Destiny's Sandbox is and has always been an ecosystem, and the thing with ecosystems is, when you make changes to one thing, everything else is affected. For all the complaints about OEM and Recluse last season, the overall balance was the best I'd seen in years in the game and I loved Crucible.
This season I've yet to play a single game of Crucible I've enjoyed. From the outset with nothing but Arbalest spam (which thankfully has died down), to the still constant team spam of Symmetry, it has not been an enjoyable experience.
I don't know if this was a conscious decision by the developers, but it almost feels like with the popularity of momentum Control last season, that the goal this season was to push the actual sandbox closer to that ultra-fast paced, insta-kill style of play. I would say the current sandbox feels like it's midway between last season's base sandbox and the momentum sandbox.
Last season I thought the sandbox was already walking a tightrope on kill times and overall lethality, but this season's evolving meta (scouts/shotguns/hand cannons) combined with the current sandbox being so heavily impacted by stability and targeting mods have really pushed things over the edge
I hope things improve as the season progresses, but with the need for Bungie to make drastic upheavals in play every 3 months, I'm not sure we'll ever have a stable consistent play experience.
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Edited by Wes: 12/26/2019 9:24:10 PMToo much hand holding for me. High impact fusions with backup plan that have effective ranges past the damage dropoff of several primaries, diminishing primary play. Shotguns that have the same OHK distance as aggressive frames but more rate of fire and twice the handling. Snipers that were never used until massive outliers in terms of range and aim assist were introduced, allowing them to shoot through flinch, diminishing primary play. (Case and point: Sole Survivor was released months before Beloved and has the same zoom and can get awesome perks like opening shot and snapshot, but was never used. Beloved release with more than 20 more aim assist at the same zoom value and boom. It's everywhere.) Hand cannons with no recoil but still have a 3 tap potential that exceeds the range for a lot of HCs. OEM gives free wall hacks. Nerf was completely put in the wrong place, but at least the OEM aping has toned down. And so many more. Every thing I mentioned dimishines the skill gap and just does extra work for the player. A weapon should not hold a player's hand. It's too much. I can't even take it seriously. If I drop a 5.0, great. If I drop a 0.5, great. Doesn't matter. Loot doesn't change. Developer "renewed focus" hasn't been demonstrated. And players are still cheesing their way through PvP.