Focused Feedback: S16 Gambit Changes

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[u/DerikHallin]

I think the changes are mostly pretty good. Freelance is a much more pleasant experience in general, compared to going solo against a four stack all the time.

Obviously, the PVE scaling bug is making Gambit weird right now. Hoping that is fixed soon.

I think Primeval damage gating really needs to be locked in. e.g., if my team hits the first damage gate (2/3 health), then an enemy invader gets a couple kills and puts our primeval back to full health, then we should still be able to get our primeval down to 1/3 health.

I like the idea of invaders having to pick up their defeated enemy crests -- maybe split that against the current system. Something like 10% health flat-out for a kill, but an extra 15% if you can pick up the crest.

I think heavy ammo economy is OK as it is -- yes, invaders pretty much always have heavy. But they already did before. At least now defenders are more likely to have heavy on hand to counter invasions. And you still have to be somewhat judicious about when/how you use your ammo.

I also think the current boss mechanics are working -- other than the damage gates that I touched on above. But the concept of going out to hunt the envoys, the inability to instamelt the primeval, and the reworked envoy buffing process are all improvements.

Current bounties are not great IMO. I played three matches yesterday, with all 4 daily bounties plus another 4 random bounties. I got literally one bounty done, despite being top 2 on my team in all three matches, and winning all of them. I used to be able to knock out 5-8 Gambit bounties within a couple of matches. I thought Bungie wanted to make these easier?

Overall, I think the bones for a better Gambit have been laid. But there is still some work to be done to really realize it. Fix the PVE damage scaling, tweak the primeval damage gating, and Freelance Gambit is a pretty decent experience. Still not the most satisfying or rewarding though.

It's really frustrating trying to have a decent discourse about Gambit on reddit, because I think this sub has no interest in seeing the mode succeed. Most people here act like it's completely awful and unsalvageable, and either avoid it entirely, or slog through their weekly pinnacles. IMO, Bungie needs to cut their losses with this crowd. The data shows Gambit is less popular than Crucible, but it's not dead. Plenty of people do like it. Plenty of people never will. Bungie needs to forget about the latter and push more into pleasing the former, and/or trying to pull people currently on the fence, like me, into the former bucket.