It’s the same thing with asking for MM in modes that don’t have it, it should just be an optional selection. You want to get murdered by threshers every single second while patrolling Neomuna? Then select the difficult option. You want to breeze through Neomuna without being subjected to god like wyvern enemies? Then select the easy option. You want a middle ground? Then select the middle ground option. I seriously don’t understand what the big issue is with providing OPTIONAL settings that caters to EVERYONE.

It's honestly unfortunate at this point. The writing was on the wall way back when these changes were announced as to how this would be a bad direction for the game to move in, and yet here we are almost nine months later and Bungie just doesn't care, period, about how this decision has ruined the game for a large number of players. These topics keep popping up on almost a weekly basis here and on the subreddit, and yet the silence from Bungie on this topic is just deafening. I honestly feel this event has shown the ugly side of these changes to an even higher degree. Sure, they gave matchmaking for a legend activity, but it's not even a "fun" level of challenge anymore, the EDZ lost sector is a perfect example of how poorly this difficulty adjustment was executed. You can pop out of cover for a second with T10 Resil & 3x Solar Resist and still be completely deleted by the Colossus miniguns before you even have a chance to get back into cover. I even watched both of the random matchmade teammates I had get killed IN MY WELL. This is the kind of stuff I would expect in a GM, not a mid-game seasonal event. And honestly, these frustrations have stretched to all aspects of the game. Master raids? I do the encounter challenge once and never touch it again. Master dungeons? Don't even care about them anymore. Neomuna? I only ever go there for seasonal challenges and then once done, I'm out, it's just not worth it. Outleveling was never the problem, it was a stretch goal for a number of players that lacked the capabilities to survive in Master+ content to give them a way in. "Difficulty" as Bungie has added to this game was turning everything into a tedious slog, instead of letting players let loose and have fun. That's why the "Craftening" was such a great thing to happen to the game, it was a chance to just blow through these limitations and get back to the sense of power lost in Lightfall. I was hopeful that Bungie would see the falloff in players and quickly associate the difficulty adjustments with it back in Season 20 and full revert by now, but that was not the case. Deep was my least played season in D2 since Curse of Osiris, and this season is already reaching the drop point for me since the endgame has lost the "fun" factor. I won't hold my breath for this going away anytime soon, but this definitely has me questioning my decision to continue supporting the game after TFS campaign is done.

The game is on life support. They have been catering their "bring challenge back to destiny" agenda to the tiny hardcore community that will stick around even when the game is dead because those clowns will keep spending money on their cash cow game. The game has VERY OBVIOUSLY reached the very end of its life span. They made that clear as ice. It's written off already. That will result in losing A LOT of casuals within the foreseable future. They know that. Thats why they went the "please our hopeless addicts with mind numbing dull "challenge"" route. Thats funny enough tho since this game is far from difficult. Its just time consuming. Everything can be done easily if you just waste enough time on builds and playing like a little weiner, more careful than you should. Its just terrible game design designed to keep addicts around. Simple as that.

counterpoint, not being good at a game doesn't mean it's designed badly. you literally said when the difficulty is high you have to be hyper-vigilant, that's it. you didn't list any broken things... sounds like it's well designed if the only trick is maintaining good situational awareness, right?

[quote]. We need a middle ground difficulty to make the game less mindlessly but not sweaty. [/quote] This business refuses to look for a middle ground, and that is why things are the way they are and will stay the way they are. I don't mind any game being a grind, challenge, or whatever is said to make things difficult. What I do mind is how boring a lot of games are because of how some businesses like to overcontrol how players play their game, the lack of incentive, the lack of creativity, the lack of quality work, and how games have become mostly about buying from a shop so the kids can play dress up instead of designing a decent game. Most "live service games" are garbage, and that's because most businesses don't care about quality work these days. It's all about showing numbers, and how can we milk the players.

Bullet sponges are fun, my guy. 🧽

I'm not against the game being hard b u t enemies respawning as fast as you can kill them is just exhausting to me.

It’s exactly what they want. They’ve complained about making content engaging for us when we are strong. They flat out admitted they didn’t want to put in the effort to design content to challenge us and instead would prefer us to be weaker. So we get niche powerful builds instead of general strength. Enemies get a flat boost all around and bosses become spongier. They spent years trying to water us down instead of making a proper game.

light levels streamline design.. they wont change that fundamentally cus its way to much work for them.. the best you will get is an adjustment