Currently, one of the most significant changes between a normal raid and hard raid is the inability to revive teammates during instances. Frankly, this is just bizarre. Not only is there no precedent anywhere in the game, but being able to revive teammates is one of the most fundamental properties of this game.
I mean, it's literally the first thing in the Destiny experience; you're resurrected by your Ghost.
However, the removal of our ability to revive teammates means Bungie's designers have taken a subtractive approach to increasing difficulty. The alternative would be additive (e.g., enemies have more health, enemies deal more damage, there are more enemies, etc.), which are tactics they also employ, but the mixture is a little weird.
Presumably, the intent is to make dying a big bummer. But that's the problem. Dying is already a pretty big bummer, and no revives means we're not playing.
Are these implications really what Bungie wants?
In another thread, another player pointed out how certain subclasses become irrelevant in hard mode. For instance, Warlocks' ability to self res with sunsinger is WAY more important than nova bombs, which are rendered highly ineffective by the much tougher enemies. The suggestion there is that perhaps these supers are not suitably balanced.
For the purposes of the hard mode raids, though, making certain subclasses irrelevant subtracts more viable resources from the game. Further, it limits our strategic options.
The cumulative effect is that hard mode raids aren't really hard. They're merely a matter of employing one of the few strategies that work and crossing your fingers that everything goes as planned and that no glitches trip you up.
It's just a weird experience that isn't really representative of the game as a whole. The raid design team has cherry picked elements of the game to make important to us, and part of the puzzle is figuring out what works and what doesn't work. It isn't necessarily about how [i]well[/i] you execute, just that you do.
I'd like to see the hard mode raids made more difficult by adding layers of obstacles, not removing tools from our tool box. Let our skills breathe. Don't make us pigeon hole ourselves into specific skillsets and resources that we must use to complete the challenge. Instead, present challenges that give equal credence to all of our abilities and allow us to choose the ones we like to use based on the challenges ahead of us, not what you've taken away from us.
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I disagree... So much so... Reviving is not a "core" part of the game, but merely a necessity. The when playing alone, if you die in a darkness zone, you restart. In a team, if you died, and could not be brought back, you would be sitting around for a long while, or you team mates would have to wipe (like in the raid...) This would make the game play much more difficult and frustrating to play with anyone else because if they die, you have to restart. This puts groups playing on a team at a sever disadvantage to those playing alone, Making players more likely to avoid groups for most of the game, and most of the game CAN be soloed. So, if you could not revive in man game, no one would play together, which is kinda the point of the game. The raid was intended to be different, and intended to be a difficult test of teamwork. Where everything in the main game "Can" be done solo, the raid was designed to "require" multiple players to complete. (Yes, some parts can be still soloed on crota, but... ) Removing revive makes every player essential at all times, one death can lead to a wipe. Making every player indispensable. You must truly rely on teamwork and cooperation to beat a raid. Allowing revives on hard mode would make it equally easy as normal, when you are of the appropriate level. It's actually really hard to make it difficult if you can revive. Nightfall is hard even with revives, however, there are no "wipes" and there are also numerous difficulty modifiers. With only 3 player and such high damage levels coming from burns, its not hard for all 3 to get killed, especially when they try and revive a downed team mate. W/o burn and with 6 players, it would be much easier to keep everyone alive. Also, the night fallis cheese-able by allowing a dead player in the open to return to orbit and then join back in alive, circumventing the whole "revive" thing in the first place. Try that in the raid and you still come back dead, and un-relivable. I would like to see more challenging game play mechanics added to future hard raids, BUT, keep the no revive.