I don't farm the loot cave, I don't abuse 3oC, I try not to cheese bosses, I don't sun-bro hammers, I don't run an unlimited quiver, I don't reddit for the hot new cheap strategy.

Disn't realise the Messenger arxhetype was still faster, but that puts Malok at second-best, at least.

Grasp of Malok = .8 seconds
The Messenger = .73 seconds
Nerwin's Mercy = .67 seconds

Agreed. I never disagreed. No arguing on my end. I just take umbrage with the notion of "reasonable amount of time"

Rhetorical:
What do you consider a reasonable amount of time?
I wonder what the developer considers a reasonable amount of time? I wonder if it is even a quantified and significant consideration in the equation?

It's all good. I come off as argumentative a lot of the time when I don't mean to.

As for reasonable amount of time, I guess I can't answer that. It's different for everyone. I got all four within three days of completing the main campaign, within six or eight hours of play time. A lot of folks I've talked to have had similar experiences with it. That doesn't seem unreasonable to me. Sounds like you've had a much harder time than most the people I'm aware of.

I play Destiny very casually and am okay with being "behind" other players.

This surpises me. My perception was wrong and probably not based in reality.

I play three times a week at most. Currently sitting at Light Level 300. I don't have Touch of Malice, don't have an exotic sword, don't have any of the class specific exotics from the Gunsmith (I can't get any freaking scout rifles to drop for dismantling! And I forgot to order any for Armsday last week). I do have Sleeper Simulant. Still haven't even found the FWC Ghost for No Time to Explain.

I guess I am hardcore in that I know about all of these things and how to do them (because I hang out here), but I'm not hardcore in my play. While I do play a lot at times, I don't play like a lot of hardcore players do. I do what I feel like in order to have fun, not because I need to do it for a sword (screw you, Hadium Flakes!). I might never get the Chaperone because of it's Crucible questline (Exotic Swords are in the same boat), unless I can get a buddy to help me cheese through parts of it. I haven't even STARTED the Chaperone quest, because I'm not even Rank 3 in Crucible so I don't have it yet.

Anyway, that was longer than I intended, but I wanted you to know where I'm coming from.

TL;DR:

Bungie's new system is awful, especially for casual players. I've seen it said elsewhere before, but it's like Bungie designed a lot of the new content based around the opinions and experiences of twitch streamers that play the game everyday for eight or ten hours. Yeah, gating things make sense if everyone plays like that. For folks like me that are lucky to play eight hours a WEEK, it sucks, and it's holding me back arbitrarily when the little amount of time I get to play does that already. When I actually do get to log on, I don't get to work towards the things I want just because Bungie says so. And that sucks.

You're always going to be waiting on something. Unless every single mission is playable from the moment your Ghost firsts revives you, you'll be waiting on story progress, or leveling up, or Light level, or the next expansion. Remove the limited windows, sure, but complaining that we're just waiting around for Bungie to flip the switch. Heck, on September all of us were waiting for Bungie to flip the switch...

Well, I'm complaining on waiting for it to be available, I'm complaining about it being available without notice and then submerging to the ether also without notice. Like, I have to wait, but I can't wait too long. That's slightly annoying on my end.

But that amounts to the same thing. If you played any reasonable amount of time, you had all those already. I got all four within about six hours of playtime

...

Okay, fair enough but you're arguing my overall point in that the way Bungie has designed and implemented these quests is stupid.

Agreed. I never disagreed. No arguing on my end. I just take umbrage with the notion of "reasonable amount of time"

Rhetorical:
What do you consider a reasonable amount of time?
I wonder what the developer considers a reasonable amount of time? I wonder if it is even a quantified and significant consideration in the equation?

I play Destiny very casually and am okay with being "behind" other players.

This surpises me. My perception was wrong and probably not based in reality.

Many were adamant to do the Raids blind. All they have to do is be as adamant in doing the exotic puzzles blind as well. :)

I would be fine with doing them blind, if I could do them on my own schedule. I don't know why they don't just make the quests available after the initial start.

Why do I have to do it a specific night? Why not open it up whenever they want, but leave it open after that? I want my challenges to be in the game, not challenges of adjusting real life to the game.

I don't regret it and I look forward to when I've got my own little fireteam :).

I have my own little fireteam and they ditch me to play Minecraft.

Do they just no care about cause and effect? Or do they think nobody played CoD for the story anyway?

I kind of see it as a benefit. If you care about the story or the craft of the game, you'll play it in order. If you don't, then you'll have a better experience. It also sounds useful for when you start a new profile or want to play coop or something like that.

I think most people who care about games as art will play in order, but there's tons of legitimate reasons not to.

If you had to collect all those fusion rifles, and then that just opened up the quest, that's fine. But now there are folks like you that didn't have the required parts (thanks RNG!) and were locked out when Bungie flipped the switch. I'd have bee pretty upset in that situation, and I play Destiny very casually and am okay with being "behind" other players.