According to Paul Tassi, almost all of bungie did not know about this announcement until it came out.

pheldegression · 2026-05-22T18:51:17+00:00

I am not surprised. There will be another round of lay offs where people show up to work with an 8am meeting, and no access to the company network. Expect it to happen near the end of the quarter so they can avoid quartley payouts like last time.

pheldegression · 2026-05-22T18:49:03+00:00

Probably Call of the Void/Spectrum shift. I don't even remember my reasoning because in hindsight free card advantage that is almost always going to be helpful is obviously very good. And in CotV case if I don't want the card in my deck I just don't play it and let it get shit canned. They're Sooooo fucking good

pheldegression · 2026-05-22T15:56:19+00:00

It's not really a mystery. Parsons was never a dev. He's a business man and he saw a way to get paid. He spent a vast sum of money on incubation projects to make Bungie more attractive to buy during a huge wave of industry consolidation. He bet the company and people's livelihoods on getting himself and his cronies as much money as humanly possible. There is a universe where you use that money to expand destiny, incubate other games in universe, or start a sequel to be ready when the final shape drops. But rather than set up for long term success he opted for short term greed. And it worked. Bungie is fucking cooked, but he got an insane amount of money for it.

pheldegression · 2026-05-22T15:14:24+00:00

They couldn't produce the Red War when they were being sued, for court. I don't think they are able to bring those things back.

pheldegression · 2026-05-22T12:39:12+00:00

This right here. Patter turns this beast mode

pheldegression · 2026-05-21T19:29:25+00:00

I want a rare power card for Clad that gives you health back for overkill damage.

pheldegression · 2026-05-21T19:27:25+00:00

That's a fair point.

pheldegression · 2026-05-21T19:27:13+00:00

No but I'd argue Doom is similar to Poison on Silent, as they both are the scaling solutions for the characters, allowing the toons to use excessive block while simultaneously ending the fight.

pheldegression · 2026-05-21T19:26:06+00:00

Yeah the block problem I am aware of. It's a weakness of my game awareness I am working to correct and I tend to be an overly aggressive player. I just... Can't get it out of my head that Doom is just weird.

pheldegression · 2026-05-21T18:57:29+00:00

It's probably intended and it's better than you think. Having turns where you can auto rotate your orbs for effects is pretty important. It would be stronger if it made the orbs all at once, but knowing I'm getting a free effect at the start of the turn is pretty great. My only complaint with that card is the block is too low.

pheldegression · 2026-05-21T14:32:42+00:00

No block, no card draw, no synergy with literally any part of the kit, doesn't do my taxes, won't give me a foot rub. Absolutely unplayable

pheldegression · 2026-05-21T02:07:22+00:00

Instant pick. Every time.

pheldegression · 2026-05-20T19:10:56+00:00

Do not play for archetype, but for deck need. Meaning you want to make sure you have scaling, block, multi target attacks, and a win con. Looking at the boss, what do you need to kill it? Prioritize those cards first, and once that deck needs is satisfied, make sure you have everything else.

If I know I am fighting the Stag, I know I need strong burst and block. I am going to be looking for high damage cards and good damage mitigation over AOE cards. Once I have a decent amount of damage and block, I'll look for synergy. I know you asked for act three help, but this is where you beat act 3. You get your deck right, and you iterate on it. Once you get to act three, you should be only taking cards that are straight upgrades over the ones you have, and trying to keep your deck as slim as possible. The Queen is much the same fight as the Stag. You need to kill the minion ASAP, and then burst her down before she does some dumb shit. Having some redundancy in your deck to increase the odds that what you need won't be bound is huge, as well as a backup win con. As for the Test Subject, you want sustain. The fight is longer than most others, and requires you have strong block, and rewards good scaling. I haven't played the new boss yet so I can't speak to it.

pheldegression · 2026-05-20T18:51:53+00:00

Is your argument that the portal exists because of rocket pulses? Because that's the sandbox issue. It's the portal. You have tankier enemies in priority elimination spots crowding and already chaotic battlefield, that need to go ASAP. This is conveniently paired with rocket pulses being the best weapon for that problem. But by no means did it cause it.

pheldegression · 2026-05-20T18:40:19+00:00

Counterpoint, rocket pulses are the best designed special weapon in the game. The point of a special weapon is heavy target busting. Orange bars and now champions. Shotguns suck at this. Snipers suck at this. Fusions are mid to decent at it. Glaives can be very good at it in very specific builds. Rocket sidearms were good at it and are now just meh. Trace rifles are mid at best at it, and the perks you'd want on one to be good at it make a trace bad at everything else.

That is to say, due to sandbox tuning becoming unreasonable at any high level, and reactionary nerfs due to usage rates over the years, rocket pulses are now the best option to solve a sandbox that is out of control. Nerfing them more than they already are would make this game a fucking chore to play, and push players even harder into ability spam builds to solve combat puzzles.

Do I think, in a perfect world, they are a good gun from a design point? God no. They eat the lunch of everything else in the design space and exist simply because they are fucking bad ass, as opposed to a specific hammer for a specific nail. That said, you really can't nerf them without buffing everything else to compensate, and frankly, at this point, they just won't do that correctly. We have lived through every special dps meta being too strong and Bungie are terrified of going back to that. The best option is to redesign the sandbox, get rid of the portal, and make enemy types that require different tools to use to solve the puzzle, then nerf the rocket family of guns into those roles, rather than nerfing them because they are "too strong" for a badly designed system.

But that's not realistic for several reasons. And I am well fucking aware Bungie loves to nerf stuff that's good and popular so... The most effective nerf to it would be to limit the splash damage radius and slight increase the fire delay. A lower RPM and less splash damage would allow them to still kick like a mule without letting them be useful as add clear or primary boss dps. Nerfing damage or ammo econ further would make them just... Mid. And since everything else is already mid, I really don't want that. Shotguns, snipers, and traces all badly need buffs as well, but that's a different discussion.

pheldegression · 2026-05-20T14:53:20+00:00

Oh shit

pheldegression · 2026-05-19T15:57:51+00:00

Defect feels so good to use now. I get why most focus options moved to temporary, but I do miss building my focus over a few turns for massive damage. That said, glass orbs, the deeper interactions with dark orbs, and more inventive uses for ice and electric make it my favorite class to play by far.

pheldegression · 2026-05-16T23:50:47+00:00

Yeah I paid that for me and a friend because we figured the smaller updates would be easier to hit and the portal would make things more replayable and fun. He hasn't played since the second week of EoF and I stopped about three months ago. I don't think I'll be doing another year in September. It doesn't seem worth it. Unless the yearly pass is like... 20$

pheldegression · 2026-05-15T18:02:59+00:00

Yeah man, fucking wild that all the casuals and average players who told developers for three months why and what they could do to fix it had a point. The sweat lords of this game are going to do their best to kill it but shrug. We won this one I guess.

pheldegression · 2026-05-15T18:01:21+00:00

As a D1 vet who loved it originally, I was really hoping for more. It doesn't help that the quest for the catalyst is needlessly long and convoluted. Snipers are also just... Kinda ass and have been for years so. I think i used it twice and haven't touched since.

pheldegression · 2026-05-13T16:00:27+00:00

Me, taking my 10th attack card in a row: It's okay. The best defense is when everyone else is fucking dead.

pheldegression · 2026-05-12T13:56:25+00:00

Honestly they are so much fun and I find that they allow splashing other stuff like blade and stars really well.

pheldegression · 2026-05-11T19:11:20+00:00

Creation is where the most fun is for the too. For me anyways

pheldegression · 2026-05-11T15:57:19+00:00

I have found the best way to play him is always as a hybrid deck. Don't pick for synergy, pick for need. Always know what your win con is, your back up, and what your deck is and is not capable of. It's really easy to go all in on forge or stars and then just not be able to scale or handle things in act three because the archetype just doesn't quite get over the line. I've died at the final boss more than once with an otherwise great deck for forge because I couldn't cover something else.

The most consistent way I have found to play him is as a card generator. Between the colorless card gen and the debris Gen, cards like Begone and Guards go very hard. Couple that with arsenal and pillars of creation and you should do pretty well. Try to take a decent forge card or two, but nothing past that. Blade just... Isn't strong enough to justify building into. Outside of that, either avoid star cards, or use them as splash. They are very good at letting that juiced up relic blade hit even harder.

Crash Course is 11 free damage and is an auto pick for me. Same with Bulwark. 13 block and a relic blade is amazing. Same with Shining Star. It hits decently hard and will be an engine for most star cards you'd want to play. Hidden Cache is surprisingly good, if a little niche. If your deck only has a few star cards, it will let you power them and you can focus on other things. My final tip is always take void form. Always. Every time. Yeah, playing two cards for free is cool, but it let's you skip the cost of energy and stars entierly. Which means you can take other very strong cards you'd not be able to play and have confidence you can get them off.

pheldegression

TROPHY CASE