_/¯
My solo time has been great, but I'm an experienced Hunter in pvp so I am doing well xD
Posting here because DGAF is my home, not gaming side.
Thoughts on the D2 beta after playing all 6 subclasses:
The GoodThe bad
- Lordy, this is a good looking game. Particle effects, lens flairs, etc. Higher rez & texture models everywhere. The Fallen in particular got a nice boost.
- New enemies and new enemy behaviors were very cool to see. I loved the harpies worshipping the Modular Mind at the start of the boss fight.
- The supers are amazing. Dawnblade flight, Nova bomb tracking, 4 strikers smashes, Poledancer combos, all amazing.
- New class abilities are mostly really cool! The Warlock rifts are welcome addition and the Titan rally wall is so good.
- Subclass tuning has some nice perks. Voidwalkers cooking grenades, Sunlocks getting Twilight Garrison are both really cool things.
- The boss in the strike is really complex with 4 phases and 3 arenas and surprisingly hard.
- The world feels a lot more alive. Even in this strike there are lost sectors, pikes, warp gate shenanigans, an active dynamic day night cycle, Vex architecture that feels alive (spoiler, because it is).
- 4v4 is a good switch. 6s is way too chaotic and I felt like I had no control over the course of the match. 4s feels like the right amount for deliberate play but also not feeling like you're screwing over your team if you have an off match like it would in 3s.
Wrap up:
- Recharge rates on abilities are terribly slow and really sour every one at least some on this thing. We've got cool new supers, but if you screw up, it's 6 more minutes before you can get it again. And I just played a competitive match on Control where everyone's efficiencies were 1-2.0+ and no one got their super. The first person activated theirs with 3 seconds to go. What the hell?
- Everything is slow. Sprint speed, weapon swaps, weapon ready, reloads, etc. It doesn't feel great.
- Time to kill is substantially slower in PvE and PvP. In PvP, this has the effect of severely punishing solo play. You will not beat 2 people or even successfully kill one and disengage. Teamshooting is required. First shot is required. Once I adapted my play, it felt much better, but this is a BIG shift from Destiny 1.
- I think TTK in PvE is a little too high as well OR I don't feel like enemies are reacting as much. They just feel spongy, but maybe that's because I'm using primaries for 90% of the mission. ¯\_(ツ
- Power ammo scarcity. Thankfully, Luke has already acknowledged they're working on it. I hope they look at how much ammo power bricks give. I got 1 rocket from a brick. That feels super-bad.
- The generator room in the first mission is terrible. It's the same rotating arms of death as the strike and it's just super cheap.
- Several times during the first mission I got lost. Doors wouldn't open unless you approached them and the direction icon wasn't there when I wanted it and I needed to take out my ghost.
- Zavala got me and many, many blueberries killed with his "Everyone take cover in my bubble!" call out. My dude, they're only shooting at your bubble, telling people to jump inside insta-kills them before they can get it in.
- "Freedom Slots" or Double Primaries "No fun allowed". I totally get why this happened for PvP, along with ammo boxes only for one person. They have to make the case for why this is a good change for PvE. In Destiny 1 when PvP nerfs hit PvE they'd make a concession here or there on % damage to minions of the darkness, but largely just ignored PvE players complaints. This is a foundational change and to me, I don't see it. Here's the list of things in fun slot: sniper, fusion, shotgun, line rifle, grenade launcher, sword, rockets. That's 7 things even before you get into exotics that will be competing for that slot.
- My hope was that because primaries were going to be primaries and going to be 90% of the game, they'd feel even better than D1, but they don't. Without the pressure of special competition, they've gotten worse. They do less damage and handle just as bad. Plinking at the strike boss is a slog. Meanwhile, `elemental` slot is totally arbitrary. Like the same kind of guns can drop in either slot, so it doesn't feel unique and just like in D1, elemental power doesn't really help that much. (It is neat that they do extra damage to supers now, but in PvE unless their are burns, elemental primaries don't really do much). It's too late to change this. And we'll have it for 3 years, but I wish they could make the case to PvE players why losing special was a good thing.
- I'm also kind of shocked they get white and green boxes. I know I have a scout and an SMG, but I have to think explicitly to remember which is elemental.
- You lose power ammo when swapping power weapons in PvE. That's not fun.
- A little thing, but Resilience & Mobility are flipped on the character screen vs the actual armor pieces.
I think Ghaleon said it well: the content is there, but the gunplay and abilities aren't there yet. The fun stuff like power ammo and abilities too hidden. What's the point of playing a science fantasy game with space magic if I don't get to be a bad ass?
That said, this is absolutely now a team game. The changes they've made to PvP make soloqueing a bad time. Everyone I've talked to who had a good time in PvP last night was playing as a team with mics on. As Larx Bekken said, they focused on "team work, consistency, competition" and I think they done such a good job that the Crucible really feels like Destiny 2. If you play it like Destiny 1 you will not have a good time.
But it's also a team game in PvE. I'm excited to plan out my team composition for hard missions. Class abilities are such a welcome addition and have real team utility. Hunters may not have rifts and walls, but they share Chain of Woe buffs too. Tackling that last boss with a coordinated team is a breeze. With blueberries, it's painful as hell.
And I think that's the way to look at all these changes in the most positive light: everything team related got buffed. (and many individual player attributes got nerfed) but team work got buffed!
This beta has taken away my hype (it's much too uneven), but it has left with me with immense curiosity. What will they change from this beta? What will the progression system be? How will infusion work? How will loot drops work? What about customization?
I walked into this beta not knowing what Destiny 2 really was. I'm still not sure I do, other than this is certainly not Destiny 1.5.
Agreed. Honestly not to worried about that stuff right now. Tho I will say I think the arena could've been slightly larger.
TItan/Warlock shield rift sanctuaries feel great. All four combos probably have viable uses
Yep. Really really enjoyed my time with Warlocks......... FML.
Everyone who wants cooldowns to be more like they were in destiny 1 can just play d2 mayhem modes
Nothing transfers to full game besides beta emblem and your character looks from D1.
. Quote to see. Should work.
Great post, and pretty much my same thoughts.Posting here because DGAF is my home, not gaming side.
Thoughts on the D2 beta after playing all 6 subclasses:
The GoodThe bad
- Lordy, this is a good looking game. Particle effects, lens flairs, etc. Higher rez & texture models everywhere. The Fallen in particular got a nice boost.
- New enemies and new enemy behaviors were very cool to see. I loved the harpies worshipping the Modular Mind at the start of the boss fight.
- The supers are amazing. Dawnblade flight, Nova bomb tracking, 4 strikers smashes, Poledancer combos, all amazing.
- New class abilities are mostly really cool! The Warlock rifts are welcome addition and the Titan rally wall is so good.
- Subclass tuning has some nice perks. Voidwalkers cooking grenades, Sunlocks getting Twilight Garrison are both really cool things.
- The boss in the strike is really complex with 4 phases and 3 arenas and surprisingly hard.
- The world feels a lot more alive. Even in this strike there are lost sectors, pikes, warp gate shenanigans, an active dynamic day night cycle, Vex architecture that feels alive (spoiler, because it is).
- 4v4 is a good switch. 6s is way too chaotic and I felt like I had no control over the course of the match. 4s feels like the right amount for deliberate play but also not feeling like you're screwing over your team if you have an off match like it would in 3s.
Wrap up:
- Recharge rates on abilities are terribly slow and really sour every one at least some on this thing. We've got cool new supers, but if you screw up, it's 6 more minutes before you can get it again. And I just played a competitive match on Control where everyone's efficiencies were 1-2.0+ and no one got their super. The first person activated theirs with 3 seconds to go. What the hell?
- Everything is slow. Sprint speed, weapon swaps, weapon ready, reloads, etc. It doesn't feel great.
- Time to kill is substantially slower in PvE and PvP. In PvP, this has the effect of severely punishing solo play. You will not beat 2 people or even successfully kill one and disengage. Teamshooting is required. First shot is required. Once I adapted my play, it felt much better, but this is a BIG shift from Destiny 1.
- I think TTK in PvE is a little too high as well OR I don't feel like enemies are reacting as much. They just feel spongy, but maybe that's because I'm using primaries for 90% of the mission. ¯\_(ツ
- Power ammo scarcity. Thankfully, Luke has already acknowledged they're working on it. I hope they look at how much ammo power bricks give. I got 1 rocket from a brick. That feels super-bad.
- The generator room in the first mission is terrible. It's the same rotating arms of death as the strike and it's just super cheap.
- Several times during the first mission I got lost. Doors wouldn't open unless you approached them and the direction icon wasn't there when I wanted it and I needed to take out my ghost.
- Zavala got me and many, many blueberries killed with his "Everyone take cover in my bubble!" call out. My dude, they're only shooting at your bubble, telling people to jump inside insta-kills them before they can get it in.
- "Freedom Slots" or Double Primaries "No fun allowed". I totally get why this happened for PvP, along with ammo boxes only for one person. They have to make the case for why this is a good change for PvE. In Destiny 1 when PvP nerfs hit PvE they'd make a concession here or there on % damage to minions of the darkness, but largely just ignored PvE players complaints. This is a foundational change and to me, I don't see it. Here's the list of things in fun slot: sniper, fusion, shotgun, line rifle, grenade launcher, sword, rockets. That's 7 things even before you get into exotics that will be competing for that slot.
- My hope was that because primaries were going to be primaries and going to be 90% of the game, they'd feel even better than D1, but they don't. Without the pressure of special competition, they've gotten worse. They do less damage and handle just as bad. Plinking at the strike boss is a slog. Meanwhile, `elemental` slot is totally arbitrary. Like the same kind of guns can drop in either slot, so it doesn't feel unique and just like in D1, elemental power doesn't really help that much. (It is neat that they do extra damage to supers now, but in PvE unless their are burns, elemental primaries don't really do much). It's too late to change this. And we'll have it for 3 years, but I wish they could make the case to PvE players why losing special was a good thing.
- I'm also kind of shocked they get white and green boxes. I know I have a scout and an SMG, but I have to think explicitly to remember which is elemental.
- You lose power ammo when swapping power weapons in PvE. That's not fun.
- A little thing, but Resilience & Mobility are flipped on the character screen vs the actual armor pieces.
I think Ghaleon said it well: the content is there, but the gunplay and abilities aren't there yet. The fun stuff like power ammo and abilities too hidden. What's the point of playing a science fantasy game with space magic if I don't get to be a bad ass?
That said, this is absolutely now a team game. The changes they've made to PvP make soloqueing a bad time. Everyone I've talked to who had a good time in PvP last night was playing as a team with mics on. As Larx Bekken said, they focused on "team work, consistency, competition" and I think they done such a good job that the Crucible really feels like Destiny 2. If you play it like Destiny 1 you will not have a good time.
But it's also a team game in PvE. I'm excited to plan out my team composition for hard missions. Class abilities are such a welcome addition and have real team utility. Hunters may not have rifts and walls, but they share Chain of Woe buffs too. Tackling that last boss with a coordinated team is a breeze. With blueberries, it's painful as hell.
And I think that's the way to look at all these changes in the most positive light: everything team related got buffed. (and many individual player attributes got nerfed) but team work got buffed!
This beta has taken away my hype (it's much too uneven), but it has left with me with immense curiosity. What will they change from this beta? What will the progression system be? How will infusion work? How will loot drops work? What about customization?
I walked into this beta not knowing what Destiny 2 really was. I'm still not sure I do, other than this is certainly not Destiny 1.5.
Agreed!
Hunter ability is ass, but the arc blade is a lot of fun. Also triple jump is goat.