#i want to finish at least some of it before eow comes out

[muchmossymess]

yall i had forgotten how good it is to infodump oml

[magyke]

I have this headcanon that Marcia was really mad at Alther once she stopped grieving his death (I have another hc that she and Alice lived together at Wizard Tower for the first months after his death because they were the only ones that really understood each other's grief and that Marcia insisted for Alice to sleep in "Alther's" bedroom... but that's a different story 😅)

Anyways I think that Marcia must have been really mad once she at least kind of accepted his death because surely one (1) dark wizard that has been banished for decades and that was so afraid of his own apprentice that he potentially jumped of the golden pyramid would not have been able to return all on his own, build the Young Army, take over the Palace, plan a double assassination... He must have had some help from the inside of Wizard Tower, like I think there was a secret plot to overthrow the EOW and kill the queen, a group of people that must have been planning this for years and it was probably just really good timing to kill her when she just had a child and everybody was celebrating and not really paying attention

I think maybe these traitors just used DomDaniel as a pretence/show to distract from what was secretely happening inside Wizard Tower. They were pissed because the EOW was expected to sacrifice their life for the Queen. In their mind Wizards were better people and shouldn't have to obey the Queen. Also I feel like there might have been tensions between "normal" people and wizards long before the queen got murdered. Why else did no queen ever in the entire history of the Castle marry a wizard? It must have seemed weird to people that the queens on one hand were insisting to be protected by the EOW and on the other hand they refused (?) to have wizards in their family. So I guess in that sense it was really helpful that Jenna was raised by wizards because she was the first Queen to have a real understanding of magic and wizard culture.

Anyways once Marcia is EOW she finds out about all this and how long these secret things have been planned and that actually Alther wasn't really in control of Wizard Tower for at least the last two decades. And he couldn't really afford all of the parties he threw, Wizard Tower is in a lot of debt and people are starting to want their money back now that he is dead.

And she can't make any of this public information because she's scared that the situation will escalate even more and the general public will turn against all wizards and of course she still loves Alther, she's not going to ruin a dead man's reputation

But also now she is the one responsible for everything and everyone blames her for all the things that are going wrong in the Castle when none of it is actually her fault

and she's really mad at Alther because he never properly prepared her for the job, she just finished her apprenticeship, she doesn't even now where to start or what to do

but when he comes back after one year and one day she can't get herself to complain to him because she missed him so much and he died shielding her from a bullet and how an earth is she ever going to be able to criticise anything he does, she owes him her life

and at first she tries to explain some of the things that are going on, basically an entire secret war but he just thinks she's exaggerating because it's Marcia and she always does, right? and maybe he knows deep down that he made mistakes but he would never admit it because then he'd have to admit the he put Marcia in an impossible situation

so she ends up spending the first ten years being EOW fixing Alther's mistakes and right before she gets thrown into Dungeon Number One she kills the leader of the secret enemies but then DomDaniel sees his chance and he becomes the problem...

And one day she's going to tell Jenna the whole story, because she deserves to know why her mother died and because she needs to know about the tensions between non magic and magic folk to keep herself save.

And Jenna is also the only one she ever tells what really happened in Dungeon Number One (I imagine there is a special anti mind reading spell that only EOWs and their apprentices know that makes it impossible to read their minds even when they can't use magic, but if DomDaniel couldn't use magic to find out where the Princess is - what did he do instead?)

so yeah, I think Alther must have fucked up really badly for things to escalate this much in the Castle und Marcia had a really hard time accepting that her master that she always looked up to was capable of doing so many things so badly and she struggles for a long time to reconcile all this with her anger and her grief...

[remus-moonyylupin]

Traitor Traitor Traitor

Remus trekked across the snowy lane, dragging his feet slightly as he went. He wasn’t entirely sure he should be going to their graves in the first place but he knew deep down he owed it to them. Before he knew it, he arrived at the quaint row their polished headstone sat in.

He looked down upon it with an empty stare. There were their names, James and Lily Potter, etched into the smooth stone. Proof they were actually gone.

Remus sank to his knees and took a deep rasping breath. He’d been having a lot of those rasping breaths lately. He had to keep reminding himself to breathe, the war was over. But the war wasn’t over. Not really. Not for Remus. He was still in the rubble, grasping at the broken pieces. a war raged inside him. A raging, despair filled war.

The snow soaked through the knees of his trousers as he kneeled there, staring. He reached out and traced James’ name with a gloved finger. He was shaking, he realized. He hadn’t shaken quite so hard in a while.

**

“Remus? Can we talk?” James’ timid voice had come from outside the bathroom door.

Remus finished brushing his teeth quickly and pulled on his pajamas. “Mm?” he hummed from inside, still fiddling with his night shirt, attempting to hide his scars as much as possible. He pushed open the door to find the other 3 marauders standing in a solemn group, staring him down.

“Umm… everything all right lads?” he asked timidly. He could sense the tension, smell peter’s fear, practically taste james’ adrenaline. He shook his head slightly as if to shake away the tiny remnants of the wolf. The full moon was only two nights before and he still felt a bit animal-like.

James cleared his throat. “We wanted to ask you a question, er. Actually more of a statement? What i’m trying to say is-“

“Remus, are you a werewolf?” Sirius cut him off.

“A- am I a wha- no pfft of course not how would you, er- uhm” Remus spluttered helplessly. He saw the look on their faces and knew they knew. His hesitation, his inability to keep cool had given it all away. They knew. He felt his knees buckle and sat down hard on his bed, his head in his hands.

“So I suppose I’ll be leaving school then. Sorry for lying to you, lads. I’ll start packing.” He stood up abruptly and began grabbing his things and throwing them in his trunk.

“Whoa whoa what’re you doing?! you can’t leave!��� Sirius said.

“Well of course I can. I’m dangerous. I’m- I’m a monster!” Remus exclaimed, throwing a thick jumper into his trunk.

James snatched up the jumper and placed his hands on Remus’ shoulders, shaking him lightly. “You’re not a monster, Remus.”

Remus shot james a look that said ‘don’t test me’ and grabbed the jumper back.

“Oh come off it, mate. You can’t leave! Who’ll do my charms notes?” Peter looked exasperated.

Remus folded his arms across his chest defensively, refusing to believe they were being serious. When had anyone ever been okay with his condition? His own father wasn’t okay with it for Godric’s sake! “So you’re telling me you aren’t the least bit afraid of me? You lot are completely okay with a literal monster sleeping in your dorm every night?”

Sirius burst out laughing. “Remus, you fold your socks. You have your books alphabetized on your shelf. I am not the least bit afraid of you.”

Remus looked around at the three of them all nodding fiercely in agreement, an incredulous look on his face. Were they really okay with it?

“Yes mate, we’re serious. We’re sure. We promise.” James said with a firm nod as if he could read Remus’ mind.

“Literally,” Sirius grinned.

Remus smiled. They accepted him. They actually accepted him.

**

He looked at the small array of flowers laying at the base of the cold, smooth stone and smiled sadly. Lilies. James had always made sure Lily had her flower on Valentine’s day. Remus took out his wand and conjured a small bouquet of lilies. He laid them gently beneath Lily’s name. Lily. The first girl to be friends with him without trying to snog him. Lily. Wonderful, smiling Lily.

**

“Oi! Evans!”

Lily rolled her eyes and ducked her head behind the open book in her lap. “What d’you want, Potter?” she sighed.

James grinned and stood up, dusting off his robes as he did so. “Oh c’mon Evans. Can’t even bother to look at me anymore?” he teased.

She snapped the book shut and flashed him a smile before returning her features to her usual ‘I’m so done with your shit’ face that she used when addressing James.

He smiled even wider and ruffled his hair. “Will you go out with me?”

She laughed and stood up. “Eow not even a pick up line this time! How charming, but unfortunately I’m going to have to decline. Again.”

James’ shoulders slouched and he flopped down onto the sofa in front of the common room fireplace next to Sirius. Sirius threw an arm around James’ shoulders and patted his back. “Next time mate,” he said with a solemn nod. James grumbled something that sounded like “fat chance.”

“Remus are we still going to the library? I need to look at a few books for that transfiguration essay,” Lily asked, snapping back to business as usual.

“Yeah sounds great.” Remus said, jumping up from his spot in the comfy chair adjacent to the couch James was now sulking on. “I’ll bring my notes so you can look off of those too. I need to look at some things for Care of Magical Creatures. Trying to get a head start on revisions this year,” he said as he grabbed various scraps of parchment and shoved them into his bag.

He slung the strap onto his shoulder and smiled at Lily. “All set?” she asked.

Remus nodded and they set off to the library. He snuck a look back at the others and saw a flabbergasted James staring after him. “How? Bloody how?” James said, shaking his head. Remus chuckled and kept walking.

Lily and Remus walked side by side for a while until Lily broke the silence. “Dunno what you see in those dorks.”

Remus bumped his shoulder against hers playfully. “Aw they’re not so bad. A bit immature but they’re family you know?”

She smiled. “yeah I know. That's sorta how it is with Mary and Marls. I love ‘em to death but I can only take so much girl talk.”

“It’s not just the girls! Bloody hell, all I hear about is ‘what’s all the fuss about snogging, Sirius?’ and ‘well once you get the hang of it, it’s great James. you’ll get there, mate, don’t worry.’ it’s all any of them talk about!”

Lily smirked. “Good to hear I'm not the only one getting an earful.”

They laughed and then were quiet for a moment. “It’s not so bad, though,” Remus said thoughtfully. “You know James really likes you?”

Lily looked up, surprised. “Remus you know I-“

“No I know, Lils. Ijust thought you should know he’s not teasing. He really likes you. Talks about you all the time. And of course you don’t have to feel the same but-“

Lily cut him off by grabbing his hand and swinging it between them. “It's okay, Rem. I like James too.”

Remus looked at her and grinned. “Lily! That’s brilliant!”

“Mm yes… but I’m going to mess with him a bit. Now that I know he’s smitten,” she smirked.

Remus smiled and they walked into the library together, still hand in hand.

**

Remus looked at the headstone in front of him and then glanced about at the others. He realized how many people had died. He wondered how many had died young and unfairly like Lily and james. He wondered how many had had their chance at life ripped away from them so quickly it felt like the world itself was against them. He thought of James and Lily and Marlene and Dorcas and Peter. Poor, nervous Peter. He'd tried so hard to help out in the war. And now he was gone too. Killed by sirius.

Sirius. Remus clenched and unclenched his fist at his side. Sirius. He couldn’t help but feel a squeeze around his heart at the thought of Sirius. stupid, buggering Sirius. Remus hated that he’d trusted him. He hated that Sirius had been the spy all along. He hated that he didn’t see it coming. But most of all Remus hated that he couldn’t stop loving him. No matter how much he cursed his name and couldn’t stand what he’d done, he still loved him.

“He’s a traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor,” he whispered and shook himself slightly. Every memory together was tainted, every happy moment shared, every argument and smile and laugh. All tainted by Sirius’ betrayal. And yet Remus still loved him.

**

Remus supported a very drunk Sirius, one of Sirius’ hands gripping Remus’ shoulder tightly.

“Sirius,” Remus said, taking the sloshing cup from the smaller boy’s free hand, “You’re drunk.”

Sirius smiled benignly and reached for the cup. “No ‘m not, Moony. You’re drunk!” he said thickly.

Remus smiled. “Sure, Padfoot. I’m so drunk I just fell into my best friend.”

Sirius laughed and slumped into Remus a bit more. Remus guided them both to a large armchair and they sat down, smushed up against one another.

Sirius laid his head against Remus’ shoulder absently. “Remus?”

“Mm?” He looked sideways at the top of Sirius’ head, but Sirius didn’t look up. Drunk wanker.

“You’re so… you’re just so great.”

“Are you attempting to compliment me?”

“I’m just saying,” he said quietly. “You’re so cool Remus. You’re… you’re beautiful.”

Remus tilted his head back to get a look at Sirius who was wearing a dopey look. “Sirius… you’re drunk.”

“Maybe. But i’m right.”

**

“Remus?”

“Mm?”

“D’you think my family hates me?”

Remus curled his arm around Sirius more protectively. “Course they don’t hate you. They just can’t see all your greatest qualities. But I can” Remus smiled into Sirius’ hair.

Sirius curled up and made himself small against the other boy. “Just can’t shake the feeling they hate me. I know I shouldn’t care what they think after what they did to me but-“

“It’s okay, Sirius. They’re your family. It’s their fault what happened when you were little. And it’s their loss that they can’t see how amazing you are.”

Sirius rolled over and searched Remus’ eyes for the truth. He smiled slightly and said, Thanks, Rem.”

Remus hugged Sirius close to him and they just laid there like that for a while, curling into one another. It was comforting to be held like that.

“Hey Remus?” Sirius spoke into Remus’ chest. Remus could feel his warm breath against his bare skin.

“Mm?”

“I’m mental about you.”

Remus felt a blush creep up his neck. “I’m mental about you too.”

**

Sirius came bursting through the portrait hole with such a clatter remus thought he must’ve been chased by a pack of elephants.

“Moony!”

Remus looked up from his book and nearly fell out of his chair. Sirius was standing there wearing one of Mary's mini skirts and one of remus’ jumpers. And bloody hell he looked hot. Sirius smirked, apparently happy with the reaction he’d received and sauntered over to the chair Remus was seated in.

“Heya there, Moony. How’s your book?”

Remus laughed and slammed the book shut. “Hiya Padfoot. I see you’ve been raiding closets again.” The words came out easily once he’d recovered from the initial shock.

“I look just stunning, don't I?” Sirius laughed.

“You always look stunning, Pads.”

Sirius looked momentarily taken aback but then straightened up and flipped his beautiful hair over one shoulder. “I know.”

Remus laughed and scooted over, pulling Sirius by the waist into the large chair to sit with him.

**

A brown barn owl swooped through the open window in the common room Remus was smoking through and dropped an envelope into his lap.

“Got mail, Moony?” Peter asked from the floor without looking away from his chess board.

Remus puffed smoke and picked up the envelope. “Yeah from mum.”

Peter didn’t respond. Remus could tell without looking he was planning the perfect winning strategy. Peter was a god at wizard chess.

The werewolf stubbed out his cigarette on the windowsill and ripped open the envelope. Inside were two sheets of parchment. One with his mother’s neat cursive dancing across the page and the other with his father’s messy, scribbly writing sprawled across it. He picked up the sheet with his mum’s writing first.

Dearest Remus,

My dear baby boy. You’ve known I've been sick for some time. It’s a muggle disease, one with no cure. You’ve known this from the start. I'm so sorry everything was so sudden, my starshine. I'm afraid things have gotten worse since you’ve been at school. I regret not writing more often, I miss seeing your lovely notes and hearing the stories of you and your friends. I don’t have much time, my love. They’re moving me to hospice tomorrow. Your father says he can arrange a visit with Mcgonagall soon. I love you, my starshine. You make every day a gift. See you soon, love.

Love,

Mum

Remus set down the letter with trembling hands. No. No this couldn’t be happening. He attempted to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat and picked up the second sheet, feeling shakier than he ever had before.

Dear Remus,

Your mother has passed away. I'm sorry you couldn’t say goodbye, she died in her sleep the night they moved her into hospice and I didn't have a chance to post her letter. I'm very sorry, my dear boy. The funeral will be this friday. Mcgonagall has been contacted and plans will be made. I love you, son.

See you soon,

Dad

Remus stared down at the piece of parchment blankly. His mum was dead? So suddenly? It didn’t feel real. It couldn’t be real.

He suddenly felt a surge of anger at his father. He didn’t have time to post her letter?! She was dying and he knew it! I’m her son! I had a right to say goodbye! Remus’ cheeks grew hot and he was in danger of breaking down right there on the windowsill.

The portrait hole opened and sirius stepped through, his face lighting up in a radiant smile when he saw Remus.

“Moony!” Remus looked at Sirius, panic and pain written all over his face. “Oh moony, what’s happened?” Sirius rushed over but the tears had already begun to fall. Sirius glanced around at the half-full common room and helped Remus down from the windowsill, gathering the letters and guiding him upstairs.

Remus was glad. He hated breaking down like this. Hardly anyone ever saw his emotions. anyone except Sirius.

“Moony…” Sirius searched his face but all he found was sorrow. “Oh Moony you poor love, what’s happened?” he asked softly.

Remus shook his head and pointed to the parchment clutched in Sirius’ hands. He read through the first one quickly and looked up at Remus. “Oh love, it’s gonna be okay. We can go talk to Mcgonagall and-“

“Read the second letter.” Remus’ voice sounded hollow.

Sirius gulped and bowed his head to read the second letter, his dark hair falling forward in silky sheets.

When he finished he silently set down the parchment and crawled onto Remus’ bed. He reached out his arms and pulled the werewolf close.

“It’s going to be okay, love. It’s going to be okay,” Sirius whispered into his ear, stroking his honey colored curls.

Remus curled into himself, making himself small. He rarely curled up like that, but right then it felt nice to be held so tightly. He made himself small and cried. His mum was gone. He'd never felt such sorrow.

“Hey Remus?” Sirius said quietly. “I love you”

“I love you too,” Remus croaked in response.

**

Remus stared blankly at the etched words in front of him.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. I'm sorry James and Lily, I can't stop loving him. I want to but I can't. I hate myself for it. I just-“ he took a heaving breath, tears threatening to spill over. “I need time. And I'm so so sorry. I wish you guys were here.”

Remus stood up and brushed his trousers off with his hands. The snow left two dark wet marks on his knees. He wiped his eyes and left the way he came. He knew he shouldn’t have visited. He knew it was a bad idea.

They’re really gone. And he’s really a traitor. Traitor. Traitor. Traitor. stop loving him, Remus. Stop loving him. Traitor traitor traitor.

[lostsolsdestinyblog]

Destiny 2 is dead! Long live Destiny 2! A 6 months look at where the game has been, is and still needs to go (PvE)

April 4, 2018

Destiny 2 has been out for 6 months and so I think it's a good time to talk about the experience so far, where the game has been, is and still needs to go. Let me first say that I've played a lot of D2. I'm well over 500 hours already and I've leveled 6 characters to endgame (by comparison, in 3 years of D1 I played just under 2200 hours). I have differing views of PvE from launch to character number 6 and I'm going to start there with the campaign. D2 has a very good campaign and it's probably one of my favorite from Bungie ever, but I think it was mishandled and largely undermined. I was very disappointed and vocal before release that I thought the content release schedule post-launch was wrong and I believe looking back (especially after leveling later characters) that was 100% correct. What the campaign got right with a real story, truly beautiful worlds to explore and levels of epic scale and design like The Almighty were by and large hugely undermined by Bungie's decision to release both the raid and Trials within the first week. Neither needed to happen and it led to the inevitable rush to endgame power level to be endgame ready. One of the biggest issues D1 had over 3 years was content pacing and Activision had stated at their pre-release earning call that they along with Bungie had a plan in place to keep content flowing in D2. That ended up coming back to haunt them (more on that later) but it was exacerbated by the initial release schedule. Destiny 2 should have released with the story, worlds and base PvP the focal points for the first 3-4 weeks. Along with that, all the Adventures that were part of the original campaign should have been left in. I know the reasoning was that there was too much content to level up over and to that I say, why make leveling last until the final level? I think it would have been fine to hit max level before ever setting foot on The Almighty and going after Ghaul at our full power. This would have changed the dynamic of early D2 in so many ways, not the least of which being that 3-4 weeks in, Bungie could have been releasing the Leviathan Raid and Trials instead of fielding the first barrage of “ok, what now?’’ I understand the coolness of the raids and the desire to get into them immediately, but I just feel that just moving them back a little would really give not only the campaigns and new areas time to shine, but the buildup of anticipation for the raids would not be a bad thing either. Also, with the way EoW Prestige ended up being moved back, in hindsight it probably would have been better to stagger its release a couple weeks into CoO as well to better pace things.

The campaign and strikes

The campaign also should have been fully replayable and this is the first point I will make for where I believe the game needs to still improve. One of the things that always gave Halo longevity for my friends and I was going back and replaying the campaigns at higher difficulties. Hell, I used to do the same in GoldenEye back in the day and I'm not sure why Bungie got away from that with Destiny... I believe that not only should we be able to fully replay the campaign whenever we want, but I think there should be difficulty levels for doing so ranging from normal to insane (or prestige if you want). Where the majority of players burned through the Campaign as released, those who weren't raiders were suddenly left with an endgame vastly different from D1 without endless weapon variations to chase or materials to grind to level everything and I think this is where finishing the story and suddenly having it locked away outside of Ikora's 3 random missions really came back to haunt because the Lost Sectors, much improved public events and unique planetary gear sets weren't enough to give players the fix they needed after 3 years of D1 grind. Had the Campaign been the initial endgame and setup as a way to really gear up for eventually going to The Leviathan and Trials, I think the first month and reactions would have played out a lot differently, particularly if there were unique gear sets and weapon variants available for completing various targets within the different difficulty tiers. I'm not going to go too deep into loot as it is something Bungie has addressed and know needs to be better and more meaningful, but I will say a couple things. 1) There needs to be just so much more. The fact that the planetary vendors still have the same weapons and armor as at launch is a problem. The fact that they all shared the generic alternate drops to begin with was also a problem 2) Strikes are not rewarding enough and have not been since launch. This is both true in regular play and during events like faction rallies were by far the quickest and most efficient way to rank up is to just farm Lost Sectors. That's a huge issue in my opinion and makes no sense for trying to keep players logged in and engaged in the game. Why not give 20 faction tokens and a guaranteed rank up from each strike? Beyond that, with the advent of Masterworks, I find it mind-boggling that Heroic strikes aren't a guaranteed drop for Masterworks cores. I can understand that maybe Bungie want them to be limited and not just pile up like Legendary Shards, but at the cost per re-roll and the huge cost to swap PvE/PvP... Who cares if they pile up? Players want to set up their characters how they want and min/max whatever they can and this is an opportunity to really add that back to the game and at the current pretty standard 1 core per dismantle, it's really not realistic to do right now. Give Heroic Strikes a guaranteed drop of 3 cores and I think suddenly there's a huge reason to run them (particularly the deeper the MW system gets) Also, strike specific loot. Game needs more loot.

Gear, weapons and mods

Speaking of loot, let’s talk about it. I still like the new weapon system. I know some still hate it and want D1's back and I respect that, but I find far more variety in my play and arsenals through 6 months of D2 than I had in 3 years of D1. I love that I can use a Hand Cannon and still have an AR. I love the dynamic in say this week’s NF of running Nameless Midnight with Perseverance. I don't miss the primary, special, heavy setup, but I say that with the caveat that power weapons just are not in a great place. I know changes are coming, but still not what I would like to see which is 1) Swords that aren't from the raid having any use (and the return of exotics. Where is anything remotely on par with Boltcaster, et al?) 2) Grenade Launchers need to do significantly more damage or have deeper magazines. A GL like Wicked Sister is actually fun, but its damage output over just shooting a primary is awful. 3) Snipers, Shotguns and Fusion rifles need MUCH deeper ammo reserves. They should be in the range of 21-25 in reserve. I've stated this since launch and still believe this would instantly give them definitive advantages over RL's in many situations <coughPrestigeLeviathancough>. Rockets and Grenade Launchers should be about big impact and high burst damage, but the other power weapons should be about sustained damage and the ability to take out more mid-tier enemies. Armor has been much more diverse to this point in D2 than initially in D1, but I still don't think it's been enough. Yes the addition of ornaments has helped (particularly to breathe life back into Faction Rallies), but in all honesty, there should be new gear sets at least every other season. This game is a looter shooter and the loot is too stagnant. I do not know what it entails to create all that gear and get it into the game, but for me it would be a priority and would also serve another function of giving players those badges to show they were there. Seasons 1 and 2 have their gear sets and once they are gone, they are gone. Again, incentive to play and get sets you love and a way to show you "were there" beyond the catch-all emblems. Obviously there's a huge road-block there with storage space and there's nothing left to beat on that horse, Bungie know they need to come up with a legitimate and fully up to par system and hopefully we see it sooner than later, but... to that end, Bungie hasn't done itself any favors with the current mod system. The regular mod system (not masterworks) is a nightmare. I know mods 2.0 is in the works, but I can say (particularly from 4 current endgame characters) that the system is not good. How would I fix it? 1) BLUE MODS NEED TO GO AWAY. They are a waste in every regard. They are worthless as individual drops. They take up inventory space that could better be used by literally everything else and there's literally no reason to ever want to equip one and feel good about doing so. Then there's the cost to actually covert them into legendary mods. I found on toon #6 that I really like the Crucible armor set for the Hunter. In a month since leveling it, I have not hit 335 on that armor set because I can't get purple mods to drop that I want and that is despite spending hella glimmer trying. I dropped 80K glimmer the other day and got 4 legendary mods out of it and not one I needed. That isn't a way to keep players invested and it doesn't respect our time investment. So I'm wearing blues and don't feel good about it especially when I still don't even have a full blue set of what I really want. This locks us into holding onto armor sets that already have the mods we want on them which by proxy adds more to the storage issue. This has been exacerbated by recent changes as well with the raid armor mods. Yes it's been a fun addition and made the gear meaningful, but it's another set that we have to hold onto and use and that means another set to have to get all the regular mods for and hey, yeah... storage. So... 2) All legendary normal mods should be available at any time on every single legendary armor piece and build in a healthy cost of 10-15 legendary shards to swap them (just like the raid mods are infinitely swap-able now). This suddenly eliminates having to have a PvE set and a PvP set when we can just swap out mods if we want or even from having to have a set for a particular subclass (''I need Arc, but my gear is all set up Void... F***''). It also gives the min/maxers who were so disappointed is the simplification of D2s class setups something to really get into and play around with on even an encounter to encounter basis (again I can just spend some shards to swap my Nightstalker set to Pole Dancer) There is so much win in making that change it would instantly change the dynamic of every single encounter in the game and how we approach them. 3) just better and more interesting mods (in the works). Combine better mods with a way to really use the system and play around with different builds and again… Win. Win. Win.

The Raids/Future expansions

The Raids Leviathan was a very good raid that suffered from sub-par rewards. Eater of Worlds is maybe the single best piece of PvE content Bungie has ever produced and in and of itself is worth running all the time just because it’s so fun, but going forward raids need to have the drop incentives too. The ghost helped both raids in that regard, but there needs to be more and particularly with weapons. Future Expansions Curse of Osiris got a lot of flack, but I think did do a lot right. The Verses for the weapon forge and that grind that ended with the Sagira shell was really well done and brought back some of what D1 had with things like the Exotic sword and class item quests/grinds. The raid Lair is second to none. Past Mercury is crazy beautiful. But for all that, Mercury as a whole missed the mark. The infinite forest is cool looking, but until NF scoring was completely pointless. It should have been a patrol zone and I’m guessing was originally intended to be. Why it didn’t make it? Who knows, but it’s a shame. There should have been random section spawns with their own Lost Sectors or even world bosses with unique loot drops. There’s so much potential there that could be really developed into something cool. Same goes for past-Mercury. As for the patrol zone itself, it is still a fun place to patrol, but really could have been more and again very easily. When we first go to Mercury we traverse an area on our way to the Lighthouse that we never go back to again and it’s filled with moving platforms of immune Vex patrolling off. That entire area could have and should have been much like outside of Felwinter’s Peak and not only open to exploration, but filled with hidden secrets for those who took the time. There could even have been a puzzle similar to climbing Felwinter’s, but with moving/disappearing Vex platforms instead. The good news is that, that is something that could still be done to build onto and extend life into the area. Beyond that, once again I think pulling from the campaign and giving us parts as adventures really hurt the expansion. I can tell you that of the 5 characters I took through it, I did the Adventures on all of one of them. There just wasn’t the incentive for me to go back and yes they add to the story, but they should have been there to begin with and experienced as we played the campaign. So going forward and maybe this is too late for the next expansion, I would really like to see Bungie rethink not just adventures, but again, had CoO’s campaign been fully replayable at higher difficulty levels with rewards worthy of the effort, I think it changes the response and overall view of the campaign. I know it sold well and I’ve enjoyed it, but the potential for so much more is right there just waiting to be let loose. Also if not building the adventures back in, just again pushing the raid back a few weeks to give the campaign/strikes time to be the focus would be a better way forward.

More on Strikes and weapon-play and the value of fast ability cooldowns I've had a lot of thoughts on various things that are not on the list of incoming or being worked on improvements and another aspect I didn't get to is the actual play of strikes beyond the rewards. The week of Crimson Doubles was in my opinion maybe one of the best weeks there's ever been to log in and play Destiny and that includes all 3 years of D1. There were a few reasons for this and I know this post is PvE related, but I will say that it was easily the best Destiny PvP I've played since House of Wolves. Weapons mattered still (they didn't really in the last year of D1), but we had our abilities back and it completely changed the dynamic of play. Yes they were maybe a tad fast, but we went back and played D1 PvP the other day and even with the Crimson Doubles ability to spam, it was nothing like D1 because the abilities on their own are weaker and still needed to be supplemented by weapon play vs D1 where every grenade and shoulder charge are just death. It's the first time I wanted to just log in and keep playing solo since HoW and if that can be translated to the rest of PvP (along with a few other fixes), I think it honestly could be the best it's ever been. But beyond PvP, Crimson Days was incredible for PvE as well and that's because not only did we have the 2 Raids to run and the EoW as still the most fun you can have playing PvE in Destiny, but the Nightfall was as good as it got (with timers) that week and again it was for the same reason that PvP was so good, faster ability cooldowns. I know that there is the thought process that we need Special and Heavy weapons back to feel like badasses or supers more often and I know more power weapon play is coming, but honestly for me it's the ability to fully use my class more often and use snares, dodge and grenades and not be so dependent on just the kinetic/energy combo that overall I still like better than D1, but D2 is just too over-dependant on. I think the changes to the NF with the optional score challenge has been really good and I haven't really given it a full go for score yet (just completion) but my friends have spent hours running and I know they've had fun and been challenged. That said I've run the new NF twice, once solo, once in a fireteam and have a couple takaways. Solo, it was literally the most fun I had as a solo Destiny player since year one of D1. I've posted a million times on here how the first thing I used to do each week was solo the NF on all 3 characters and I hadn't done one since TTK dropped. Going through without a timer and actually having to fight my way across the Infinite Forest was fun and challenging (particularly just getting in to begin) and I was able to get to the boss and push him out of the first room once before eventually giving up 2 hours into trying. What I found is that, although it was fun, ammo and the reliance on kinetic/energy was too heavy. I had 4 Power ammo bricks drop in the entirety of crossing the Forest and with D2's diminished ability cooldowns I was running out of ammo consistently on both my kinetic and energy weapons and having the game have to auto-fill them. I think this is tantamount to the issues people have with the new system because again, I LOVE the weapon choices I have now and I'll use more combos in a weeks play than I would in a year of D1, but as great as Nameless Midnight combined with Pleiades (crossing forest) or Perseverance (boss rooms) was, ultimately they just weren't powerful enough when it really mattered and without abilities or power bricks dropping, I just couldn't take down adds fast enough to have a legitimate chance. Players want to feel powerful and badass and that doesn't mean having to super every 5 seconds or kill everything with Power weapons. They certainly help, but for me again it's having that full suite of ways to kill, stun, kite, evade, heal, shield, etc. Especially in a fireteam that coordinates. Look at how the masterworks orb generation has helped make the raids even more fun with more supers. It doesn't have to be Mayhem or whatever the Strikes were called in D1 and I understand the need to still have it a challenge and the balance there, but if Bungie want to really bring people back that have left, I think there is a middle ground there and that not being so focused on just the kinetic/energy combo is key. Edit: one more note on soloing the Nightfalls. I know that Bungie hated that players could go to cheese spots to make some boss fights easier and others guaranteed, but much like the loot cave, it was fun for players and they loved logging in and playing. I think it goes hand in hand with Josh Hamrick's comments on Shoulder Charge being reverted because the devs realize that sometimes unintended things that players end up loving isn't a bad thing and I think that fully applies here. Sure you don't want everyone cheesing everything and particularly Raids, but that said there is a line and things like making all boss rooms locked in affairs with no ability for respite, recovery or even to just hide for a minute I think can be argued hasn't really made play more fun to where it's made more people want to play them more. The loot cave was fun and what did it give away? I never got anything better than blues and it helped unlock my Grimoire bonuses. Why take things like that away if it brings players in and together? Hopefully what Josh said is an ethos that will apply game-wide and not just within balancing PvP.

TLDR

In 500 hours of D2 PvE, I’ve done and experienced probably as much meaningful content (read: not running circles farming) than I did in twice that time playing D1. The campaign needs to be replayable in full when we want. Content needs to be better spaced. Had it been paced at launch, a month in Bungie could have been releasing the Leviathan instead of fielding the initial wave of “what do we do now?’’ Certainly that would have come and we all know the issues that followed, but they’ve by-and-large been addressed and D2 PvE today is in my opinion as good as PvE has been in the life of the game with maybe TTK still holding a slight edge. D2 is not the game we expected, but it’s also not the game it is painted to be on the forums and in the media. It is still the best way I know to spend 500+ hours with people you care about and it is consistently improving. In D1 any changes we wanted went onto a wish list to sit for 3 years and die. In D2 not only are they being heard and talked about, they are being actively worked on and implemented and it’s sad that more people aren’t taking the opportunity to really give feedback on what else could make the game better instead of trashing it with no real message to better anything. Thank you