Some recent rebalances in Destiny 2 have once again brought up the topic of how PvP and PvE rub against each other when it comes to trying to balance the game's weapons, abilities, and more. However, while many of these fans are determined that their own opinion on the matter is correct, there are plenty of players on either side of this argument on balancing Destiny's mods and abilities separately between PvP and PvE.
There's evidence for both keeping the balance in a way where PvP and PvE in Destiny 2 are married together, and separating the balance to give two unique experiences for each game mode. As nice as it would be to simply make weapons and abilities strong here and weak here, there is a debilitating amount of nuance to these rebalances that could cause major problems if they were divided by activity.
The Argument From Vanilla Destiny to Beyond Light
While the arguments for separating PvP from PvE continue to appear as recently as the current rebalances of Destiny 2's Stasis subclasses, this is an issue that Bungie has faced since the first game launched. This would especially compound whenever the Iron Banner event would appear, making player levels have more of an effect on attack power and damage resistance. The result is a tear between the Destiny community about how to best keep gameplay relevant between both game modes, without either one being damaged.
This only got worse as Destiny 2 launched, with some players becoming frustrated by the tweaks made to make PvP more competitive and PvE more difficult as early as the beta. Similarly to how the balance of the first game changed as more Crucible modes and Raids were added to Destiny, the sequel has also evolved in a lot of ways not only from beta to release, but with each new season. However, while much of the rebalancing has been beneficial, some changes meant to fix exploits in PvP have caused major problems for the opposing end of the game.
Why Players Want PvP to be Separated From PvE
When it comes to how Bungie often chooses to alter Destiny's sandbox in order to fix exploits or keep the PvP meta from narrowing down to either one or just a handful of options, the effects are usually reflected in content against AI combatants. The most recent example of this being the recent Stasis nerfs that even developers at Bungie have acknowledged as being on the company's radar. In the case of the Stasis nerf, some fans have been especially vocal about the Titan Behemoth and how mobility has been reduced has eliminated the utility of the subclass in PvE content.
This has been a problem with Destiny 2's Stasis nerfs since Beyond Light started, but the issue isn't limited to the new abilities that arrived in this most recent year of the series. Looking back at the complaints from Destiny 2's beta and launch, there were the issues of the sticky grenades and shotguns that caused a huge change in the first year of the game from its predecessor. The complaint comes from abilities like fusion grenades being weakened to not be able to kill players who are shielded by either supers or other buffs, as well as shotguns being moved from being a special weapon to heavy.
In all of these cases, the result in PvP was mostly positive, but the effect on PvE made Destiny 2 players feel weaker and caused many of the strongest enemies to become even worse bullet sponges. From the launch complaints, the nerf on sticky grenades like fusion meant they couldn't kill standard enemies when attached to their heads, and players had little choice in secondary when backed into a corner without a shotgun or fusion rifle. Much of this has since been changed, but many of these rebalances have made players who preferred PvE content over PvP feel like an afterthought as oversight never seemed to catch how Crucible changes affected Strikes and Raids.
The Case For Keeping the Balance Connected
On the surface, it might seem like there are less players on the side of keeping the sandbox between PvP and PvE connected. However, while these fans might be less vocal about creating posts in the Bungie forum or on Reddit, they often appear in droves to the comments sections of these topics to argue for the other side. Considering that this is already the status quo of Destiny 2's gameplay, it makes sense that these players aren't as incentivized to bring their opinions to attention.
The most common argument on this side is that separating the sandbox would be more hurtful than it would be helpful to both PvP and PvE in the end. Essentially, if a nerf effects Destiny 2 in only one of these areas, then making the transition between the two would be drastically altered. Things like the mobility of the Titan Behemoth working differently would make strategizing on the fly difficult, as players would have to readjust to the different game modes every time they transitioned from one to the other.
While it's true that PvE and PvP already have different metas, with different guns and strategies prevailing for Destiny 2's different activities, the core sandbox is where this argument lies. If the aerial mobility is altered for one of these, then it has to be altered for both, otherwise the muscle memory built up from one activity to the next would conflict. Bungie is always looking to create an environment where players can jump from Strikes to the Crucible to Raiding without ever feeling like they're playing a different game between each mode, which is only possible by tying the sandboxes together.
Bungie's Next Move For Destiny's Sandbox
There is unfortunately no winner-take-all answer here where one side as absolutely right over the other, since both have enough valid points to not be wrong. However, the fact that these arguments exist on both sides does mean that there is something inherently flawed in the sandbox as it attempts to merge PvP elements with PvE across multiple activities. A good place to start looking for making adjustments across both sandboxes could come from Destiny 2's PvPvE activity Gambit, but there's no guarantee that such a limited view will be able to give players enough data to go off of.
All of that being said, Bungie has been consistently working to make sure that Destiny 2 is balanced in a way where there isn't a single build or weapon that acts as an obvious choice for either PvP or PvE content. It's a delicate balance that the developer has to strike, and while the mark is missed in ways that sometimes frustrates players, changes usual come quickly to try to readjust when needed. So, in some cases, it might be nice for players to feel like their guardians are powerful again by adjusting weapon and ability damage outside of PvP especially, but keeping the core gameplay connected might still be the best way to continue.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
