In terms of gear and excitement, year 1 was infinitely more fun. If you look at old videos of gjallarhorn, vex, icebreaker, fatebringer, black hammer, etc drops, there are several videos of people screaming and yelling. Although I never yelled, when a drop like this occurred for me, my heart rate increased and I did feel excited when something I've grinded for for weeks/months finally dropped. Nowadays, that feeling is completely gone. Drops from TTK and WotM have no effect on me. It's all infusion material. Exotics are even worst off. They're so easily obtainable that any exotic drops feel like legendary drops. I think this is the point OP was trying to make. End game gear doesn't feel like end game gear anymore. You can easily pick up some of the best gear in the game within hours of initially playing the game. I personally feel that end game weapons should feel more powerful than other weapons. That grind and the luck needed was annoying, for sure, but they could have easily worked around that instead of changing it completely. Make Xur rotate gear instead of seemingly being random. Make raid drops increase the rate of gear you don't already have. Either way, year 1 was overall more exciting when it came to raid and exotic drops.

[quote]That grind and the luck needed was annoying, for sure, but they could have easily worked around that instead of changing it completely. Make Xur rotate gear instead of seemingly being random. Make raid drops increase the rate of gear you don't already have. [/quote] I agree with most of what you say, but please consider my post below. RNG and its random nature may suck, but if you questify everything, its bad for the game; and if you have performance-based rewards, some players would never get anything good. So like it or not, RNG is the best of the three options IMO. If its too harsh, the answer is to increase the drop percentages, not questify the loot to make it guaranteed.

Then you were unrealistically expecting to be handed everything. I would jump up and scream and shout if i got an exotic and if someone got an exotic i wanted. The whole experience of getting an exotic was so rewarding, 3 of coins has ruined that experience, the grind was better

I didn't say I like 3oC, but RNG isn't bad if you're not getting repeats...But this game loved giving repeats. When all I was looking for was Zhalo, I would get tons of Last words...Or other crappy primaries that I already had. And that's the problem with RNG. With all the other junk stats in this game, It should have known how many times I received last word or telesto and not kept repeat giving me them when I had zero Zhalos. Quest exotics were my favorite for things like sleeper, spindle, touch, and NTTE. That's the type of way I want to earn my exotic...Through puzzles, game play and variety.

[quote]I stopped reading when OP said Y1 was so good. Y1 grind made the game horrible...Beyond horrible to play. Story mode was utter trash. Raid was good...But boy those strikes and story mission were nonsense. Anyone that forgets the RNG nonsense is living in a dream world. No amount of grinding would let me get a specific exotic...Utter random luck.[/quote] The problem here is three fold. I know people think RNG is a dirty word, but lets consider the alternatives first: 1. Questification of all great loot: Some people like this in Y2, and it is good to a DEGREE, but when you start questifying all of the game's best loot, you leave nothing to grind for. Combined with the fact that they watered down the quality of raid gear, and you get an endgame that is pretty much entirely irrelevant in Y2. Overal: not good for the long-term life of the game. How much this was also compounded by the fact that 3oC made everything ELSE in the game easier to get is really an unknown, but the bottom line is that the game was always at its best when we had some elite tier white whales to chase. And everyone's white whale was different. 2. Another alternative to RNG used in some games is skill-based or performance-based rewards where the top tier players get the best rewards in a given activity. An example of this would be if you did a strike with 3 random players, and the player that did the highest percentage of damage or got the highest percentage of kills would get the best rewards, and the other players would get poor rewards. I wouldn't object to the system like this, but if they did this, there are simply players who would never get good rewards, period. You think "git gud" is bad now in PVP? Imagine applying that to PVE. If that was the case, rewards would be even MORE skewed towards the hardcore players as you would have hardcore players using their elite tier gear to outpace everyone elses ability to get kills in PVE content. Strikes no longer become a cooperative activity but a competitive one instead. That brings us back to RNG. Given the poor long-term effects overquestification of loot can have on the game and the foreseeable negativity that would arise from a skill-based or contribution-based rewards system, I think RNG wasn't so bad. It ensures that EVERYONE has an equally random chance to get a good drop. Sure, someone may get something great on their first drop, like a G-Horn, but they may never see a Foil drop from the VoG. And another player may get a Foil, but won't see a G-Horn drop for months. That's just RNG. It'll never be perfect, but I think its better than the two alternatives. Call me crazy, but I think guaranteed outcomes in a lootgrinder are just bad. I DO think you can mix in quests for some items, but those items shouldn't be the games elite tier items, otherwise you have nothing left to play for.

Why do you keep shouting random words? It makes me feel really confused, and insecure. I already have a high level of anxiety, and randomly shouting throughout your conversation, ramps it up to an even higher level. I got a case of the shakes after this.

LOLOL I suppose by shouting you mean writing in all caps. It's my way of putting emphasis on a word without having to go up and bold or underline it. Lazy way. My bad.