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#feedback

Edited by Madman: 3/12/2015 7:59:54 PM
78

Hard Mode Raids Should Treat Difficulty Increases in an Additive Way, not Subtractive

Currently, one of the most significant changes between a normal raid and hard raid is the inability to revive teammates during instances. Frankly, this is just bizarre. Not only is there no precedent anywhere in the game, but being able to revive teammates is one of the most fundamental properties of this game. I mean, it's literally the first thing in the Destiny experience; you're resurrected by your Ghost. However, the removal of our ability to revive teammates means Bungie's designers have taken a subtractive approach to increasing difficulty. The alternative would be additive (e.g., enemies have more health, enemies deal more damage, there are more enemies, etc.), which are tactics they also employ, but the mixture is a little weird. Presumably, the intent is to make dying a big bummer. But that's the problem. Dying is already a pretty big bummer, and no revives means we're not playing. Are these implications really what Bungie wants? In another thread, another player pointed out how certain subclasses become irrelevant in hard mode. For instance, Warlocks' ability to self res with sunsinger is WAY more important than nova bombs, which are rendered highly ineffective by the much tougher enemies. The suggestion there is that perhaps these supers are not suitably balanced. For the purposes of the hard mode raids, though, making certain subclasses irrelevant subtracts more viable resources from the game. Further, it limits our strategic options. The cumulative effect is that hard mode raids aren't really hard. They're merely a matter of employing one of the few strategies that work and crossing your fingers that everything goes as planned and that no glitches trip you up. It's just a weird experience that isn't really representative of the game as a whole. The raid design team has cherry picked elements of the game to make important to us, and part of the puzzle is figuring out what works and what doesn't work. It isn't necessarily about how [i]well[/i] you execute, just that you do. I'd like to see the hard mode raids made more difficult by adding layers of obstacles, not removing tools from our tool box. Let our skills breathe. Don't make us pigeon hole ourselves into specific skillsets and resources that we must use to complete the challenge. Instead, present challenges that give equal credence to all of our abilities and allow us to choose the ones we like to use based on the challenges ahead of us, not what you've taken away from us.

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  • Edited by WARCOLONEL: 3/13/2015 10:16:35 PM
    The one reason I would argue against this idea is from a lore P.O.V. Darkness zones are those areas you cannot be revived without a teammate. It's the areas of the solar system the Traveler's light cannot pierce. I don't know of anything more thematic of this than the raids, where we are fighting the equivalent of evil demigods. It makes sense that if certain locations of hard enemies, such as strike bosses, cause darkness zones, these demigod like enemies should have something more powerful just because of their presence. I'm not saying you're wrong, I just prefer the idea of being unresurrectable. A better way to make subclasses feel more balanced could be to create the opportunities that allow them to shine. A blade dance is all but useless in VoG compared to the gunslinger. Voidwalkers are just not up to snuff compared to self-rezzing. Placing in bosses that receive double damage from supers or melee (works for BD and Striker) are simple fixes that would give players incentive to play these characters. Granted, this is more of a band-aid approach. Maybe make specific energy damage types better for parts of a raid. Dust Palace style, just not so annoying. Or, my favorite idea for a raid penalty (in the same vein of [i]Presence of Crota[/i]) an area or checkpoint of the raid where supers don't work. You have to tackle a mini or final boss without any 'slinging, bubbles, or radiance. I can't think of a better way to level the playing field as far as subclass usage goes.

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