200 and your good just isnt true. 80% of the "new content" (tier systems) is locked to 300-450. 450 being impossible rn which means no tier 5s. And all the new content is light capped below the combatants, making this even more true(since gl surviving without t3+5 armor stats). Once you hit 150 your already at max scalable light for all difficulties of new content outside portal. Doesnt mean your set or good lol

It is and if you’re 200 you can go grab a piece of tier armor by completing the weekly mission on Kepler right now. I kick myself in the -blam!- for not leveling quicker.

I did the weeklies. They give t2s. Woohoo mediocre drops. Theyre worse then prior gear lol.

....until you get kicked in fireteam finder for not being higher.

Still far too extreme… in terms of grind and artificial difficulty! If they want the game to survive they have to change this!

They've chosen a path, maybe the grinders bring in enough to support the skeleton crew running D2. It's absolutely not a casuals game anymore, unless you're happy being casual & doing base stuff. The people complaining are the ones who want everything without the effort.

I dunno. I’m slowly playing the campaign and I’m probably half way through. I’m over a 100 just by playing. I’d assume I’ll get close or at 200 when I’m done doing that. I did a few solo OP missions to get rank 3. Everything seems to be dropping gear to level up. The chase to level is for those who want it. Those who just want to feel strong can play the easiest levels and still level but slower. Honestly I get that tier 4-5 armor is better for sure but not really going to make a difference in the easiest settings. I don’t think high tier weapons are any better than adepts due to the high stat packages and mods on adepts. If you’re running tier 5 weapons you get a small bump in damage when using an entire load out but it short lived and will honestly be for the sweatiest of sweats.

Your posts are well reasoned and I’ve probably upvoted at least 20 of your posts. But this topic is one where I would disagree. I’m mainly a PVP player. Stats matter significantly in PVP. Particularly the new weapon stat and also to the recovery of our abilities. Prior to the update my armor was all 88 to 91. For my armor to have the same efficiency now, I would need tier 4 or 5 armor. I know my assessment is accurate despite Bungie’s representation that about 70 of a stat now is equivalent to 100 under the prior system. I know Bungie is full of -blam!- because I’ve had to run higher than 70 this week to be remotely close to my old cool down times. For me to come close to my old cooldowns I would need tier 4 or 5 armor. To be able to regularly obtain T4/5 armor I would have to grind the hell out of my light to get to 300 plus. Mind you. The grind might be tolerable if this were an actual RPG. You get new and more powerful gear in new areas and level up in the new areas. But the grind is completely arbitrary and unnecessary. Proven by the fact that we have to spam OLD content to level up. Yes, I understand you can raise your level in the campaign, but once you’re done, you are spamming years old content to raise your level. It is insanity that we would have to grind a couple hundred levels in old content to be able to acquire new armor to put us on par with our old armor. That Bungie wants to force the grind is proven by the fact that our light level dictates our drops. They could’ve easily addressed this grind by allowing drops to be level independent. If I level sync to someone at 300 and do level 300 content. I SHOULD get drops associated with that level and difficulty, but I don’t. I get my peon level drops. For a new player. Fine put the time in to get the gear. But for veterans. This is nothing but a 4uc3 you. And the grind is real. This weekend I was able to clear Encore in 13min/run. I did it for fun, but I’m done with it. I’m not going to grind that ad nauseam because Bungie decides to flip the script completely on how armor works. Also. The new armor grind doesn’t change much. Yes there is a new weapon stat and benefits beyond 100, but the new weapon stat is asinine. It’s so important/good that it is a non-choice. Everyone is going to max it out and this is an experiment that Bungie already tried. Our old armor mods that increased damage to bosses became such a non-choice that the mods were removed and we were just given flat buffs. I bet Bungie -blam!- over all its players again in a few years. The only question is whether they will only lower the percentage of the buff or remove/rework the stat entirely.

I appreciate your upvotes my guy and it’s certainly ok to disagree. I just talked to a Titan main earlier today, who ran the contest mode with the new raid. He has a full set of tier 3 armor and thinks it’s better than the best armor we had or at least on par with it. Tier 3 stuff isn’t hard to get. Class items now have stat points which gives you more points to add to your builds. I’m using Prismatic builds with exotic class items. My Prismatic builds are stronger. In PvP I’m going to run ophidians/harmony and I’ll have the points to dump into weapons, super and either class or health. I’ll farm armor after I bump up to 300. There’s so many moving parts involved with the changes that it take a few weeks for most to understand the changes and for tweaks to be made to the new system.

I think the disparity in our views is what Bungie left out of their patch notes. For example. I’ve had lobbies where no one gets their super in Control. I’ve gone 25 defeats and not been able to get enough super meter to activate my super. PVP has had a modifier called Shaxx’s burden. Which increases the cooldown of our abilities. Bungie might not have been mistaken when it said 70 of a stat now is equivalent to 100 of the previous stat. But to offset the potential of guardians being stronger in the crucible, Bungie dialed up the effects of Shaxx’s burden. So now we need 100ish of a stat to be close to 60ish of a stat in the old system. Or, the game is so broken, that cooldowns aren’t working as intended. For example in Control, I sometimes respawned unable to sprint, like I’m suppressed. Apparently this is an issue that’s been affecting a large number of players.