Hey everyone! I wanna start by saying this is NOT an attack on Bungie by any means. I love Destiny, and am really excited for whats to come in the fall with Shadowkeep. With that said, I want to talk about a fairly serious issue I had with their reveal stream a few weeks ago.If you haven't seen it, here's the link: [url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0wVt0cnDTg[/url] If you skip to 54:18 in the video, you will get to my point of issue. At this time, Datto is leading a Q&A session, and asks if there are plans to separate PvP and PvE completely. The response he receives is along the lines of "We don't plan on separating the two, because we want players to feel lie they are playing as their unique guardian, no matter what they're doing in the game. We want you to be able to build a loadout specifically for you, that fits your play-style, and you will always be that same player, whether its in strikes, raids, gambit, or crucible". Typically, I would not have a problem with this logic. I am a massive fan of RPG's, and love that we're heading in that direction, so I'm fine with this logic......except, Bungie is being hypocritical--they don't follow this logic themselves! We all know that nerfs are needed from time to time (hello, Nova Warp, OEM and Gwisin Vest). These things literally break the game for players, so they need adjusting. My issue lies with UNNECESSARY nerfs. Prime Example: Whisper of the Worm. Before this season, Whisper was the go-to for DPS in high-difficulty endgame PvE content. However, with Crown of Sorrows releasing, and Bungie knowing it would perform exceptionally well against the boss (as anyone who has completed the Raid would agree), they decided to nerf it by completely removing its exotic perk (I know, its still "exotic", but its new perk is equivalent to a well with Lunafaction, or a titan rally barricade which is a CLASS ABILITY, and the WotW perk has a skill gap that the other options lack). After this nerf, players everywhere vaulted or broke down their Whisper, for it served its purpose and was now useless. A similar situation occurred with Skull of Dire Ahamkara, which was seen as one of, if not the best PvE exotics in the game. They knew its ad-clear capabilities would make CoS a breeze, so they nerfed it into the ground, and now you'll be hard pressed to find a Warlock using it. The initial problem here is pretty clear--instead of giving us other exotics that would perform at a similar level, making the pool of viable gear larger, Bungie has decided to destroy existing exotics that are the clear-cut choices for certain encounters. However, there is an overarching issue here: despite stating that they want us to feel like our own guardian, Bungie forces us to change as a way to generate difficulty in encounters. This is not always a bad thing, mind you. Look at the original Whisper nerf, when they reduced the base ammo capacity to 9 rounds. This change didn't make the weapon any less viable, but instead demanded more skill from the user. Missing a shot and failing to proc White Nail became even more punishing, because we didn't have 18~20 rounds to work with. However, if you managed to hit your crits, the weapon was still capable of being just as effective as before--there was only a decrease in margin for error. The most recent nerfs are not good examples of balancing, because they are limiting our potential with our gear. The original Whisper nerf raised the floor of performance--it was easier to do worse with the gun, but you were still capable of doing just as well. The adjustments made this season are not raising the floor, but lowering the ceiling of exotics, so that they can not be used as effectively as before. So where is my issue with this? It lies in the fact that Bungie claims they want us to be the same guardian, yet force us to change by destroying our favorite gear. In other words, my Warlock who has beaten Crown of Sorrows is not fundamentally the same as the one who beat Scourge of the past for the first time, because in SotP I had a good Whisper, and a good Skull. They knew gear like this would make Menagerie and CoS much easier, so instead of finding another way to make these activities difficult, or adding a skill gap to the gear, they made us worse as guardians. I want to know what the community thinks about this, because it is an obvious breach of logical consistency. Please keep any forum discussion civil. One last note: I am not complaining about this gear, or asking for a crutch. I have done just fine playing without them this season. I'm more interested in Bungie's logic, and lack of consistency than anything. Eyes up.