Attempting to grapple with the horrible new horrible of PvP now, it's not so much the getting-killed-all-the-time as the sheer amount of time sitting around to get in a position to get killed all the time - the load-ins, the respawning, the fact it's all over in 10 minutes. How a noob is supposed to go from zero to competent in that context is beyond me. Demoralising AND a logistical ballache.
You wanna go no-limits on participation - particularly after a period where the best have been ONLY playing the best and getting crazy good thanks to some implementation of SBMM now for a while! - you need to provide proper gym equipment, and this platform seems to have no ambition in that direction. It will probably die on that basis, and that's a shame because there is a way outta this shit if they take it srsly. They're so concerned about difficulty settings for several chunks of PvE content, but not for the one where getting the difficulty level right is actually the most pertinent longer term.

Banner was my favourite thing about Destiny...sad face.

On yesterday's upside, "jet epbeams didn't melt himself" is the best username I've seen in a bit.

Cheating ! That's atrocious. . . How does one cheat at Destiny?

Ah, all things I have heard of and understand comprehensively.

Brief thoughts after some time with the new season;

Positives - The new weapons and catalyst are cool. I'm loving the Cold Denial pulse and both of the new swords for their Dark Drinker and Bolt Caster-alike heavy attacks. The seasonal exotic, Witherhoard, is just fantastic and has become a regular in my loadouts, duelling for a spot with the utterly bonkers catalyst-equipped Trinity Ghoul. Srsly, that bow is something else right now, and especially if you're running an arc subclass. 

Big fan of the new weapon perks, Unrelenting and Killing Wind. Top tier stuff. 

I don't mind the seasonal public event at all, always liked the mechanics of Gambit and yeah this doesn't give you the same satisfaction of a win but at the same time a single clueless teammate ain't gonna fuck it for everyone else. Anyway, it's about 10,000 times better than the last one, and I've had zero trouble getting people involved. With last season's Seraph Towers, half the time you started one every nearby player would jump on their sparrow and fuck off at warp speed.  

Really enjoying the weekly Interference mission, but I'm a total sucker for anything Hive and Ascendant Realm related. Love that shit. 

I'm also digging getting the seasonal Umbral engrams from so many different sources, and I really, really hope they keep this idea going forward.  

This season's artefact is much better than the last one for me, and the return of Oppressive Darkness for void grenades is most welcome. 

Negatives - Fuck the power grind. I know it's not specifically a This Season thing, but I've grown to hate it, and it's without a doubt my least favourite thing about the game. 

Really annoyed at having to grind out new versions of the exact same god rolls I had on weapons like Breach Light, Martyr's Retribution, lonesome, and Nightwatch, for them to avoid sunsetting a little longer. Maybe I wouldn't mind as much if they'd added a few new perks to the pool, but unless I'm missing something they're the exact same guns I've already grinded for just a few seasons ago? Nah mate. 

The ditching of SBMM in regular PvP modes is a shame, but typical of Bungie's clueless approach to the Crucible during D2's life. An absolute shitshow of a multiplayer when compared to almost every other MP out there. 

And while I actually like the season pass (or whatever it's called), I do think the XP requirements to level up are far too high. 

Overall - Yeah it's a decent enough Y3 season so far. It's a far cry from Y2 seasons, however, and at this point I'm actually looking back on Y1's DLC model with fondness. But hey, the gunplay, world-building, and art direction are as good as it gets and it's still my favourite game to sink all my free time into. 

I mean, besides Minecraft of course.

You can get an Arrival's version from the Umbral engrams. Dawn focusing lets you go for either that or Martyr's, both of which I need new versions of due to Sunsetting.

Aye, spent two hours on mine the other Saturday morning. I'm full again. Obvs.

stormyskiesahead wrote:

Negatives - Fuck the power grind. I know it's not specifically a This Season thing, but I've grown to hate it, and it's without a doubt my least favourite thing about the game.

Absolutely. Pure monotony at this stage. Same thing every single season. Grind another 50 odd power levels. Such a shitty, artificial way to extent time investment. At this stage I think there should be only one power cap increase per year and that's with the September expansion. Seasons after this should have new activities, gear and quests but there should be no reset with each one. I'm just beyond bored with it. I wouldn't mind playing my Warlock but I just can't be arsed with the grind and I ain't paying Bungie for a power level boost.

stormyskiesahead wrote:

The ditching of SBMM in regular PvP modes is a shame, but typical of Bungie's clueless approach to the Crucible during D2's life. An absolute shitshow of a multiplayer when compared to almost every other MP out there.

Yeah, been playing Iron Banner all week and the PvP really has sunk to a new low level. I can't get over the amount of cheating in it and or server abuse. I dunno how many times I've face-blasted someone in recent days only to be one-punched and see them run off without so much as a pixel of health missing. Power level discrepancy or otherwise, there is still something fishy going on there.

I'm convinced now more than ever that no one at Bungie really plays their game. At least to the level of being a committed hobbyist player. I mean all you have to do is look at how overwhelmingly OP Titans are in PvP.

You know there is a probably when you get spawn-killed by the same super...

Arc bottom tree I think? Seems to last forever.

That got nerfed a while back, have they made some changes that have strengthened it again?

Will have to try it out.

True story; I did that exact thing myself. Popped my super on a couple of hunters in the middle of the map, shoulder charged them into oblivion then ran to where I thought they'd be spawning and got 'em again. 

They proceeded to brutalise me for the rest of the match, tea-bagging so hard there were points I thought they were gonna go through the floor. One of them was "tactically crouching" over my death spot for so long that I respawned and ran over there to find him STILL TEA-BAGGING! 

I looked at him, he looked at me. He didn't shoot. Just carried on tea-bagging.

What a fucking legend.

When I started this I picked Juggernaut on a pure whim and naturally I have picked nothing else since lol.

For Titans and Warlocks yes. At least with Hunters (bar Blade Barrage) you actually have to aim and you don't get insane armour and mobility bonuses.

Think I'll switch back to Titan

Can't beat 'em, join 'em ect...

Probably Russians. It's always the Russians.