I want to be very clear up front: this isn’t a “too hard, please nerf” post. I understand what Contest mode is supposed to be. I’ve played Destiny long enough to know that Contest is meant to test skill, coordination, execution, and experience. But what Contest has become—especially highlighted by the new dungeon Equilibrium—is something else entirely. There is no reason that fully optimized, endgame builds should need to be pushed even further into pixel-perfect DPS math just to pass an encounter. When teams are running optimal loadouts, executing mechanics cleanly, hitting strong numbers, and still wiping purely because a damage gate exists, that stops being a skill check and becomes a time tax. Let’s be honest about what’s happening here. Contest difficulty is increasingly built around hard DPS checks, not mastery. Not adaptability. Not problem-solving. Just: Did you squeeze out enough damage in this exact window with this exact setup? And when the answer is “no,” the solution isn’t learning—it’s repeating the same encounter for hours until fatigue, RNG, or perfect execution lines up. I don’t find any value in spending 10+ hours on a single encounter because the boss HP is tuned around near-theoretical max output. I don’t feel challenged in a meaningful way. I feel drained. And I don’t think that’s the experience Contest should be aiming for. If the goal of Contest raids and dungeons is player engagement and time spent in-game—congrats, you succeeded. But there is no reward you could offer that justifies that time investment. An emblem? A guaranteed exotic? Neither of those are worth sacrificing an entire day banging my head against a DPS wall. World’s First trophies are cool. Truly. But let’s not pretend that’s relevant to most of the playerbase. One team wins. A handful even have a realistic shot at competing. Everyone else is effectively watching the final match of a tournament they were never allowed to enter. That’s a problem. Contest currently feels like a binary filter: You either no-life it until the numbers line up, or you don’t belong there. That doesn’t encourage improvement—it discourages participation. I’m not asking Bungie to hand-hold players. I’m not asking for guides, freebies, or easy clears. I’m asking for Contest difficulty to respect player skill instead of player endurance. Some actual, constructive suggestions: • Reduce reliance on raw DPS checks and shift pressure toward mechanics, positioning, and execution under stress. • Allow multiple viable damage strategies, not one mathematically correct answer. • If DPS checks are necessary, give players clear feedback on what failed—don’t just let the timer run out. • Consider scaling boss health dynamically with performance instead of hard walls that demand perfection. • Respect time investment. Contest should be intense—not exhausting. Right now, Contest feels less like an achievement and more like a status symbol for who was willing to suffer the longest. That’s not something I want to chase anymore. After Desert Perpetual, I’m done participating in these events. Not because I can’t do them—but because they offer nothing of value in return. They don’t feel rewarding, they don’t feel fair, and they don’t feel respectful of the player’s time. And as long as the community keeps defending this design as “the point of Contest,” nothing will change. That’s the real issue.