Changing up and balancing the meta for any game is necessary, but for a game like Destiny 2 where players invest a ton of time into perfecting builds, it’s an understandable reaction. Many feel Bungie is arbitrarily “taking their favorite guns away” in favor of new content, but at the same time it’s a steady shifting of the meta without consistently buffing/nerfing specific weapons in the 700+ guns/weapon loot pool in the entire game.
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How Sunsetting Will Work
As it stands currently, here’s how the sunsetting of certain weapons will work for future Destiny 2 seasons/years: Legendary weapons and armor acquired through seasons 1-11 of the game will all have a power cap at the beginning of Year 4. This means that, starting this fall, any legendary weapons cannot be upgraded beyond the season 11 power cap. Any legendary loot received from Year 4 onward will always be stronger than previous legendary weapons/armor when fully upgraded. Note: sunsetting rules will not apply to exotics at all, this is just for legacy legendary loot in the game. Overall, legendary loot is designed to be relevant in Destiny 2’s endgame/pinnacle activities for one year before sunsetting for the next year of seasons and content.
Conceptually, sunsetting is designed to steadily and consistently change the meta with each year of Destiny 2 content. Rather than the constant balancing act of buffing and nerfing the entire loot pool of over 700 weapons, the endgame meta will consistently evolve with each new year of content. Same goes for armor as well, with the exception of armor reissuing similar to the Trials of Osiris armor from this past season. On one hand, it’s a unique way to keep the competitive meta fresh for PvP, but at the same time it’s a pivotal change for Destiny that significantly alters content that’s been in the game since the beginning.
Loss of Investment, Better Competitive Balance?
Sunsetting can potentially keep the competitive meta on a revolving scale that shifts during each content year. Some weapons being capped can limit their potential, but at the same time it shakes up the meta and forces constant innovation. Trials of Osiris or Iron Banner could potentially curb the issue of the same core groups of weapons and weapon types dominating PvP builds with sunsetting. Weapons that have dominated PvP for literal years like Spare Rations. Destiny 2, in all fairness, has generally been about finding the best loot over time and improving and evolving with the meta over time. Sunsetting can expedite that process in broad strokes, rather than consistently balancing and rebalancing certain weapon types over and over again.
Although a lot can go wrong with this concept, especially if sunsetting is not implemented precisely and carefully. For one thing, Destiny 2 players have only had to worry about certain meta-abusive weapons/abilities/perks/etc. from changing before. Competitive players could adapt to these changes over time and move on to better weapons, but with sunsetting it becomes a lot harder. A larger swath of weapons will become invalidated over time, meaning new loot will always be prioritized for endgame content. Investing the usual amount of time and care into competitive builds will eventually all be for naught with sunsetting.
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Response to Sunsetting
Players and fans complaining about sunsetting usually involve time investment and attachment to weapons. Many of the competitive players had to invest a serious amount of time and resources to perfect builds with god roll perks and stats. With sunsetting, much of the work could be undone if that particular weapon or build becomes unviable for future competitive activity. Bungie has often held the stance that the development team does not wish to disrespect Destiny 2 players’ investments in their favorite builds, weapons, or armor. Many feel sunsetting is a complete antithesis to that mantra, and rightfully so.
It is worth noting that Bungie is also trying to healthily manage the game’s meta through sunsetting, rather than going through the entire loot pool and balancing individual weapons. To hardcore players it’s going to significantly change their pool of builds to choose from for competitive activities, but for average players it may be in service to leveling the playing field. It also gives the opportunity to the development team to focus on micro-balancing more efficiently. Bungie has heard the complaints, and has responded to several threads on the subreddit about the topic. What that translates to for Destiny 2 remains to be seen, but they’ve been plenty receptive to criticism before.
There’s a lot of nuance to the argument, but a large majority of players are still opposing loot sunsetting. Destiny 2 has been around a long time, with a lot of history both good and bad. Sunsetting could potentially discourage veteran players from sticking with the game if they feel there’s no point when all of their gear isn’t worth using competitively. Sunsetting could be beneficial for the competitive aspects of the game for the future, but for now there’s still not a lot of support from the hardcore community during a time where support was sparse already.
Destiny 2 is available for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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