Many players are dissatisfied with Destiny 2: Is the new PvP balance ruining the fun in PvE?
For the past two days, countless players have been roaming around in the beta of Destiny 2. Most Guardians have already formed a first opinion about the sequel: Alongside a lot of enthusiasm, the beta also faces a lot of criticism.
Currently, one topic dominates the Bungie and Destiny Reddit forum: Some users are complaining that the changes in Destiny 2 may benefit the balance in PvP, but come at the expense of the PvE sector. Bungie sacrifices PvE!
These complaints received strong support and thousands of upvotes from the community. What are the reasons for this?
The fun in PvE suffers from the changes
The first three years of Destiny were marked by numerous balance issues in PvP. Sometimes one Guardian subclass was too strong, other times that shotgun was overpowered. And if you didn’t have that one weapon roll, you were out of luck in the Crucible.
In Destiny 2, Bungie wants to avoid this balance chaos. Many design decisions have been made in favor of the PvP sector, which can be summarized in a nutshell: Primary weapons take center stage – everything else becomes weaker or rarer.
This may seem sensible in PvP, but PvE suffers as a result.
The community is bringing these points of criticism to Bungie:
- The cooldowns of abilities now take way too long. Both grenades and supers take forever to be used in PvE. Only the new class abilities can be triggered frequently.
- Grenades have been nerfed too much. Not only can they be used less frequently, but they now deal much less damage. Some grenades don’t even take down standard enemies with red health bars.
In PvP of Destiny 1, some grenades could directly eliminate an enemy Guardian. In Destiny 2, they can no longer do this. The reduced grenade damage is good for PvP but bad for PvE. - The movements feel slower in Destiny 2. In PvP of Destiny 1, this super-mobility was sometimes a problem, but this nerf wasn’t needed in PvE.
- Moreover, the power ammo, the new “heavy ammo”, is far too rare in PvE. In other words, all the strong weapons that feel powerful in hand can be used extremely rarely.
- The special weapons slot is missed: You have no sniper, no shotgun, or no fusion rifle when, for example, you rely on a rocket launcher in the power slot. In PvE, you almost exclusively shoot with the “primary weapons” at the big bosses. This is boring; it doesn’t feel right.
The result: One shoots in PvE almost exclusively with the weapons classified in Destiny as “primary weapons”. There is too little variety. As a Guardian, you want to fly over the waves of enemies in PvE and eliminate them with your super or launch them into the air with grenades. Destiny is becoming a boring shooter when everything – except for the primary weapon – is extremely rare. If you want a monotonous shooting game, you don’t need Destiny for that.
For many Guardians, the PvE of Destiny is paramount. For them, the appeal of the MMO shooter lies in defeating aliens with friends and having a good time together. PvP is not everyone’s cup of tea. If PvE is no longer fun, Destiny is no longer fun for many.
Bungie will respond
However, it must be said regarding this criticism: So far, only the beta of Destiny 2 has been playable, and Bungie announced in advance that they would use this testing phase to adjust the balance.
We also do not yet know all the perks that will be on the armor pieces. Some of them could reduce the cooldowns of abilities, allowing super and grenades to be used more frequently.
Regarding power ammo, Game Director Luke Smith and Community Manager Cozmo have spoken out. At launch in September, there will definitely be more power ammo in PvE.
It remains to be seen how Bungie will take all this criticism into account and implement it by the release of Destiny 2. A user on Reddit sums it up: The previous changes were a step forward in PvP, but two steps back in PvE.
Do you agree?
Interesting: Destiny 2: Can PvE convince? – Our hands-on report on the beta
