I got my first exotic bounty a few days ago, and I chose to go for Thorn. I knew that when I started it the PVP was going to be a pain. I underestimated just how crappy the PVP aspect would be. No I will admit I'm not a great PVP player and I prefer distance over close range. But having tried over 2 dozen matches since getting it I'm sitting at 16/500. I realized several things since starting this bounty.
For those of you who don't know the PVP requirements for Thorns Bounty are this: You must accrue 500 points in Crucible Matches using only Void based Weapon (The purple swirl next to the weapon damage). You gain +5 Points for a kill with a Void Weapon. You loose -2 for every death. Assist do not add any points. Damaging an opponent with a Void weapon and then killing him by other means (i.e. melee or someone else killing him) does not grant points.
1) Chances are you will be using a Special Weapon. Only another Exotic Primary Weapon will have Void Damage. You cannot rely on the Void Heavy Weapon to contribute to your score consistently due to ammo constraints.
2) That there is only 1 ranged weapon that does Void Damage, the sniper rifle. Both the shotgun and the fusion rifle are both extreme close range.
3) I believe there are only 2 Large maps in PVP. This makes distance fighting extremely difficult for those of us who play ranged and not close engagements.
4) Special Weapons have ammo constraints. Yes there are numerous ammo crates around, but it is still a factor.
5) Teammates can be extremely unreliable. I've had numerous matches of teammates who just leave and/or stand there and do nothing.
6) Unbalanced teams. We have all encountered this. Many matches are so one-sided to be considered laughable.
Another consideration is that I think this is the most difficult mission on any of the Exotic Weapon Bounties. Completing 25 Strikes, Complete 5 Strikes without dying, Deconstruct Fusion rifles, Kill 200 Enemies in Nightfall Strike with a Fusion Rifle. These are all the hardest missions for numerous Exotic Bounties. Only 1 bounty has anything even remotely similar and it's for the Invictus. Get a K/D ratio of 25 (which includes assists) in the Crucible. A overall 25 K/D in Crucible including assists is the only other step in a Exotic Bounty where you can backtrack on your progress. But even still the amount of effort and time you would have to put into even if it was reset to 0.0 is not comparable to the reset that can happen from a bad match in crucible. If you don't want to loose those points from a bad team match-up you have to leave the game. I do not consider that to be fair to the other players in the match, that I should have to bail to save my bounty from any further damage.
Now for the reason I'm writing this is because this afternoon when I started playing PVP I was 40/500. I played for over an hour in Crucible and I'm now 16/500. Mostly because I never had a single Large map and the smallest gap in our teams loss was by 3500 points on a control match.
I would think the Developers should consider reviewing and nerfing the current bounty for Thorn - A Light in the Dark. I think the best way to make the bounty more realistic is to remove the death penalty and make it a straight kill count. I think 150 to 200 kills in Crucible would be reasonable. I think that either giving credit for assists and reducing the number of total points needed is a viable change as well.
Thanks for any of you who stuck through this whole wall of words. Any support is greatly appriciated.
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It is by far the hardest bounty yet ,but once you complete it you will realize its not really that bad . the PvP part was definitely the worse part of it .