I have no love for the new weapons and armor that have come with The Dark Below; I'll get that statement out of the way early.
The new Warlock armors not only look like ass, but their final stat bonuses are [i]worse than[/i] the Raid gear I currently have. Sure, I might be able to take the defense higher, but if it drops my Strength, Intellect, and Disciple; what good is it? Even using RT to look at the finished stats and compare to my fully upgraded VoG gear; even if I maxed out this new Vanguard armor, my Str, Int, and Dis would all take a pretty decent hit.
Also; for the people who love to say that "hurr every MMO does this. You never get the option to upgrade your old gear hurr durr". Bullshit.
Most every MMO allows for a wide variety of weapon/armor upgrades, and they don't exclude the older items. They might require a special item quest to get some specific part/ingredient/material to upgrade those old items to the new levels, but they still allow it.
Why would I want to ditch everything that my Warlock has, to "upgrade" and continue to look like everyone else? More choices in any game is always a great thing. Making the older items obsolete and unavailable decreases player choice and freedom. That lack of choices will always be a very, very bad thing for video games.
If Bungie [i]really[/i] wants us to "build your own Guardian. Make your guardian Legend", then they need to quit forcing us into these pre-set, cookie-cutter molds.
Let us upgrade any and all weapons. Let us upgrade any and all armor. Or if you have to limit what is allowed to upgrade (which you shouldn't, but since you're not going to read this anyway...), then limit it to Legendary and Exotic weapons and armor. They are, after all; Legendary and Exotic, they should follow a better set of rules.
For those who would say: "hurr durr if they let you upgrade any damn thing, what would be the incentive to buy the DLC herp derp"
The incentive is still the Raid, story missions, new bounties, new weapons and armors (yeah, I went there), higher level cap.
Why argue to let every Legendary and Exotic upgrade, then mention the new weapons and armors as good things?
Because again; this all goes back to more options and player choice. Players should [b]have the option to choose:[/b]
1) Upgrade current (pre-TDB) Legendary weapons/armor.
2) replace current weapons/armor with new weapons/armor.
3) A healthy mix of 1 & 2.
At least give us the [u]choice[/u], Bungie.
Telling us to create our own, individual Guardians and to forge them into Legend; then force us into cookie-cutter, Storm Trooper-esque clones who all look the same and have the same combinations of Perks and abilities is just wrong.
I love this game, I really do. I'm acidic and cynical in my critique because I know this game could be so much more. And it would be much more than it is if you would actually listen to people and get your heads out of your asses.
Don't add choices while taking other choice options away, then telling us we have more choices than ever when you removed an equal amount to what was added. Actually give us choices.
As much choice as you can pack in to a game. Especially since it isn't limited by the space of our HDD's. Will people buy a game with more choices?
Ask Bethesda. It worked for them with Skyrim. And Skyrim has sold vastly more copies than you have in its first three months.
And people still love and spend ignorant amounts of time wandering Skyrim to this very day.
You want the positive effects of stupidly large amounts of player choice? Look to The Elder Scrolls, the Dragon Age series, etc.
But please, Bungie. Give us more choices, more options, more ways to upgrade all of our Legendary as well as Exotic gear.
Because Destiny deserves better than you've given to it.
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Bump. The new weapons are arguably worse than pre DLC ones as well. Pulse rifles in particular have atrocious time to kill. I don't mind grinding out some bounties per weapon and armor that give me the boost. Why they wouldn't do this is beyond me.