At the request of another poster, I'm linking two YouTube videos of the Crucible Radio podcast (Planet Destiny, PVP focus) from a year ago. This is about three hours (edited) of interview given to Planet Destiny by Jon Wiesznewski and Sage Merrill. Where they talk about their methods and goals for assessing and making adjustments to weapons and class abilities in the Sandbox. I believe these podcasts are required listening for anyone who wants to understand how the Crucible wound up where it is right now, and what were the intentions and methods of the men who have led it here. Since this is three hours of interview----and in fairness, since no real person is always right or always wrong----I'll also list some highlights from the interviews. below. Realize that this interview was done in Dec. of 2015. So this was right after the Mid-impact pulse rifle nerf...but before the MIDA Multi-tool meta and subsequent nerf. As a result both men get some things VERY wrong...but were also ahead of the community in realizing that certain weapons were better than "conventional wisdom" was saying. But what I find of particular note here are: The absence of any methods (at least disucussed) to assess the impact of weapon and abilities changes on PVE. PvE players were essentially out in the cold with no voice at the table. No formalized method of looking at the impact of map design on weapon usage. and effectiveness. They look at lots of data to tell you WHAT is going on....but can't tell you WHY it is happening. Lastly, there is a clear effort to impose a Halo-esque feel on Crucible play. Rather than letting the game find its own natural equilibrium in terms of speed and lethality. Lastly---and most relevant to the current crucible meta----lots of talk about balancing primaries vs other primaries. And use of special weapons vs other special weapons. Only ONE statement in the entire 3 hours about balancing primaries against special weapons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaRsjqDdeew&t=1454s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SP9qlL8Ip4&t=12s Major Highlights. Time markers are about where the relevant statements END. If you want to hear the full statement in context, scrub backwards from that point. Link 1. Auto Rifles and Balance: 1. Discuss difficulty in trying to balance PvP versus PvE in a shared weapon system. [b] Both men make it clear that they believed that the average TTK---for 1v1 engagements the first Taken King meta (Nirwen's Mercy and other two-burst PRs) WAS TOO FAST[/b] (27:20) 2. Both men also state that they feel the Crucible is at is "best" when play speeds are slower, and in the more methodical play of 3v3. (Merrill refered to the faster play of 6s as "chaos") [b] Which I perceive as a bias for the game play of Halo, and a deliberate effort to resist the fast and fluid play that this game keeps trying to assert as its natural balance point. [/b] So the campaign of nerfs that followed for the remainder of Year 2, and the continual decline in the killing power of primaries was not radom....but was an ideological crusade of sorts to impose a particular vision of the game. 3. Efforts get made to resist the emergence of dominant playstyles. (32:58) Blink-shotgun was nerfed because it became a dominant play style in Year One that had few counters. (34:10) 4. Both men again state that PRs were nerfed in the re-balancing patch that was released in Dec. 2015, because they felt that a consistent 2 (head) burst kill resulted in a TTK that was TOO FAST. (40:00) 5. Go on to talk about the challenges of balancing specific weapon types, and that they look at weapon performance in the hands of Top 10% and Bottom 90% players seperately. State that they feel that "ARs are in a good spot" (LOL...Though Jon clarifies that statement so its less laughable in the second half of the interview). How tough it was to balance TLW wiithout breaking the weapon and destroying its place in the game's lore. They also talk about how perception and the "Band Wagon" effect puts a lot of pressure on them to "do something" about weapons that are overused, but clearly not over powered. They mention MIDA specifically (and foreshadow the nerf that MIDA ended getting in the patch that came three months later) . (59:30) They also mention that they are well-aware that ease-of-access can also play into a weapon being overused, and the misperception of it being OP. They mention 1KYS specifically, and its 1.0 K/D (1:02:50) . Lastly they mention how Trials of Osiris has a powerful effect on weapon choice and how the "need" to "res snipe" led to a shift in sniper usage away from the Praedyth's Revenge class to the current sniper meta. ALL OF WHICH BEAR A STRIKING SIMILARITY TO THE SITUATON THAT CLEVER DRAGON IS IN RIGHT NOW. 6. They go on to explain how fusion rifles work, and how there was a bug that (was found and fixed) caused FRs to be more accurate when hip-fired than when players ADS. Link 2: Data Vs Perception 1. Explains the rationale behind the slight buff to HRoF ARs that the community was in such an uproar about right then. Jon goes on to explain that both the HRoF and MRoF ARs were "in a good spot" (which he eventually was proved to be right about). Also states that he's aware that the Suros/Shadow Price class was not (9:16) 2. He also explains how various damage multipliers have to be factored into weapon tuning. Example ARs have a 1.25 X precision multiplier, and exotic ARs have access to barrell upgrades that buff damage (eventually revealed to be 5%) (13:00) [b] He goes on to explain that AR base damage was tuned to EXOTIC ARs, and not legendaries. Because he felt that making the legendaries competitive across the board would make the exotics OP. That is goal is not for exotics to be "best in slot", and that the choice to use one is a build/play style decision and not a weapon power one. [/b] IOW, legendary ARs were essentially nerfed to keep Exotics from becoming OP...and killing too fast. (14:42) 3. Wiesznewski rhapsoizes about how pleased he was about a weapons usage graphic that was very "flat" (even) and how pleased he was about that (despite Year 2 maps being very open and promoting mid-range combat) . Though he played this off as a "joke"....I think the joke was more self-revealing than he intended. I think it showed what his ultimate goals are/were. (22:26) 4. Merrill goes on talk about how "Perception is Reality" in the mind of many players in ways that complicate the balance process. People tend to experience what they expect. One of the host's unfair "trial" of an auto rifle was broken down point by point. Also things are seen differnetly depending on what echelon you play at. They talk about how Top players perceived Bladedancers as underpowered....but how the vast majority of players would strongly disagree with them ( greater ability to snipe people out of supers at higher levels of play?) 5. Merrill states that is there specific goal to see that supers give you about an average of 3 kills if well played, and only about 13-15% of your total kills in PVP. Achyllophage Symbiote got nerfed for the former reason, and to promote build diversity (40:00) and Sunbreakers 1.0 got nerfed for the latter reason ( 19-20%) 6. When asked about tuning things to the play of the best players (Thorn and Sweaties), Merril responded that "This group of players will ALWAYS find the fastest way to kill someone." IOW. If you take one weapon out of their hands, they'll just move to the next fastest killing method. (true). He goes on to state that the intent behnd Thorn's burn was that it was designed to FORCE the player shot to disengage. (but it was precisely the power to do that which angered so many who didn't see it as a legitimate mechanic....because they WANTED to be able fight through it.) (1:00:00) 7. Interview closes with a repeat of the discussion of the balance problems that the existence of exotic weapons presents...and their philosophy in dealing with them. (unsolvable problem) Edit: Link to second half of interview corrected.