This post is firstly to Bungie and secondly for any other player who feels that IB is not feeling good this time around. If you’ve been playing the game the you probably won’t find anything new in this post, but I thought I’d at least sum up my experience this past week. Backstory time! I am a solo player who loves Destiny’s PvP. I’ve been playing since the Taken King and I spend more time in the Crucible than in any other part of the game. My take is solely my opinion, but I’ve seen enough to say with confidence that PvP, explicitly Iron Banner, is at the worst I’ve seen. First off with negatives. The match quality as far as connections has been atrocious in IB, and I’m not talking about the occasional rubber banding or laggy player. Every match has consistently had at least 2-4 players who are lagging so badly that it is impossible to engage them and not die. At the beginning of every match my first priority is to figure out which players to avoid due to lag. And for the record, my internet is not the issue. Iron Banner specifically has the worst connections out of any mode in the crucible this season, and I place the blame not on the players themselves, but on Bungie’s forced SBMM over CBMM and “classic” networking system. I’d take a game where I was punching up but had good connections over a level playing field with 2-4 intangible bots randomly appearing and killing me any day, if you know what I mean. Second, what is with XP progression rate? I’ve completed all the challenges on my Titan and Hunter (halfway done with my Warlock) and I’m still only 2/3 of the way to resetting with Saladin. Did Bungie throttle XP gains? I don’t remember it taking this long last season. It reminds me of how banshee’s rep rate was at the beginning of WQ. I put in a lot of time in PvP. I hate to think how the PvE mains feel right now. Third, map rotation is making me want to puke. The throne world map is not fun to play control on. I really hate running for an hour to get to a gunfight only to be sniped by a dude a million miles away. In my opinion, Destiny gunplay shines the brightest in the close to mid range maps, especially for objective based modes that specifically aren’t Rift. To sum up my feelings about the season 19 Iron banner week, I gotta say that I’m not loving it. It’s both boring and frustrating to play matches that have consistently inconsistent connections for what seems like less payoff than previous iterations of the mode. Also, specking a close range load out only to get long range maps for an hour straight is not fun. The lack of choice as far as maps has been and is ridiculous. As a side note, I don’t necessarily hate the new game mode. I think it is mostly boring, especially compared to eruption and even rift, and I feel like the cabal theme was not implemented very well, but at least the drop pod capture points are fun to try to hold. Just wish there was more put into it. My final thing is thought is this; how much farther do IB and PvP need to fall in quality of play before Bungie looks at it and says “This product is not acceptable.” I feel like it is already there.