Destiny Patch 1.1 Thoughts

We received a patch for Destiny that went live yesterday. Here are the patch notes and my thoughts are at the bottom:

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1.1 : The one about Exotics. And the Raid!

Today's patch includes the long-awaited arrival of Exotics weapon buffs, additional acquisition paths for destination upgrade materials, along with additional changes to exotic gear node upgrading in preparation for the soon-to-be-released expansion, The Dark Below. We're also correcting issues induced by our more recent update to the Raid.

Weapons

Exotics

Exotic Weapons are designed to look, feel, and sound overpowered. At the same time, they are not supposed to break the balance of the game. We hope these weapons challenge the way players think about their loadouts. Exotics will be a constant work in-progress!

General

• In preparation for the Dark Below, Exotic Armor and Weapons no longer require Ascendant Materials to upgrade
• The final upgrade node of all Exotic Gear will require an Exotic Shard
• Exotic Shards can be obtained by one of the following means:
• Dismantling unwanted Exotics
• Purchased from Xur for 7 Strange Coins
• Exotics now start at a higher base Attack value and have a narrowed upgrade range to compensate

Thorn

• Projectiles now briefly highlight targets on impact
• Mark of the Devourer DoT (damage-over-time) upgrade increased against PvE enemy targets
• Reload Speed increased
• Magazine Size increased
• Ammo inventory size increased
• Stability and Weapon Handling increased

Bad Juju

• Magazine Size increased to 8 bursts (was 5)
• Ammo inventory size increased
• String of Curses now also decreases the cooldown of your Super on kill
• Adjusted effects to not block first person reticle

Hard Light

• Stability increased
• Perfect Balance upgrade replaced by Fitted Stock (increases maximum possible weapon Stability)

Suros Regime

• Lowered total damage at the end of the mag on SUROS Regime upgrade to be more in line with the Glass Half Full perk on Legendary Auto Rifles

Monte Carlo

• Stability increased
• Range slightly decreased
• Monte Carlo Method upgrade now also has a chance to fully charge melee ability on kill

MIDA Multi-Tool

• MIDA rounds now have increased knockback against targets in both PvE and PvP

Hawkmoon

• Send It upgrade (which was redundant) replaced by Speed Reload

Red Death

• Rate of Fire increased slightly, but Burst Damage reduced to compensate

Plan C

• Weapon Handling speed increased
• Player Speed increased while Plan C is in hand

Pocket Infinity

• Speed Reload upgrade replaced by Extended Clip which allows the option to increase magazine size (5 bursts)

Vex Mythoclast

• Attack Power increased to 323 (from 300)
• Base Damage increased, fixing bug we introduced in previous patch
• Enhanced Battery upgrade by Extended Mag (this change still allows for a significant upgrade to Magazine Size, but less than before)

Invective

• Reload Speed increased significantly, auto fires slightly slower

Ice Breaker

• Send It upgrade replaced by Lightweight (which was redundant as Icebreaker already had maximum range) 
• New effects for enemies killed by Ice Breaker upgrade

Patience and Time

• Snapshot upgrade replaced by Custom Optics (provides a lower zoom option)

Super Good Advice

• Stability increased

Truth

• Magazine Size increased to 3 (was 1)
  

Activities

Raid

• Fixed an issue we introduced in a previous patch, in which Atheon did not correctly send 3 players through the time gates
• Fixed an exploit where the Templar could be forced off its platform

Daily Heroic Story

• Destination Materials now drop from completing the Daily Heroic

Bounties

• Removed the ‘Relic Hunter’ Bounty 
• Destination Materials now drop from completing the Daily Patrol Bounty 

 

Vendors

• Reduced Cryptarch reputation gain from Engrams, but reputation reward packages now have an increased chance for Legendary Engrams
• Players will now be able to use Vanguard Marks and Crucible Marks to purchase Spinmetal, Relic Iron, Spirit Bloom, and Helium Filaments from the Vanguard and Crucible Quartermasters in the Tower
• Xur now sells a new material, Exotic Shards, to upgrade the final node of Exotics for 7 Strange Coins
• Faction Class Items (ex: FWC Cloak, Dead Orbit Mark, etc.) are now replaced by Faction Emblems in the rank-up reward packages from Faction Vendors

Technical

• Networking fixes, which should reduce the instance of the Bee family of KTOs
• Fixed an issue in which using Xbox One party chat induced a slower frame rate

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Okay, so a lot of stuff there. Let's start at the top with the decision to remove the need for legendary ascendant materials to upgrade exotic weapons. It makes logical sense since the materials say legendary, but it's rather silly to have to get them via Xur. Yes, you can get them dismantling exotics, but let's face it, you pretty much only get exotics from Xur anyway. Sometimes you get them from the nightfall or raid but it's fairly uncommon. Now if you have everything fully upgraded you may need to wait until Friday in order to get the exotic shard you need. Hopefully it won't be too annoying. It would probably be smart to stock up on a few each week just in case. They only cost 7 strange coins so that's nice. I personally think a permanent vendor should sell them but whatever.

Now the various buffs to the exotics you can see for yourself but a couple of points are that the Thorn is finally decent! You practically couldn't use it in light of a number of other hand cannons that were flat out better in every way. But now the Thorn is a beast and I love it.It's such a cool looking gun and I'm glad to be motivated to use it. Now I just need to get an exotic shard ;).

They buffed the Bad Juju but I still don't think it's very good, which is a shame because I think it might be the coolest looking gun after the Mythoclast. The damage and impact are just too low, especially when compared to a number of other guns.

The Suros actually got a nerf, which may have been needed, but I hardly used it outside of crucible anyway. Now I definitely won't.

They actually buffed the Plan C which I am surprised, as that is pretty much universally considered to be the best fusion rifle. If you had it, you used it in crucible. Making it better is rather silly, but whatever.

They boosted the Mythoclast which was necessary. I wish they boosted it more as I am finding it hard to not use the Vision of Confluence and Ice Breaker combo, which in my opinion is the best in the game. It is nice to have a gun that does over 300 damage though, plus it looks amazing.

The Truth upgrade is a little silly since it actually has a magazine size of 2, not 1. So they just increased it by 1. That gun is not going to get used as long as the Gjallarhorn is around.

Now onto the raid fix. They fixed the teleportation glitch. Finally. You can't be too happy about stuff like that because it shouldn't have happened in the first place, but at least they did their job. I must ask why they didn't fix all the other crippling issues that the raid has though? Random minions regenerating health, the relic shield turning off or not working, the glitch where you don't get to go through the gate unless you slowly walk and take turns with people, Oracles not getting killed even though they should have, etc. Baby steps I suppose. They fixed the Templar glitch where you could push him off. That was probably necessary as it was kind of cheap. Now it will just make the raid a little more annoying. I wish they had fixed the crippling issues before fixing something that made the raid easier but it shows where Bungie's priorities are.

The daily Heroic story missions now also drop Destination Materials. And for those of you, like me, who had no clue what they were talking about: Destination Materials are the crafting materials like Spirit Bloom and Relic iron. That's a nice plus. And speaking of the crafting materials, they finally made it so you can purchase them at the Tower! That's awesome and was greatly needed. You can buy them with crucible or vanguard marks at a 2:1 ratio.

All in all it was a good patch, fixing several issues. There are still a lot of things that need to be fixed but I'm still glad for this. It does show that Bungie cares about their game. Now we just need some more content. Hopefully the DLC gives us that.

Destiny Farming Issue

First off, this is my opinion, so obviously everyone can disregard it. Second, I hope that maybe I'll make some good points and that people will consider them before they get very angry. For more reference, I am not some 12 year old immature kid but rather I'm 29, married, a college graduate, with a kid and a house. I am blessed with the opportunity to work from home and take care of my infant son, who has slept so much it has allowed me to play this game a lot.

Okay, a little background when it comes to this game: I am a lvl 29 Hunter. I got to lvl 27 without "farming", and got to lvl 29 by getting through the raid. I have played this game for over 3 days (check my profile if you don't believe me. The only exotic I've ever gotten was when I bought one from Xur or when I completed an exotic bounty. So if anyone has cause to be angry at people who can quickly get through the game and use an exploit to get high end gear it is I.

I am NOT, however, angry.

In any game that exists, many people will do what is optimal over what is fun. This has been found to be fact with any number of games ranging from video games like WoW and Destiny, to even card games like Magic. People like to win, even if it is against the computer, and will do anything to do that. With that being said, it should be obvious that if there is an optimal way to play the game and "win" at it, then people will take it.

So is that a bad thing? Well it seems that Bungie has wanted people to take it slow. That makes sense as the longer it takes to play their game, the more people will stay interested. It's business, but that makes sense. So what do we want them to do? We want them to remove various exploits in the game that allow you to get stuff quickly? Now, knowing what I said before about how people will do whatever is optimal, do you really think it will be solved once the cave exploit is removed? People will just find the next best thing, and the next best thing after that.

Bungie could keep getting rid of these exploits (side note: I do mean exploits rather than glitches. Glitches need to get fixed, but an exploit is simply using the game's mechanics in order to do something optimal), but doing so will create an ever lasting cycle of patches. And to what end? When does that stop? Does it stop when the only way to get an item means to complete 3 raids and kill 2,000 enemies? Obviously there has to be a line, but my point is that we would forever be searching for that and be butting heads with the designers, rather than playing the game.

Another point: We can agree that farming for items is not the most fun thing ever. I know some people can enjoy it, but honestly it would be more fun to get items by playing missions and stuff. If that is the case, and we want Bungie to get rid of the various exploits, we are asking Bungie to make the game less fun. Keep in mind people will do the most optimal thing, no matter what.

Why do we want Bungie to make the game less fun? I can hear people now saying that farming isn't fun, but playing the game as it was meant to be played is fun. How is the game meant to be played? There is obviously farming that needs to be done. You cannot just go through and play everything once and be at the top level. So obviously Bungie has created a game that requires farming, so why are we hoping that they remove farming, or make it harder?

I think a main crux of the issue is between people who claim to have "legitimately" played the game and gotten high end gear vs people who have "exploited" to get it. It comes down to a time issue and that line is very blurred. Am I a better player because it took me 3 days to get my stuff, vs someone who got it in a couple of days? That actually sounds like the other player is smarter. It's a better spenditure of time.

As I said I have "legitimately" played the game and got my stuff, but I am not complaining. Not everyone has as much time as I do. I want people to have fun with this game, and if they have fun doing this, then why not allow it? The only other stipulation is when it comes to Iron Banner, where your gear actually matters in a PVP setting. I don't know how to fix it, but then again it simply comes down to a definition of "legitimacy" of playing, which hopefully we can agree is a very blurry line and mostly comes down to personal preference.

If you made it this far congratulations, I hope I made some good points and I hope to see you guys (who farmed and who didn't), starside. Enjoy!