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12/4/2014 12:24:36 AM
10
Is "The Dark Below" Catering to new players too much?
So, by now we're all aware of the changes inbound with the Dark Below due to the new breakdown of faction items, exotic evolving and whatnot. While this is all well and good, I feel it's pretty obvious that Bungie has taken steps, perhaps too many, to allow newer players to slide right in with the current high level ones.
To those who don't see where I'm going with this, it's simple:
[b]1.[/b] Current Exotics must be reforged to become on-par with TDB exotics, which resets perks and puts us on equal footing with new players, since they could (potentially) buy an exotic from Xur and immediately reforge it.
[b]2.[/b] Faction gear is being completely phased out in favor of newer, higher light gear. Due to the new requirement of commendations, current players will have no advantage over new ones, since we'll [u]all[/u] need to farm for them.
[b]3.[/b] Newer exotics will likely drop in the same way as current ones, allowing newer players to have the same advancement potential as any of us.
This also means that, as of next week, current raid and IB gear will be completely irrelevant in terms of leveling potential. Anyone can now farm for the new faction gear to reach level 30, jump into Crota's End and do just as well as anyone else. The only advantage current players have is the elemental raid weapons, but with the aforementioned new faction gear, newcomers can fairly quickly grind to level 30 and jump into the VoG, get said weapons, and [i]then[/i] go into Crota's End.
As much as I like the way Destiny is open and available to newcomers at any point, I feel there is a limit to how much spoon feeding there should be.
Discuss, my fellow Guardians.
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2 RepliesI'm honestly of two minds here. On one hand, I completely see the outrage from the very experienced level 30 players who've done the raid countless times, spend DAYS grinding out gear upgrades. Alas, I have not had that kind of time to devote to Destiny, else I would be one of you! It does stink that anyone will be able to get the gear to hit 30 fairly quickly once the expansion goes live since it took forever for RNGesus to bless some players with the boots or whatever they need. Conversely, does Bungie want to put a progression "penalty" in place so that new players (Holiday gift players) won't be able to play in the new content that they just paid for? Say a Captain Casual like myself finds myself with time and ability to play. Should I be forced to spend hours upon hours to grind VOG and Nightfalls to get the gear to enjoy Crota? How many new players will keep playing (and buy the next content) if they know they have to grind through all of the old content "that no one does because they already did it to death?" I made this point in another thread, but folks that have played a lot, you already got the benefit from your level 30 trip. You got the awesome experience of doing VoG both as a learning experience and as as well oiled machine. You got those sweet VoG rewards which you pwned us all in Iron Banner, and which you show off as you solo max level nightfalls or shame me in public events (I kid, I think you're awesome!). Now with a new set of levels and content, you have the experience to jump straight into the new Raid, and you will probably kick it's butt on a regular basis once you get used to it. My mere 27 is going to have to do some work before I can jump into the raid (or even a VoG carry through!). So I can see both sides of things, but Bungie is having to look at it from the perspective of getting people into their cool new content quickly. You can't punish new players and force them to go through the huge grind to hit 30. The story missions take 8ish (or way less or more) hours to finish. That's not a huge investment. If those folks hit 20 and realize they have to learn how to VoG, run it (bugs and all), and hope that RNGesus blesses them with their correct armor pieces BEFORE they can step foot into the new content, that's going to turn a lot of folks off. Bungie needs players who want to buy content. I'm invested in the game, I enjoy it, and I'll be getting the expansion. I know for a fact that a new player who gets the game during the holidays is going to surpass me quickly. I'm cool with that for me. It's not going to make everyone happy, but if that new person gets the game and buys content then Bungie can continue to make the game I enjoy. I guess it's a small price to pay. My apologizes for my rambling thoughts.
