the damage scaling was different from the rest of the game. We need proper enemies and enemy types in a controlled environment to better prepare and educate ourselves on weapon viability. [b]What I want:[/b] 1. [b]Integration of RNG and Crafting systems.[/b] We all love the feeling of getting that 5/5 RNG drop. I love the satisfaction of creating my own 5/5 roll. I want the ability to enhance and fine tune RNG drops so I can take an overall 3/5 drop and make it my own 5/5 roll. Not just being able to enhance the perks, but also being able to change the barrel, magazine, and masterwork to what I desire. This could be done on a knockout system and ideally facilitated by Banshee, the Gunsmith, for non-craftable weapons. [b]I have two questions and a request for the Destiny Team:[/b] 1. [b]Can you clarify which activities/sources will have Crafted Weapons going forward?[/b] I personally prefer Raids, Seasonal Activities, and Destinations to have Crafted Weapons. While Dungeons, Vendors, Trials, and Nightfalls have Target Farmable Weapons through focused engrams or higher weapon drop chances from reasonably timed encounters/activities. 2. [b]Can you clarify what we can do with Enhanced Weapons? ANSWERED[/b] You have already stated that we can enhance the perks that the weapon randomly rolls with and gain access to enhanced intrinsic properties, but we cannot change the perks nor the masterwork. You stated we will be able to slot mementos and level the weapon. What, if anything, can we do with the barrel and magazine options? If I roll a 2/5 or 3/5 and it has the perks I want to enhance, but not the other traits, then it's not the weapon I want and I won't want to settle and enhance something that's less than perfect. 3. [b]Can you please give us the ability to change barrels, magazines, and masterworks on Enhanced or Adept weapons. ADDRESSED[/b] Perks define a weapons viability, but these intrinsic traits determine how the weapon feels in the hands of the player, and that is infinitely more important in my eyes. A 3/5 roll with perfect perks but bad barrels and magazines feels and performs a lot differently than a 4/5 roll with only a bad masterwork or bad perk. Narratively it would make sense for this to be facilitated by Banshee, the Gunsmith, and I would be happy to pay a reasonable amount of legendary shards, glimmer, or masterworking materials to facilitate this. [b]Edit:[/b] Today the Bungie Team released a new article going into more detail about Weapon Crafting and Enhancement. They have mostly answered each of my questions and allayed my above concerns. I was very excited to see this article drop, so thank you Bungie. Lightfall Changes I like: 1. [b]Removal of the Deepsight Objective requiring enemy kills. [/b] The only purpose of this Objective was to increase crafting material gain, and we no longer need that material, so this is a nice clean-up job. 2. [b]Ability to obtain Frame progress without needing to dismantle the weapon.[/b] This will be especially valuable for Adepts if you wish to enhance one but the Deepsight on the Adept can still count towards the normal weapon Frame. It's also beneficial for anyone who likes to keep rolls of crafted weapons but still wants to progress the Frame. 3. [b]Deepsight no longer dropping on non-crafted weapons.[/b] I initially did not like this change, but with the context of the crafting material economy being removed, and a desire to clean up vault space, this is a good change for hoarders/collectors like myself. 4. [b]Removal of Resonant Element and eventual removal of Resonant/Harmonic Alloys.[/b] The crafting material economy encouraged hoarding as the Element cap only had enough storage for 2 fully upgraded weapons (4200 Element for a Finalized Crafted Weapon). Without the need for Element I now have an additional 86 vault slots for future weapons, armor, & collectibles! I do wish there was a better show of effort to create a robust crafting materials economy, but instead it appears as if the team "gave up" and resigned themselves to use basic materials. I do greatly appreciate keeping Ascendant Alloys as the primary currency for Enhanced Perks to encourage endgame engagement for Finalized Crafted Weapons. 5. [b]Manual retroactive Deepsight application.[/b] This is invaluable for older weapons that are made craftable in the future. I know many people who would have loved to use this feature when the Deep Stone Crypt weapons were made craftable. 6. [b]Being able to change the barrel & magazine perks on Enhanced Adepts.[/b] This is exactly what I was hoping for. Thank you! I would love to see this feature be expanded to other Enhanced weapons as they are added/enabled. 7. Added weapon leveling mod. This is invaluable for leveling Special Weapons, especially Sniper Rifles, which still require 100+ kills per level. [b]Follow-up Questions:[/b] 1. [b]Will we be able to enhance both perks in each column?[/b] Adept weapons have traditionally rolled with extra perks in both the Left and Right column. Is this trend continuing in Lightfall, and will Tier 2 and Tier 3 Enhancements allow us to enhance both perks? 2. [b]What other weapon types/sources are you interested in adding Enhancement to? [/b] I expect Raid Adepts going forward will be standard, and logic would dictate either Trial Adepts or Nightfall Adepts would be next. I would love to see current & past Dungeon weapons gain the option for Enhancement. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. ~Tone