Over the last month or two, I've been discussing with my clan some points of community frustration, and I've compiled a list of things that I believe Bungie has failed to acknowledge as an issue within the community. Note that all this is subjective, and what I say may not be what you agree with. [i][b]I am okay with that.[/b][/i] You should be, too. My goal here is to start a discussion and maybe give Bungie some insight into what the players want and expect from Destiny, as well as some potential fixes to lead them in the right direction. I want to begin by saying that as of now, I have a combined 1,668 hours in both Destiny games. All of my free time is spent on my Destiny clan, playing the game, or talking about the game. I have the largest Destiny collection of all of my friends, from Funko pops, to collector's editions, to plushies, to lunchboxes, you name it I have it. [i][b]This is not to say my opinion means more than yours.[/b][/i] This is simply meant to say that I am extremely invested in this company and this game, and I want nothing more than to see it shine and be the best it can be. I love this game with the bottom of my heart, and I hope that is reflected in my post. Now, let's get into it. [b][u]Crucible[/u][/b] One of the things that Shadowkeep promised us is a renewed focus on PvP. I want to come out and say it, the Survival playlist, and competitive as a whole, is by far the best it has been in a long time. Making plays is all the more crucial, hitting Fabled and even Legend is not a difficult dream to achieve for most players. However, other game modes have not received the same treatment. I am an above average player, sitting pretty near the top in my own clan. When I want to play a relaxed game mode, where I can use Rat King or Cerberus+1 and just enjoy the game, there isn't a single option in the Crucible that lets me play against others that just want to have fun, thanks to skill based matchmaking. Every playlist is plagued with people using the meta, sweating their faces off using Not Forgotten and Dust Rock, OEM and bottom tree Striker. It is [i] excruciating.[/i] This problem only gets worse the higher a persons skill level. I am not a Crucible God, I am only pretty good, so imagine what it's like for the further ~20% of players above my skill level. It simply [b]isn't fun.[/b] Many of my clanmates and friends have stopped going into Crucible because of SBMM. I think the best way to solve this issue would be to create a playlist in which you cannot use the top 10 meta weapons in each weapon slot. This data can easily be found on Charlemagne bot, as well as other sources. It can be a weekly rotating choice of weapons, to keep from becoming stagnant, and it would help diversify loadouts across all Crucible modes. As a small addendum here, ranking up in the Crucible is effectively meaningless. Stat rolls are bad even on reaching Legend rank, there are no ways to earn Ascendant shards through the Crucible, and playing so much for just 7 enhancement cores is not worth it in today's economy. [b][u]Balancing[/u][/b] When Forsaken launched, it seemed like for the first time in Destiny 2 history, Warlocks were the meta inside of PvP. Nova Warp was a monster inside of the Crucible, and you'd be hard pressed to find a match without one. But then, the nerf happened. And it was a BIG one. Every single aspect of the super got pounded into oblivion. It became a laughing stock. It cannot one-shot supers with a full charge. Since then, it has gotten a buff, but it is still laughably bad. Furthermore, damage resistance and super gains were also nerfed as recently as Shadowkeep, making this super even WORSE, allowing other supers to kill it with ease. Meanwhile, bottom tree Striker has had free roam of the Crucible for far too long, and Arc Striders are one of the best supers in the meta currently. Things don't add up. There is no balance. And this is just regarding supers. Weapon balancing has taken a hit since Forsaken, with high-impact Fusions making a bad name for the rest of the bunch, 360 auto rifles being a steaming pile of hot garbage, SMGs outside of Recluse being a shadow of their former selves, and sidearms being so horrible that not even an Exotic armor piece centered on them can save the way they perform. Scouts are in a better place, admittedly, but only at extremely long ranges, where Bows and Snipers are comfortable, edging Scouts out again. From a player perspective, there seems to be absolutely zero testing for PvP going on, and even less action being taken against, or in favor of, things that need it. This needs to change. [b]Give us the focus on PvP you promised us.[/b] [b][u]Exotics, Affinities, & Stats[/u][/b] We all know the argument about Affinities. We know that they're confusing, frustrating, and rely way too heavily on RNG. I won't delve too far into this, but it should be noted that Affinities were meant to improve buildcrafting, and in some cases have instead hindered it. Want Enhanced Ashes to Assets with Remote Connection? Well, too bad. It's not possible. Affinities, and the mods tied to them, need to be looked at and reworked. This has been a good starting point for a new feature, but this feature needs to evolve in order to succeed. Stats are another point of frustration among armor pieces, because of the extremely limited ways to get high-stat rolls. As it currently stands, the only way to get a nice 60 roll or higher on your armor is through raiding or Iron Banner. Not even Prime Engrams can drop high stat armor, which makes every single armor drop a worthless drop outside of those two sources. Both of these issues become HUGE hindrances when you factor in Exotic Armor. Ordeals have become a pretty nice Exotic farm, but getting the exact armor you want, plus the exact Affinity, PLUS the exact stat roll is still too much RNG to get what you're looking for in a timely manner. Even with Ordeals, you may not get that perfect armor piece [i]ever[/i] in all your time playing. High stat rolls need to be made available to all armor drops, though rare. These should be made more common with Prime Engrams, and further still on Exotic drops and Powerful/Pinnacle drops. Additionally, Crucible rank up rewards need to have a high chance for high stat-rolled armor. [u][b]Xur[/b][/u] In an effort to save time and post length, I will quickly say that Xur should sell Glass Needles to change the affinity on Exotics. He should also sell another consumable that allows the re-roll of one armor piece of any type to become high stat armor. This would allow useless armor, such as Escalation Protocol sets or Dreaming City sets to retain some value to players, and give them reason to keep some armor pieces with affinity rolls they like so that they can potentially add it to their loadout in a min/max build. These consumables should be expensive to prevent people from just re-rolling thirty times in an hour and getting what they want, therefore ruining the play experience. Oh, and re-roll his armor please, for the love of God. Xur is so useless right now to veteran players. [u][b]Strikes and Nightfall Loot[/b][/u] I'll put this plainly: the new strikes not having Nightfall specific drops is a bad change. It was said that development time for these things would take away from something like a seasonal item's development time, but Nightfalls need a reason to be played for something more than just "Ordeals in a different flavor." Bring the weapon drops to the Year 2 Random Roll standard, and make drops for the new Nightfalls. It has become a staple for the Destiny 2 endgame and needs to stay that way. Normal strikes are underperforming greatly. I have an idea that the community has been asking for in some form for a long, long time. Strike specific armor. Each strike in the game should have a low (5-10%) chance of dropping an armor piece related to the strike. A hunter cloak that drops from the Fanatic strike, or a Warlock helmet that drops from the Scarlet Keep. This would bring HUGE value to the Strikes playlist and would bring value to the base Destiny 2 experience. [u][b]Vendor Resets[/b][/u] The last time Sloane had a refresh was back in Warmind. For those not keeping score, that was nearly two years ago. How this has not been a focal point for Bungie is beyond me. The planets and their patrol spaces are a huge part of Destiny, and I personally enjoy going to Nessus just to look at the scenery. [b]But that isn't enough.[/b] Vendors, planetary vendors especially, need to be updated at least yearly with new or more bounties, new gear to chase, or hell even dialogue! (You just never quit, do you?) Shaxx has not sold a new weapon roll that was worth anything since Wish Bringer. Zavala hasn't had armor that I've cared about since YEAR ONE. Banshee is still selling the same weapons, with some of them being world-drops (which is just a low blow for 100 weapon parts). Devrim has been drinking tea and not much else. At the very least, Bungie, we need a DLC with a focus on these characters. They're interesting and have huge impacts on lore and early gameplay, but for the last two years they have been at an absolute standstill and they mean NOTHING. This needs to change. [u][b]Factions[/b][/u] Nobody asked for Faction Rallies. Nobody asked for them to become huge, time consuming grinds for gear that we got naturally back in Destiny 1. In fact, [b]nothing was wrong with factions in Destiny 1.[/b] Bring back the factions as they were in D1, with natural gains from just playing the game. Bring back the Exotic class items from pledging to them for so long. Bring back the life of the game that you took away almost [b][i]two years ago.[/i][/b] Bring back the weekly featured weapon roll, but make us spend faction tokens to get them. This was an integral part of the Destiny experience and lore and it has been reduced to decorations in the Tower. (Post limit)