These are my exact concerns too. Bad players legit saw people earning something they couldn’t get, so they demanded it be given to them too, and Bungie actually listened. It’s likely that a lot of these bad players are aware of adepts having no meaning after these changes, and are probably just happy that they took something away from better players (the flex of having a trials adept). I’ve said it a few times on some other posts, but the new flex is now going to be the Trials memento, assuming that wasn’t tainted as well. Not as exciting as an actual item, but at least it’s something. On the bright side, the player population in Trials will benefit due to the free adepts, but man… did they really need to sell Trials’s soul to do that? The rest of the changes were good enough. Edit: They could’ve at least added high-stat artifice armor to the flawless chest, which is strange they didn’t considering they’re adding it to comp

Trials adepts enhanced perks in the future maybe

A large portion of people with adept weapons were carried. The adept part has already been worthless. The only reason the adept version is better is for the adept mods. Other than that it serves no purpose to have over the non adept. Overall I think this is a good change. It will at least get more people in the playlist.

Never gone flawless and don’t care much about adepts. Only reason I do GMs is that they are guaranteed and provide two perk options. I hop into the trials playlist every now and then just to get a few weapons. If the passage showed I needed a few more wins I’d probably stick around to get an adept but wouldn’t change how I approached the playlist

I agree with most of your post. The point that adepts aren't nearly as important as many players seem to value them at is a large reason WHY the mindset around trials has confused me for so long. The modes primary role since its rework to no longer have broken cards, was a post 7 game loot farm, and yet players are still stuck thinking the only thing to do is go flawless. However, the issue of adept rewards being fairly meaningless for players hasn't stopped many people from farming trials, mostly out of habit, rather than desire for loot. I think the alternate loot sources are either a non factor (like the shader, emblems that only drop once, or the additional armor/weapon drop that are either useless low stat rolls, or something any player would be able to focus anyways) or are more of an rng factor that most high skill players are the only ones to meaningfully grind enough to confirm them (in the case of ship and sparrow). The weekly glow is meaningless, you must run trials gear to show it off, and even then, you as the player can barely ever see it. All that being said, a large portion of the playerbase who couldn't go flawless saw adepts and said 'I want that', and have been asking for ways to get those drops, even without going flawless. The system this passage puts in its place is a fine trade off for me. You have a skill vs time investment, and the less of one you have, the more of the other you can use. A high skill player can get 2 adepts for 7 wins, where as a low skill player can in turn play 10-15-20 games to get 1 drop. Skill has been kept as a viable route to better rewards, and not having it still lets players work to something. Weather or not this change will make players think adepts are less valuable. Yeah, probably. But thats been a core issue of d2 loot across the whole game. (issue isn't a good way to put it. Its an inevitability in a game who's playerbase feels like everything must be for everyone). So long as the player pools increase due to these changes, i'll be happy

I have one adept igneous any many non adepts. I realize that the adept is not better in many cases - although my adept max range shayuras was my go to for a long time. Anyway, I dont play trials bc its not fun and I would play if it was fun. I dont play for the loot bc in the grand scheme of things no loot matters. I played to get a strand trace rifle but thats it. The playlist lives and dies by how much fun ppl have while playing.

Meh that’s the same with everything in this game. I know players that go flawless everytime they play and have almost everything. Chasing a few ships or ghosts is all the incentive they have left. The mode needs new blood and this might help populate it. Who knows, either way it’s just a game.

I understand your opinion. Personally, as now a guy who goes flawless every weeks and now only play to get the maximum snipes I can get each games, I'm a lot more concerned by the new special ammo economy that will come next week. What importance if trials change if the PvP in general doesn't feel the same at all ? And I have seen in ur collection, u have the old adept igneous and eye of sol. These weapons show that u get flawless when it was the more difficult (I personally got my old igneous with my second flawless, I was pretty mid at this moment so I was happy haha with one mercy and only 3 stacks it wasn't the same thing). So yes from now the skill u developed will not anymore permit u to get adept weapons, and people will no more try hard to have them and that's sad, but at least you have u have a nice old igneous whith celerity ( which is probably the best perk for igneous) so something that u deserved to get by training.

[quote]I worry that the addition of a way to get adepts without going flawless is going to expose more and more people to the reality that adept weapons just dont matter, and as a result, the motivation to chase them will decrease, and eventually people might stop playing trials over it, rather than feel motivated to continue.[/quote] There's almost no way that wouldn't be offset by the amount of people that now feel like they have a reason to play. There are other cosmetic things outside of the weapon borders that people can chase and, most importantly, the fact that some people go flawless like they're snatching toilet paper from a roll already shows how much its worth to the person going flawless. Its certainly the highest achievement but some people don't feel right unless they can have 25 of them in a weekend so it is what it is.

This has been an issue ever since the world loot meta became a thing. Been an issue ever since they transitioned away from only raid and trials loot being S tier honestly. Technically started with the seasonal model but has been here for almost all of D2

Adept aren't much better than their none versions. All adept weapons are is a flex that the person went flawless.

Why would anyone slog through trials for a flawless when a better craftable alternative likely exist. Trials isn't the future of destiny, particularly in its previous form.

Gatekeeping because you ground for 20 hours for a $0.99 coat of gold spray paint on a gun 99% of people you interact with in-game will never see.