None of my RL friends play Destiny anymore so I am just going to post my random thoughts here, might start a discussion might not. Sorry if this becomes long, just wanted to put it out there as I like to talk/write about games. Warning, I suck at writing.
Iron Banner - I was pretty vocal last time about how horrible the loot system was. Happy to say this Iron Banner greatly improved and was what I expected the first Year 2 IB to be. I got my two characters to rank 5 again around the same time as the last IB. Last IB I got a total of ZERO drops, nor did I end up with enough marks to buy everything.
This time I got the HC(295), Titan Chest(305), Titan Butt Towell(318), Hunter Helm(304), Ghost(310) and the Ship. Whilst only one item is usable without Infusion this definitely felt like I was rewarded for my time. Given that my Titan has a full set and my Hunter is only missing the helm I hope the weapons are good next time or there won't be a lot to chase but I will be there regardless.
Trials - I am pretty average at PvP so I have not touched trials. I love the idea of the new bounty system but have been really busy with work so not had the time to get involved. Hopefully next weekend I can get my first real Trials experience. Year 1 my best card was 0-3, maybe I will get 1-3 this time!
Raid - Again I have been pretty vocal in previous threads about how much I hate the raid drop system, I haven't raided in 2 weeks now, which is concerning since I was raiding twice a week(only have two characters right now) every week since the day NM KF came out. I have got absolute shit from HM except for the 317 Gauntlets on my Hunter. The number of HM 310 drops I have got is insane and this should not be a thing at all IMO. If they really want double RNG on these drops they should make NM drop 305-310 and HM drop 315-320. At least drops will start off being consistently upgrades then slow down a bit as you get to 305+ LL or 315+LL depending on which mode you are doing. HM feels very unrewarding to me right now.
Economy Nerfs - I restarted on PS4 for TTK(previously X1) so this is my fault I know but weapon parts were really scarce for me. I was never above 100 even with being conservative. When they announced the nerf I was confused and annoyed. What's the point of giving us all these new guns if it takes weeks of grinding to test them out?
Thankfully this pain was short lived as now we can purchase weapon parts with glimmer. I am pretty happy with the cost, 500 parts for max glimmer is reasonable to me. I dumped 15k glimmer into parts straight away and finished upgrading a bunch of weapons I had just sitting there waiting, was a fun weekend trying out different weapons in IB etc. This is also has me excited for Gun Smith orders again. I stopped caring about these as I knew I couldn't upgrade the weapons anyway. If this was their plan all along then fine, but they should have released the glimmer change at the same time. If this was a reaction, I hope they learnt their lesson.
Even starting fresh motes have not been an issue for me even post-nerf. I haven't dumped into REP though, only upgrading weapons. Constantly sitting between 400-500 right now.
Weapon Balance - Like many have said, separate PvE and PvP. I won't say too much more here other then I hate Shotguns and I am excited that Fusion Rifles might be competitive again with the new update. Will have to wait and see. As long as sniper rifles are only a 1 shot kill to the head I don't really have anything to say there.
I could probably go on for ages, it sucks not having any one to talk about one of my favorite games with(other then this thread).
TLDR: Latest IB was a good improvement. HM raid drops suck and the RNG is painful. Purchasable weapon parts is very welcome, somewhat saved the game for me. Excited for the weapon balance patch, but seperate PvE and PvP already Bungie.