So I recently got back into destiny like I mentioned in one
of my other posts, I have been playing the game quite a bit, even had a
visit from XUR last Friday.
One of the biggest things I noticed after playing the game
awhile and getting a few exotics of my own, is that well, they seem a bit
lackluster. Most of the exotics carried over from year 1 weren’t the ‘best’ of
the lot in my opinion and only the half decent ones got carried over. There are
a few exceptions, such as the MIDA or Red Death of course, but very few
that I noticed anyways.
Ok YES the exotics are now more easily attainable through
quest lines that are also quite easily attainable. They still require quite a
bit of work and grinding to ACTUALLY complete the quest but almost everyone can at least get access to the quest at some point. In that regard I think this is
a big improvement for just getting quests available for exotics over Year one.
This method that Bungie implemented for getting exotic quests is much better
than just waiting around for lady luck to hand you an exotic bounty or hoping
you will have enough strange coins the day XUR decides to swing by with YOUR
favorite exotic which could take a while.
Another thing that Bungie added that makes exotics more accessible,
way too accessible in my opinion, is the three of coins which from a little
research I found was abused at the launch of The Taken King. Now the Three of Coins
has been nerfed a bit since then and most glitches have been hotfixed but it is
still relatively easy to get exotics engrams to drop in my opinion.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with what three of coins
(3oC) is, it’s basically a consumable sold by XUR every week. He sells you 5
three of coins for 7 strange coins, not a bad offer at all; in fact it might be
the BEST way to get exotics in Destiny The Taken King. So what three of coins does is,
if you use or consume it, is increases your chances of getting an exotic engram
the next time you win a crucible match or kill an ultra through any means.
There are some bosses that do not count for the three of coins consumable but
most of them seem to be fine. Also if you use a three of coins and DON’T get an
exotic drop, the NEXT time you use a three of coins your chances are slightly
improved. Now the BEST way at the moment for writing this article is to just do
the normal level 36 strike playlist and keep using three of coins. This is because
in Taken King the longer you continue doing strikes WITHOUT returning to orbit,
the higher you chances of getting better loot.
So obviously I decided to try it out for myself and I know results
will vary and they won’t be the same, even for me every time, but here is what my
results looked like. The first time I used three of coins, it took me 5 strikes
before I got an exotic drop, now remember XUR sells 5 three of coins for 7
strange coins so essentially I got an exotic for 7 strange coins, almost half
the price that XUR himself sells them for. The second time it took me 8 strikes
before I got an exotic, ok a little longer this time. These were all normal strikes
by the way, not the heroic or nightfall. Now the last time I used three of
coins I got an exotic to drop after just one heroic strike, so that time I paid
just 1.4 strange coins for an exotic. With the rate the strange coins drop in Year
2 destiny, this was an amazing deal. My only complaint was that I didn’t buy
enough strange coins from XUR to do this every day of the week until NEXT Friday.
Ok so three different runs is not a good sample size for
testing but others I have spoken to have confirmed similar drop rates or BETTER
for exotics using three of coins in strikes.
So getting exotics in Taken king seems relatively easy, even
if your luck is bad and RNG is against you, you should eventually be able to
get a few exotics, even ones that you really want.
So what then is wrong with exotics in Year 2 Destiny you
ask?
Yeah, I can get all the exotics I want quite easily now, and
even the quest specific ones, although they require some work are still fairly attainable,
but what’s the point?
The perks on the new exotics all seem kinda dull and non-exciting.
Again there are a few exceptions such as Zhao Supercell and the Jade Rabbit which
is a playstation exclusive by the way, as some of examples of decent exotics.
The black spindle is a wicked looking sniper with decent perks but there seems to
be a better sniper for PvP that’s a legendary and does not use up a precious
exotic slot so even that weapon is not as awesome as it can be.
Maybe I am making too much of this, but in my mind an exotic
should be a rare item that most of the time will be amazing in both stats and
perks and outperform most if not ALL Legendaries of the similar type. This just
doesn’t seem to be the case in Year 2 Destiny. Even if you find an exotic you
like in terms of perks or looks or stats, there is often a better option to be
found in Legendaries.
Now I have no idea if Bungie did this on purpose because
people in Year 1 complained that exotics were too hard to get or not, but that’s
the way they SHOULD be. An exotic SHOULD be really rare, hard to get or take an
extreme amount of work to obtain. And the rewards? Well an exotic item, one of
the best items in the game of course, something to boast about to your friends
or show off to new players. At least that’s how exotic items SHOULD work in MY
mind.
In The Taken King some of the quests for weapons take quite a
bit of effort for not that much of a reward, so what is the point in doing all
that work then, even IF you can get the quest easily or eventually do all the
tasks it takes to get the item. A prime example of this is an exotic weapon
quest you get for reaching Rank 5 with the gunsmith. Once you get the quest
there are a number of additional things you need to do, and once all of those
are completed and you wait a week, you then get a handgun called the First Curse. Now I haven’t gotten one myself as I am only Rank 2 on each of
my characters but the exotic handgun you get isn’t amazing, it’s not even the
best Year 2 handgun, let alone the best exotic handgun. In fact I think the
year 2 version of the last word or other carried over handguns perform better. It’s
not a BAD gun and it looks decent, it just doesn’t FEEL like an exotic and THAT I find
is the BIG problem with the majority of exotics in the Taken King expansion.
Now again, like I mentioned before, there are some decent
exotics to get your hands on through a questline such as Touch of Malice which IS
actually useful for the new Kings Fall Raid and looks pretty cool in my
opinion. But exotics such as this are few and far in between. The few exotics I
would like to get my hands on are only sold by XUR or by having the Year 1 version of the gun. For someone like me who started late in Year 1 of
Destiny and had a total of about 5-6 exotics across all characters including
both armor and weapons, that method is probably not the best option. So that
leaves XUR and well its XUR, he brings what he wants, when he wants.
Conclusion:
The exotics in The Taken King all seem a bit lackluster to me in perks, looks and stats. Most of the exotic weapons you CAN get can also be replaced fairly easily by a Legendary item that performs better in most cases or just has better perks overall.
The exotics in The Taken King all seem a bit lackluster to me in perks, looks and stats. Most of the exotic weapons you CAN get can also be replaced fairly easily by a Legendary item that performs better in most cases or just has better perks overall.
Even the exotics carried over from Year 1 are not the cream
of the crop and if they did contain any perk which was exceptionally useful, it
was mostly likely nerfed by Bungie.
This is mind boggling to me, as why would you take away
something that players really enjoyed in Year 1 of Destiny and reduce its value
by nerfing the item, granted that some items DID need to be nerfed but it seems
to me like Bungie just made ALL exotics in The Taken King to be, WELL, less
than exotic in my opinion.
One MAJOR exception to all of this is the addition of Exotic Swords in Destiny Taken King, which is probably one of my favorite exotics to use in the game, especially for PvE. The Exotic Sword actually FEELS exotic and although it takes quite a bit of work to obtain one, its well worth it in the end. If you want to know more about it or how you go about obtaining an Exotic Sword in Destiny, I wrote a post about it here.
I would really like to hear your (fellow Destiny players)
thoughts on this matter. Am I making too much of this? Or do you feel the same
way? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below and let me
know what YOU think of exotics in The Taken King.
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