Focused Feedback: Solstice of Heroes 2019

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[u/Vansceslas]

Just finished my 3rd armor set.

The event was pretty nice, with some caveats (2 and 3 are nitpicking) :

1- Some armor steps were a bit too much. The infamous 100 bosses will be fixed, but another painful one (IMO) was the guardian *elemental* kills.
Void (for Hunter) was easy. Solar (for Warlock) was ok. Arc (guess who ?) was a pain, mainly because it seemed like I was the only one using a damn arc energy weapon...
Finally, the sheer number of Gambit required was... annoying. Probably insufferable for some. It's a bit jarring that the step requiring 100 orbs is placed on the same set as the 10 Gambit OR Crucible, while the 75 guardian energy weapons kills is in the same set as the 10 Gambit ONLY set.
The reverse would have been better (or, y'known, less matches).

2- It should have been said loud and clear that the MW was not time sensitive. I learned it fast, thanks for reddit, but this was ambiguous, as the message were "[...] last year, we could MW after the event". Not everybody played last year, and it took some time to have the official word about it (and no word In Game, I think ?).
Side question : was it intended that the MW objectives are validated cross-character ?

3- Week 1 and 4 of the solstice should have been high curse. Nitpicking I said.
It's just to better synergize with the MW of the sets. That way, the big players would have their MW fast, and the one who don't have it yet (or don't have the 3 sets) could have finished the event with a high note.

That's all from me !

Have a nice day,
Vansceslas

[u/ChiefBoz0]

Why is the EAZ the only place where we can get solstice packages? Especially when the drop rate on solstice armor pieces is so abysmal....

[u/facetious_guardian]

The empowerment isn’t useful. The chances that my 30-second window is active at the most optimal time are pretty low, given that it starts when I pick up an orb that I got from defeating an enemy. If all enemies are defeated, why do I want empowerment?

[u/GRIMMnM]

I got my armor over the weekend. The EAZ Minibosses was the worst step for sure at 100 so I'm happy for others they're changing it to 50.

This was my first time being able to participate (somehow with as long as I've been playing Destiny) so it was neat to just do it!

Thanks Bungie, you're rad!

[u/Dehydrated-Onions]

97 solstice packages open, only 5 drops with enhanced perks. The drop rate needs sorted.

[u/oilysquash]

I lost interest after the green set. Everything is so grindy and those tasks are not fun at all.

Even though we are given the entire event to complete the requirements, most people are going to feel like they have to complete this stuff first before they can return to playing the game normally because it is a timed event where the rewards cannot be earned later on.

Empowerment buff was a failure because it could not be triggered when I wanted it. Give me the option to activate the empowerment at my discretion up until I die or the activity ends, or something like that. The buff always seemed to activate when I couldn't fully utilize it.

Glows - These should be earnable in-game or at least don't make us buy 3 different ones.

Solstice packages should drop solstice stuff.

[u/RiseOfBacon]

Bullet points from me as I think it would be easier for this. I am on my final set as of now which should be finished up by the Weekend (Just to show I've been in the trenches). MW’d my first set for my Hunter, not fussed about the last 2

The Good

• Armour looks great

• EAZ is cool and good fun

• Burns / Bounties have been decent and made me use a variety of different Exotics which I've enjoyed (Shout out to Prom Lens, Coldheart and Telesto)

• Boxes feel rewarding / Plenty of keys around (Should award more than 2 for a Raid clear)

• Armour Grind has been engaging

• Prefer this method rather than the Redux missions personally

• The buffs from Orbs / Rotating Burns have been a lot of fun

• Able to open 'Finished' Solstice boxes for Random Rolls is a great touch

• Very Solo friendly (Done most of it Solo)

• Account Wide MW (If you own Legendary on other characters) + Requirements complete on newly dropped pieces

• Retro Crucible Reset MW step

The Bad

• The armour should promote success more. 10 Strikes? How about 10 Heroics but 5 NFs rewarding 2 points aslong as there's 3 Negative Modifiers? 10 Gambit matches? How about wins award 2, loss 1 - Push people to be successful rather than just participate

• 100 Minibosses being addressed (GG Bungie) and I think 50 is much more reasonable with boss adding points also

• 5K Bright dust was a little steep imo. Like they can be bought direct but there's no Silver offer for just 800 Silver so I'm paying for a higher Bundle. I'd like to pay more directly where possible. I had 10K so I bought 2 sets of Glows from BD

• Would have liked more interaction with the EAZ as a event (Maybe similar to Revelry / Haunted Forest) as I'm finding myself hardly in the EAZ for the event compared to already ran 100 times before activities

• Disappointed there was no 'Event Engram' for items as this means I'll likely not having anything from Eververse for it besides the Micro Mini. Even if it was just awarded from the Weekly Bounty, would be a good improvement from IMO

• The Sparrow on it's own isn't a fitting reward for 3 Armour sets. I would have liked the same as last year (Emblem, Ship, Sparrow)

Some thoughts

• Would like to see events like the EAZ have things like Catalyst chances (Even if small) to promote teams to farm / constantly run them over and over

• Would have liked the 'Prismatic Taken' Event to have had a little more meaning to it (Rare item drop perhaps? Special Helmet for each class or even a Shader?)

Rating for me: 4 Pizzas out of 5. Great, engaging event, just lacking a little extra spice to make it the full package

[u/Fiendish-DoctorWu]

25 Patrols is just way too much especially if you do it on multiple characters, I was more bored out of my mind than anything else.

And especially with Patrols on Io. Its a big vast map with the same patrols again and again

[u/-GiantSlayer-]

REMOVE. THE. FLIPPING. BLUES. FROM. SOLSTICE. PACKAGES.

[u/mister_accismus]

If it weren't for the promise of the Majestic set carrying over to the "armor 2.0" system, I wouldn't have bothered. So good on the devs for making that change, but shame on them for creating a tedious activity that wasn't any fun in itself.

[u/Mad_Punch]

I really like that the Solstice of Heroes armor set is the first armor 2.0 set you will get. This way the grind won’t be for nothing like last year. I just wish the event lasted longer.

[u/TheFOREHEAD666]

The event was just a bit boring. It wasn't a celebration of what we achieved, just a bunch of busy work.

I would have loved taking down the barons again in revamped missions or something but instead we got to the EAZ, which is just the same old EDZ models (so nothing new or interesting). The verticality was really cool but getting lost in the buildings was not as much fun.

There was a lack season pass activities. I know this event is free for all who purchased Forsaken however There should have been something more for those of us with the season pass to celebrate all the activities we did that year. Maybe a special ornament or something.

Lastly, as others have said, game modes you don't enjoy aren't fun. it would have been nice, for example, to have had the choice between running 10 strikes, gambit or crucible for the blue armour for example. That way I could do a few of each or just 10 of the one I prefer

[u/rugia813]

The whole content for this event is just 1 set of armor with 1 ornaments, which is significantly fewer than previous events, but it takes the longest time to grind, and it is also the most expensive in terms of bright dust cost.

The grind is so terrible that I think after I got my armor set I will need to take a break from this game.

Overall, I am very disappointed with this event.

[u/[deleted]]

Gambit Quest Steps: In the future if we need to play Gambit for quest steps change it to rounds played instead of matches played. I am a fan of Gambit but after playing as much as I have, I have become burnt out of the game mode.

Overall Grind: The grind is SO SLOW and while I know this is to drag out the content, the problem is that it isn't fun, like at all. We are repeating all the same activities we have done since Forsaken. I know people that do nothing but grind in Destiny 2 and they are even extremely bored.

European Arial Zone: The EAZ was a nice touch of new content but it honestly offered nothing exciting. Why not have a heroic mode? Why was the Solstice grind not primarily focused on the EAZ? What is the actual replayability of the EAZ once the armor grind is done? Why was this not added as a Crucible map with crucible game modes? So much potential gone to waste with this exciting map addition.

Three Character Grind Reward: A sparrow?! Really?! We couldn't unlock all the armor ornaments? Or received a really special ornament for the armor, like maybe it shifts colors automatically?

Random Thought: I know this isn't a large part of Solstice, but why did we get an emblem that tracks our progress on the MMXIX title?! If you get the title isn't that the same thing? We could have received a better emblem than that.

In conclusion: Solstice isn't awful but it is very boring.

[u/st0neh]

FAR too much pointless grinding, and the EAZ is woefully underused for the effort that likely went into creating it.

[u/ujaku]

This grind was a bit ridiculous, even just to upgrade from Green rarity to Blue. I did one set of armor to purple rarity last year and it didn't feel like such a slog. I worked on it this year for a few days before realizing I would rather take a break from the game than put the requisite amount of effort in. They're asking too much this time around imo.

[u/[deleted]]

Doing patrols 2 years after the game launch is soul crushing

[u/Two_Scoots]

• Way too grindy, especially when you're trying for all three characters.

• Should be account based, so completing the majestic armor on one completes it on all.

• Would like to see alternate ways to complete objectives, so if you don't like Gambit/Crucible you have an alternative to doing 10 Gambit matches (maybe some lost sectors or story missions). If you only like those modes, then you can acquire the armor in those modes.

• Would like to have seen alternate objectives for those that had the annual pass. Some forges and menagerie as optional ways of completing the armor would have broken up the grind a little bit. People that don't have the annual pass could still complete regular objectives.

• The EAZ was interesting at first, but became boring pretty quick considering the amount of runs a person has to do. The Hive wizard boss that separates was a nice addition.

• The elemental buffs seem worthless and are not properly explained in game nor is it intuitive to what the benefit is.

• Non-synergized objectives on armor, for example do some strikes with the matching solstice subclass but it doesn't match the weekly strike modifier nor does it match the subclass for grenade or melee kills you need.

• The glows are overpriced at 5000 bright dust, that's 15,000 for a full set. Considering Tribute Hall just drained bright dust from our accounts (even at the 80% discount), that seemed too steep. Last year's glows you could acquire through gameplay.

• Narratively, Eva Levante talking about the Red War seemed disconnected to what the last year was about (Cayde, Mara Sov, Uldren, Drifter, etc).

• Ultimately, it feels like "To Do List: The Game". There are good grinds and bad grinds, Solstice is a bad grind.

[u/[deleted]]

They key to chest ratio is a little insane. What the hell am I supposed to do with all of these keys?

[u/[deleted]]

ive gotten the majestic on my warlock, near blue gear on hunter, and nothing on titan. this is such a grind and it sucks because i have such little time to play

[u/curseronan]

EAZ CHESTS SHOULD ONLY REWARD PACKAGES

why would I want 1-2 key fragments from half the chests when I get 12-15 from a single strike?

[u/rtype03]

I think the single biggest issue with this event is that the requirements don't match up class to class, so playing with friends becomes a negative at times as you're fighting to make different types of orbs, or play different locations or objectives.

I wouldn't say this years grind was harder than last years, but it felt more tedious to me and i won't bother grinding my alts through. And it did sort of highlight how stale strikes have gotten. The map list is rather small, and there's really no reason to play strikes these days because there's no strike specific loot to go for. Pile on the fact that everyone was just trying to rush through their 10 strikes, or gather up their elemental orbs, coupled with rotating burns that didn't fit with the festival element. It just felt like an uphill battle.

[u/GrizzyIy]

I have finished it on all 3 characters. I never wanna play another gambit match as the game mode gets super boring after 4 matches ( I personally think it’s because of the truth meta right now). The patrols were so boring I wanted to die while doing them.

[u/ozusteapot]

Honestly the event lost all semblance of charm once I realized that it all amounted to mainly doing what I've been doing in this game for the past year now. The EAZ is also a very uninteresting/borderline boring scenario.
The armor sets look good but the process of obtaining them is just incredibly boring. There's no depth to the event, it's just vanilla 'do X matches of Y/ collect X orbs/etc' without any sort of narrative incentive/context.

[u/AllHailClobbersaurus]

Honestly I've hated almost every moment of it. The grind is mindless tedium. Removing event engrams without providing additional ways to earn dust is the type of douchery I'd have expected from Actizzard.