In Destiny 2, there is excitement about a major nerf to exotic weapons before Season 7. Author Schuhmann states: This is because Bungie is foregoing an item reset. This results in an insane number of weapons – but there is a price that Guardians now have to pay.
What is an item reset? An “item reset” in loot games refers to the need to exchange items with a new expansion – usually this is a “soft reset”: players keep the old weapons, but they are no longer as powerful as before.
There is also a “hard reset”: Players experienced this at the start of Destiny 2 when all items from Destiny 1 were gone and they had to start all over again.
This is how an item reset works in World of Warcraft: With a new expansion in the MMORPG World of Warcraft, players level up to new tiers and all their “super gear” from the previous expansion becomes too weak. Players swap it out.
First, the super hard-earned weapons and armor are replaced by trivial quest rewards found on the way to the new max level, later by better items. After a maximum of 2 years, this repeats itself with the next expansion.
This is how it is without an item reset in Destiny 2: In Destiny 2, there is no item reset because you can carry over items from one expansion to the next.
Through a game mechanic, it is possible to bring the old weapons and armor up to the new max level. This is called “infusing.” Or you simply find old items again, now with the new maximum level.
Has it always been this way? In fact, there was a first item reset in Destiny in December 2014. At that time, the first DLC, The Dark Below, was released, and the legendary gear that players had previously collected was no longer the best in the game.
They had to exchange it.
This was a shock for many players who were new to loot shooters. They had worked for months for their gear, especially for the raid armor, and was this now no longer the best in the game? For some, this was a sacrilege back then.
Now, this is no longer the case in Destiny 2, and players can still use exotic or other items they found at the end of 2017.
If someone chose their favorite weapon in September 2017, they can still play with it in May 2019 – such as the Vestian Dynasty.
Bungie at the same point as with House of Wolves four years ago
This is the problem: If there is no item reset, it leads to what is called “power creep.”
In order to motivate players to want new items, the “new items” must be stronger than the items Guardians already have; otherwise, players have no motivation to seek the new items.
This happened in the second DLC of Destiny, “House of Wolves,” where players could keep their “old, strong” items and had no need for new items.
Players suddenly ran around in House of Wolves with weapons like the Fatebringer, which they had extensively played in Vanilla Destiny 1.
But how could Destiny in May 2015 introduce a weapon that was so strong that players would leave their beloved Fatebringer in the vault? Such a super weapon would trivialize everything in Destiny.
Four years later, in June 2019, Bungie faces this issue again; they say: They cannot introduce weapons stronger than the currently strongest ones with Season 7, so they must weaken the currently best weapons.
This is how Bungie is reacting now: Bungie is not taking away the old items from players, but weakening the top ones to make room for new items.
This annoys many players, as Bungie promised that Guardians should feel powerful.
But ultimately, the situation seems to be unsolvable for Bungie. If there is no item reset for over 2 years and we are now going into the 6th expansion of Destiny 2, the item pool continues to swell.
Finding a solution here is becoming increasingly difficult for Bungie.
Players demand that Bungie should redesign bosses and make them more challenging. But this is likely too much to ask for a mini-expansion like Season 7.
This is what it is about: Apparently, Bungie wants to provide players with a wide arsenal of weapons and not take any weapons out of the game. However, this leads to the problems described.
Players must be promised “new strong items” as rewards; otherwise, you end up in the “House of Wolves” situation where players lack the motivation to engage with the new content.
Ultimately, Bungie has 3 options:
- either an item reset: Take away the players’ “old toys” by making it impossible to level them to the maximum level
- or a nerf of the “strongest weapon” to make room for new ones
- or introduce even stronger weapons and then have a power creep that removes every challenge from the game
After Bungie has already tried several alternatives and failed, they are now choosing a nerf, even if it contradicts previous statements.
They certainly know this in Seattle, but will have to accept it with gritted teeth. Here, a price is being paid for infusing, a 5-year-old idea.
