I read a big reddit post about game development, and figured I would post about one of my favorite subclasses from a console perspective. This is not intended to be a rant, but just feedback about my experience with the subclass, how it feels to use, likes/dislikes, and a few suggestions. That said, I am not a game developer, but am trying to give some useful feedback for something I like to use. I just want to start by saying that I like the voidwalker paths in general, Blink is cool AF to use, and the void abilities & supers just really scratch the sci-fi Destiny space magic itch for me. It brings the most fun & enjoyment for me currently even if it is not the most optimal for xyz game modes. [u]Atomic Breach[/u] - this melee creates a Void explosion For PVE, it's decent and looks cool. The only downside to PVE use is that the void explosion feels a little bit too small for groups of enemies to take much damage from it. It seems to me that enemies basically need to be down to like 10hp in order for Atomic Breach's void explosion to kill them to activate the Dark Matter perk reliably. Otherwise, it feels good to smack something away and blow it up. For PVP, the damage output is great at 100+65, the knockback is useful, and I like that it requires an actual melee hit to function (unlike stuff like Celestial Fire, Ball Lightning, Smoke Bomb, or Throwing Knife - I don't agree with melee abilities that are actually ranged attacks, I mean, it's supposed to be a melee, right? Anyway...). However, the most fun and useful part of Atomic Breach is also afflicted by a significant weakness which is that opponents can negate the knockback mechanic with a counter melee which simply pulls the enemy directly back to the user (something I hear also affects titan stasis shoulder charge). This is very common, and makes the perk useless in most face-to-face melee exchanges due to warlock melee speed being slower than the other classes, and is only reliable in surprise melee attacks. The damage output is great, but the void explosion delay plus the inconsistent knockback puts the user at high risk of a trade from enemy gunfire, abilities, or double melees. It's fun to use, but the knockback negation feels bad. However, to be fair, if you can land a Handheld Supernova AND an Atomic Breach, then you can kill anything other than a player inside of a Ward of Dawn. [u]Handheld Supernova[/u] - Converts your grenade into a short range Void blast on release For PVE, it feels way too risky around groups. The number of times I have had a stray redbar apparently run in front of me for HHSN to explode in my face is way more than I care to admit, but what's extra annoying about it is that it happens even if I jump into the air and cannot see an enemy in front of me. I don't know why it happens, but it happens enough that I basically do not use HHSN in PVE. Pretty sure the damage output is better with a normal vortex grenade anyway - certainly is safer. For PVP, Handheld Supernova makes me feel exactly like a space wizard. Magic missile! It's fun to disintegrate players, but boy is it a difficult to use. It has great damage output, but the 1.25s charge-up feels way too long (for reasons mentioned below), 1.25s hold-time feels way too short, the ~12 meter range feels a bit too short due to the charging timers plus the inability to blink, sprint, or slide while charging/holding, and the high potential to kill oneself makes it very difficult to use successfully. In my experience, the movement speed of players, sliding, other abilities generally being faster or having greater range or tracking, shotguns, and the general TTKs of primary weapons being 1s or less all result in HHSN being a very high-risk/normal reward ability that has a very steep timing & positioning requirement to use successfully. Or to put it another way, HHSN feels like it almost entirely relies upon enemies making a mistake plus a bit of luck. It just feels much more difficult to use than other abilities, and feels way more punishing for mistakes whether taking too long to fire so it autocancels leaving the user vulnerable for a second, or firing too close to something/someone and killing the user. My inclination is that either the range needs to be longer up to maybe 17m like a fusion rifle since it actually charges considerably slow than even high-impact fusion rifles for the cost of a grenade ability, or the range remains short but the charge-up time needs to be reduced to 0.5s and I'd even accept a reduction in hold-time to 0.5s - all simply because the game is focused on speed and HHSN currently slows the user down way too much, for too long to be competitive. My recommended solutions may not be best, but something about the speed & range of the ability just doesn't feel good. [u]Dark Matter[/u] - Void ability kills grant health and melee, grenade and class ability energy I think this performs fine overall, but Handheld Supernova specifically could use bonus energy or perhaps add a small amount of super energy generation on kills due to the risk of killing the user. Perhaps if HHSN were buffed, then this wouldn't be needed. [u]Nova Warp[/u] - Step between dimensions to subvert the laws of physics. Sprint to teleport a short distance. Hold and release to unleash a deadly Void eruption. Replaces Nova Bomb as subclass Super. For PVE, it functions a trash mob killer. The whole subclass feels geared toward ad clearing, so it's good for game modes like gambit or normal strikes although it feels a quite underpowered versus anything beyond the lowest level redbar - that is, some stronger redbars will not die to a single or sometimes two fully charged Nova Warp blast, let alone orange or yellow bars, which feels very bad. Otherwise, it feels great to explode trash mobs into oblivion albeit not for very long. For PVP, it can be good in the right hands, with a lot of practice, and a bit a of luck, but relative to other supers the RoI feels low. It feels good to be fast in straight lines, but it feels bad that it cannot change direction worth a crap without major super energy cost and a significant slowdown to do so. It seems very easy to outrun a Nova Warp because it simply cannot make the necessary close range directional changes without using extra energy to Teleport, and even then the 1.2s time required to explode to get a useful AoE is so long that it is pretty easy to escape the blast radius. It feels very sluggish for anything other than straight line speed. The Teleport is good for combining with Blink or Burst Glide to move fast, but by itself is only a 3 meter movement for ~4.5% energy cost which is less than base melee range for comparison. This feels okay due to the combos with jump abilities, but what does not feel good is that the Teleport does not reliably avoid incoming damage. Teleporting directly toward someone does not avoid damage, and teleporting side to side or diagonal is not reliable either. Facing supers for example, Blade Barrage will simply curve toward the Nova Warp despite the Teleport, and that feels extremely bad. Similarly, Golden Gun easily tracks & hits Nova Warp despite spamming Teleport. It makes no sense to me, and feels extremely bad. I've taken Nova Warp into Mayhem with the express purpose of practicing Teleport dodging Golden Gun, and it 99% does not work, at least versus 6-shooter, but maybe I'm just bad or the GG users were very good or perhaps I just experienced a bunch of laggy matches - I dunno, that's just been my experience. Generally speaking, Nova Warp struggles to combat other supers. It can be done, but requires quite a lot of practice, skill, and luck which feels like a much higher requirement for a much lower return relative to other supers. Now, I don't mind if Nova Warp requires a lot of practice and skill to use effectively, and I have a ton of fun with in quickplay & even some decent success in comp, but it does feel like it is underpowered overall by comparison. My inclination is that the Teleport should not cost super energy, or at least the cost should be even further reduced to like 1-2%. To boil it down, I think Nova Warp needs to be able to do more Teleporting. For a quick comparison, I look at top tree dawnblade's ability to move quickly, close a gap, and attack, or same for Spectral Blades, and most recently Behemoth Glacial Quake has unlimited use of the super slide which does not use super energy plus the optional melee for long range travel which does use some super energy, but I would need to spend more time thinking about each subclass holistically to make a more confident assertion. [u]Closing Remarks[/u] Alright, there was a lot to say about it, and especially in pvp which is my preferred game mode. That said, I'm not infallible or authoritative, and I'm sure Bungie development is busy with other stuff. Just wanted to throw out some hopefully constructive feedback, and some wishful thinking for changes. I love Nova Warp, I use it regularly because it is so much fun, and with a little bit of TLC it could be in a great place in both PVE and PVP without being too powerful. Feel free to share your experiences, observations, and thoughts about Nova Warp, and any ideas for change you might have. [b][u]TL;DR[/u][/b] Attunement of Fission is very cool and fun to use, but feels like it has a lower return on investment compared to other classes & subclasses. Handheld Supernova could use a small buff to range OR a shorter charge-up/hold timer, and Nova Warp could use a buff to effectively increase the amount of Teleporting it can do as well as increased PVE damage versus red/orange/yellow bar combatants.