Alright. Buckle in. This will be lengthy. Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) Statement: The classes are wildly unbalanced in their current incarnations, with Hunters far behind the other two in nearly every respect. Repeated nerfs to Hunter abilities and exotics leave our class sorely lacking and unable to truly compete or take part in most roles to the same level as Titans and Warlocks. This is an ongoing problem that worsens with each successive nerf. /rant on Hunters have far less overall utility in their class ability, fewer functional options regarding exotics in both PvE and PvP, and are underwhelming in overall power Supers compared to Titans and Warlocks. In this post I will be breaking my arguments down along those lines. First, lets examine the utility of all three classes beginning with core/class abilities. Titans and Warlocks have a great deal of variability with regards to how their class abilities can be used and what these abilities do. Both of these classes enjoy what I would term "persistent" class abilities, which are designed to be utilized and manipulated beyond their initial cast. Additionally, both the Barrier and Rift abilities can be empowered to have extra, incredibly valuable effects (healing/overshields/weapon damage buffs/reload speed), without the use of exotics to modify or change them. Also, the rift and barrier abilities offer their benefits to the entire team, not only the user of said ability. In both PvE and PvP contexts, this can offer massive shifts in combat tempo and options resulting from their use. Comparitively, dodging for Hunters does not enjoy these luxuries. Once a hunter dodges, the skill is useless and on cooldown until it can be recast. The options of a melee recharge or weapon reload are the only variability immediately offered to this ability which, when compared against the options for rifts and barriers, is incredibly lackluster. Yes, if you are Void specced you can become invisible, or can do an area chill effect as Stasis, but with the nerfs to invisibility and dodge (no longer breaks tracking, easier to see/predict, duration adjustments) that have been forced on us, both of these have had their power/use/utility severely curtailed. Needless to say, the Hunter dodge also only affects the Hunter themselves. There is no real team utility. In fact it can be argued that there is negative utility as it will shift PvE mob aggression to teammates, opening them to danger they may not be ready/able to handle in a firefight. The only exception I will include here is Void specced invisibility for revives. However, this is a distilled form of the class ability that requires a specific build, whereas the other two classes retain their overall utility regardless of build. For the above reasons, I argue that in regards to class abilities it is very clear which ones offer more utility to the user and their teams over repeated use and extended periods of time. This imbalance, based solely on an analysis of the gap between class abilities, should be very clear to all, and by itself speaks to the hierarchy of which classes are tops and which very much isn't... But wait! There's more! Next let us discuss exotics, beginning with the infamous Stomp-EE5s and ending with a few other notable choices such as the Omnioculus, Graviton Forfeit or Wormhusk Crown. All three classes have movement enhancing exotics, but it is beyond debate or argument that the VAST majority of endgame Hunters use Stomp-EE5s exclusively. The fact that so many choose the Stomps speaks to how broken the rest of our exotics pool, and our class as a whole is, because the only real tool a Hunter has to stay alive is movement (and to a lesser extent invisibility). Both other classes have healing and defense baked into their core abilities, this gives them a plethora of options exotic-wise that is not at all linked at all to their overall survivability, but we do not. We are forced to either choose a specific exotic for survivability's sake or become glass cannons by choosing one for actual combat utility beyond staying alive. This simple fact widens the gap between the classes beyond what I detailed in the first point about class abilities, because we not only get shortchanged on ours with the ever-nerfed dodge, but have to sacrifice an exotic slot to make up for it. Now lets examine some of the other exotic options Hunters can feasibly use. In the current Void meta, there is very much a place for things like the Omnioculus and Graviton Forfeit, but these are Void or even Subclass specific and require a distilled build to use well. The Wormhusk is also viable, but only because it offers something the other classes have access to already through non-build-specific abilities. My argument here is that we are pigeon-holed into using a very small number of exotics just to compete and remain viable in all aspects of the game, while the other do not. When these exotics get nerfed, it removes our ability to compete at all. When was the last time you saw someone rocking a Foetracer? Or a pair of Frostees? Or an Ophidia Spathe? Raiden Flux? I'll wait. Take your time. Finally, lets have a nice long talk about overall power and Supers. There is a massive gap between what our supers can pull off compared to the other classes. This is undeniable. Let's go through the list. Storm and Squall has been nerfed to the point where it is literally a joke that people can jog away from without sprinting. The Titan and Warlock Stasis supers however, remain incredibly powerful in all game modes. Void utility remains relevant with Tether's two options, but the blades are far harder to control effectively than any other running super in the game. Arc supers are limited to spinny staff or normal staff, possible changes to follow with Arc 3.0 that will bring them in line with the amazing variability and utility of the Arc supers of the other classes. Solar has some variability with Goldie or Thousand Cuts, but again, examine these against the options for the other classes. When you are measuring them against each other it becomes clear that our supers are not only shorter in duration and do less as a whole, but also narrower in terms of overall utility and power. To put it simply, we are able to do less. Period. Beyond hyper specific builds like Celestial Gunslinger or Blight Ranger Arcstrider, we cannot measure up to what the other two classes have access to. So, with all of this said, a question arises; Why does everyone complain so much about Hunters being OP? 🤔 The answer is threefold and I am sure other class mains will take issue. To put it simply, there are more of us, which means there are more highly skilled hunters than highly skilled Titans and Warlocks at any given time. This translates to more Hunters zipping around being hard targets in the Crucible. Finally, I will posit here that highly skilled Hunters are the most skilled players in the game as a whole because they have risen to that skill level using an underpowered class which only really has movement as its survivability option. So where do we go from here? This is a mess, and the repeated and escalating nerfs lead me to believe that Bungie may in fact have it out for us... Solution 1: Make Dodge Better. Improving our class ability to bring it in line with barrier and rift in terms of options/utility/overall value will go a long way towards opening us up to other exotic options and playstyles. Make our reload/melee dodge options reload the weapons/melee of everyone on the team for example, or make one of the dodge options a healing dodge called second wind or something. Give us the tools the other classes get by default. Solution 2: Make better general purpose exotics. 95% of a class population using a single exotic speaks volumes about how crap the others are. Take the hint. Give us more options with regards to general non-subclass-specific utility. Solution 3: Buff our supers. Make them not suck. Half of them are a complete joke that do barely anything. Anyways, that's how I feel about it. I've played Destiny 1 and 2 for over 8 years. I have leveled each class to max even though I am forever a Hunter. I love this game. It could be so much better than it is. Finally, as an unrelated addendum, fix the hood/tail overlap garbage going on with the Dreaming City set cloak. It clips weirdly and has never been fixed. Nicest cloak in the game ruined by lazy clipping design errors. Comon now. Bleh. /rant off