As of now, the Taken King is Destiny's newest DLC to date. The implementation of new story lines, quests, and activities has been a large and greatly needed improvement to Destiny. However, where the Taken King fails is in its endgame content, which is where the average Destiny player will spend most of their time. These flaws are not as obvious as one may think. It is the byproduct of a Destiny community that has been trained to think and act a certain way. In past DLCs, Destiny has been mainly devoted to a "grind." Farming materials, strikes, and raids has been the center of endgame content. These activities were necessary in order to experience the entirety of the game and reach maximum light level (which is the goal of endgame content). However, the community reacted negatively to farming materials. It was a monotonous process, and it felt as if the game was too boring. In the Dark Below, farming materials was replaced with the ability to buy materials from the Vanguard and Crucible Quartermasters. This way, Destiny players could access materials without having to spend hours upon hours in patrol. The community was pleased with this addition. However, the implementation of the new raid, Crota's End, shed light on the true nature of the Destiny community. The raid was "cheesed" without fail. Sunsinger "despawns" and "cheese spots" became household information as a large majority of raid groups used them to their advantage. Crota's End became something of a bad joke. It could be completed in approximately 30 minutes during its time, while Destiny's original raid, the Vault of Glass, could take about three times longer for even the most competent of raid groups. One can only deduct that the raid was not about the gameplay or the experience. It was about loot. Loot drop rates increased dramatically from the Vault of Glass to Crota's end. Bungie claimed that this was implemented in order to avoid "Forever 29", which had been an issue with the Vault of Glass (for those of you who are unaware, "Forever 29" refers to Guardians who were unable to reach the maximum light level of 30 due to extremely low drop rates). However, it became clear that the community was addicted to loot. The community would not demand enjoyable gameplay as long as they received loot. It should also be noted that Bungie did not debug the many "cheese" methods from the raid as they had done for the Vault of Glass (specifically the Atheon encounter). Overall, the Dark Below was a very underwhelming DLC. However, it laid the groundwork for the changes to come. Destiny's second DLC, the House of Wolves implemented key changes to Destiny that dramatically affected how the game was played. Rather than a new raid, the newest form of endgame PvE content was the Prison of Elders. This arena-based challenge only required a three-man fireteam rather than the usual six-man raid team. This made endgame content that much more accessible to the parts of the Destiny community that did not have access to a dedicated group of five other Guardians. Unfortunately, the activity failed to provide the loot that the community so desperately craved. The Prison of Elders had been outdone by a new PvP-based form of endgame content, the Trials of Osiris. The reasons for which the Prison of Elders failed to provide adequate rewards was due to a new form of leveling known as ascension. Ascension had become much more accessible through success in the Trials, which made it the premier endgame activity for players looking to reach their maximum light level and power. The Trials of Osiris was meant to reward skill (which previous raids had failed to achieve) through a competitive multiplayer experience. However, the end product was nothing near a competitive game mode. For the sake of time, I will not discuss the legitimacy of elimination as a competitive game type. Instead, I will discuss the community response. The most blatant and obvious complaint towards the Trials of Osiris was its Meta. Thorn, Last Word, and Felwinter's Lie permeated the Trials of Osiris. Most players resorted to these same weapons in order to counter the things that they hated. The end result was a furious fan base. Bungie eventually took action after months of complaints in the Taken King with the release of patch 2.0.0. Overall, in the author's opinion, the House of Wolves was Destiny's best DLC. Despite its many criticisms, the Trials of Osiris was a very rewarding activity that was both exciting and worth the player's time. A lack of RNG involved also made the Trials a very reliable experience. Playing Destiny was no longer about clawing your way to max light level. Also, the low fireteam size requirement for endgame content in the House of Wolves made playing Destiny more accessible to a larger part of the fan base. Playing Destiny was about enjoying the experience the game had to offer. This all changed with the release of the Taken King.