Why do you feel discouraged? Because of the Sterling Treasure and the Micro-transactions instead of actual content? The new progression system is much better and PoE CoE is fun but short.
The weapons I use and like got hit pretty hard. Shotguns are no longer fun in PvE; the most fun I ever had with Destiny was when they were awesome and I ran my heavy stealth build. Then they hit it for a 40% reduction, faster drop off, less ammo....it's just so frustrating. Sidearms never were useful and I don't use them. I don't like using fusion rifles, and so didn't ever really use them either. The combined effect of the adjustments to the snipers - scopes, scope time, stability, clip - made me feel like Bungie was going after the one remaining class of secondary weapons I still liked to use, and I
really felt the cumulative effect of that after the patch. It was frustrating and sucked a decent amount of the fun from using them. That my main was a 1,000 Yard Stare meant it got hit even harder, despite Bungie themselves saying it was balanced. Then they whacked my precocious MIDA - again while noting that it was already balanced.
They've played whack-a-mole where they're hitting each weapon down harder, and finding a new weapon sticking up a bit higher, so they hit it down, then repeat. For a game about power fantasies, I feel like Bungie does not actually want us to feel powerful in PvE any longer, with all the weapon nerfs. If you do, they'll take a whack at it even if it's balanced. By their own admission, and actions.
And yeah, sterling treasures + the implementation of chroma pushed me over. I really can't express how huge of a turn off it is to get a grab bag of loot each week. I don't want it, I don't value it, and it actively subtracts from my desire to play the game because it's slowly tapping the brakes on playing for the loot. I don't play for some flashy box opening animation and free loot each week for signing in. I play(ed) for wonderful gun play, feeling awesome about my character, and getting good loot through activities. I feel like those things are gone or going fast in the game. I just don't get it. I can't ignore how bummed I was about what it meant for the direction the loot game is going. The hugely cumbersome chroma implementation did it as well. Great feature. Aggressively player unfriendly approach.
This is not the Bungie I've been a fan of since 2001.
So they hit the only weapons I liked to use hard, then implemented a monetization scheme to the loot I find straight up depressing to see in the game. I put it down and walked away, hoping this fall's expansion restores some of the magic.
For the first time, I'm pessimistic about the direction of the game. It's turning into something I simply don't want to play, even with new/refreshed activities. And I
loved this game up through Taken King.
