I think it has the same problem almost everything in Destiny 2 has, though. And that's difficulty scaling. Look at Escalation Protocol and Blind Well. They were very difficult at first, and they become easier as you gain power level. Once you're overleveled, they become very nearly trivial (Me and three blueberries breezed through many Tier 4 Blind Wells--it wasn't quite "trivial," but it was close).

There's no doubt that the Forges will follow the same pattern. I'm at 612-614 depending on weapons, and the Volundr Forge feels perfect in terms of challenge. It's very doable, but mistakes can also lead to failure fairly easily. In another two weeks, I feel like the Forges are going to be just as trivial as the Blind Well now is (unless the Forges we haven't seen are different than the two we have in some way).

I've said before that I really liked the House of Wolves era of Destiny, and I think the Prison of Elders would have been a good blueprint for the Forges. I think a tiered difficulty selection for escalating challenge (and rewards!) would be cool. I always liked that aspect of the Prison of Elders. The Blind Well sort of hints at it, but not in a way that really feels satisfying.

In this hypothetical I see the highest tier Forge being at a level where the player is always underleveled. If the cap is 650, maybe the event starts at 660.

Destiny 2 has definitely simplified the way loot is handled, so I'm not exactly sure how you would scale up rewards for each difficulty level. Initially, making the Powerful engrams from the activity scale is a potential (if slightly lazy) solution. Bottom tier would be a guaranteed +1, middle +3, highest +5. But that would become irrelevant very quickly.

I also thought of the tying weapon drops to tiers. Maybe the highest tier forged weapons could drop fully Masterworked already. Maybe they could offer unique perk combinations that aren't possible anywhere else?

I can also see a version where you "forge" a weapon at the lowest tier, and then you must use it in activities, similar to what the frame activation requires now. The lowest tier might drop a blue version of the weapon, then you use it for a while, complete some activities with it (headshots, multikills, whatever), then take it into the next tier to turn it into a legendary where it gets it's first perk. You then do some more activities and complete the highest tier where it becomes fully Masterworked and gains a second perk. In a really crazy, awesome world, perhaps the activities you chose to do with the weapons would direct which perks you get. Go for headshots to pull in the pool that gives you outlaw or dragonfly. Go for multikills to shoot for Rampage or Kill Clip. You get the idea. You wouldn't be able to directly select perks (in order to keep the chase there, and keep people going back to the Forges), but you could direct which set of perks you are pulling from based on the goals you choose to use the weapon for.

That's just dreaming, and extraneous to what I think would have actually helped the initial launch blues of Black Armory--tiered difficulty settings that ensure activities can be completed at low level and provide a path to gain level, but also provide a mode that will always be challenging.

I've come close, but still haven't managed to beat the Gofannon Forge (seriously, those Servitors are a pain in the ass). I've completed the Volundr Forge around a dozen times now. It's a really neat activity!

It's a bit disappointing that the only difference between the two available Forges are enemy mixtures. I wasn't expecting, but I was hoping for them to have some mechanical differences, with a unique twist for each one.

In any case, I'm really enjoying the new stuff. The bounties are a cool addition. They're a great mix of doing old stuff to and running the Forge.

I do worry about how fun the Forges will remain once everyone is at or near the level cap--the challenge level seems nearly perfect when just above 610. I hope they remain as fun when they're significantly easier. Blind Well and Escalation Protocol are fun now that they're easily largely because of the large numbers of players and the public nature of the events (at least that's a huge part of it for me), but the Forge doesn't have that to sustain it.

Ditto on glimmer!

For whatever it’s worth, I just spent like 30-60 minutes on each planet doing patrols and PEs and opening chests, and I ended up with over 100 of each material. Just take a Nightstalker Hunter with top tree for the radar and use a ghost with cache detector or whatever it’s called and it’s easy. It’s slightly annoying to have to spend the few hours it took, but it’s not bad if you just commit to it. I also took the opportunity to start hunting down regional chests and lost sectors so I can get rid of that annoying Triumph banner every time I move gear around with DIM.

I spent some time doing that as well yesterday. I also grab the location bounties as well and stored them up for next week so I can just pop them for the materials and Ikora's bounty.

Your solution would be great, I just don’t think we’d ever see it implemented, as it seems pretty clear Bungie doesn’t want people to power up that quickly.

https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/a3lzyx/power_level_650_has_been_reached

No soft cap and bankable rewards. Miss a week? It’s ok just do the milestone twice this week!

And what happens if I dont play for a month? Do I have to grind 4 weeks of power levels just to be able to raid with my friends?

That’s better than being perpetually four weeks behind, isn’t it? My solution would also let you potentially power up pretty consistently from any legendary engrams.

My solution also at least ostensibly still lines up with whatever asinine design goals Bungie has in mind by including such a constructive grind to begin with. You’d still have to play, but you wouldn’t just be locked out of progressing once you finish your weekly checklist.

Your solution would be great, I just don’t think we’d ever see it implemented, as it seems pretty clear Bungie doesn’t want people to power up that quickly.

For whatever it’s worth, I just spent like 30-60 minutes on each planet doing patrols and PEs and opening chests, and I ended up with over 100 of each material. Just take a Nightstalker Hunter with top tree for the radar and use a ghost with cache detector or whatever it’s called and it’s easy. It’s slightly annoying to have to spend the few hours it took, but it’s not bad if you just commit to it. I also took the opportunity to start hunting down regional chests and lost sectors so I can get rid of that annoying Triumph banner every time I move gear around with DIM.

No soft cap and bankable rewards. Miss a week? It’s ok just do the milestone twice this week!

And what happens if I dont play for a month? Do I have to grind 4 weeks of power levels just to be able to raid with my friends?

I use them fairly liberally. I don't bother with masterworking my armor, but I'm chipping away at upgrading the masterworks on a bunch of my weapons, with several of them fully upgraded now. The planetary materials are the thing that I still run out of on a regular basis. That, and glimmer. My glimmer bank seems to flip between maxed out and bone dry, completely bypassing everything in between lol.

Or hell, keep the soft cap. But make it so that every Legendary Engram drops at +1 to your average. Depending on which slot they hit, they still might not help, but you will be able to always steadily climb. Then keep the milestones as guaranteed powerful rewards. I just fixed 90% of the game’s progression problems.

What of they had a set powerful engram level that increased on a set schedule? No matter what your light level going in (assuming you had reached max 1-50 level) you would get powerful engrams at set level each day.
For example:
Black Armory launches with an increase in max light level from 600 to 650.
Day 1 - All powerful engrams drop at 605, regardless of your personal light level.
Day 2 - All powerful engrams drop at 610, regardless of your light level or if you played the previous day.
Day 3 - All powerful engrams drop at 615, regardless of your light level or if you played the previous day.
Day 4 and so on - drops increase by 5 each day.

Raid releases on Day 3 with a light level of 630-640. Everyone who has played can be at 615 with a reasonable amount of playtime. The raid is still challenging, but is available to play for players who have been playing constantly and players who are returning after a break. Larger pool competing for world's first.

By the end of the 2nd week you could be at max power level. I suspect the hardcore grinders will be there by that time anyway under the current system.

Returning players who didn't play days 1-whatever can still level up at an easy pace. Play one day of powerful engram activites and you should be caught up with your friends and ready to raid.

Did they change the infusion requirements? That alone would help dramatically.

No, but it has seemed to me that I am getting more cores from beaking down weapons and scrapper bounties are dropping regularly.

I did get to see that I can't exchange armor mod materials unless I buy the annual pass. It was only a little insulting.

I'll continue to play a few times a week, but I'm disappointed that other than a seemingly better RNG, I'm starting the 560-600 grind from 600-650. Just as I was mostly to a single set of masterwork armor. Ah well.

Maybe the dawning will be a bit better.

• I know Bungie is going to address things as soon as they can, but man oh man, what a terrible opening experience this has been. Why is something like this being addressed with emergency Power Level reductions and Weekly Updates? It really feels like nobody at Bungie is advocating for the normal player anymore. Yes, streamers who are literally paid to play the game all day probably can beat it early, but the rest of us are just stuck now. And, sheesh, even though I'm still stuck, there are plenty of people well below my Power Level who have zero chance of beating this first forge this year! "New Content! (that you can't play or enjoy)" totally sucks.
  
  
• Escalation Protocol "worked" because it could be (had to be) ignored for the first several weeks weeks because there was other stuff to do. There was a story to beat. There were collectables to find. There were Strikes to complete and get good at. There were Exotics and special Legendary quests to go after. With Black Armory, there is absolutely nothing to do except fail to complete the first forge over and over. (Of course, Escalation Protocol didn't really work either. Remember, Bungie had to do one of these server side emergency tweaks to it too. What is it with Bungie not respecting their players these days??)
  
  
• Why do all of these team events totally suck when it comes to rewards if you don't complete them? When me and a couple of random got the boss down to 25% health we got a green triangle and a blue engram that did absolutely nothing to help me succeed. 580ish rewards when I'm being stomped by 620-625 level enemies is just stupid. I'm not even sure why this forge drops rewards, because they don't mean anything. They're more like an insult or middle finger than a reward. Actually completing the event should still be rewarding, and it looks like it might be given Ada's extensive screen of stuff to earn, but not beating it shouldn't be a complete waste of time like it is now. And that goes for things like EP and the Blind Well.
  
  
• This obsession Bungie has with starting us off with a nearly impossible uphill climb needs to end. Why can't Patrol, or Strikes, or matchmade activities, or Raids be enjoyable from day one? Why does the challenge keep coming from me dying in two hits instead of clever mechanics or an overwhelming number of normal enemies? If there needs to be an extra challenge beyond mechanics and normal enemies, why can't selectable light levels be a thing again? Remember back when there were four levels of Strikes that you could progress through? Black Armory sure could use a system like that right now!

And so, I end day two of Black Armory with no one to play with and a new vendor who won't let me buy anything because I only once even got close to unlocking her two screens of inventory... :(