Keep the following in mind. I've only played up to Shadowkeep and haven't done any of the following seasons. There is a definite separation between what is present in the lore books and what is present in-game. Some of this may be due to limitations of the game. I don't know if it is. Some of it strikes me as accidental, and some of it deliberate choices. Take the Darkness. What the Darkness is in lore seems to be an entirely different animal than what it is in the actual story of the game. Whereas in the lore it's a metaphysical and formless force, the Darkness in-game is a physical one, albeit one beyond the limits of our understanding. It has a physical form - the black pyramids - whereas Oryx had to summon it into a physical body in the lore books. Or the Hive. The Hive in lore have this intricate backstory, with motivations. They're awesomely powerful beings, capable of destroying solar systems and exterminating entire races. Yet we were able to shoot their god-king, HIS god, and two of his demigod sons in the face until they died. Something doesn't add up here.
About the lore, I am personally not really into it, but if the lore doesn't match the game, it definitely would ruin it for me if I were studying the lore myself personally like I have during Destiny 1. I agree, I would rather do a larger story that builds up over many DLC's to have been able to kill Oryx, cause sure you may think you are powerful, but if you can kill what is considered a god, what's stopping you from taking over the universe. The thing that really made this noticeable was Xol in Warmind where it took couple of spears and bullets to kill what is called a worm god. I personally don't like this myself, and would rather have a larger story building up to a climactic battle sort of like in Avengers.
Actually they walked that back and said that was a fake Xol - Tolland mocks you for thinking it was the real one. In fact, I think Xol either splits part of his power or straight up becomes the Whisper of the Worm exotic, because through Sword Logic he's decided you are better than the entirety of the Hive.
I came back to Destiny 2 this summer after a long break. I quit paying attention to lore before I quit as trying to figure out armor/weapon upgrades became so complicated and grinding power levels without doing raids/nightfall was lame. Still confused about Hammer and Gauntlet but the recent Solstice of Heroes was fun. I still haven't completed all of the Stasis subclass upgrades but I plan on doing it now. Will see if I stick around after Season 15.
According to my friends who stuck with the game for the past two seasons, the leveling problem has been rectified in that each season only increases the power level by ten, so no more having to grind stupid hard a whole season. The Hammer and Gauntlet I'm assuming you're talking about seasonal relics - I just got the hammer myself - and it looks like all you do is get 'seasonal currency' which you spend on those weapons to unlock bonuses for seasonal activities and more of that season's content. The biggest improvement I hear has been PVP. The game went crossplay and moreover they now use BattleEye which has had an immediate effect in preventing cheaters because it has a multi-game ban list. You may have never cheated at Destiny 2, but if you've cheated on ANY of the games on the BattleEye list, you are banned from ALL of them. It's fantastic.
Yes, leveling up is easier. I didn't make it to 1320 last season without artifact buff but got to 1311 for playing a relatively short time. Good to know about BattleEye! I like Crucible and Iron Banner. When I started back up, all my gear was at 1100, lol. I just did strikes last night so will check out Crucible this weekend.
Man, I wanted to try again, I really did. But the game is still so stupidly PVP centric to get any kind of progression and it's full of the exact same fucking asshole hunters who make it so I can't even play. Spawn in, die, repeat. Sure I might get a few kills but when it feels more like LUCK than actual skill in getting a kill, that's bad game design.
I genuinely don't understand how anyone can say Destiny is PVP centric. That makes no sense to me whatsoever. Now this week with Iron Banner, yes, it has a focus, but that's literally a one week event once a month.
Because in my experience, it is legitimately the only way you can actually get gear that reliably will improve your light level. Otherwise I can only describe my experience with Destiny 2's leveling system as 'RNG' because I can run the Nightfall all day long, platinum tier rewards, and ultimately have LITERALLY NOTHING to show for it besides some pocket change glimmer and a heap of junk that is lower light level than what I started with. Oh, and they still haven't fixed The Corrupted, genuinely some of the worst level design in any game to the point I don't think they even tested it properly. What game has a rather prominent way to softlock yourself if the BOSS kills you in the first phase? It's been in the game for years and Bungie has shown they don't care to make sure the bloody checkpoint flag spawns you anywhere NEAR the boss if you have to self-rez!
I haven’t played destiny 2 since warmind, thinking of getting an Xbox again so how much would it cost me in dlc to get up to date?
I obviously can’t speak for your personal experience but based on what you’re saying, you don’t seem to understand the Power Level levelling system at all. Running any one single activity isn’t going to help your power level much. There’s roughly 10 weekly activities that will drop pinnacle-ish gear to increase your light. This ranges from 3 Strikes, a 100K Nightfall, Presage, etc but running something like a Nightfall over and over will do nothing, same with crucible. You’ll get the highest gains from spreading out what you do. The Nightfall weapon drops don’t drop at “power level” so even if you were getting the unique drops, it wouldn’t help. Running the same activity can help you get a Prime Engram which will help you level up all your gear to maybe your highest level other gear. I really can’t get into the entire progression system but again based on what you have typed, you fundamentally are not understanding it. You want a high Power Level? Play more activities that offer higher level rewards not one activity over and over.
If you have game pass much of the dlc is in there, I think. This like might be useless but hopefully it’ll show what you need: Destiny 2: Beyond Light | Xbox
I wanted to raise my light level so I could play catch up and experience content with the rest of my friends so I wouldn't have to repeat something like sitting around for 30 minutes in a goddamn lost sector because my light level was too low in Old Russia to do any damage, so all I could do is wait for my friend to repeatedly die while HE killed the boss agonizingly slow. And then I didn't get anything at the end of that lost sector. This was a week after Beyond Lite Content released and I'd been endgame level before they deleted half the damn game. Instead you're basically outlining the progression system as being a boring set of chores through the same set of repeatable missions it's been for at least a year, maybe one more after the whole stupid Cabal season, and another that is still fundamentally unplayable if a basic condition like 'die at the boss' happens that Bungie has proven they don't give a shit about ever fixing, all to raise some stupid arbitrary number in order to actually be at a power level where I can take on more content I don't have to pay for like dungeons, trials, or even Iron Banner because all it takes is 20 light level to ensure a headshot from Arbalest can't actually kill an enemy at full health. Everything else is still locked beyond the seasonal passes and I sure as hell am not spending MORE money on a game that still has LESS content than before Beyond Light actually happened. Destiny 2 used to be a regular game for me but after feeling like wasting my money on Beyond Lite Content, I took a break, and now trying to get back into it...it's just a chore where the time put into the game is not respected.
Yeah I’m not sure how to engage you with that because like I said originally, the tasks you were doing, Nightfall and Crucible grinding are not ways to raise your power level. If you find the gameplay loop boring, I completely get it; I don’t though and knowing what activities that raises your power level makes it quite easy to avoid the grind. Each season has added a new seasonal activities and some of the best in game story since Forsaken. I don’t think that game is for you but if you’re interested in trying again I would recommend launching the director, hover to destinations and see offers Pinnacle gear.
