Lets get to it: A lot of the core mechanics of what made Destiny...Destiny... are not here, and thats for the worse. The core of Destiny has always been Destinations, Strikes, and Sandbox. From D1 to D2 it has been that way and there is no reason to engage with these fundamental pillars of the game despite intensive resources going towards making them. PvE: Open World Patrol: These destinations have little to no reason to replay or go back to [spoiler]-no more world currency (Spinmetal, Hadium Flakes, Wormspore, Dattalattice...to name a few), not even for glimmer exchanges. -No source of powerfuls or pinnacles in these spaces -No fun or engaging gamemode for each specific planet (Escalation protocol, Blind well, altars of sorrow, Court of Oryx) -No World Specific Loot! (We get world drops & something similar with Lost sectors on a rotation but imagine having a loot table for each specific planet... It would help restore the planet's sense of "importance" when chasing specific weapons/even armor; Escalation protocol had it's own armor and weapons) (This would be a good way to get our old sunset gear back...) -Public events should reward more glimmer + contain good Weapon Drops ^ - Bro I even miss the little patrol adventure-beacons we used to have. It subtly fleshed out the world and was like a sidequest for the main world that you are playing in. [/spoiler] Strikes: Strikes offer no value to the game for the casual or endgame player [spoiler]-no way to get ascendant shards casually (1 per strike) -Strike loot is almost always terrible -not a good source for Vanguard XP or engrams -Nightfall playlist is just better, making Strikes feel redundant -Updating old strikes to be worse than the original (& not restoring older strikes) -No incentive to run the regular strike playlist (Strike specific loot) -Strike difficulty is too "difficult" where weapon choice feels limiting and content feels more sluggish than before -Only reason to do vanguard activities are for GM's -Modifiers like oscillation that make weapon choice even more limited[/spoiler] A lot of what Destiny PvE can be summed up like this: [spoiler]New stuff gets released > "Oh this will be so good when this becomes Viable" >....Years of waiting... Or New stuff gets released > "Oh i can't wait to use this thing/ make a build for it"> No activity/content to put it to use practically. (Raid exotics like collective obligation fall under this one a lot for example) All of which can be simplified to: Grind now> Payoff later (Which doesn't change the bar for the game at all in the short-term) Or Grind now> Payoff now> Irrelevant soon after. (Due to sandbox "balancing/nerfing" which has harmful impacts long-term, it's why a lot of exotics just aren't viable anywhere) [/spoiler] Sandbox balancing: A lot of weapons/ exotic armor pieces don't see use. Exotic Weapons: [spoiler]Raid exotics should be Top Tier overperforming weapons... -so why does Vex Mythoclast/Collective Obligation feel like Garbage in strikes?? Euphony & Conditional are fantastic but are overshadowed by legendary weapons. -Why do new raid exotics not have catalysts? -Why are primary weapon's bodyshot damage getting nerfed? -The sandbox became more generalized...I miss the days of the Charged With Light Mods where my sidearm did more damage- and it was something I can build into (Which is why I am looking forward to set bonuses later, but still a shame its taken this long to see stuff like that return) -No reason to use unique exotics like Sturm/ Ruinous Effigy/ Traveler's Chosen got super nerfed/ Quicksilver Storm/ Verglas Curve/ Lorentz Driver/ Devil's Ruin/ Ticuu's Divination...All of these are super unique, but fall off in viability so hard, harder than most other exotics.[/spoiler] Exotic Armor: (I have 3 warlocks so this will be Warlock Biased) Melee Exotics- [spoiler]Felwinters, Winter's guile, Claws of Ahamkara, Karnsteins... These exotics just suck for warlock, Karnsteins are the only real exception- practicality it's only good for glaive builds. Warlocks just don't have anything for melee builds until you get to prismatic.[/spoiler] Class ability Exotics: [spoiler] [u]Promethium Spur:[/u] This one deserves its own segment. -This Exotic has been my favorite exotic in concept. And i so badly want to use it & make it work. It has such a solid premise but is so severely limited. -You can only use solar weapons & solar super -The class ability energy you get is too low in most content - unless you are solo (even then not enough energy) -Straight up just doesn't create rifts at times. The perfect current day pairing would be to use the Pale Heart Healing Auto with Strategist...But because it is 1 a projectile weapon & 2 because of sandbox nerfs & "balancing" it just isn't practical & its too weak. On top of being a projectile weapon. Boots of the Assembler: doesn't work on random people in patrol & is now outclassed by Speaker's Sight... so, redundant. Secant Filaments: Bugged. Sometimes just doesn't give you devour when you place down your empowering rift...You have to exit & re-enter...This needs to give teammates volatile rounds or something when they stand inside the rift (Similar to a titan exotic: Phoenix Cradle)[/spoiler] I'm not even going to talk about PvP in here because it is its own can of worms that has been left open for far too long. Destiny's bread & butter has always been its destinations & its strikes & it's sandbox. All 3 have been neglected. Unique builds are rare for a game with so much potential. Destinations are so pretty or well designed but have no reasons to go back to them to make use of the sandbox. Strikes are the simplest activity in the game & so many people struggle to complete it/feel bothered to even run it. The only thing worth running are the activities/content you regularly pay for. But they get taken away after a year, only adding short term value instead of long term value. And seasonal content has similar or worse issues as well.