Longest post yet. Prepare yourself. It seems to be becoming more apparent that the game is not in a healthy state at the moment. It's one thing to hear about it all the time on the internet and these forums, but when you have friends that you constantly play the game with like mine and they start to say similar things and plan on leaving the game alone soon, then that's a clear sign that the game's popularity is plummeting. They usually stay clear of the forums due to disagreeing with a lot of things that come up, but I've been hearing so many people talk about the same things on and off the forums like how the game is getting really boring or how there are so many cheaters and that those are both big problems. Those are the main things that most of the Destiny community seems to agree with each other about. I'd like to bring up loot incentive here. It isn't the first time that I've brought this up and it seems like you guys at Bungie are aware about the subject, but I don't think the game is going to last that well for your solution at this rate if nothing is done soon. In Year 1, there were a lot of sources for unique loot drops and some of the major vendors/activity loot tables had some updates between the first couple of expansions like Zavala/Vanguard, Shaxx/Crucible, Saladin/Iron Banner, Rahool/legendary engrams, etc. The main problem with the loot then was that armor was pretty stale in just about every way and weapons had static rolls. In Year 2, Forsaken re-introduced random-roll weapons, gave armor more meaningful stats and perks, and added some more unique loot sources in the game, like Spider's legendary loot and gear in the Dreaming City. When Forsaken first launched, all of the vendors except for factions in the Tower got updated with new loot, but vendors outside of that place were hardly touched (the decline starts here). After Forsaken was finished and Season of the Forge began, a couple more activities and new loot sources were added to the game with new gear and some of the vendors at the Tower were lightly touched up with a couple of new weapons and such. Then Season of the Drifter came and the same thing happened again with even less done to the Tower vendors. Then Season of Opulence came and it happened again. Menagerie was a very welcome addition to the game though and it can still be pretty fun sometimes. But after all of this time, the majority of non-Tower vendors were still left hardly updated and the actual Tower vendors were starting to get the same treatment. Then comes Year 3. Initially, it was alright. The story development was nice and there was some new activities with new loot, [i]as usual.[/i] A couple of new features including the battle pass, finishers, Artifact and Armor 2.0 were introduced. The Tower vendors are still getting the same treatment and now with the current seasonal model, some of the new activities and loot sources have a limited time before they go away (there are major problems with this and the current state of the rest of the game combined). Once Season of the Undying ended and Season of Dawn began, Vex Offensive and its limited loot became inaccessible. All vendors still had the same treatment for the most part except Rahool and his legendary engrams, which had a few new things put in them. Then when Season of Dawn ended and Season of the Worthy started, Sundial and its loot took a leave again. But now Tower vendors like Zavala and Shaxx were touched up even LESS. There aren't even any new ritual weapons except for just ONE for Iron Banner. Besides that and some shaders, emblems and the seasonal mod slot for armor being updated, that was all that changed for them for the most part. Rahool's engrams got another update that removed Forsaken loot from regular world drops and added some more things to the loot pool and that's fine, everyone likes random legendary engrams that drop new loot. Currently we are playing around with the renewed Trials of Osiris and Seraph Tower. These activities both have some big problems. Trials of Osiris loot is locked behind the sweatiest PvP in the game with cheaters roaming around (especially on PC), meaning that most of the casual player base will have some big problems trying to get half of the new loot that was added this season. And Seraph Tower loot is extremely limited, almost like Vex Offensive loot. There's one full set of armor there, an auto rifle, sidearm, hand cannon, machine gun, an SMG tied to the battle pass and a shotgun tied to it too. Aside from a couple pieces of gear that seem to be inaccessible in the current season still and some mods, that seems to be it. I'm going to briefly talk about some things from my POV. I find ritual weapons to be a waste of content. You do a long, grindy quest that requires you to play the same activities over and over and when you get the gun, it's just a legendary with a static roll that you got after boring yourself out at the end of the day. If all you do is add a ritual weapon for vendors like Zavala and Shaxx and nothing else, then once you get that ritual weapon, that's it. You got Edgewise? Congratulations. Now there is no other new Vanguard loot to grind for that isn't already old. Updating the seasonal mod slot for vendor armor is fine. It's a light change and less work compared to making something completely different. But the fact that there are no new weapons with random rolls to chase in some of these older core activities like the Vanguard Strikes playlist or Quickplay Crucible leaves me disappointed and bored with those activities. I call those core activities because they used to be part of the main content with so much potential. There has always been Strikes and Crucible ever since Destiny 1 began and they've always been a major part of the two games with unique loot to chase. I know some of you guys at Bungie liked how there was loot you could only find at the end of those specific activities. I still remember the comment in one of the TWABs about finding an Eyasluna at the end of a Crucible match being exciting and all that. That's what I liked too. Vanguard Strike playlists in Destiny 1 had the same thing going for them too during the first year. That was good loot incentive. There was a reason to specifically play those activities because there was loot you could only find by completing them rather than just ranking up the Vanguard or Crucible ranks and claiming a package. You had one set of loot from the vendors and one set of loot from the activities themselves. Lots of loot and good times. But not only do we not have that or any recently updated weapons for Vanguard or Crucible in Destiny 2 right now, but most of the new loot that's been being added stops dropping at the end of the season and Trials, while being a permanent edition to the game, is not the place for most casuals to enjoy new content right now. That brings me to Grandmaster Nightfall Ordeals. I guess from the sounds of it we'll have a really high chance to get more exotic drops and materials under different conditions than other difficulties, mainly just being that you have to survive and complete the Ordeal. Sounds good on paper. But... is that really what a lot of players want? What if we already have all of the current exotics and are satisfied with the majority of them? And wouldn't it be easier to just run a few Master-difficulty Ordeals to get drops over one Grandmaster Ordeal? I've heard nothing about new or exclusive loot for Grandmaster. I've only heard that there is apparently a title to grind for. Is that it? Does that enhance or affect my game experience in any way besides the challenge of completing it? A title certainly doesn't do that. It's about as simple as a cosmetic, being just a flex. I can't say that I've cared enough about titles. If you see me with one, it was just convenient to get while I was busy searching for loot and materials or trying to have fun with friends. There are a lot of things that me, my friends and others would like to see for the game. It doesn't matter what order you do them in, but seeing them soon would definitely help. Just regarding loot though, if you're concerned about making gear that might not be used much, then the current reward system for the season model is not going to cut it. The majority of the new mods that were added are meant to be used with the Seventh Seraph weapons. Most of those weapons themselves are not that great and by the time the next season comes around, I'm sure everyone will already be moving on from those guns and the mods. Most of the mods being used are the ones that can generate Warmind Cells without specifically using a Seventh Seraph weapon. You might see some builds utilize the shotgun, but that's mainly because it's a special weapon and the only special Seventh Seraph one. Special weapons are very popular and strong, after all. And I believe a vendor refresh and some activity-specific loot for the Vanguard Strike playlist and Crucible is definitely needed. A lot of players don't like playing the same activity over and over and over for content. That's one of the fastest ways to get bored. A lot players will not spend endless hours to get a god-roll of a limited-time hand cannon. They'll stop grinding for it, become really dissatisfied with the best roll they end up with at the end of the season, and then they'll stop using it anyways. Updating more loot sources is wanted by a lot of players so they have more options on where to look for new content. The legendary engrams were a good start, but I'm still not going to be doing regular Strikes or Crucible right now to look for new content because they don't have anything new to offer. Preferably I'd like to see at least Vanguard and Crucible loot get a bigger update soon, including adding a lot more weapons. There needs to be more new and accessible gear for everyone.