Seriously? (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Tuesday, August 13, 2019, 11:11 (1938 days ago) @ Kermit

Raga, some things are facts. It is easier to get a kill with a super in Destiny than it is to get a kill with a primary or secondary weapon.

That's not what you said was unquestionable. You stated that supers narrowing the skill gap was unquestionable. I agree with Raga - your original statement was extremely questionable, not your amended one.

They mean the same thing though. If the baseline combat (primary and secondary weapons, basic movement and abilities) requires a certain amount of skill to successfully score a kill, and then another mechanic is added to the mix that requires less skill to get a kill, you have objectively lowered the overall skill gap.

On the micro-level of a single encounter, yes, but even there differences in skill can ameliorate the narrowing of that gap--a skilled player might more likely take out a whole team with their super. And it takes a certain amount of skill to survive and position yourselves so that you can chain supers.

All true, but the wild-card nature of supers means you could also just get lucky and wipe a whole team with the press of a single button. Or your Super might send you in a funny direction and you go straight into a wall. That’s not necessarily bad (sometimes it’s hilarious). But no matter which way it goes, the results of any given super are just that extra bit out of the player’s hands. And however much skill it takes to survive and chain supers, it takes MORE to survive and win gunfight after gunfight on a relatively even playing field.

I think Raga and Squid are looking more at the macro level.

I agree, but I think there is some conflation happening between “the things we all do to cope with supers” (ie run away, counter with another super, team-shoot and hope for the best) and “more strategy”. Destiny PvP isn’t a particularly strategic game, not until you get to high level play and you’re digging into the nitty gritty of how specific subclasses and exotics play off each other. Micro level stuff. Saying “I have my super but I’ll save it to counter one of their supers” is strategic thinking, yes, but it’s pretty darn shallow (which is not to say that it’s bad or wrong... it’s just an easy, simple choice to make and implement). Destiny PvP is predominantly decided by movement and shooting skills, both as a team and as individuals. And then you have these wild-card super spurts. For some, that’s great. For others, not so much. But I 100% stand by my assertion that supers narrow the skill gap. That’s why they’re in the game at all. They do the same in PvE. They narrow the skill gap in a way that’s fun and explosive and exciting. The “strategy” argument holds more water in PvE, where you’re tackling such huge numbers of enemies, or enemies with so much health, that the exact layering and timing of supers actually makes a big difference.