So bear with me folks, this will get "ranty" in parts and will be a fairly lengthy post, but I've been mulling over this for some time and would like to put it all out there. As a long time gamer who's pretty good at just about every genre, a long-time fan of Bungie and a Day-1 player of Destiny I'd like to think I've gathered a pretty good assessment of what needs to be changed to really make this IP shine the way I know it can. There are a lot of things that need fixing, but I'm going to address them within a few broader, "main" categories. Specifically, the key areas that are problematic are as follows: [i]Itemization, Customization, Content and Stability[/i]. So without further delay; [b]Itemization[/b] This is *the* singular, most important thing that needs to be addressed above all else. At its core, Destiny is a loot-driven game much like Diablo and Borderlands (warning: I'll be referencing these franchises a fair bit) but with an odd MMO twist featuring the now standard weekly lockouts on top-tier loot i.e. Raid gear. There are several problems with this however. Firstly, the game is just way too damn RNG-heavy. The infusion system has only worsened a problem that was at least somewhat fixed by Etheric Light. Effectively what happens now is (and this is something no other MMO does) when you kill a raid boss (or get any item) you have to hope that you not only get the correct drop, but that it rolls the stats, perks and light level you desire and that's assuming you even get a drop in the first place. Most MMOs have a token system in place where after X runs if you don't get the item you want, you can trade in tokens and just select the drop. But not Destiny - and something ALWAYS drops for the group. Now these games usually have loot pools where Destiny's is individualized (and randomized) but that's no excuse for absolutely nothing at all to drop, not for end-game weekly lockouts that you can only loot once. So the 1st thing to do would be to axe the RNG element of raid drops to an extent. It should still be random which item you get, [i]but you should always get something[/i] especially on hard mode. Nothing like beating Oryx on Hard and only getting normal mode drops, or trading in 20 moldering shards upon his defeat.... for 2 more moldering shards, effectively taking 18 away for nothing (except your precious time). This is both insulting to the player and infuriating and just piss poor on Bungie's part. This isn't how you keep people playing your games. The second part (and this is where Itemization and Customization intersect heavily) is that our equipment needs to be better designed and have stats removed from it. Strength, Discipline and Intellect should be removed entirely from armor so that our gear selection is based purely on perks and cosmetics. It's hard enough in this game progressing your character without having the wrong stats on items. It also heavily limits our choices as players, since if you want to try out a different kind of build that needs different stats (most people focus on INT and DIS) you now have to slug through yet more RNG which isn't fun or productive. But I'll get into that more later. To finish up this category (for now) I want to get into how our gear and our power just don't matter. There is very minimal benefit to being 320 outside of killing Oryx on Hard a little easier. It is extremely depressing and game-breaking to be damaged by level 1 enemy in full 320 gear. It's also quite frankly, utterly unacceptable that year 1 weapons (max 170 attack) can not damage high level enemies, but still function just fine in events like Iron Banner and Trials of Osiris. I don't care how hard someone "worked" for their Gjallarhorn or Thorn, those weapons should not do any damage at all to someone who is 300+ Light . That's how it is in PvE, it should be the same in PvP where "power matters". Regular crucible fine, but not IB or ToO. Furthermore, and getting back to the point I wanted to make, drop rates in this game are terrible and the rewards are often lackluster. On top of removing Etheric Light's usefulness (a big mistake, the infusion system should be scrapped ASAP) reforging was also taken away which when piled on top of the horrendous drop rates for things like Strike Gear (Grasp of Malok in particular) it only adds more fuel to the fire of player frustration. I think one of the best things Bungie could do (and this would also get rid of "loot caves" once and for all) is to remove the scaling on enemies for damage and loot. Being 320 should mean something. It should mean that you get to utterly "roflstomp" low-level threats for fun, while also getting appropriate rewards for the enemies you kill. That means no more legendary drops from level 1 enemies, but also much higher drop rates from strike bosses for doing Heroic Strikes & having a streak. The whole point of chasing after end game gear is to become more powerful, but you never really do that in Destiny. It's also infuriating that (at least up until now, and we don't know yet how the new light level increase will affect things) that leveling up makes you weaker - you need more of your INT/DIS/STR to maintain your cooldowns. It would be nice if instead, as our light cap goes up, we can start mixing in gear with other stats and having more stats overall rather than simply struggling to maintain the power we once had (I hate that I can't use my overpowered PoE gear for the times I feel like doing that because it'll wreck my stats). And that brings me to the last point of this section, that our gear itself is rather lackluster. Compared to a game like Diablo 3, where you can mix and match legendary gear for all kinds of crazy builds, Destiny sucks. We get a single exotic weapon and armor, which often doesn't even change things that much and legendary gear in general just doesn't feel all that legendary. The VoG items where the only really good example of well-designed gear in Destiny. OK, that's not fair - the Crota stuff was good too but implemented poorly and PoE armor was INSANE but a little too specialized and would have been better if it applied in every arena, not just against specific enemy types. I actually really liked the PoE gear for that, and it exemplified what Raid/Legendary gear should be. Exotics, if they are going to remain a 1-of, should be game-changers (and I have a whole other post I'm going to make about that later with regards to changes) and define builds. Legendary gear should be tailor-made to specific activities and present the player with variety. I think we can all agree that the King's Fall gear as a whole, sucks a big fat one. Cocoon is a cool perk, but the armor is trash and offers no really powerful benefits and the weapons are largely lackluster (particularly the autorifle and it's seemingly random recoil pattern). Contrast this with PoE or even VoG gear, which were incredibly potent within their respective activities. By the same token, PvP-oriented gear sold from Shax and the 3 factions should offer more PvP-tailored perks and be more favorable for use in there. It's cool that you can mix and match the stuff you find in PvE and there should be stuff you can find in both activities that are good in the opposite, but in general PvP gear should be dominant in PvP. I do not want to see "gain more super energy from killing minions of the darkness" on a PvP helm. Legendary gear should be powerful within respective niches making them worth the time to obtain and creating less "one size fits all" situations where players simply have 1 all-round loadout for everything. Exotics on the other hand, should focus on dramatically changing how you play a class and in the case of weapons, break the standard archetypes and offer powerful, compelling trade offs. MIDA is actually one of the few guns that does this though it's not reflected in its statistics: I've tried other scout rifles with the same impact rating, yet MIDA hits for a full 12 points more on a head shot. Which reminds me, and I'll keep this side note brief, Bungie has got to completely redo how weapon stats are portrayed. Impact shouldn't be shown relevant to the weapon class but rather a standard across all guns other than rocket launchers. It's incredibly misleading to look at an auto rifle that has more rate of fire and impact than a pulse rifle, yet in practice it does less damage per bullet.