Despite no change to the physical attributes of weapons (which I totally agree could use some overhaul), people that are pro-sunsetting realize that sunsetting is a systematic change that opens up room for high-end, pinnacle-level loot to exist without introducing constant power creep or crippling nerfs. Now, whether they are doing that well or not is a different question—I personally think they’re playing a little too safe in terms of power and did not add enough weapons to sustain sunsetting. What they did add were great perks and weapons but just too little and they didn’t make raid and Adept weapons strong enough imo. As for armor, I feel like this is what really needs to be looked at. Weapon sunsetting issues can be remedied by increased quantity and a greater gap between high-end loot and world drops. Armor right now, by their own admission, are just sets of stats. Nearly all armor sets can run all mods with the exception of raid mods which many would agree are quite weak for their current cost. Personally, I think having armor sets with mods specific to that season’s content would make a more organic feeling of progression. You’d always [i]want[/i] the new sets of armor as it’d be the best at the time, as opposed to needing it because it has a further out expiration date. With this system, armor sunsetting becomes completely redundant—mods will naturally cycle in and out of usefulness as the content they’re tied to gets vaulted/ignored, creating a natural sunsetting loop. This would mean players wouldn’t be chasing armor solely for stats necessarily, they’d keep one set with really good stats that they’d always bring into Crucible and natural shifts in metas would encourage players to change their stats (again, keyword) organically. Instead, the pursuit would be something more tangible—the power of the season’s mods. Essentially, my argument boils down to weapon sunsetting is a necessity to ensure there is room for upper-echelons of loot but armor sunsetting is a completely worthless addition that could be circumvented by a much more graceful solution.

While nicely thought out and worded, there’s just one problem with Sunsetting in general: no incentives. Mods are actually where ALL of the power swells within this game. Mods are what make legendaries exotics. Typically a special, or slightly OP perk. Here I will simply say perks for guns, mods for armor, but both are the same thing. They modify what they are attached to. A good example is the Ace of Spades. Just a kinetic 140 HC. But it’s special “perk” gives its ability to gain further damage while another perk allows it to basically dragonfly enemies with solar damage. Without the perks, it’s a regular old legendary HC. So when we talk about “higher echelons of loot” what we are really saying is we want cooler, stronger, more dynamic alterations to gear. What made the pinnacles so strong? Their perks. Perhaps stats as a second, but mostly their perks. Revoker? Able to return ammo because of a “perk.” In my opinion the future of this game lies in how Bungie incorporates and manages the implementation of perks and mods. I felt like armor 2.0 was nicely done. Plenty of freedom for players to build. Sunsetting armor makes no sense, given everyone is going to use the best set they can get, stat wise. The same is true for guns, which is why such a thing as “god rolls” exist. If people are automatically going to gravitate toward the best that they “can get,” why are there tiers of loot to begin with? Because people NEED to show their skill or dedication, their achievements. So now we have a problem. Is loot for everyone? Or just a few? Raid loot is obtained by only a few. I don’t have all the answers, but I know it is a balancing act by Bungie to try and please the entire player pool. My opinion on moving forward? Sunset mods and perks that become too OP. Keep the beautiful weapon and armor models available for everyone to play with. Lock special perks behind higher tiers of play, so those who are capable of higher play can be rewarded for doing so. When we sunset the “physical” assets of the game world, we create bizarre holes in the game world logic. Why can my guardian no longer use his Gnawing Hunger he got from drifter, but the season of arrivals one is ok? Now, idk, but to me it feels like the game is cannibalizing itself. Ultimately the current system won’t work long term for a lot of players. Expiration dates make the game world feel foreign and uninspired. It feels like there is no stability. If this suits you and others, that’s fine. I imagine there are as many that don’t like it at all. Bungie is pretty much in a corner, no matter what they do, players will leave.

Certainly agree with your logic. Both systems, sunsetting and no sunsetting, have their flaws, weaknesses, and pitfalls. I fear that simply locking or removing perks that get too far out of line might feel even worse than sunsetting for some players as it removes the identity of a weapon as opposed to locking it to legacy content, although I think it may depend on what exactly it is about a weapon players appreciate and what they personally perceive as valuable. Perhaps this would work if they moved the weapon system towards a mod system like ghosts and armor have but I’m unsure if they’ll go fully into that, preferring the grind random rolls allow them to introduce. Definitely having higher tiers of loot being necessarily tied to more difficult content will be quite divisive in the playerbase. I personally believe there needs to be a few gems in the basic loot pools of the game such as Last Hope, Ikelos SMG, Falling Guillotine, but on the whole, most of the best should come from things such as raids, dungeons, nightfalls, and Trials. I think there is a precarious balance they must reach, as you mentioned, and where exactly that needs to be is up for debate. I think sunsetting is a good idea but Bungie will have to work out many of the kinks and flaws that come with such a system. By their own admission, incentivizing players to pursue gear that have expiration dates has proven to be more difficult than they anticipated. We can only hope Bungie listens to feedback like ours if they are insistent on keeping sunsetting in place.