It seems weird that there's a lone Elemental primary out there, even if it is an Exotic.

If I want to have all my bases covered I can synergise with my subclass as (presumably) intended, or I can just grab my Supercell to go with my Void secondary and Solar Heavy, using up my Exotic slot. That seems like a fair trade to me, so it seems odd that there wouldn't be one Void and one Solar Exotic primary too.

Presumably Mythoclast and Necrochasm will be getting year 2 versions at some point?

The weapon sandbox "meta" right now is in the best place it has ever been since even the Alpha. There is a vast range of weapons that are viable in any given situation.

IMO, that is nothing new. The same was true for year 1 as well.

You can actually be very competitive in the Crucible with any weapon type - something we have not been able to say since the Alpha.

I'm not sure about that... I agree that the balance is much better than before, but I'm already seeing a drastic swing towards Pulse Rifles. I doubt we'll such much other than PRs in Trials.

I am constantly trying new weapons in PvE because there are no Fatebringers/Vision of Confluences in year two. As much as I loved my six Fatebringers, I am so glad that there is a lack of dominant elemental primaries with ridiculous perk combinations.

I added the bold there, because IMO the perk combinations were what made those weapons dominant, not the elemental damage. I've said this before, but just look at Crota's End. Not a single Arc shield to be seen in the whole raid, and yet level 300 Fatebringers were still the go-to weapon for almost everyone who had one.

The solution, IMO, is to not include weapons with insanely powerful perk combos... and they've pretty much done that already. Elemental damage was never the problem.

No. Because then, before long, many players would have that "ultra rare" drop which they will apply to their favorite primary weapon and then they will virtually cease to use any other weapon. We would be right back where we were with people using only one weapon the vast majority of their time.

The weapon sandbox "meta" right now is in the best place it has ever been since even the Alpha. There is a vast range of weapons that are viable in any given situation. You can actually be very competitive in the Crucible with any weapon type - something we have not been able to say since the Alpha. I am constantly trying new weapons in PvE because there are no Fatebringers/Vision of Confluences in year two. As much as I loved my six Fatebringers, I am so glad that there is a lack of dominant elemental primaries with ridiculous perk combinations. Even if it were just an "ultra rare" drop that allowed you to do that to one gun - that's all it would take to get us back to that stale meta before long.

Uhhhh, no? We used VOC and FB for their perks and stats. There's no reason to use them exclusively outside of PoE or NF when there's an elemental burn. There's no advantage to using elemental damage in PvP last time I checked.

If there's currently a 'vast range of weapons viable in any situation' there's nothing stopping them from still being viable with some consumable that only adds an element to them.

with primary elementals, my primary weapon selection got broken down to elemental and never use again.

Unless they were to nerf the primary elementals in such a way that they're not much use outside of their elemental nature, maybe

I lean more towards the latter. I still think the Trials of Osiris Adept weapons hit a good sweet spot. They were all effective utility weapons with good stats, but nothing special in the perks department. I'd use them if there were burns at play or if I was fighting a lot of shielded enemies. But I'd just as often use my NL Shadow with full auto, explosive rounds, and firefly because it had such an awesome combo of perks.

If I want to have all my bases covered I can synergise with my subclass as (presumably) intended, or I can just grab my Supercell to go with my Void secondary and Solar Heavy, using up my Exotic slot. That seems like a fair trade to me, so it seems odd that there wouldn't be one Void and one Solar Exotic primary too.

Unless they were to nerf the primary elementals in such a way that they're not much use outside of their elemental nature, maybe

I don't see why there can't be some sort of ultra rare drop thing, maybe hard raid drop, that could be used like glass spindle to reroll your damage type on a weapon (vs armor stats).

Problem solved, no?

No. Because then, before long, many players would have that "ultra rare" drop which they will apply to their favorite primary weapon and then they will virtually cease to use any other weapon. We would be right back where we were with people using only one weapon the vast majority of their time.

The weapon sandbox "meta" right now is in the best place it has ever been since even the Alpha. There is a vast range of weapons that are viable in any given situation. You can actually be very competitive in the Crucible with any weapon type - something we have not been able to say since the Alpha. I am constantly trying new weapons in PvE because there are no Fatebringers/Vision of Confluences in year two. As much as I loved my six Fatebringers, I am so glad that there is a lack of dominant elemental primaries with ridiculous perk combinations. Even if it were just an "ultra rare" drop that allowed you to do that to one gun - that's all it would take to get us back to that stale meta before long.

I agree that they were too powerful during burns, but non-elemental weapons suck against harder enemies with shields. I'd love to see a perk like "deals bonus damage to arc shields" or something. The gun doesn't have to be pure arc damage, but I want it to do *something* to shielded foes.

That is what specials and heavies are for. The game would be boring if your primary could rip through everything.

So if you're out of special and heavy ammo, you should just burn all of your primary ammo and wait 60 seconds for the automatic ammo refresh before you even bother trying to kill the shielded guy? Because that's what I do right now and it sucks.

That's what special and heavy ammo synthesis are for!

Problem solved, no?

I might live in some crazy fantasy land though.

Let me rephrase: Any time we are choosing a primary weapon, we are judging it based on a range of criteria. Do I like the way it handles? Am I fighting at long rang/close range? What perks would be beneficial in this situation? Etc. In year 1, one of the criteria we could consider was would Elemental damage be useful here? If so, is it worth sacrificing the benefits provided by some of my other primaries?.

The problem was that the answer was always in the affirmative. The elemental primaries were overwhelmingly the best options all the time.

The ZHalo Supercell does arc damage as a primary.

And so far it's the only one that does, despite there being several Exotic primaries now, off the top of my head....

I've been saying that Elemental primaries limit the sandbox and devalue Special weapons long before you decided to steal yet another of my ideas, man.

I don't ever recall reading you saying that. Great minds think alike I guess. Link or search term?

My argument always called for a compromise, such as only Exotic primaries doing elemental damage (and since Zhalo does Arc, I can claim that Bungie stole my idea! #kornywasright!)

I think this is a good thing for the sandbox, even if there won't be much reason to visit the lighthouse if your weapons aren't as prestigious... (though I'm assuming you'll get 320 gear from the chest).

I agree that they were too powerful during burns, but non-elemental weapons suck against harder enemies with shields. I'd love to see a perk like "deals bonus damage to arc shields" or something. The gun doesn't have to be pure arc damage, but I want it to do *something* to shielded foes.

That is what specials and heavies are for. The game would be boring if your primary could rip through everything.

Fatebringer was NEVER boring ;)

Let me rephrase: Any time we are choosing a primary weapon, we are judging it based on a range of criteria. Do I like the way it handles? Am I fighting at long rang/close range? What perks would be beneficial in this situation? Etc. In year 1, one of the criteria we could consider was would Elemental damage be useful here? If so, is it worth sacrificing the benefits provided by some of my other primaries?.

Elemental damage output was one of the things we could take into consideration when choosing a weapon. Now it isn't. An option has been removed.

Yeah I agree with that wording, I just don't see it as a bad thing. To each their own! :)

I am hoping they come out with more Exotic primaries with an element, but mostly because you are paying the price (an exotic slot) to use that element type.

I think this would be a great solution.

Bungie, please :)

I'd be happy with this, too.

Except we're being handicapped now, not the other way around. In year 1, you could use your favorite weapon, or switch to a primary with elemental damage if you wanted that extra edge. Now, we have no edge. The option to use whatever weapon we want was always there. We've had an option removed, not added.

I don't agree we are handicapped now. The old encounters are still there and we can use our old elemental weapons in them just fine. With the newly designed encounters we don't have access to something at all, and never did for these encounters. Not having an advantage that never existed for these encounters isn't a handicap.

Let me rephrase: Any time we are choosing a primary weapon, we are judging it based on a range of criteria. Do I like the way it handles? Am I fighting at long rang/close range? What perks would be beneficial in this situation? Etc. In year 1, one of the criteria we could consider was would Elemental damage be useful here? If so, is it worth sacrificing the benefits provided by some of my other primaries?.

Elemental damage output was one of the things we could take into consideration when choosing a weapon. Now it isn't. An option has been removed.

Except we're being handicapped now, not the other way around. In year 1, you could use your favorite weapon, or switch to a primary with elemental damage if you wanted that extra edge. Now, we have no edge. The option to use whatever weapon we want was always there. We've had an option removed, not added.

I don't agree we are handicapped now. The old encounters are still there and we can use our old elemental weapons in them just fine. With the newly designed encounters we don't have access to elemental primaries at all (with exception of the Supercell), and never did for these encounters. Not having an advantage that never existed for these encounters isn't a handicap.

I am hoping they come out with more Exotic primaries with an element, but mostly because you are paying the price (an exotic slot) to use that element type.

I think this would be a great solution.

Bungie, please :)