**DISCLAIMER** This thread discusses Raw Gear Power. Power levels granted by your artifact do not count here. If you are 940 gear power but your artifact is putting you at 953, for the sake of this discussion, you are 940. Once your raw Gear power hits 950, then you will be in Pinnacle game-play and you will hit the same brick wall as everyone else there. Please don't come in with "But i'm 953 and my powerfuls are still +3 increases." No. you're 940. You haven't hit Pinnacle yet. This thread is not complaining about getting to 960 being too much of a grind. It is pointing out that it may likely be impossible without literal perfect RNG regardless of whether you play 100 hours a week or 2 hours a week. Because hitting 960 isn't about play time. It's about being very lucky with your very finite number of pinnacle drops. A single duplicate drop could mean you can't make it. We want less RNG in progression, not more. Before we get in, I wish to refresh everyone on Bungie's philosophy about how long it should take to hit max power. This is a direct quote from Luke Smith's Director's Cut Part 2: [i]"In the simplest terms: Short-term goals can be completed in a night or a week, medium-term goals can take several weeks, and long-term goals can take anywhere from a Season to several Seasons. For some folks (like me), getting good at a part of the game may take a lifetime (that’s a personal-mastery goal). We think reaching max Power can be a medium-term goal for Power-progression-focused players."[/i] Source: https://www.bungie.net/en/Explore/Detail/News/48064 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With all Pinnacle drops only being +1 above your current power, it’s likely that even the most dedicated players will not hit 960 by the end of the season at a rate of only 5 chances of pinnacle gear per week. This issues is GREATLY compounded when you realize that the only pinnacle Heavy Weapon source is the 100k nightfall which is in no way weighted towards your heavy (for those who haven’t noticed there are 0 raid Heavy weapons). A player must get at minimum 8 pinnacle drops before they reach 951 power and can start receiving 952 drops. This is assuming there are no duplicates (and there will be many... 3/4 of my IB bounties were chests...) This is worse than Forever 29 because we’re not only hoping for 1 slot for multiple weeks. We have to do this 10 (TEN) times to hit 960. This is ridiculous. This system combined with the fact that all powerful drops and primes are useless makes the post 950 experience just a drag. This is coming from a hardcore player who completed the raid first week. There needs to either be more pinnacle sources, a chance for pinnacles to drop at +2, or a guaranteed +2 pinnacle source like the final raid chest. Some smarter loot would also be appreciated. I currently have 3 951 chests, 3 951 energy weapons and 2 951 cloaks... And before anyone comments “Ohh but I’m already 961. What’s the issue?” I’m talking about raw gear power. This doesn’t include Artifact power. **EDIT** It appears some people have a misunderstanding of what the pinnacle experience is like. Some are convinced that 960 is a feat reserved for the players who put in the most hours during the season. This was my belief too until I hit pinnacle and realized it’s nothing like this at all. I have no reason to play after I’ve beat the raid each week and done my 100k because nothing else gives me pinnacle gear. There is only 2 hours worth of useful content at pinnacle level. With 7 weeks like that means there is, at max (assuming the dungeon will take 1 hour) 21 hours of useful pinnacle content left. Meaning the player who plays 1000 hours will have no more advantage than the player who only plays 21. That’s how a system of finite pinnacle drops works. The time you invest past your last pinnacle source is a complete waste. The highest gear power players won’t be the ones who put in the most time; it will be the ones who get luckiest and avoid duplicates in their very limited pinnacle source pool. This reddit thread put it way better than I have the time/bother to do: https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/dfvsy8/pinnacle_leveling_950960_is_broken_heres_why/ **MATH** So I’ve done a bit of rudimentary math on the subject of leveling. Given that each piece only grants +1 power, we have to acquire an entire 8 piece set before we can start working towards the next power. The following calculation depicts the average number of drops a player will need to get a full set of 951 gear: ∑(1/(x/8)) as x=1->8 = (1/(8/8)) + (1/(7/8)) + (1/(6/8)) + (1/(5/8)) + (1/(4/8)) + (1/(3/8)) + (1/(2/8)) + (1/(1/8)) = ~21.7 This calculates the average number of pinnacle drops you’ll need to fill out all 8 slots at about 21.7, so basically 22 pinnacle drops before you’ll finally get that last piece to increase in power. Now apply this to the 10 power levels between 950 and 960 and we see that we need an average of 220 pinnacle drops across the season to reach 960. Thats 32 pinnacle sources per week... Anyone want to keep saying “we haven’t seen all the sources yet!” to that number..? In case you wanted an explanation on why I use that calculation, it’s because (x/8) represents the odds of getting something that isn’t a duplicate where x is the number of slots you still need and 8 is the total number of slots. Take 1 over that number and you get the number of drops you’ll need on average to overcome those odds and receive the piece you need. And then we add all of these together for all 8 slots, and because the number of slots you still need decreases as you acquire gear, then the odds of getting a duplicate increase with it, thus you need more and more drops to hit the slot you need. ***OUR DEMANDS*** Make the pinnacle grind to 960 possible and not just with godly RNG. Balance out the slot weighting on Pinnacle Sources. Way too much weight towards energy weapons. In future Iron Banners, have a small salad on Saladin's table. Bring back First Curse.