[b]1) Weapon balance won’t be addressed until September, just before The Taken King. [/b] [quote]“Sandbox Designer Jon Weisnewski has been working with our team to restore balance. He’s prepared a comprehensive analysis of all the weapon changes you’ll find in Destiny Update 2.0. [i]The largest update to the Destiny Player experience to date should arrive in September, just before the arrival of The Taken King[/i].”[/quote] Does this mean other potential changes, such as PoE checkpoints or connection-based matchmaking for more modes, will NOT drop during the summer? This is not clear, but, unfortunately, seems likely. Bungie continues to only discuss changes coming in September. They seem content to let what we currently know as Destiny to wander aimlessly through a summer devoid of any “content being dropped off this summer.” That’s a bit of a bummer for those players looking to extend their in-game engagement post-House of Wolves. [b]2) Legendary weapons WILL likely be relevant in The Taken King. [/b] [quote]“Black Hammer While technically not an exotic, this weapon was chased as if it were.”[/quote] Why make significant changes to a particular legendary weapon if it will be ineffective for the new content? This seems to indicate that BH is being re-balanced to fall in line with the new TK legendaries, instead of being relegated to mothballs. This is the best indication yet that the rest of the current legendary lineup will have some role to play in the new expansion. [b]3) The balance changes are as much for the incoming weapons as they are the existing guns.[/b] [quote]“These changes are all very dependent upon each other to be successful, and after careful consideration we decided the best road ahead was to present them all together as a full update.” “We still have some surprises and twists we don’t want to spoil that you’ll get to experience when The Taken King is released.”[/quote] One reason to postpone many of these changes is because Bungie knows something the community doesn’t. The likeliest source of that knowledge comes from the impending influx of new weapons, perks, and archetypes. We’ll see if the changes are quite as vast as they imply. [b]4) The Fusion Rifle nerf makes more room for Sidearms to shine.[/b] The Vestian Dynasty is arguably one of the better weapons to come out of the House of Wolves, as it is more powerful than its stats indicate and it is just plain fun to use. It is also surprisingly accurate at range, at least on stationary targets. This capability is what Bungie is stripping from Fusion Rifles, so it follows that Sidearms will play a big role in filling that gap for secondary weapon damage at medium to long range. [b]5) Bungie knows how to “test” their changes, but they won’t commit to putting them to the test.[/b] [quote] “We playtested these changes every day, multiple times a day, in all activities, using all kinds of weapons. We feel pretty good about them. However, the total amount of time we as a studio can spend on a given build of Destiny is a shred of a fraction compared to the first hour this update hits all of you. As always we are excited (and slightly terrified, to be honest) to see what comes of this update in your hands.”[/quote] They have every right to be terrified. While simultaneously insisting the best balance changes route “was to present them all together as a full update,” Jon admits Bungie’s playtesting is only “a shred of a fraction compared to the first hour this update hits all of you.” Yes, a studio can only do so much. That’s why the community has been delivering feedback constantly since launch to help the balance process. We’ve also seen that this methodology hasn’t worked very well so far (see Auto-Riles, Hand-Cannons, Shotguns, and Necrochasm for examples of where playtesting and the live environment diverged greatly). Aside from Bungie setting up a semi-live beta environment (insert <that’s what Destiny is> joke here) to more properly test potentially game-breaking changes, one alternative is to roll those changes out slowly, methodically, collect as much feedback as possible, and adjust the implementation accordingly. This is just not something Bungie seems keen on doing. Admittedly, it is good that the devs are forward thinking in their approach, considering the gameplay elements of future game builds when adjusting weapon values, but it oddly reminds me of the old adage, “Can’t see the forest for all the trees.” Bungie is definitely focused on the forest, so to speak, or at least a big part of it, as it continues to develop Destiny. I just wish their forest “management” didn’t so often opt for the “controlled burn” of sweeping changes, since those changes seem to so easily erupt out of their control.