So, by now we're all aware of the changes inbound with the Dark Below due to the new breakdown of faction items, exotic evolving and whatnot. While this is all well and good, I feel it's pretty obvious that Bungie has taken steps, perhaps too many, to allow newer players to slide right in with the current high level ones.
To those who don't see where I'm going with this, it's simple:
[b]1.[/b] Current Exotics must be reforged to become on-par with TDB exotics, which resets perks and puts us on equal footing with new players, since they could (potentially) buy an exotic from Xur and immediately reforge it.
[b]2.[/b] Faction gear is being completely phased out in favor of newer, higher light gear. Due to the new requirement of commendations, current players will have no advantage over new ones, since we'll [u]all[/u] need to farm for them.
[b]3.[/b] Newer exotics will likely drop in the same way as current ones, allowing newer players to have the same advancement potential as any of us.
This also means that, as of next week, current raid and IB gear will be completely irrelevant in terms of leveling potential. Anyone can now farm for the new faction gear to reach level 30, jump into Crota's End and do just as well as anyone else. The only advantage current players have is the elemental raid weapons, but with the aforementioned new faction gear, newcomers can fairly quickly grind to level 30 and jump into the VoG, get said weapons, and [i]then[/i] go into Crota's End.
As much as I like the way Destiny is open and available to newcomers at any point, I feel there is a limit to how much spoon feeding there should be.
Discuss, my fellow Guardians.
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1) all players should be treated the same. Just because I've played since day 1 doesn't mean I should get some sort of privilege of easier gear over newer players. 2) I think you're focusing just on our gear level while forgetting that Bungie also increased the difficulty level. Nightfall and heroics will be 2 levels higher now. Giving a new person access to lvl 30-32 gear so they can complete a lvl 30 Nightfall is the exact same way it's been for us: lvl 28-30 gear for a lvl 28 Nightfall. Without access to the gear, it would be HARDER for new players than it was for us. It's not spoon feeding. It's giving all players the ability to complete the now more difficult content.