Problem #1: Strikes Are Kind of Worthless, While Easier Content Gives Things Away
Destiny 2 is a great game, and our review reflects that. But it’s far from a perfect game, and there are a lot of ways to make Destiny 2 even better than it currently is. We’ve identified six major problems and offer up ways to make them right. To kick things off, let’s talk about Strikes. Right now Strikes are kind of the forgotten game mode in Destiny 2.
What Destiny 2 has done with their public areas is amazing. Exploring Destiny 2’s locales is actually enjoyable whether you’re alone or with friends. There’s a ton to do, and everything rewards you properly. Some might even argue too much. Heroic Public Events, which for the most part is a simple event to complete provided you have at least one buddy, has a fairly decent chance of rewarding you with an exotic engram.
We’re not suggesting that be nerfed though. Rather Strikes need to brought up to be worthwhile for the time invested. There are a lot of ways to accomplish this. The best way though would be to bring the Vanguard Strike buff and let it really amplify the rewards you get for sticking with your team and running through the playlist. Let it double, triple, or even quadruple your glimmer for each strike you complete. Same could go with Vanguard tokens and your chances of getting a legendary/exotic engram.
Even if Heroic Public Events pound for pound give you a better chance of exotics considering the time it takes to complete them, buffing strikes to be a valuable way to simultaneously farm glimmer and tokens quicker than Heroic Public Events while still also having a decent chance at getting exotics would at least let it be worthwhile enough to consider, especially when you get bored of running publics.
Problem 2: One-Time Use Shaders Are Terrible
I don’t care what anyone tells me. Preach to me all you want about how you get shaders all the time (you don’t) and that it’s just cosmetic so “who cares”. I do, and so do lots of other people, so I don’t want to hear it. Fashion in Destiny 2 is the true end game, and no one should be subjected to looking like butt because they don’t have enough sexy shaders.
I’m not even going to go down the path of reverting back to how it was in Destiny 1 because that ship has sailed and is never coming back. Plus in theory, if shaders were easier to come by, the ability to mix and match colors is actually cool. Instead, there should be a more reliable way to get what you want.
Bring back our girl Eva Levante, and let her sell a rotating stock in exchange for glimmer. Make it expensive if Bungie is committed to driving people toward Tess instead, but at least make the option exist. Also, some kind of system of trading shaders that you hate, for ones you don’t either through Eva or someone else, would make Shader collecting in Destiny 2 much less painful.
Problem 3: Ubiquitousness of Mida Multi-Tool in PvP
We’ve spoken about this at length before and if you want the full scoop, give this article on the subject a read. So let’s fast forward and get to the point. Midas are everywhere in PvP. It’s not a broken weapon but because it’s good, easy to use, and easy to get, the Crucible, and especially the competitive and Trials of the Nine playlists, are rampant with them to the point of being obnoxious.
Based on prior history, we know that Bungie doesn’t enjoy seeing a few (in this case one) weapon dominating usage. So we fully expect this to be addressed at some point. If you’re asking us how to fix the problem, the answer would be to simply remove the weapon.
This method may seem harsh and dramatic but it would instantly make the Crucible way more diverse in terms of weapons usage, and you could soften the blow by allowing owners to exchange the Mida Multi-Tool for something like three “powerful “(based on current power level) exotics of the owner’s choice. If that’s not possible, sadly there needs to some kind of adjustment to weapon balance or the exotic itself that is significant enough to shift the meta away from one weapon.
Problem 4: Repeat Drops and RNGesus
There’s no bigger gut shot in Destiny 2 than opening up an exotic or powerful engram and getting a piece of equipment you already own. Sure, it might be a Power Level upgrade, but for those of us with bad luck, it can be frustrating enough to the point of demoralization and making the game un-fun. I’ll spare you readers a sob story about my own luck but needless to say I’m the proud owner of quite a few Riskrunners, Fighting Lions and Synthoceps, while my co-worker Ishmael Romero owns nearly every exotic weapon in the game.
We’re not sure if a system for reducing the chance of getting stuff you have is already in place, but if not, it needs to be and if it is, it needs to be dialed up a few notches. While the hardcore players are used to praying to RNGesus and living with the results (myself included there), the casual player that is giving Destiny a second chance with the sequel may quickly be turned off by repeated disappointments.
Problem 5: Too Many Outclassed Exotics
There are so many exotics in Destiny 2. It’s great! The problem is so many are outclassed and more or less useless once you start getting others that are clearly more viable in nearly all situations. Bungie wanted to make exotics more situational and that’s fine, but in a few cases, they failed in that regard as some such as Fighting Lion are more or less totally pointless.
The solution is pretty simple. Bungie has access to usage statistics. Look at the bottom tier, and be unafraid to redesign and make dramatic changes. Perhaps they had a build in mind with something like the Lion Rampant Titan Exotic Leg Armor, but the community hasn’t latched on. Bungie should accept that, move on from their original idea, and redesign in a way that makes it more attractive and viable to players.
Problem 6: Getting Legendary Mods is a Pain
It’s great that Destiny 2 actually has a useful Glimmer dump with mods. However right now getting the ones you need is quite painful. After completing the story and getting to 280, Glimmer suddenly becomes a scarce resource because of how expensive obtaining and using legendary mods are. In case you’re not in the know yet, legendary mods are incredibly important for raising your power level, and reaching the upper echelons of 300-305.
We’re not suggesting that Bungie just make it stupid easy, a little grind is fine but it could be softened a tad. First, a viable way to farm glimmer more easily such as our suggestion for buffing Strikes on the first entry would make life easier. Also, a suggestion that has made the rounds that seemingly everyone except Bungie has thought of that would help a lot: When dismantling equipment with legendary mods, refund the player with a legendary mod component. Currently, you only get those when you dismantle a legendary mod, but it’s rare that anyone actually does that because they are so expensive to obtain that most people would rather just hold onto them. Making that change would at least provide another active line of obtaining legendary mods.
