Oh good, you're here! Take a seat opposite me and relax, this could take a while.
Ready? Good, because we need to talk about some things.
First of all, Bungie... seriously, put the RNG down, it's getting ridiculous. No, I don't want an Ascendant Energy, I can complete public events for that, [i]like you wanted me to[/i].
To understand your problem, we have to go deep, way down to the source: glimmer. Once we hit level 20, glimmer loses most of its value, with the exception of events like Iron Banner. I'd [i]like[/i] to pick up a nice cheap Arc Fusion Rifle from Banshee, but unless I'm lucky, he only sells weapons that are not only uncommon, but often four levels lower that what's acceptable. I have to trek around the maps, scooping up secondary weapons engrams, throwing them at the local necromancer and hoping for the best.
If that was too much of a headache, here's the math. Vendor RNG --> patrol RNG --> engram RNG --> (repeat step three nine times) --> necromancer RNG.
See that? That's just being lazy.
This also is an excellent point to switch topics to rarity. Now, when you play an RPG, how much RNG-produced stuff do you use for long periods?
Hardly any, because the vendors sell better weapons that haven't been in a troll's stomach for me-knows how long. If you're short on coin, you can go off in search of a unique weapon hidden elsewhere in the game, usually behind a dragon of some type.
Now, in Destiny, the dragon equivalent is the Vault of Glass/Nightfall strikes/Exotic Weapon bounties (all very hard things to do) and the [i]real[/i] vendors are the faction heads and Xur (the former requires lots of effort and the latter has only one weapon for sale per week). Both of these vendors require specialized currency that are hard to come by in large quantities, which becomes a problem that [i]has[/i] to be solved with your unhealthy friend, RNG.
With the dragons, the Vault of Glass demands a large party and several hours free, Nightfall strikes require less time but are less forgiving of failure and Exotic Weapon bounties are few in number and each one has "that" task, which is much harder than the rest of them, several of them being luck-based.
I'll simplify things for you: every worthwhile weapon requires time offered as tribute to the RNG, who, with all the number running around his head, will hand you everything but the item you want.
You wanna know the worst part? Your "rarity" is a sham. Rare weapons are supposed to be powerful by nature, but these weapons aren't rare! At level twenty, you receive 0 common items whatsoever because the color of your stuff determines your power, not your luck!
I own Legendary items for each slot, but I use the rare helmet I own more often [i]because it does what I want[/i]. I use the level 12 Red River machine gun because my lv 20 Genghis is less accurate, I use a Helios because the Pocket Infinity as too small a clip, my Ice Breaker goes unused because infinite ammo is not an acceptable trade for RoF, [i]my Warlock still has a lv10 rocket launcher because it has submunitions[/i]. See that? You're forcing me to choose between my preferences and winning.
And that's what needs to stop. Every weapon of the same rarity says it does the same damage when maxed, modified by clip size and impact in ways I can't determine. The damage number could be replaced with another stat bar, showing how much left I need to upgrade the stupid thing.
*Sigh* I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss CoD: Modern Warfare 2, a game I stopped playing because the atmosphere online is toxic at best, but you know what? It was tactical. I could kit up with a smoke grenade so cover open ground, plant a claymore in a corner, set up a respawn beacon to avoid running for my sniper position, stick a semtex to my teammate's riot shield right before he charges a room, and that's just the equipment I remember.
You had a choice between semiauto rifles, bolt-actions, miniaturized machine guns, regular machine guns, the AK-47, recoilless ARs, fast-firing snipers, burst-fire weapons (from rifles to pistols), a submachinegun that could kill from across the map, a pistol/knife combo that defied the laws of physics, [i]anti-materiel rifles[/i], rocket launchers, automatic shotguns, dual-wieldable shotguns, ground-to-air missile systems, bulletproof shields, magnums that fired fast as you could shoot...
And what does Destiny have? Lots of weapons and armor that feel identical despite bonuses and appearances, all filling only one role and any time I try to think outside the box, the game guns me down as a radical thinker.
I'm pretty sure Activision still makes CoD, so why is there such a problem with borrowing a few ideas?
... Thanks for hearing me out, it feels good to get things off my chest.
Not you, community, you need to stay behind.
I know this will be tough, but can you try to offer constructive criticism for once? All you do is complain because you feel entitled to it all because you had 60$ (or local equivalent) to spare and not everything discussed by the developers ended up in the game proper. I don't care why, because you still bought the game for what is less than a full day's work (8-12 hours) at minimum wage (7.25+).
So go ahead, yell at the sheeple to wake up. Maybe this will all just a horrible nightmare and you'll wake up in bed on September 9, 2014, fresh and ready to go and buy the real Destiny, or maybe we can make the Destiny we want real with patience and good grace.
Peace out, Planet Earth.