For once, I have to agree with IGN(orant). I understand why Bungie made Etheric Light so rare, and it's a two-fold reason. 1) They didn't want everyone hitting 34 in the first week. (Understandable) 2) The rarity is a delicate balance. Just rare enough that it entices you to play more, but not so rare that it seems to be like a second job in order to get even one piece of Etheric Light. Unfortunately (as with the rest of the game until present), Bungie has no idea about how to properly balance the grind vs. reward ratio. They've hit the latter part of point 2. They've made the Etheric Light so rare that it is far too difficult and offered in far too little activities with far too little of a drop chance. They've made it such a chore to get, that for many people it is killing the drive to play now. There's plenty of people in my situation. I've played for two weeks now and still haven't seen a single piece of Etheric Light drop. Now; there are plenty of people who have three 34's, all weapons upgraded, and Etheric Light to spare. But Bungie missed the target audience on this one (unless their target audience is between the ages of 12-16, out of school with 16 spare hours to grind out that much Light...). Most people don't have the 10-12 hours at a pop to grind out Etheric Light to get all of their equipment upgraded in a week. Hell, most people don't even have that kind of free time on the weekends. A possible fix would be to keep the guaranteed Etheric Light "gift" of the 34 and 35 Prison of Elders, but add in a drop chance for the small chests at the end of the 28 and 32 Prison runs. Increase the chance for a drop for the Nightfall and the Crucible (hell, add in a chance for a drop in the Crucible) as well as the Iron Banner once it starts up again. An increase of 10, 15, or even 20 percent along with the additional places to get it would make the grind much less agonizing overall, and would have the added effect of making people want to play [i][b]more[/i][/b] than they do now. Making the Etheric Light the carrot at the end of the stick is one thing. But you've got to use a shorter stick. nobody will want the carrot if they can't even see it at the end of the stick. As it stands right now, there's nothing in sight to chase after, and it just kills the desire to play. [b][u]Edit 1[/u][/b] (of what will probably be the first of several edits...)[b]:[/b] I fully know [u]where[/u] to currently get Etheric Light, that's not the issue. the issue is the [u]time[/u] it takes to get even one piece. Most people only have 2-3 hours to play per night. Therefore, most people find it very difficult to "do everything in all characters per week" like you kids on summer break are getting more than twelve hours to accomplish. [b][u]Edit 2:[/u][/b] PvP isn't everyone's strong-suit, nor is so easy as "git gud skrub". Those of you who say "it's a cakewalk to go 9-0 in the trials and get 3 EL per character per week" should probably quit talking. You're only making yourselves look ignorant, not like the PvP-gods you think you are. [b][u]Edit 3:[/b][/u] ironBill posted this, and he clarifies the intent of this post nicely. [quote]FWIW, I couldn't care less about getting through ToO. Really, I'm finding I don't care about hitting 34 on all characters either. No point to it. Just so we know who we both are. The OP is talking about play balance, and whether or not Bungie is hitting their market, which I happen to find is a great point. Who IS the demographic? Are they trying for a very select subset of skills to reward this time around? Sure seems that way. Good PvP players are strutting around like they invented fire... happy for 'em too I guess, but if that's all this DLC is intended to give us, my question follows - is that all there is to this?[/quote] [u][b]Edit 4:[/u][/b] Calling me a "scrub" doesn't do anything as I really don't care. All you're doing by slinging names like that is highlighting the lack of strength in your argument. [u][b]Edit 5:[/u][/b] pablogordon had another great idea. I've quoted it here to give it some love. [quote]There should have been an exchange rate at the speaker for Etheric light. Baffling really that it's not there. Make it really expensive. The most expensive thing in the game currently is that ship from Petra at what, 17.5k glimmer? Make the Etheric light cost that plus one each of the radiants, and ten each of the ascendants, and some coins and motes for good measure. The speaker exchange was a very good step in the right direction to sinking some currencies, especially Friday when Xur sold the helm engrams and now that most everyone has a couple few weapons they want to re-roll. Why not just add the Etheric light? If we are really honest, the point isn't just hitting max anymore (and thankfully so) but putting together a setup with both the perks and looks that suit your play style![/quote] [u][b]Edit 6:[/u][/b] And, here's a link for why the PoE loot system is broken in general, but parallels well with the rarity of Ethereal Light. http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2015/05/28/destinys-prison-of-elders-has-a-serious-loot-problem/?utm_campaign=yahootix&partner=yahootix [u][b]Edit 7:[/u][/b] FatChubbE offers a very good breakdown of what the responsible adult Gamer deals with in trying to overcome the base design of this DLC. It is an accurate description, and props go to him for it. [quote]The adults I play this game with aren't always on. Three are full time Grad students with jobs, two are parents with wives and kids. My son plays between school and football practice and games when he's not doing chores or homework. The full time gamers in my clan have all partnered up, so getting help from them is difficult. The "it's easy" comments applies only to those with spare time. We did one nightfall and one 32 prison of elders. That's all we had time for. Don't get me wrong, the etheric light is there. It's obtainable. But it's not obtainable "easy". Easy when applied to time spent obtaining does not bode well for the working/school demographic. It applies only to destiny players who play destiny for hours on end every day. To put it into perspective we did (two) ToO matches. that's right 2. We were not in control of the time. With loading, and 5 round matches, two matches took an hour. If you do 8 and win flawlessly without the other team winning a single point, 3 hours at least grinding for an etheric light. If you add a 34 or 35 prison of elders and you're a super stud team that's another 2 hours with loading, game time, running back to the airlock. And 2 hours is giving you the benefit of the doubt that you're really really good. If you're average, add at least another hour or two. So the argument that it's "easy" is a matter of perspective. Easy as far as skill level? Or easy as a matter of "I got all the time I need to play?" Either way, getting etheric light takes more time than any other currency we've been offered thus far. That's just how it is. People took days off to play this. Which kind of gives you an idea of the commitment to time you have to invest to receive these "easy" rewards.[/quote] [u][b]Edit 8:[/u][/b] IIFormer GamerII also has a great take on the time sink necessary and the base design of these DLC. [quote]You are without a doubt correct when it comes to grinding through the same content three times over in Destiny, and the annoyances, redundancy, sheer boredom, and time consumption that comes along with it. After playing through the base game and TDB I've come to realize that destiny simply isn't a game that can be played causally, and if you attempt to do so you should be prepared to put yourself at an extreme disadvantage. This was my main reason for intentionally skipping out on HoW, because I knew that the never ending grind would continue. If you have a lot of spare time on your hands, Destiny is a great game to play with clan mates. But truth be told you cannot simply play destiny in a casual manner such as battlefield or call of duty, without hindering your progression dramatically and being seen as a "slacker," "leech," or a "freeloader." Destiny's new loot looks nice, but I just can't take the grind anymore.[/quote] [u][b]Edit 9:[/u][/b] To all the people telling us that not everyone should be able to get to end-game content, or that parts of the game should be locked except for the "hardcore" crowd: So having entire portions of the game locked out to a player simply for no other reason than Bungie feeling the need to promote elitist alienation of their player base... is ok? The only thing more wrong than Bungie's "philosophy" are the people who jump at any chance to support it.