Alright so this is an addendum to my earlier post about possible professions in Destiny and will include the original post and a few changes. Im sure this has been talked about elsewhere, albeit possibly with a different structure or idea. I want to talk about adding professions in Destiny. I don't mean professions in the way that some people consider it. I don't think it should be a profession in the sense that players can make money or materials off of it (since there's no player to player trade economy) but it should be a profession in the sense that players can achieve greater heights of customization in this game. I propose professions under the guise of weapon specializations. How many times have you received a legendary sniper rifle (or some other weapon) that had the perfect perks, but its solar and you really need void. Weapon specializations would allow Guardians focus or specialize into a specific weapon category and perhaps alter that. Do you love hand cannons? Then specialize into hand cannons. Like blowing stuff up but want to do it with more explosions? Then specialize into rocket launchers. Specializations would allow Guardians to upgrade and/or change certain weapons. For an example I'll use hand cannon specialization. Say you decide to specialize into hand cannons. You will have the ability to alter or upgrade certain features of hand cannons. This could possibly include changing the elemental damage type, upgrading the damage to the current max damage, swapping weapon perks (or perhaps full re-rolls like on Iron Banner weapons), and maybe something as cosmetic as the colors of the sights on the weapons or the color of the weapon itself. As a more in depth example I will use the Fatebringer hand cannon. It's max damage is capped at 300. A hand cannon specialist would have the ability to upgrade the damage value the new max damage value of 331. They could also potentially change the elemental type from arc to solar or void. One question is where would Guardians even pick up weapon specializations? I suggest the gunsmith at level 20. Maybe even make picking up a specialization part of some kind of bounty where characters have to gather certain items or a manual of some sort for the gunsmith (don't necessarily make it as easy as just talking to someone). This is one more thing players would have to experiment with and have fun with. When proposing something like this it's also important to address flaws in it and try to fix them. Here are some problems and potential solutions I can think of. 1. Problem: Guardians using weapon specializations to amass ridiculously overpowered weapons of various elemental damage types and weapon types. Such as having a Solar, Arc, and Void Gjallarhorn….mother of god... Solution(s): Only allow weapon specializations for legendary weapons…pure and simple. This is because exotics are typically made to be a specific unique weapon. Another solution (which I think should be a baseline rule regardless) is to allow Guardians only a single weapon specialization at any given time. If you pick hand cannons, don't think you can switch to rocket launchers after upgrading your hand cannons and still use the upgraded hand cannons. You lose the specialization you lose the ability to use the specialized weapon. You can still change your specialization. just don't think you can cheat the system. 2. Problem: What materials to use for said upgrades? Solution(s): Having to use weapon parts makes sense, glimmer (in greater amounts compared to normal upgrades), and combinations of the four resources. perhaps specific bounties would have to be completed for the gunsmith. Maybe when trying to change a weapons elemental type from solar to arc you'd have to use up an arc weapon (of the same weapon type) to change it. So many possibilities Guardians! 3. Problem: Is this even balanced? won't everyone just specialize into heavy weapons? Solution(s): Well, some most certainly will. but how many heavy ammo syntheses do you have for PvE? Is it efficient to rely on heavy weapons for crucible? Specializations are exactly just that. By selecting one you give up the others. Each weapon type has a particular advantage and weapon specialists should be able to roll with those advantages. Edit: it will probably also be a good idea to limit the changes that can be done to raid weapons as similarly to exotic weapons they serve a particular purpose and a unique design. So while it might be ok to give the option to upgrade the damage of these weapons it would be possibly bad to allow a change of elemental damage or especially the perks. Also in order to not "punish" those who choose not to specialize and would prefer to be Jacks or Jills of All Trades. Perhaps bonuses could be offered in the way of decreased upgrade costs on weapons for those who choose to not specialize and instead choose to be generalists, or something to a similar level. These are the only problems I can think of at the moment but I would love to discuss this idea with other Guardians or Bungie (if they're reading this). I feel like this would add more customization to the game and give players more things to do (who doesn't like that?). Please feel free to message me if you have any suggestions or critiques on this idea. Bungie if you're reading this I'm sure you've already talked about this kind of thing but feel free to use any of these ideas and run with it. You and I and every other Guardian out there wants more things to do in the world of Destiny! TL;DR: Weapon Specialization will allow for greater customization. Please read though because it's hard to briefly state a big implementation like this.