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Destiny 2

Discuss all things Destiny 2.
Edited by GetSpaghett: 7/31/2024 2:38:32 AM
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Just Feel Like Saying It Again, Invincibility Phases in Easy Content are Stupid

There is no way you can justify in lore some random boss suddenly gaining invulnerability to damage just long enough for it to do its thing. In low-tier content, and arguably often in mid-tier content, forced invincibility phases serve as literally nothing but immersion breaking plot armor placed specifically for the purpose of making things take longer. Please tell me who in the world thinks that is good game design? It heavily, and I mean [i]heavily[/i] (I can't understate how much I mean this), bogs down the experience. It feels like playing a ttrpg with an inexperienced DM who strips agency away from their players because they want their boss to do it's thing, so they just refuse to let players interfere. I would like to propose the idea that these invincibility phases should only be active in higher difficulty content. If you have enough firepower that these random white shields actually stop you quickly, it's likely that whatever mechanic the plot armor is allowing them to do isn't going to be a challenge anyway.

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  • I tried explaining this several times over the years but it pretty much comes down to this being the logical end point of 'boss battle difficulty'. In the past a game would challenge you on the given mechanics. These being aim, tracking, strafe, ammo economy, ability usage, whatever the base mechanics are. But for a shooter, designing encounters that knowledge check you on these are tricky for today's devs. Old Halo on Legendary felt like playing an army of competent human players, they take cover and use grenades wisely. Flank, etc. It's challenging you on base mechanical skill. Now enemies are a challenge of inconveniences. High health, high damage, high spawns right on top of you. [i]Nigh invulnerable unless you have a magic mod[/i]. And, yes, invincibility phases that require some kind of mini-activity to remove. All that base mechanic knowledge goes out the window and it becomes a case of 'dps, no die'. It's wonder the GM binge players are so proud of their clears when all their builds are to combat inconveniences; 'dps, no die'.. Tormentors, and I understand if some dislike them, are much closer to how this is supposed to work. Their movements and behavior and weak points give them a mechanical personality. You're not just doing high dos from a safe distance. Hive Guardians are similarly 'game-y'. So many boss battles now are essentially one activity. It pads time and the effort requires feels 'endgame', but really it's tedious. D1 and early D2 strike bosses are all better than what we have now, because they were game-y. Difficulty in Destiny now is just a question of what are you willing to put up with. Builds you'll put up with, enemies you'll put up with, players you'll put up it. This more than anything sours any interest in the endgame.

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    • Health gates are here because the bottom 5% kept complain that people were speedrunning strike too quickly while they were unable to get their bounties done. I agree with you and blame the trash tier players everyday for needlessly increasing our runtimes.

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      • It's not just the bosses either, it's funny how certain enemies just stop taking damage just before they are about to die for some time as if they magically turned into Superman 😄 Even their content is out of place with difficulty. I spent the time leveling up from 1900 to 1996 to run the nightfall, and I could not help but notice how stupidly easy it was to run the nightfall compared to the Vanguard playlist running the strikes/battlegrounds. WTH is the point of their power leveling in this game when the game's difficulty is way out of balance in their activities, like who does this?

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        • The boss fight mechanics are so played out, it's not unique, nor fun at all. Its called lazy. Small, cramped arena, no cover, ads spawning in from 360*, and boss invincibility.

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        • Immunity phases are stupid in any content.

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        • Agree 100%

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        • Gameplay mechanics are not based in lore. Health gates are often used to add depth to an encounter. The GM last week had a boss that roams around the room while you manage adds and fight him. You’re then given breaks when he moves away and you do the dunking part. He comes back and fight me you for a big again, then leaves. You do a different dunk and then he returns with different attack style. Similar for something like lightblade, inverted spire and a few others. If you could just cook him, then the fight would be exactly the same as warden, where the boss spawns and then dies instantly, making the rest of the fight elements pointless.

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          • [quote]There is no way you can justify in lore.[/quote] Stopped reading after this. Dude, half the junk that goes on in the game isn't covered by [b]LORE[/b] I mean, try finding something in the lore that references RnG or laggy connections or any of a million other oddities.

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            • You should see the invincibility mechanics in The First Descendant, they're even worse.

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              • Instead of complete immunity they should give those enemies 2000% damage reduction, i know the take literally no damage but at least they're not immune.

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              • Why do some enemies regain health after you take a large chunk of it from them?

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                • I guess Bungie wants there to be an "attrition" of ammo or survival aspect to bosses, and that's one of the ways they implement it. Kind of like the Presage end boss. They want to see if you can survive three rounds of the battle upstairs and running into the burning room (which isn't very hard). I agree though. Unless they're adding different, let's call them, "tests" in-between these invincibility / mandatory boss disengagements, it's mostly a waste of time giving the same test over and over if the player can obviously pass it and just a test to see if you can have enough ammo going into the next damage phase. Which I guess is an intentional element to the game, or else they wouldn't make exotics like Cenotaph, or the Aeon gauntlets. Even typing this I feel like there's some validity for the invincibility phases, but I do think it would be more interesting if the Presage final boss could be killed in a single visit or two to the bottom (given you have enough dps), with there being a timer on the furnace coming back on, so there's still the running from top to bottom, but a guardian or team with enough damage output gets to feel the power of bypassing the usual intended gameplay loop when revisiting the encounter as they get stronger. This same thing would need to be implemented somehow into every other boss fight that is low / mid level content that has a mando no damage phase, with no evolving interesting reason for said no damage phase.

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