To preface things, I am an MMO player. I've played Everquest 2, I've played World of Warcraft, and I've done my fair share of raiding. I am completely fine with the idea of giving up armor, weapons, etc, to progress. Change is fine, it doesn't really bother me. [i]That said, I do believe it would be better for the long term health of Destiny if exotic weapons and armor continued to be ascendable for the long term health of the game.[/i] A common argument I've seen when players debate (or were debating, now that exotics will be, for the time being, ascendable) having to give up your weapons and armor was that "It's a common MMO thing." I understand that Destiny is an MMO, is not an MMO, is a shared world shooter, was confirmed not to be an MMO... But for the sake of argument, that is what people said. Now, that's fine. But in most traditional MMO's, from my experience, gear wasn't really... Gameplay altering, in any way. Gear was just a means of progression. It helped you DPS harder, heal better, or tank more hits, but it never really changed what buttons you hit, aside from a few trinkets and whatnot. They were just balls of stats and invisible power. Destiny, from what I've seen, is a slightly different beast with its equipment. Guns (and armor) aren't generally just statistical bullet generators (or absorbers.) They're gameplay-defining tools. Say, using Red Death. You can sit in the battlefield, getting your health back, constantly feeling good about your full health. Say, you're a Bad Juju Warlock with Obsidian Mind. Nova Bombs, forever. Say, you're a Hunter with Celestial Nighthawk. One shot everything. Say, you're that same hunter using Achlyophage Symbiote. Now you can add crowd-clear. Or, you're that same hunter using the Bladedancer and Don't Touch Me, for infinite survivability and rez potential. OR, you're a Titan. Strike or Defender? Helm of Saint-14? Or Helm of Inmost Light? The point is, it's all viable. They define choice. Now, some people will argue that "We need to change over time. Or evolve." And that's fair. But at some point, you're just going to run out of options and playstyles. How do you make something more useful then a Helm of Saint-14 helmet? Do we... Make the bubble explode? What's the point of Striker, then? How do we get more useful than a Celestial Nighthawk Shot? A... 12x shot? 8 shots from Achlyophage? At some point, you're going to just create exotics that are more powerful than our current exotics. Which, alright. That's fair. Shouldn't that happen? But now, what about the player that JUST started playing Destiny? Say, three years from now? They get their first legendary engram while doing The Taken King content, and it turns in to... SUROS Regime! Wonderful, right? But now they check the exotic blueprints, and... It doesn't exist! Now they found a relic, which doesn't matter. For an anecdote: Two days ago, I just found Ice Breaker while running strikes. Which was great! But, I'll lose it soon, I know. So it was like, "Cool. That's cool." But now, I just found my first Hawkmoon the other day, while running the Prison of Elders. I was[I]excited[/I]. Why? Well, besides it being Hawkmoon, I know I'll get to keep it in two weeks. It's a choice I have. So now, 7 years from now, we have all of these great exotic weapons in Destiny, only the most recent years of which mean a thing. And sure, maybe there is a more powerful Celestial Nighthawk. Deletethisfool.exe, we'll call it. But why, then, did Celestial Nighthawk ever exist? The thing is, without ascension, we end up in a situation where we're limited to the most recent years items. We just lack choices. And if we end up with just more powerful versions of the same exotics that we can't ascend to... Well... Why? We've just temporarily lost a choice in how we play our class. And, several years from now, we're just limiting our pool of items. Tl;dr: Exotic Weapon and Armor Ascension should remain in place for several years of iteration, to better the health of the game. Note 1: I'm staying away from the argument about whether or not all exotics, like Gjallarhorn or Ice Breaker, should be ascendable. That strays into issues of game health by weapon design. If they become balanced items, sure. I'm not saying they shouldn't or should be ascendable. Note 2: [b]By all means, disagree with me.[/b] For the most part, I was completely fine with almost everything being left behind. I literally just thought of this in the shower, a few moments ago. So, civil discussion is fine, and [i]welcomed.[/i] Please, tell me why this is a bad idea in the long term.