I didn’t really know what I wanted to do on Destiny when I logged on today until I remembered it’s vanguard boost this week. As I don’t mind some strikes and expected my ritual pathfinder to be set up with a focus on vanguard activity I decided to have a look at the ritual pathfinder to see what it might expect of me. Then I saw the second column which almost only consisted gambit and crucible. One node was for getting sniper kills in either ritual activity. I closed down pathfinder and decided to skip ritual activities for another week losing out on another round of rewards. I understand that ritual pathfinder is supposed to edge players into trying different activities and maybe play styles. But if I don’t feel like playing them I hate the feeling of being locked out of rewards just because I’m not in the headspace to play anything remotely competitive right now. One might point out that I could also just skip that and go for sniper kills instead. Well. I can handle snipers when I’m calm and on my own. But getting 30 sniper kills in a strike that everybody is just bulldozing through? On top of that it’s not just sniper kills but precision sniper rifle kills upping the intensity to a level that is far from enjoyable for me. Is that a skill issue as some coming across this post might say? Possibly. To me it more so points out the biggest flaws with this system. I’m just so tired of not being able to jump into an activity I want, to play it in the way I feel enjoyable or comfortable at that time. (That’s not even to mention that the second to last row again is crucible, gambit or 10 grenade kills anywhere in a single life.) Years back people complained about the bounty system that had you actively fight your teammates (even in the basic strike playlist) to progress your vendor rank. To me, this feels the exact same way and makes me want to not engage with ritual activities at all anymore. To play destiny even less. Currently there also is no way to reset a pathfinder one hasn’t completed yet. Would an early but expensive reset help? So that I could find options I at least feel comfortable with? Maybe… I enjoy how the pathfinder system is implemented in the pale heart. It truly feels like I can unlock nodes just by playing and that I can always find a path I feel comfortable progressing. Sometimes it even gets me to play a little longer to just unlock that one last node I need to clear a path. That’s how ritual pathfinder should feel. But instead it keeps me from playing. With the most recent bounty system there were some bounties per vendor that I never felt like doing but that wouldn’t feel like a punishment whenever I skipped them. For example a sniper kill bounty. With that now defunct system I would lose out on some XP and progress towards my weekly bright dust reward. That didn’t matter as much though as I could either do a repeatable bounty or just wait 24 hours for a new set. This is not possible with pathfinder. You either do specific challenges or are locked out from all rewards and possible other pathfinder reset rewards for the whole week. I am not sure how many other players feel that way. Still I hope there will be changes in the future so that when I feel that I for once want to play some ritual activities, I don’t feel like logging off just because I checked out the pathfinder. Thank you for your consideration. Edit: This was also the first time I felt like engaging with the ritual activity playlist since the launch of final shape. I now feel like I don’t want to touch it at all anymore until Summer Solstice might require me to (which I’m not sure I’ll comply with) or until there’s any change to the ritual pathfinder system.