# Destiny: discussion & clans



## CrushingAnvil

General Destiny discussion. You can post your clans which you can create on the Bungie-Destiny site.

Point of order: what class will you choose, what subclass will you use, and what weapons will you use the most? 

If you guys are like "what? People care about this game?", then you should go and wash the shames off you.

HRRNNNGGGGG:


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## loqtrall

Probably won't be in a clan, like to fly solo.
Hunter
Gunslinger
Marksman Rifle

Don't plan on doing PvP, as I know there will probably be little to no way to balance it, and if it's AT ALL like it was in the beta, I won't be playing it much, if at all.
It's all missions and exploration for me.


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## Taylor

Part of the 405th - Halo Costuming clan of Halo prop makers, going to be rolling as a Titan, subclass Striker, with a Scout rifle.


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## Pav

I avoided touching both the alpha and beta to wait until I could play the full game on PS4. So I have no clue what I'm going to do yet.


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## HighGain510

Not sure, going to create 3 different guys eventually anyway.  I managed to grab a copy of the LE today when Amazon got some more in stock so I canceled my standard copy. Figured I enjoyed single player enough that DLC would be worth it for me, so I'm glad I was able to find a copy before Tuesday!


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## SkullCrusher

Pav said:


> I avoided touching both the alpha and beta to wait until I could play the full game on PS4. So I have no clue what I'm going to do yet.



 I always leave beta's encase I get a bad taste for a game.

I could do with some more PSN/PS4 friends: *Norfolkshire*


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## Gothic Headhunter

Probably gonna be a warlock and use shotguns/scout rifles most of the time. I can't even wait.


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## Repner

Not sure. Haven't looked at much of this since it was announced.


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## Cloudy

I bought the PS4 Destiny bundle so I dont technically have a PSN account yet but I will tomorrow  

Not sure what class I'll be but I know it wont be a warlock. It'll depend on what my character looks like. No clan yet but I'd love to hook up with some SSO peeps.


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## Konfyouzd

loqtrall said:


> Probably won't be in a clan, like to fly solo.



Gangsta...


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## Pav

Cloudy said:


> I bought the PS4 Destiny bundle so I dont technically have a PSN account yet but I will tomorrow


The white one? I bought the same bundle. Mine shipped out this morning, I'm super excited.


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## loqtrall

Konfyouzd said:


> Gangsta...


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## Dooky

Exo - Titan - Striker
Full auto machineguns, and if the rumours are true, sword!

I like to play very aggressively in first person shooters, never been one to sit back and snipe. Gotta be in the thick of the action.


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## BlackMastodon

Everyone's off to play Destiny and I'm just sitting here sobbing uncontrollably because it won't be on PC for a while...


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## Cloudy

Pav said:


> The white one? I bought the same bundle. Mine shipped out this morning, I'm super excited.



Yeap thats the one 

Mine shipped friday but still isn't here  was hoping Id get it early but alas no ups man arrived.


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## Tyler

Nobody on a university connection can even login and create a character. So bogus


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## HurrDurr

Gonna go grab me a copy as soon as I leave work. Unfortunately I seem to remember having preordered the LE, but it seems that was just a fabricated memory of some sorts... So I'm _*HOPING*_ there'll be a copy available somewhere on this Earth after 5pm today.


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## MoshJosh

Just picked up my copy, probably not gonna play a lot of pvp and I'm not to sure how clans work haha 

but if you have an Xbox One and want a friend hit me up for my gamer tag

EDIT: also the QR code(think thats what they are called) on the Kinect works amazingly well when the code is printed large enough as it was on the Destiny armor pack.

took like 2 seconds to redeem my code


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## HighGain510

I got my LE copy last night and surprisingly thrilled that the install was fairly quick and there were no server hiccups at all! Played for about 4 hours and then called it quits since I had to get into the office early today.  I forgot how much more difficult the game is when you first start a new character (or they bumped up the difficulty levels post-beta, I got bitch smacked by a Level 7 Captain when I thought I was strong enough to melee the last of his health away and he killed me with that one shot.  I think I spent a half hour at the end of the night just roaming the open field portion of Old Russia running in circles leveling up to 5, so now I have the energy grenade, the super attack (mid-air bomb shot?) and the melee grenade energy absorb, so I'm feeling a bit more confident about rushing into some of the tighter areas now.  Been running solo the whole time too which makes some of the game a bit more difficult, hoping some of my buds pop on soon so we can level up together and I don't get raped when 8 guys are attacking from different directions and they're all 3+ levels higher than I am.  Overall, really digging it though, can't wait to find the better weaponry so I can whup some ass come boss time! 



MoshJosh said:


> EDIT: also the QR code(think thats what they are called) on the Kinect works amazingly well when the code is printed large enough as it was on the Destiny armor pack.
> 
> took like 2 seconds to redeem my code



Agreed!  I played without using my codes for the first few hours, then remembered they were in the case so I shut down my XBO and attached the Kinect (always leave it unplugged, not a fan of having an open camera/mic being left on in my house all day, sorry MS! ) and scanned all three codes within 20 seconds! Totally beats the days of having to type out the entire code by hand on the controller!


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## Taylor

Well, by the end of yesterday I was level 15, so I'm not having any problems leveling up .


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## HurrDurr

I'll agree with *HighGain* on a noted difficulty bump post-Beta. I was a pro in the Beta, but I'm finding myself being similarly wacked to death when I was confident I could withstand the assault on my own. My guess is maybe too many of us were flying solo on the Beta and the difficulty bump is a subtle attempt by developers at encouraging us to work together. It's definitely more fun that way, since a good squad of three can take on most missions at the appropriate levels with moderately challenging difficulty _(easy enough to enjoy it without dying 10 times, yet hard enough to enjoy the challenge and keep you engaged)_ as opposed to near-impossible solo in most cases.


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## MoshJosh

Played a little PVP last night and actually had a lot of fun, more fun that I had with the beta, might have had to do with teaming up with a friend and being able to chat but still. Even when I was playin with/against players with twice my level I didn't feel too overpowered. I'm sure it will change a bit as more FPS bada$$es get the game but whatever


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## HighGain510

HurrDurr said:


> I'll agree with *HighGain* on a noted difficulty bump post-Beta. I was a pro in the Beta, but I'm finding myself being similarly wacked to death when I was confident I could withstand the assault on my own. My guess is maybe too many of us were flying solo on the Beta and the difficulty bump is a subtle attempt by developers at encouraging us to work together. It's definitely more fun that way, since a good squad of three can take on most missions at the appropriate levels with moderately challenging difficulty _(easy enough to enjoy it without dying 10 times, yet hard enough to enjoy the challenge and keep you engaged)_ as opposed to near-impossible solo in most cases.



There are a few spots in Old Russia where if you go down to a basement or underneath those big ships, there are the knights and other large glowing dudes with them that are shown as "Lvl: ????" and when you attack them it just says "resistant" or something like that? As soon as I saw them, I was like "F_U_CK THIS!!!" and ran back upstairs. I tried to bolt past them a few times in the beta and got smoked every time, figured with the way things were going initially, no point in trying this time!  Can't wait to get home and rock that shit some more!


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## Taylor

Yeah, in the alpha those guys took 1 damage point per shot (some epic youtube vids out there of guys teaming up to take them down), but they were "immune" to all damage in the beta.


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## HurrDurr

I somewhat remember something like that, but I'm not sure. One instance I thought was kinda funny was how the original trailer for the *Devil's Lair* raid(?) during the Beta showed a squad of three players nearly one-shot'ing everything down to the Hive Knights and Wizards. It was just completely unrealistic considering how much of an immense struggle that was for me in Beta to complete it with a squad consisting of three Lvl 8's whereas I remember the recommended level being Lvl 7, if I'm not mistaken. We got our cans handed to us _many, many_ times.


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## Pav

Tyler said:


> Nobody on a university connection can even login and create a character. So bogus



I'm seeing angry threads and blog posts pop up all over about this. I didn't know accommodating the nuances of a campus network was now the developer's problem.


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## Gothic Headhunter

"Descend into the Hellmouth and fight the swarm princes"

There is literally no part of that statement that didn't give me an erection


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## MoshJosh

^^ just went to do that mission and fell through some moon rocks, got stuck, and had to return to orbit


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## stevo1

Just finished the moon strike mission. .... me, it was long!


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## HurrDurr

After spending two days with it, I'd like to reiterate that they have _*definitely*_ upped the difficulty post-Beta. I'm not complaining, but dang is this way harder than the Beta. I'm getting obliterated here _(partly because I insist on going through missions and other events I'm not geared and/or Lvl'd for)_, but I love it!


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## Black_Sheep

Do we have somekind of a clan going on here at sso? 

I played the game non-stop for about 16 hours since the servers opened on monday. Absolutely love it. Got a lvl 20 (soon higher) warlock and also just started with a hunter, gonna do titan later on too. 

I need some friends to play with cause I wanna do raids. Haven't done any yet but im interested, and you can only do those with friends. Also wanna team up with good players in the Crucible. Im getting sick of losing all matches cause of noobs in my team. 

Hunter has the most op skill in Crucible matches, the golden pistol. I hate it when people just go "bang you're dead" and that's it. Wonder if they're gonna nerf that. 

Oh, and im on teh PS4. PSN: Black_Sheep335


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## loqtrall

The main thing I notice differing from the beta is the difficulty level. Not difficulty level as in "holy shit this is ....ing hard", difficulty as in it takes several more shots to down an enemy than it did in the beta. Even with crits (headshots) it still takes 2 or 3 shots for enemies like Vandals and Acolytes, and a shit load for enemies like Captains and Knights.

In the beta, with scout rifles (best crit damage and chance since single shot apart from snipers) at around level 4 or 5 I could down a Vandal of the same level in 3 or 4 body shots. In the full game it takes quite a few shots to take them down, and it'll take me one whole magazine or more to take out a Captain or a Knight. I'm not complaining, I love the added minor challenge; but sometimes it can get really overwhelming. Especially when you have hordes of Dregs or Thrall running and shooting at you, and the only 1 or 2 shot is a critical hit to the head or a knife. When it takes 2-3 shots per Thrall to take them down (assuming you're not aiming down sights because they attack in packs) it gets REALLY overwhelming at times when a group of 8 or 9 of them rush at you and their melee attacks will take you out if you get hit by them 4 or 5 times, meaning you have to take out 9 Thrall before 4 of them hit you. Dregs aren't that bad, and it seems they could make the AI for Dregs a tad more intelligent.

Another HUGE boost in health - Servitors. It takes me so god damn long to kill a Servitor at lower levels that I actually save them for last and take out every other enemy in the room/area. On a normal Level 4 Servitor I must have emptied 2 or 3 magazines in to it before I downed it. They're by far the most annoying "difficulty" change, considering they can shield other enemies. I just got the game about 6-7 hours ago and have been playing on and off (will play A LOT more tomorrow), so I haven't done The Devil's Lair, but I'd imagine if the enemy difficulty change stays true, that killing the two bosses on that mission takes FOR-....ING-EVER, as it took long enough in the Beta even when you were overgeared.

Other than that, I love it. Bungie really succeeded with this one. It's fun, encourages players to interact with one another (especially with the enemy health boost), the gameplay is pretty addicting, I love the storyline and find it to be a super interesting concept, and having a Peter Dinklebot hovering over my shoulder the entire time is pretty awesome, too.

I can't wait to explore places like Venus and Mars, or even the entirety of the moon since the beta didn't allow it. I'm very very very very VERY interested to see what they bring in patches and DLC's/expansions. Perhaps whole new planets and storylines, lots of new gear, and who knows, maybe even new classes in the distant future.

This game has shit loads of potential, and so far I'm loving it.


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## Ralyks

I played for an hour after I got it at the midnight release, and I played for maybe an hour and a half last night. I feel I need people to play with to enjoy it more. I have a level 5 hunter.

If you want to add me on PSN to play, Ralyks03.


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## stevo1

Who here has it for Xbox One?


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## loqtrall

I have it on Xbone.

Another thing I found that sort of bugs me is that the AI seemingly causes all enemies aside from bosses to run behind walls when you aim at them and don't come out unless you go confront them, which can be quite a problem when you're facing an enemy you know you don't want to face in close quarters (knights with swords, captains). It also gets really annoying when you're facing 10-15 enemies spread across a large area and every single one of them take cover and NEVER come out, they just stand there endlessly unless you go after them, so sniping becomes more or less a chore.


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## stevo1

loqtrall said:


> I have it on Xbone.
> 
> Another thing I found that sort of bugs me is that the AI seemingly causes all enemies aside from bosses to run behind walls when you aim at them and don't come out unless you go confront them, which can be quite a problem when you're facing an enemy you know you don't want to face in close quarters (knights with swords, captains). It also gets really annoying when you're facing 10-15 enemies spread across a large area and every single one of them take cover and NEVER come out, they just stand there endlessly unless you go after them, so sniping becomes more or less a chore.



I'm annoyed by this as well. They seem to only confront you until you actually kill some of them, then the rest run and hide. For sniping however, if you look away at something else, they come back out (for me anyways).


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## MoshJosh

^^^ I'm rocking it on the One


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## Pav

This game most definitely shines when you have people to play with. I'm already in a sort of small clan and just with 5 of us, we can split up while some queue for a strike and others hop in the crucible. Then we can coordinate our efforts in story missions or just meet and hang at the tower and compare gear. From a social standpoint this game is phenominal.

Is anyone else totally hooked? I just hit 20 last night with my hunter/gunslinger and I can't stop. Gotta hit 26 for the first real raid in two days.


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## monkeybike

T1M9995 on psn, in desperate need of a fireteam! All my chump friends have Xbones.


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## Gothic Headhunter

KingOfTheDust on PSN, level 18 warlock.

Also, does anyone else find it really easy to get headshots with the hand cannons? I just roll with hand canons and sniper rifles most of the time, and especially with the hive, I get headshots left and right.


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## Jake

Haven't had a ton of time to play yet since I have to play my roommates copy until this Saturday when mine gets here but I just hit level 8 on a warlock and I'm loving it so far. Only thing that annoys me is the fvcking wizards always kick my ass.


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## Taylor

Level 24 Titan right now with 2 Legendary items: The Cryptic Dragon Scout Rifle, and the Astrolord Gauntlets.


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## stevo1

MoshJosh said:


> ^^^ I'm rocking it on the One



What's your gamer tag? 
Mine is Svengarde, whoever wants to add me!


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## HurrDurr

I'm running a LVL 22 Titan on PS4 as of last night. I've come to really enjoy the difficulty bump, and I'm anxious for the raids and PVP events to be released soon. The Vault of Glass raid goes live tomorrow, so hopefully I can gear up to at least LVL 24 before then and run through the early stages a few times to farm some gear before I can actually take it to the end. It's gonna be a LVL 26 raid, with special raid-exclusive legendary armor set pieces as rewards plus materials _(I'm guessing Strange Coins)_.

EDIT: Says on the site it's _*Ascendant Materials*_ as rewards along with the raid gear.


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## Ralyks

To emphazise how behind I am; Still level 5, only started going to the Crucible last night. Had I gone to the Crucible my first night, I'd imagine I would be much further along. I need people to play with


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## Black_Sheep

Two things that are starting to piss me off: 

1) The "Triple Play" -trophy. Kill a Warlock, a Hunter, and a Titan in one life. Shouldn't be that difficult but oh my... For example last night, I got a killstreak of 14. Was really expecting this to pop up any moment, but naaah. Apparently everyone just plays as a Hunter. Or dunno. Sooo frustrating. 


2) The amount of noobs in the game... Now im not saying im a pro or anyhing, but god damn.. My team almost always loses because nobody has any idea of what they are doing. Also super frustrating.. 

And last but not least... is there any way to turn off the old man's voice in the crucible matches? I didn't mind him at first but after 6 billion matches im starting to get sick of his voice.


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## Jake

Up to level 18, almost to the point where the fun begins 

Really started grinding out strike missions and doing bounties along with the crucible and leveled up 5 times in the past 2 hours so that's working.


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## loqtrall

Won't be playing the Crucible too much. The first time I tried the crucible (since the beta) was at level 14, as I was getting on with the storyline. It paired me up against a team full of levels 18,19,20-25. I was getting decimated quite a bit. I came back at level 18 and it's a bit better, but I still see myself dying more than living or killing. If there's an offchance that I catch someone off guard or come up behind them, I'd usually get the kill, but when it comes to a face-to-face firefight, people were downing me like it was nothing. All the main class abilities are overpowered as hell in competitive multiplayer, it's pretty ridiculous.


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## Taylor

Well, played a lot today, but still didn't find any decent gear. The funny thing is, the match I just played in, the guy that was AFK the whole match got the Legendary Engram, while the rest of us got squat.


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## MassNecrophagia

You guys know that experience level advantages are disabled in crucible, right?


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## loqtrall

MassNecrophagia said:


> You guys know that experience level advantages are disabled in crucible, right?



Yeah, but the weapon and armor upgrades and overpowered weapons that you can't even obtain until finishing the campaign or reaching level 20 (which I'm not even at yet) DO carry over to the crucible, as do all your class upgrades. The only things that don't carry over are base defense and base weapon damage stats, but all weapon, gear, and class upgrades DO transfer to the crucible, including weapon damage upgrades. For instance, my entire team was being destroyed by a level 25 guy with an outrageous Scout Rifle, fully upgraded gear most of which was legendary, and who was also blinking all over the place, an ability that you can't reach until later levels. Like it or not, it's NOT fair to put level 5-10's or even 5-14/15's up against THAT, and not only guys like him, but WHOLE TEAMS made up of guys like him.

There's no enjoyment when you're walking around with the strongest weapon you could find at level 10, doing like 55 damage, and you're getting absolutely decimated by dudes with weapons that do 5 or 6 times that because of upgrades and other factors. It was the same way in the beta, incredibly unbalanced. Obviously from Bungie's past in almost EVERY Halo, it wouldn't be that hard to create a system where only people within your general level are put into matchmaking with you. But that seems impossible due to the fact that even though the matchmaking pulls from ANY play levels and puts them all together, it still takes quite a bit of time to find only 12 players; it'd take forever to find 12 players of the same general level zone.

TL;DR: All upgrades and abilities do carry over to the crucible. Only defense and BASE weapon damage are normalized, which is pointless once someone has rare's or legendary's with steep damage upgrades, causing them to do 10, 20, or even 30 damage more than everyone else's weapons. The Crucible isn't as balanced as people make it out to be. The main people I see praising the crucible are level 20+, which would make sense considering the gear they can obtain. OBVIOUSLY if they sell specific gear FOR the crucible, weapon/gear damage/stats actually matter and aren't normalized.

EDIT: And this is coming from a guy that, since reaching level 19, does fairly well in the crucible, at least always positive k/d and am always a contributing member of my team. I actually wreck sometimes in the crucible, and still feel it's unbalanced and could be A LOT better. If they normalized EVERYTHING, took away all stats and upgrades, and normalized ALL weapon damage while in the crucible, so the game would essentially be a normal, non-RPG FPS that was purely based on skill instead of a mixture of skill/how-good-your-gear-is (like WoW and other MMO's), it would fix ALL the problems with the crucible.


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## HurrDurr

Weapon damage, _mods or not_, are balanced. So is base HP/defense and all special abilities are generally 1-hit kills at close range as well as shotguns when aimed effectively and sniper/scout rifle headshots seem to follow suit as well. Now, you might still have some buffs or other class abilities but their benefits and how much damage they do are balanced. And I say this as a LVL 25 Titan with 1000+ defense and weapons dealing damage in the near 300 or above register... finding myself killed by one close-range shotgun shell triggered by a LVL 5 player _numerous_ times. It absolutely _has_ to be balanced all-around or else low-level shotgun blasts from those players dealing barely 75+ damage at most couldn't possibly scratch away at my defenses and it most assuredly would _not_ take more than _the mere thought_ of me melee'ing him to bring him down, let alone the two or three smacks it _actually_ takes me to bring down a guy 1/4 my level considering I one-shot melee _*any*_ grunt minion _(and some 'captain' class enemies)_ LVL 12 and under. Again, me being the guy who it wouldn't be fair to stack numerous LVL 5's against, I'm still getting killed by just one and that's all the proof you all need to know regarding how balanced PVP is in Destiny. Basically, all that carries over are your appearances and the abilities your classes and weapons have which are either going to be severely _'nerfed'_ or everyone else will be powered up to a set point.

I'd also like to add that the Beta was also balanced, though not to the extent of the full game and I did complain about it, as did many others.
Will further add that I do pretty mediocre in Crucible matches regardless of my teammates, so I'm certainly not the LVL 25 beast in Crucible that minions across the solar system cower in fear of.

EDIT: This isn't an attack against *loqtrall* or anyone else on here stating it is imbalanced, I just wish to clarify what I've learned as I've progressed throughout the game and provide some evidence based on my experiences as a high-level player in Destiny's PVP matches.


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## loqtrall

Of course a level 5 can kill you, especially with a shotgun which is unbelievably overpowered at close range. But weapon damage is NOT completely normalized so everyone basically does the same damage if they're using the same weapon type. For instance, as I've said before and that has been said by Bungie, your weapons upgrades DO carry over into the crucible, and as a level 5 you can't get rare or legendary weapons with 2 or 3 weapon damage upgrades, which essentially make the your weapon do 1.5x or 2x the damage than a normal weapon with no damage modifier.

That essentially means, if a normal weapon did 100 damage normalized in the crucible, and yours was upgraded to do 50-75 more damage than the weapons base damage, that means that you would kill the person with the normal weapon almost 2x faster than they would kill you. It's not always as steep increased damage as "2 times as strong" but it still makes your weapons stronger. I have a legendary (my only legendary item) Pulse Rifle with 3 damage upgrades, obviously it's going to do WAY more damage than a level 5's gray common pulse rifle will do in the crucible.

Obviously a level 5 can kill a level 27 in the crucible, but I'm level 20 now and get killed by level 20+ players WAY WAY WAY WAY WAAAAYYYYYY more than I do by level 5-15 players. I do pretty good in the crucible, but regardless - if I get into a match and the whole enemy team is level 25-27, we get crushed. No matter what. I've never been on a winning team in a game where we were put up against an entire team of high level players. It's just not possible. They're capable of doing more damage, capable of having abilities other lower level players don't have yet, and in essence that means that (minor or major) the game IS unbalanced when it comes to the crucible.


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## loqtrall

Another thing that bugs me about the game is the loot system. I understand that Legendary items shouldn't just be handed out to players, and if everyone just got handed a dozen legendary's the game would get pretty bland and be somewhat pointless.

But the loot system in this game sucks. I know you can get gear at a relatively moderate difficulty by grinding marks and ranks in the Vanguard or Crucible, but you can only get 100 marks per week, which means by now the most ANY player can have since the game was released 8 days ago, is 1 vanguard item, 1 crucible item, and 1 of each faction item. And since that seems a bit ridiculous to achieve in a week, that means that most players found the rest of their Legendary items by drop chance, mission reward, or by spending strange coins/motes of light.

The problem I'm having is, I don't know if I have bad luck or what, but I get NO drops. So far the only way I've gotten the one legendary item I have is because of constantly grinding vanguard marks and rep, which allowed me to get my one weapon TODAY. Other than that, in the almost week I've been playing I've gotten a whopping total of TWO rare blue engram drops, no legendary's or exotics, and have gotten quite a few green engrams but not that many. I see people running around with full sets of legendary gear and two exotics (exotic has a cap of 2 items per player), and I'm wondering how in the mortal .... they got all that gear. Cause I've been playing pretty hardcore, especially for the past few days and have gotten nothing. I've never even SEEN a legendary engram drop, let alone owned a legendary item. Every drop I get now (level 20) is completely useless, and since I've reached the soft cap I've gotten NO gear at all with any Light on it to increase my level.

I don't know if it's an issue of luck but if it is, I have the worst luck ever when it comes to random drops, and I've been running level 20 Strike Playlist all day long.

I mean, good legendary items are relatively hard to get in games like Mass Effect, Borderlands, WoW, etc. But you still get plenty of weapon drops and even plenty of weapon drops that are actually useful. Half the time even loot crates give me absolute shit.

The last thing is random rewards at the end of missions. I don't mean to gloat, but when it comes to strikes I try my hardest. I barely ever die and revive my mates at an average of 10-15 times during any given strike mission. I take the mission seriously and try to play as tactically and squad-friendly as possible. I usually have the most kills as when adds come out during a boss fight I usually focus on them so they don't destroy my teammates while they're battling the boss. I definitely usually have the most revives and orbs. But at the end of each mission, I get nothing. I think I've actually gotten two random items MAYBE two times. Other than that, I either get one or none. I actually went through the daily quest once I reached soft cap and got NOTHING, no drops, no mission rewards, nothing. But the thing that bugs me the most, is I'll do so great in Strike missions and get a useless green item or MAYBE a blue item at the end of the mission, then the two guys who did way worse than me and died a million times during the mission get two blue drops, a legendary drop, one time I even saw a guy in last place in the crucible get an exotic item.

I don't know why that happens, but the loot/drop system definitely needs to be tweaked heavily or fixed indefinitely.


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## Jake

^^ Dealing with all the same shit man definitely almost exactly the same when it comes to the strike missions. I die the least, do the most, and damage the boss more than my teammates and get jack fvcking shit. I do get a lot of blue engram drops but have yet to see a legendary one as well and this is with a lot of play time already at level 20 almost 21. Pisses me off when I bust my ass in a mission or in the crucible and get no rewards at all.


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## RickSchneider

This game has it's hooks in me but I can definitely see it's flaws. It's no doubt frustrating to play strikes or missions over and over with team mates and they consistently get gear, while you get barely anything. Fortunately I've had a few good luck streaks and my gear is pretty good right now, but it feels annoying when only 2 of my 5 or so legendary engrams ended up being legendary, and one ended up being an armour set for another class.

Oh well, i'm not too foreign to a bit of grinding - so i'm expecting to be playing this for awhile to come. RiZZFiSH on ps4 if anyone in Australia is keen for a game!


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## loqtrall

RickSchneider said:


> Oh well, i'm not too foreign to a bit of grinding - so i'm expecting to be playing this for awhile to come.



This is how I felt when I approached the full game, as I played the beta; but after playing strikes literally all day long and not even getting usable uncommons or rares (let alone legendary's) has driven me past frustration with grinding in this game. I'd understand if maybe I got a LITTLE leeway, but I've gotten nothing, and I'm tired of grinding the same missions over and over again with no reward. 40+ hours of game play with little to no reward isn't that acceptable in my book, especially in a game that revolves around loot and stats. I mean, I'm all for the challenge of finding legendary items, and I've scorned World of Warcraft many times in the past for being way too easy to obtain great gear; but damn, this is ridiculous. I still haven't gotten a legendary engram/item drop OR randomly won a legendary at the end of a strike/match. Yet I constantly see other players winning legendary items, sometimes even two. I don't know what everyone else is doing differently, but I definitely want in.


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## Dooky

I'm level 14 at the moment and in my experience it seems the weapon damage & upgrades carry over to pvp. I quite regularly get one or two shot killed by level 20+ players with scout rifles from a considerable distance. The auto rifles & fusion rifles some of the level 20+ players kill me instantly too. Plus, it seems I've been playing nothing but level 20+ players since I've been level 10. Where the fudge are all the other players of a similar level to me!?... Probably of playing the campaign until they get to level 20 so they can be completive in pvp I guess


----------



## thedonal

I'm thinking of getting this on the 360 next week, but the more pragmatic side of me is suggesting to either wait until prices drop a bit or until I can afford a PS4 (and hopefully prices drop a lot!) to save getting the game twice, as I'm sure characters are not transferrable.

Someone I know mentioned that headset chat isn't in the 360 version. Can anyone here confirm this? 

Is it really worth taking the plunge early?


----------



## wat

What's the levelling system like in this game?

Is it anything like Mass Effect where you upgrade your powers and choose between things like "radius vs. damage" or "stun/incapacitate vs recharge speed" etc?

Are there even different possible builds in this game? For a long time I've wanted a shooter game that plays like halo but has a powers/levelling system like mass effect 3 - is this it?


----------



## HurrDurr

I honestly think it's as simple as just playing more often and getting the hang of the game and overall just getting better at it if you want to compete. I'm sure a lot of those guys that destroy in PVP play it quite a lot more than I do. I log in only a few hours on weekends at most and I balance between PVP and strikes/story missions pretty evenly.


----------



## loqtrall

Well, I've officially given up on The Crucible or any mission/match reward in the game until they've fixed their "effort-to-reward" ratio. I played a match of control, not even an hour ago actually. I must have captured control points 10-11 times throughout the match, got tons of defense points, and at the finish of the match I had 27 kills and 2 deaths, was well in first place. In the post-game EVERYONE, and I mean *EVERYONE* in the match got two rare random items. I got nothing. Not even a gray common weapon. I was sitting in the top bracket, nobody came close to the amount of kills or captures I got, and I wasn't rewarded for it at all. I got 2 Crucible Marks and +5 rep. I love the game, it's fun, it definitely keeps me occupied, but the loot system is complete and utter bullshit. When I go 27-2, I expect to get a greater reward than the guy who went 3-15 and was AFK half the fvcking match.

EDIT: And weapon and armor upgrades definitely DO cross over to The Crucible. I kept seeing a guy on the enemy team kill me while he was invisible. I was wondering how he was invisible ALL the time. I messaged him over xbox live and asked him how he did that, and it turns out he has an exotic rifle called "Patience And Time", that not only allows you to see the radar while you're scoped in, but also gives you active camo while aiming down the sights. If that doesn't make the game unbalanced, I don't know what does.


----------



## TheShreddinHand

loqtrall said:


> Well, I've officially given up on The Crucible or any mission/match reward in the game until they've fixed their "effort-to-reward" ratio. I played a match of control, not even an hour ago actually. I must have captured control points 10-11 times throughout the match, got tons of defense points, and at the finish of the match I had 27 kills and 2 deaths, was well in first place. In the post-game EVERYONE, and I mean *EVERYONE* in the match got two rare random items. I got nothing. Not even a gray common weapon. I was sitting in the top bracket, nobody came close to the amount of kills or captures I got, and I wasn't rewarded for it at all. I got 2 Crucible Marks and +5 rep. I love the game, it's fun, it definitely keeps me occupied, but the loot system is complete and utter bullshit. When I go 27-2, I expect to get a greater reward than the guy who went 3-15 and was AFK half the fvcking match.
> 
> EDIT: And weapon and armor upgrades definitely DO cross over to The Crucible. I kept seeing a guy on the enemy team kill me while he was invisible. I was wondering how he was invisible ALL the time. I messaged him over xbox live and asked him how he did that, and it turns out he has an exotic rifle called "Patience And Time", that not only allows you to see the radar while you're scoped in, but also gives you active camo while aiming down the sights. If that doesn't make the game unbalanced, I don't know what does.



Join me on the Master Chief Collection in a month and a half!


----------



## Tommy

Lvl 26 Titan here. Just add me. tommy_willier on PSN.


----------



## Cloudy

21 hunter here.

Cloudayo on PSN, PS4.


----------



## 7 Strings of Hate

24 warlock
Seredays - PS4

The stats only carry over in the crucible for the "Iron Banner" area of the crucible. Other than that, pvp is balanced for all ranks. 
There is just alot of stuff that can one hit.


----------



## stevo1

Almost at 27 on my titan. Grinding the crucible all week finally payed of with some legendary gear purchases. 

The loot system is something I could take or leave. It's wonky to say the least, but I get some good stuff every once in a while. To the people talking about the crucible not being balanced; I've been doing 26 damage body shots / 32 damage with headshots consistently for as long as I've been doing the crucible, since level 9. With all kinds of different auto rifles. Scout rifles are around 3 shots to kill. Fusion rifles are pretty much a one hit kill, given that the spread connects. Shotguns as well at close range. I see this happening at any level. The supers that are damage-giving based are one hit ko's. The access to different abilities gained by leveling up your class is there, and special attributes gained from higher end gear are the only differences I see. 

Also, We should form an official SSO clan.


----------



## MattThePenguin

Does anyone want to do the weekly strike with me? MattThePenguin PS4 I'm level 23.. none of my friends want to do it because it's to hard D=


This is the only active forum I'm a part of... so yeah. That's why I'm asking

Feel free to add me too just put SSO in a message


----------



## splinter8451

Is anyone on PS3 or am I all alone  I promise I am getting a PS4 early next year but until then I am stuck. 

If anyone wants to add me my name is...

splinter8451 

Right now I am a 22 Titan. Probably gonna start a Hunter character soon though, looks like fun.


----------



## loqtrall

Well, after being level 22 for days without having ANY luck getting any useful gear, even grinding the crucible, I finally decided to start farming the exploitable checkpoint in The Dark Beyond on the moon. After 3 days I finally got the FIRST EVER legendary engram I've ever gotten. Besides the gun I bought from the Vanguard Quartermater, it's actually the only other legendary ANYTHING I've gotten in the game. It was great, because when I was done farming it was about 3AM, which was around the time I was born (Today is my birthday), so I went to the cryptarch to decrypt it and a few others. I decided to do the legendary engram last. So I got a few a useful blues that almost got me to 23, then came the legendary. I closed my eyes, crossed my fingers, and hit the button.

Bam. Got the MIDA Multi-Tool Exotic Scout Rifle. 4 Damage upgrades, 260 base damage, special upgrades are "This weapon increases run speed and fires on a hair trigger" and "Radar is still active while aiming down this weapon's sights".

The only bad thing is that it replaced my legendary Pulse Rifle (which I put in my vault and gave to my brother's Warlock), so now I have NO legendaries. At this rate, compared to the amount of hours I've put into the game, I truly can't understand how there's people with 2 exotics and a full set of legendary gear. I saw a level 28 Titan today with 2 exotics, and legendary EVERYTHING, even his shader, bike, ship, emblem, and ghost. I don't understand how those people could be so lucky. Because even at this point, if you saved up marks you couldn't have an entire inventory full of legendaries, so people must get some REALLY lucky drops, cause I've grinded for countless hours for the past 3 days and got ONE good drop besides armor that gave me 1 more light than my last piece had.


----------



## thedonal

So who is playing onXBox 360? In EU? I'll be getting a copy later this week..

Gamer tag is The Donal (may be on as thedonal)


----------



## MoshJosh

^^^ loqtrall

yeah I have been playing hours and hours of crucible with friends all of us about 24 or higher and I pretty much haven't gotten anything "good." I have some nice rare crucible gear but no legendary and no exotic. Most the legendary engrams I've gotten ended up being useless to me though my friend did get a pretty sweet epic(think thats what its called) helmet, still with the hours the 3 of us have put in only finding one legendary Item seems crazy. I don't know how some of these peeps are getting such awesome stuff


----------



## splinter8451

I have a level 23 Titan now and I feel like I have nothing good  my guns seem like they are outclassed by the >20 level Titans I do strike missions with. 

It seems like everyone does more damage than me but the end of the mission I have twice as many kills, maybe they are just ass at getting headshots. At the end of a level 22 strike last night I had 233 kills and my squad mates both had less than 100. They were the same people I started the mission with so it is not like they joined late and didn't have the opportunity to get more kills.


----------



## MoshJosh

^^^ how well you do seems to have little effect on getting better gear, or any gear for that matter. I've played matches online where I was just owning people left and right, was first on my team, and won but got nothing. then I've played matches where I got absolutely wrecked and still got a weapon or armor piece.


----------



## splinter8451

MoshJosh said:


> ^^^ how well you do seems to have little effect on getting better gear, or any gear for that matter. I've played matches online where I was just owning people left and right, was first on my team, and won but got nothing. then I've played matches where I got absolutely wrecked and still got a weapon or armor piece.



Yeah I have definitely been first on my team many times and watched as my squad get blue gear at the end screen and I get... nothing 

I am sure I will get some cool stuff eventually. 

Just started a Warlock character and it seems pretty fun, I might try out Hunter tonight.


----------



## Pav

My drops have been pretty weak so far, but I augmented it by grinding hard in the crucible. Once you surpass crucible rep level 2, you'll be able to buy armor from the crucible handler in the tower. His stuff is nice. By the time I hit rep level 2 I had enough marks to buy two pieces of armor from him, and just the gauntlets and boots from him bumped me from level 21 to 24. Even though the random drops seem kinda lame so far, don't forget about the merchants in the tower.


----------



## MoshJosh

That plus the clan stuff ,dead orbit for me, though in the week or so since I joined dead orbit I'm still only half way to rank 2. . .  and I've been playing a lot more than I probably should be haha being able to put your bounties towards the rank helps though


----------



## stevo1

Doing things for a cult raises your rep for them faster, because instead of going to two different things, the rep only goes to the one; which ever cult you choose. If you do strike playlists and crucible for a cult, you should be able to get to rank 2 pretty quickly. Not to mention using bounties. It's been a day shy of one week since I started and I am maybe 1000 points away from rank 3 for New Monarchy.
Cults are a great place to start getting legendaries. Out of the 5 legendary engrams I've gotten in the wild, none of them turned out to be anything good. I've gotten legendary engrams from the crypt arch too, with only two leading to a legendary. They were Both weapons though. 

I am halfway through level 26. I have an exotic helmet, legendary armor and gloves. Couldn't afford the boots though, so that will come later in the week. I hardly get useful stuff thorough the crucible though, as the things I get have a lower defense and light level. Leveling up pieces of legendary or exotic gear is a bear, as you need key items that only come around every so often. 
If any one wants to add me on Xbox One, my name is Svengarde. Might be interested in taking on the raid soon!


----------



## loqtrall

My little brother just played a match where a guy went 1 and 13 and got an exotic engram. Not only was he in last place on our team, but he was last place in the entire game. I don't even know what to think about the random drop system in this game anymore.


----------



## loqtrall

stevo1 said:


> Doing things for a cult raises your rep for them faster, because instead of going to two different things, the rep only goes to the one; which ever cult you choose. If you do strike playlists and crucible for a cult, you should be able to get to rank 2 pretty quickly. Not to mention using bounties. It's been a day shy of one week since I started and I am maybe 1000 points away from rank 3 for New Monarchy.
> Cults are a great place to start getting legendaries. Out of the 5 legendary engrams I've gotten in the wild, none of them turned out to be anything good. I've gotten legendary engrams from the crypt arch too, with only two leading to a legendary. They were Both weapons though.
> 
> I am halfway through level 26. I have an exotic helmet, legendary armor and gloves. Couldn't afford the boots though, so that will come later in the week. I hardly get useful stuff thorough the crucible though, as the things I get have a lower defense and light level. Leveling up pieces of legendary or exotic gear is a bear, as you need key items that only come around every so often.
> If any one wants to add me on Xbox One, my name is Svengarde. Might be interested in taking on the raid soon!



And I'll add you on xbone, gamertag is Opened Lord, only level 23, but once i hit 25-26 I'll definitely be anxious to hop in a fireteam for Vault of Glass. I heard it's incredibly hard if everyone in your strike team isn't like level 27 or above. My friend hopped in a fireteam for it the other day and they didn't even get the vault door open before wiping a few times then giving up, and they were levels 25 and 26 with one level 27.


----------



## MassNecrophagia

I'm level 26 and have had a total of two legendary engrams drop, no exotics. One engram was a legendary scout rifle, the other was a blue shotgun or someshit.


----------



## Jake

Just hit level 23 and yesterday I finally got my first legendary engram which gave me a purple chest piece which actually kicks ass and then I got a blue engram that gave me a legendary auto rifle that also kicks ass so things are kind of looking up I suppose. Think I might go try and farm the "loot cave" everyones been raving about and see what it brings me. Really wanna get to 26 for the vault of glass


----------



## ZeroS1gnol

Im kind of on the fence about this game...Im very curious about it, yet there are many things that kind of put me off, but especially:

-All I hear is people talking about loot, this thread is full of it. Im mainly interested in playing a game that has good mechanics, interesting shootouts with enemies and cool setting. If the only thing drawing me in to play the game is loot, than this is not for me (for instance, I got bored with diablo 3 after one playthrough, while I see others play it over and over).

-I usually dont make friends over Xbox live and only two people I know in real life own a 360, but chances are theyre not getting the game. I read a lot about having to play with friends, especially the end game, which even requires 6(!) friends to play. That is simply not an option for me.

So can you recommend me this game? Is it even fun, as a shooter or is it just a grind, like many other MMOs? I loved Bungie's Halo installments to death, the premise of a similar experience in an RPG style could easily persuade me to play this, but Im not sure if it will deliver.


----------



## splinter8451

ZeroS1gnol said:


> Im kind of on the fence about this game...Im very curious about it, yet there are many things that kind of put me off, but especially:
> 
> -All I hear is people talking about loot, this thread is full of it. Im mainly interested in playing a game that has good mechanics, interesting shootouts with enemies and cool setting. If the only thing drawing me in to play the game is loot, than this is not for me (for instance, I got bored with diablo 3 after one playthrough, while I see others play it over and over).
> 
> -I usually dont make friends over Xbox live and only two people I know in real life own a 360, but chances are theyre not getting the game. I read a lot about having to play with friends, especially the end game, which even requires 6(!) friends to play. That is simply not an option for me.
> 
> So can you recommend me this game? Is it even fun, as a shooter or is it just a grind, like many other MMOs? I loved Bungie's Halo installments to death, the premise of a similar experience in an RPG style could easily persuade me to play this, but Im not sure if it will deliver.



If you're on the fence then I would not buy it.  

There is not enough story content to warrant a purchase solely as an FPS/RPG and yes the game is infinitely more fun if you play with other people (friends or randoms). So if you are not planning on making an effort to play with people then I say skip it. 

You can definitely get good loot without grinding, it is just people REALLY want the good stuff so they grind and still don't get good stuff. Then they complain on the internet. 

There are some really fun boss battles, but once you do them all 10 times they get a little old. But I will keep doing them because I want DA LOOT


----------



## loqtrall

ZeroS1gnol said:


> Im kind of on the fence about this game...Im very curious about it, yet there are many things that kind of put me off, but especially:
> 
> -All I hear is people talking about loot, this thread is full of it. Im mainly interested in playing a game that has good mechanics, interesting shootouts with enemies and cool setting. If the only thing drawing me in to play the game is loot, than this is not for me (for instance, I got bored with diablo 3 after one playthrough, while I see others play it over and over).
> 
> -I usually dont make friends over Xbox live and only two people I know in real life own a 360, but chances are theyre not getting the game. I read a lot about having to play with friends, especially the end game, which even requires 6(!) friends to play. That is simply not an option for me.
> 
> So can you recommend me this game? Is it even fun, as a shooter or is it just a grind, like many other MMOs? I loved Bungie's Halo installments to death, the premise of a similar experience in an RPG style could easily persuade me to play this, but Im not sure if it will deliver.



I'd rent it from redbox first to see how you like it. It's more than possible to play it by yourself. I got from level 1 to 23 (so far) without playing with anyone at all besides on strikes and the crucible, and I loved the game. It's not very story driven (yet) but it's definitely entertaining in my opinion.

The main reason people are raving about loot is because good loot is extremely hard to find (for some people, it seems), and you need good loot to raise your level to enable you to do more challenging activities that give you more satisfactory rewards. For instance, you need to be a certain level to do the Vault of Glass raid, and probably higher when they release more raids/DLC. Loot is very crucial in the game, and that's why people talk about it so much. The game is very grindy, in almost every aspect. If you're out in the world randomly looking for loot, it's grindy. If you're trying to get loot from the Crucible or strikes, it's very grindy. There's no easy way to get loot besides farming exploits like The Moon exploit or the Loot Cave exploit (which is RIDICULOUS, I tried it for 40~ minutes last night and got SO MUCH SHIT, it was insane.)

I say try before you buy, that's the only way you'll know whether or not you like it without regretting a $60 purchase. Either that or wait for the price to go down.

EDIT: Another thing about loot, if you're a PVP fan in the game, you'll DEFINITELY need the best of the best loot in the game to compete in The Iron Banner PVP event which is coming in October. No normalized stats, the person/team with the best arsenal/armor wins.


----------



## Pav

Does no one else here read bungie.net or keep up on any game updates?



bungie.net said:


> *Dmoney12321 Did you intend for the PvP reward system to be the way it is?*
> 
> Yep. The question you should be asking is: Do we intend for the PVP reward system to work like that forever? The answer is: Ask us again sometime. We&#8217;re one week clear of the launch pad here. What we can promise is that Destiny is never finished.


They're well aware of how the crucible drops are functioning, but obviously it isn't going to be this way forever. You can calm down, people.


----------



## asher

That's such a cop out. If you like how it's working now, say that, or at LEAST say "it's only been out a week, we're waiting for more data", even though I don't know how you wouldn't be able to predict this stuff coming out of beta.


----------



## sakeido

loqtrall said:


> I have it on Xbone.
> 
> Another thing I found that sort of bugs me is that the AI seemingly causes all enemies aside from bosses to run behind walls when you aim at them and don't come out unless you go confront them, which can be quite a problem when you're facing an enemy you know you don't want to face in close quarters (knights with swords, captains). It also gets really annoying when you're facing 10-15 enemies spread across a large area and every single one of them take cover and NEVER come out, they just stand there endlessly unless you go after them, so sniping becomes more or less a chore.



lol bump from page one 

but this is a nice change of pace from what I'm used to.. see enemies, then YOU run behind a wall and pick them off as they follow you. Destiny fights remind me of the good ol' days playing Halo 1 legendary because the bad guys are actually decently smart for a mass market FPS game


----------



## ZeroS1gnol

loqtrall said:


> I'd rent it from redbox first to see how you like it. It's more than possible to play it by yourself. I got from level 1 to 23 (so far) without playing with anyone at all besides on strikes and the crucible, and I loved the game. It's not very story driven (yet) but it's definitely entertaining in my opinion.
> 
> The main reason people are raving about loot is because good loot is extremely hard to find (for some people, it seems), and you need good loot to raise your level to enable you to do more challenging activities that give you more satisfactory rewards. For instance, you need to be a certain level to do the Vault of Glass raid, and probably higher when they release more raids/DLC. Loot is very crucial in the game, and that's why people talk about it so much. The game is very grindy, in almost every aspect. If you're out in the world randomly looking for loot, it's grindy. If you're trying to get loot from the Crucible or strikes, it's very grindy. There's no easy way to get loot besides farming exploits like The Moon exploit or the Loot Cave exploit (which is RIDICULOUS, I tried it for 40~ minutes last night and got SO MUCH SHIT, it was insane.)
> 
> I say try before you buy, that's the only way you'll know whether or not you like it without regretting a $60 purchase. Either that or wait for the price to go down.
> 
> EDIT: Another thing about loot, if you're a PVP fan in the game, you'll DEFINITELY need the best of the best loot in the game to compete in The Iron Banner PVP event which is coming in October. No normalized stats, the person/team with the best arsenal/armor wins.



Good response, thanks. 

Renting is not an option over here...they just dont rent out games in my country. 

It's not really that I want to play the game by myself, it's more that Im concerned about having to invest in people I meet in the game to complete certain aspects. Id rather be matched to random people all the time.

What you say about that pvp event, that kind of puts me off. I consider myself quite a skilled fps player on consoles, so when it comes down to what gear you own opposed to your actual playing skill...thats a big no for me.


----------



## Pav

asher said:


> That's such a cop out. If you like how it's working now, say that, or at LEAST say "it's only been out a week, we're waiting for more data", even though I don't know how you wouldn't be able to predict this stuff coming out of beta.



Was the drop rate in the beta any different?

The crucible drops don't bother me at all.  It won't be totally random forever. Plus there are so many more reliable ways to find gear and level up that I think of random crucible drops as just a possible added bonus.


----------



## loqtrall

ZeroS1gnol said:


> Good response, thanks.
> 
> Renting is not an option over here...they just dont rent out games in my country.
> 
> It's not really that I want to play the game by myself, it's more that Im concerned about having to invest in people I meet in the game to complete certain aspects. Id rather be matched to random people all the time.
> 
> What you say about that pvp event, that kind of puts me off. I consider myself quite a skilled fps player on consoles, so when it comes down to what gear you own opposed to your actual playing skill...thats a big no for me.



Don't worry about the PVP event, it's not mandatory and is just an ass-backwards way for the most elite of players to get even better gear. Who knows, maybe they'll even have level-based matchmaking for The Iron Banner. Normal PVP is still normalized and entirely skill based. You can do most things by yourself, and most things you need people with you to complete are randomly matched. The only thing you need to physically find a fireteam to complete is the Vault of Glass raid, so far at least.


----------



## HighGain510

I sent a couple of you xbone guys a friend request, my XBL tag should be easy to recognize despite it not matching my forum name.  Hoping one or two of you will be around tomorrow night to blow through the weekly heroic challenge with me. I have made it to the boss on Venus solo with heroic on and keep getting smacked during one of the final horde spawns which is frustrating to say the least. Not sure why they won't/don't pair me with a fire team, but if you guys are looking to make some credit on a heroic strike mission, get on tomorrow afternoon/evening.  Would like to unlock the exotic weapon drop I have waiting for me already.  I unlocked an exotic sniper rifle this evening and it's pretty sweet, can't wait to level it up!  I'm a 24 so as long as you're above a 20 you're welcome to join me.


----------



## stevo1

I did the level 26 tonight, but I'd be down to do it again tomorrow with you. I take it your Carsandguitars?


----------



## MoshJosh

Well finally got some legendary armor but I did it through the Queens bounty/missions and they appear to be guaranteed drops, assuming you have the mission. If you play with someone who has the mission and you don't you get to watch as your friends unlock sweet sweet gear and you get jack.


----------



## HighGain510

stevo1 said:


> I did the level 26 tonight, but I'd be down to do it again tomorrow with you. I take it your Carsandguitars?



Yep, sounds good sir.  I'll likely be on late afternoon/evening so hit me up when you're available.  I really could get by with even just one person helping, I'm level 24 and on heroic the 2-3 swarms of baddies seem to be overwhelming for whatever reason. I think I was on the Jupiter mission last night where you're fighting the big core with the floating shield. I was not having any issue with the first two waves and then it seems like the third wave ALWAYS drops behind me right after I got a hit from the boss character which allows 10 of them shooting me to instantly drain all my health before I can get far away enough to recover without half of their shots hitting me. I attempted it twice before I said "fuck this!" and went to bed.


----------



## loqtrall

Well, HighGain and I did the weekly. It is more fun playing with people that aren't just voiceless randoms. Man, that's the first time I attempted a weekly and after that, I can't even imagine the Vault of Glass.

Good game though, HighGain. If you ever need help with anything else me or my brother could always help you out. I'll have to show you the loot cave. After the strike, I went farming and got a legendary heavy weapon and legendary boots, almost level 26 now. Unlocked the Vault of Glass but I'm not even attempting it, or the Nightfall strike at all.

If you're looking for quick loot to quickly boost your level/gear for the Iron Banner coming in a few weeks, the loot cave in Old Russia WILL deliver. I didn't go to farm there once today without there being 3 other people there with me.


----------



## splinter8451

loqtrall said:


> If you're looking for quick loot to quickly boost your level/gear for the Iron Banner coming in a few weeks, the loot cave in Old Russia WILL deliver. I didn't go to farm there once today without there being 3 other people there with me.



Man I have farmed the cave for probably 2.5-3 hours this week and have only had 4 Blue engrams show up and the rest were throw away uncommon weapons. 

I did get 2 nice rare armor pieces from the engrams but gheesh it seems like everyone has better luck there than me  

I really need someone to do the Queen's Wrath mission with me, no one at the tower will join my squad  gonna have to convince some friends to buy Destiny. 

PS3, splinter8451 if anyone wants to play!


----------



## loqtrall

splinter8451 said:


> Man I have farmed the cave for probably 2.5-3 hours this week and have only had 4 Blue engrams show up and the rest were throw away uncommon weapons.
> 
> I did get 2 nice rare armor pieces from the engrams but gheesh it seems like everyone has better luck there than me



Since I started farming it, I've gotten countless green items, probably over 70-75 blue engrams (alot of which were good upgrades), and 4 or 5 legendary engrams, three of which were legendary items and one that was an exotic scout rifle. I guess it's all about your dedication to it. Hell, if there are people already there doing it when you arrive, you don't even have to shoot, they'll still drop loot. I mainly go there to farm to do the Public Event to get materials I need to upgrade my legendary gear.

It's absolutely THE BEST way to level up your Cryptarch, which in turn will almost guarantee that you actually get legendaries from your legendary engram. Some people who have really high level cryptarchs actually told me they get quite a few legendary pieces from blue engrams.


----------



## splinter8451

loqtrall said:


> Since I started farming it, I've gotten countless green items, probably over 70-75 blue engrams (alot of which were good upgrades), and 4 or 5 legendary engrams, three of which were legendary items and one that was an exotic scout rifle. I guess it's all about your dedication to it. Hell, if there are people already there doing it when you arrive, you don't even have to shoot, they'll still drop loot. I mainly go there to farm to do the Public Event to get materials I need to upgrade my legendary gear.
> 
> It's absolutely THE BEST way to level up your Cryptarch, which in turn will almost guarantee that you actually get legendaries from your legendary engram. Some people who have really high level cryptarchs actually told me they get quite a few legendary pieces from blue engrams.
> 
> EDIT: Not to mention that after farming there I now have over 50,000 glimmer and counting. My brother's farming now, and glimmer is cross-character, so by the end of the night I'm bound to have near 100,000.



Oh wow man you have spent way more time there than me 

I just spent the last hour at the cave and finally got a legendary engram, turned out to be a blue pulse rifle but it is a step in the right direction. 

I got 6 blues and 1 purple in an hour. I have over 6000 glimmer now up from ~1000. So I guess that shows how much more farming you've done.


----------



## MoshJosh

Finally rank 2 in dead orbit. Still not understanding how others did it so fast, sh*t took me forever! Kinda bittersweet as the armor I got replaced some of the queen armor I had but I'll finish up as much of the queens missions as possible, "off with their heads" bounty took way longer than I care to admit haha.

Any of you guys finish her missions?


----------



## Dooky

This is the best and most honesty review of the game I have seen so far. He points out almost all the reasons why I don't like thins game and will probably be done playing it in acouple of weeks time.
Destiny Angry Review - YouTube


----------



## loqtrall

Dooky said:


> This is the best and most honesty review of the game I have seen so far. He points out almost all the reasons why I don't like thins game and will probably be done playing it in acouple of weeks time.
> Destiny Angry Review - YouTube



Almost all of Angry Joe's reviews are completely subjective. He's so cynical that I can barely take anything he says seriously, and if you watch his streams, he acts like a child when he doesn't get what he wants in-game. The sheer fact that he reviewed a game in a week and a half that I still have yet to complete the vast majority of (queen's missions, nightfall strikes, level 24-26 strikes, vault of glass, iron banner, etc.) in almost 3 weeks just proves that he's way too quick to judge something he doesn't like. At the time of his review, I know for a fact (as it's plainly obvious) that he never even experienced Queen's Bounty and obviously The Iron Banner that's not even available yet (and adds two new maps). Plus, who the .... knows what else Bungie will be adding. I've played every day since it's release and still didn't know the Queen's missions/bounties/loot were coming. At the time I bought the game I didn't even know there would be raids. Who knows what could come. The game isn't in it's final form yet, and it's unfair to judge the game as a whole when it's in this stage (progressing), especially when he hasn't even experienced it all. The only points he makes about why the game is bad is because it's short, repetitive, and the loot system sucks, all of which are subjective as there are PLENTY of people who absolutely love almost all aspects of the game.

Angry Joe is just a man-child who won't be satisfied until he gets the perfect game to match his wants, which will never happen. The fact that I've seen him in stream throw a chair across the room when he didn't get a reward for completing a mission in Watch Dogs, in my opinion, makes any of his arguments a moot point.


----------



## HighGain510

loqtrall said:


> Well, HighGain and I did the weekly. It is more fun playing with people that aren't just voiceless randoms. Man, that's the first time I attempted a weekly and after that, I can't even imagine the Vault of Glass.
> 
> Good game though, HighGain. If you ever need help with anything else me or my brother could always help you out. I'll have to show you the loot cave. After the strike, I went farming and got a legendary heavy weapon and legendary boots, almost level 26 now. Unlocked the Vault of Glass but I'm not even attempting it, or the Nightfall strike at all.
> 
> If you're looking for quick loot to quickly boost your level/gear for the Iron Banner coming in a few weeks, the loot cave in Old Russia WILL deliver. I didn't go to farm there once today without there being 3 other people there with me.



Yeah man good times, would probably be even easier if we could get a third guy in our fireteam!  But you can see what I mean now, some of those bosses on heroic aren't that tough by themselves, Bungie just adds in 2-3x the amount of mini guys rolling in and makes some of them yellow-level or ups their damage rate to be 1-2 shot kills, multiply that by 6-12 guys spawning behind you = instagib.  Good playing with you man, I'm down for another round tonight if you're game! Anyone else on here on XBO is welcome to join, I got a message back from steveo1 asking if I wanted to play after I sent the fireteam invite but he didn't join the party so loq and I went on with the mission.  Thinking 3+ folks in a Fireteam might make things a little easier still since there were a few start-overs/revives during the course of the heroic stuff!


----------



## stevo1

HighGain510 said:


> Anyone else on here on XBO is welcome to join, I got a message back from steveo1 asking if I wanted to play after I sent the fireteam invite but he didn't join the party so loq and I went on with the mission.



I never got the invite man, I was sitting in orbit waiting all night too. Next time you guys do something let me know! I want to get in on the action!


----------



## HurrDurr

Loot Cave is ridiculous. I mean, It's awesome for the folks that actually get good gear, but I tried it once and after hitting it for about an hour and a half I had nothing but uncommon engrams and low-light rares that were completely useless at my level. Not to mention the intense boredom and having to deal with folks who were too close or getting in my way. I give Loot Cave 

On a side note, the memes ad hilarious pics that have spawned from the Loot Cave craze has been wonderful. There's even Loot Cave erotic fan fiction making it's rounds on the interwebz, which was a pleasantly disturbing read.


----------



## Jake

Got two exotics in a row from leveling up my cryptarch 

although of course the gauntlets were for a hunter and of course I'm a warlock 

still got a fvcking badass rocket launcher out of it though.

Also finding way more legendary engrams now, dont know if that's because I leveled up or what but its happening


----------



## loqtrall

HighGain510 said:


> Yeah man good times, would probably be even easier if we could get a third guy in our fireteam!  But you can see what I mean now, some of those bosses on heroic aren't that tough by themselves, Bungie just adds in 2-3x the amount of mini guys rolling in and makes some of them yellow-level or ups their damage rate to be 1-2 shot kills, multiply that by 6-12 guys spawning behind you = instagib.  Good playing with you man, I'm down for another round tonight if you're game! Anyone else on here on XBO is welcome to join, I got a message back from steveo1 asking if I wanted to play after I sent the fireteam invite but he didn't join the party so loq and I went on with the mission.  Thinking 3+ folks in a Fireteam might make things a little easier still since there were a few start-overs/revives during the course of the heroic stuff!



Hell yeah, man. Give me a time and I'll be online waiting. I got 3 legendaries yesterday so I'm extremely close to 26 now, so things should at least go a little more smoothly. Getting materials to upgrade legendaries is a bitch and a half. I'm telling you this right now, while you're not doing anything, go to venus and farm as much fvcking Spirit Bloom as possible, cause legendary armor costs 16 spirit bloom each for armor upgrades (raises your light experience bar), and they each have 3-4 armor upgrades. That's essentially 256 Spirit bloom per full set of Legendary armor. So get to farming, cause they're not that abundant on Venus.


----------



## loqtrall

HurrDurr said:


> Loot Cave is ridiculous. I mean, It's awesome for the folks that actually get good gear, but I tried it once and after hitting it for about an hour and a half I had nothing but uncommon engrams and low-light rares that were completely useless at my level. Not to mention the intense boredom and having to deal with folks who were too close or getting in my way. I give Loot Cave
> 
> On a side note, the memes ad hilarious pics that have spawned from the Loot Cave craze has been wonderful. There's even Loot Cave erotic fan fiction making it's rounds on the interwebz, which was a pleasantly disturbing read.



You have good runs and bad runs. It's absolutely the most efficient way to get loot in the game (as in a time-to-loot ratio, not a guaranteed loot ratio). It's DEFINITELY the best way to get glimmer and upgrade your cyrptarch. It's been hinted by Bungie that the cave probably won't be patched. I mean last friday Xur was accidentally selling rare crafting materials, and Bungie patched him with an incredibly quick vengeance when people reported it. I'm sure they're not in the dark when it comes to the loot cave, and if they wanted it gone, it'd be gone already.

But, for those of you who think the loot cave is cheap, don't even think about going to the Cosmodrome and sitting in the cave so no enemies spawn or putting up a bubble that people can't shoot through in front of it so the enemies escape the cave. That's called griefing, it's against the rules, and Bungie forum moderators have made it clear that if you get reported for it, you might get the boot for a week or so. Quite a few Bungie mods have expressed that people firing into the loot cave isn't hindering the way anyone else plays the game in any way, but sitting in the cave so enemies don't spawn IS hindering the game for those who want to use the Loot Cave, making the person griefing the real problem. They say reporting players for using the loot cave will result in absolutely nothing, and if you abuse reporting this way you might even get a warning to stop. Not only is it stopping people from playing the way they want to, but there's a low-level mission that has you specifically kill the enemies from that cave, so sitting in there to stop farmers will essentially more than likely .... some level 5-6's out of a mission objective because of some random asshole. I saw two guys sitting in the cave yesterday. I messaged them and said I'd report them if they didn't move, and they got the gist and got the hell out of there. People are getting the word that this tactic to stop farming is illegal in the game.

And there are rumors around that Bungie actually MEANT for the loot cave to happen. Because if you stand around the loot cave for an hour or so, a HUGE (and I mean MASSIVE) battle will commence between the Fallen and The Hive. It's definitely the biggest battle in the game (one of the most fun to participate in, too) and at the end of it almost ALL the enemies are yellow-barred ultras and majors. And it only specifically happens at that point in the game, nowhere else. SO it seems like Bungie knew about the exploit (the enemies in the cave HAVE to constantly spawn because of the level 5-6 mission), so they added that AND a public event to interrupt your farming for a few minutes. 

Bottom line, it doesn't seem like the loot cave is going anywhere. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.


----------



## splinter8451

loqtrall said:


> And there are rumors around that Bungie actually MEANT for the loot cave to happen. Because if you stand around the loot cave for an hour or so, a HUGE (and I mean MASSIVE) battle will commence between the Fallen and The Hive. It's definitely the biggest battle in the game (one of the most fun to participate in, too) and at the end of it almost ALL the enemies are yellow-barred ultras and majors. And it only specifically happens at that point in the game, nowhere else. SO it seems like Bungie knew about the exploit (the enemies in the cave HAVE to constantly spawn because of the level 5-6 mission), so they added that AND a public event to interrupt your farming for a few minutes.
> 
> Bottom line, it doesn't seem like the loot cave is going anywhere. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing.



There are fights like that on every planet I am pretty sure. 

There is a crazy one on Mars where the Vex and Cabal fight. It gets so hard I have never survived the last wave, even with 3-4 other people fighting with me; we respawn and die immediately. Multiple Centurians and Colossus with yellow bars and armor, and too many Vex to name.


----------



## thedonal

Did my first strike today. Man they're tough- I can't imagine a raid.

Loving it so far though. I can understand the frustration with drops, but I'm just enjoying the shooting. It works.very well.


----------



## Pav

I think the loot cave is already done.

Bungie Kills Destiny Loot Cave


----------



## splinter8451

Pav said:


> I think the loot cave is already done.
> 
> Bungie Kills Destiny Loot Cave



Bungie pls T_T


----------



## Pav

I had never even heard of this cave so I'm not too disappointed. I am a little sad we won't be getting ascendant materials from dismantling queen's gear anymore though. I've done four of the queen's story missions so far and gotten four of the exact same item every time. The decent return from dismantling was the only thing that kept it worthwhile. 

If I get a fifth consecutive Queen's Guard Mask tonight, I will freak the hell out if I dismantle and only get sapphire wire.


----------



## Konfyouzd

This game is awesome (finally took a break from life in general and/or playing).

Definitely prefer rolling solo at the moment.


----------



## loqtrall

The patching of the loot cave comes at little cost considering what was written in the patch notes.



> The Hive of the holy 'Treasure Cave' have realized the futility of their endless assault on Skywatch and have retired to lick their wounds and plan their next attack. The social experience of a cave farming run is amazing: the herding to get a team of Guardians all behind the line and firing in the right direction, the rush to grab the loot, the scramble when the panic wave starts, the beckoning glow from inside the cave, but shooting at a black hole for hours on end isn't our dream for how Destiny is played. Our hope is that social engagement in public spaces is only one part of the Destiny experience. Expect changes soon which decrease the efficiency of cave farming and correspondingly increase engram drops from completing activities.



Basically meaning that soon they'll be patching all/most of the exploitable farming locations and increasing the loot you'll get from actually doing activities that SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN YOU LOOT IN THE FIRST PLACE. I swear, I don't know who at Bungie decided it would be a good idea for bosses to drop NO loot at all EVER, but they need to be fired and blacklisted from the game development community in general. I mean, even in games like WoW, Borderlands, etc. bosses still have chances of not dropping great/useful gear, but they still drop SOMETHING.


----------



## HighGain510

loqtrall said:


> The patching of the loot cave comes at little cost considering what was written in the patch notes.
> 
> 
> 
> Basically meaning that soon they'll be patching all/most of the exploitable farming locations and increasing the loot you'll get from actually doing activities that SHOULD HAVE GOTTEN YOU LOOT IN THE FIRST PLACE. I swear, I don't know who at Bungie decided it would be a good idea for bosses to drop NO loot at all EVER, but they need to be fired and blacklisted from the game development community in general. I mean, even in games like WoW, Borderlands, etc. bosses still have chances of not dropping great/useful gear, but they still drop SOMETHING.



 I find it absolutely mind-boggling that I spend 20+ mins fighting a boss and I get no real loot drop?! Makes total sense, that makes people really want to keep completing missions right?  Since I missed out on scoring gear via the loot cave I can start to get some new toys via the standard loot drop method.


----------



## loqtrall

HighGain510 said:


> I find it absolutely mind-boggling that I spend 20+ mins fighting a boss and I get no real loot drop?! Makes total sense, that makes people really want to keep completing missions right?  Since I missed out on scoring gear via the loot cave I can start to get some new toys via the standard loot drop method.



Well hopefully in the coming days/weeks we'll actually start getting good loot from bosses, especially in heroic strikes/missions. Once they update the "random drop" system in the Crucible to reward you for actually making an effort, I might play more PVP.

EDIT: and a side note, don't believe my brother when he says he's better than me! I heard him when he joined your party!


----------



## thedonal

Getting kicked off the server constantly is becoming a bit of a pain. At least you can resume missions...

Still. Bungie need to sort this asap.


----------



## MoshJosh

^^^ Last night was awful, my internet connections seemed fine but couldn't add to or join fire teams, kept getting booted from games then when I wasn't getting booted I still couldn't join fire teams


----------



## thedonal

Was ok for me last night. I'm mostly playing solo. Been kicked out of the last mission 6 times. Just finished it this time round.

Not so good if you use one of the glimmer boosts...


----------



## MoshJosh

I'm so frustrated I can't do jack sh*t right now, no single player, no multiplayer (excluding the last 30 seconds of a match I managed to get on) nothin!


----------



## loqtrall

MoshJosh said:


> I'm so frustrated I can't do jack sh*t right now, no single player, no multiplayer (excluding the last 30 seconds of a match I managed to get on) nothin!


 
That's really odd. HighGain and I just played for a few hours with no problems.

I heard Bungie is having a few server hangup problems with certain ISP's. It was horrible for the majority of xbone players earlier this afternoon, but it got sorted pretty quickly.


----------



## The Reverend

PS4 owners should add me: killerapandabear

Reached Level 24 without even making it to Venus due to a lot of Crucible playing and Loot Cave farming. I'd like to find fun people to do strikes and raid with. Apparently the future of the game's raids will make you almost have to play with friends, since they're so difficult that teamwork is a must, instead of a plus.


----------



## loqtrall

The Reverend said:


> Apparently the future of the game's raids will make you almost have to play with friends, since they're so difficult that teamwork is a must, instead of a plus.



This is absolutely true. Destiny devs themselves even went on record saying that the raids they'll be releasing will be so insanely difficult that not having a fully coordinated and geared fireteam will almost certainly result in countless wipes and restarts. Basically they're claiming it'll be some of the hardest shit ever, and casual and easily frustrated players probably won't want to participate at all.


----------



## ZeroS1gnol

loqtrall said:


> This is absolutely true. Destiny devs themselves even went on record saying that the raids they'll be releasing will be so insanely difficult that not having a fully coordinated and geared fireteam will almost certainly result in countless wipes and restarts. Basically they're claiming it'll be some of the hardest shit ever, and casual and easily frustrated players probably won't want to participate at all.



This is where the game breaks hardest I guess. It's cool to have insanely difficult raids, but you just can't expect people with a busy life to be able to easily get five friends online at the same time for a casual night of gaming, not even considering not everyone will have that many friends with both the same game and console. So Id rather have them tailor the stuff to be able to do it with randoms and still let it be fun. Bungie should not only open this up for the h4rd0re no-lifers (I mean no offense by the way).

I had some time with the game yesterday with a level 18 character. I rather liked it, but kinda felt AI enemies are kind of dumb. They just seem to throw mobs at you, a la Diablo, not very intelligent encounters. The crucible was awesome, very solid, but as an avid Halo player, it's kindof one dimensional in the aspect that there are no weapon drops. It's a bit more samey samey as other shooters, which really is a shame if you consider Bungie's ability to create brilliant multiplayer.

Overall I say it's an enjoyable game, but kind of lacking at the moment.


----------



## Choop

Guys playing on PS3, what's the social environment like? I'm curious if it feels like it maybe is hard to find party members, er, something? I guess I'm just asking if it seems like a lot of people are playing the PS3 version. I won't be getting a PS4 any time soon due to moneys, but I really want to play this game!


----------



## MoshJosh

Last night I tried playing again and just kept getting booted. I could add people to my fire team but only for about 5 minutes, and I couldn't receive invites. . . but if I manually joined a friends game via the xbox feed/friend screen everything worked fine and I was able to do a bunch of missions. Weird.

also anyone having luck getting the full set of queens armor? So far I have two helmets and 3 chest pieces. . . a friend got the ship but 3 or four helmets and chest piece


----------



## XEN

I don't get many opportunities to play, and mostly play solo (on PS4), but wouldn't mind joining a clan of fellow ss.org members.
I'm either XEN or urklvt


----------



## Dooky

loqtrall said:


> Almost all of Angry Joe's reviews are completely subjective. He's so cynical that I can barely take anything he says seriously, and if you watch his streams, he acts like a child when he doesn't get what he wants in-game. The sheer fact that he reviewed a game in a week and a half that I still have yet to complete the vast majority of (queen's missions, nightfall strikes, level 24-26 strikes, vault of glass, iron banner, etc.) in almost 3 weeks just proves that he's way too quick to judge something he doesn't like. At the time of his review, I know for a fact (as it's plainly obvious) that he never even experienced Queen's Bounty and obviously The Iron Banner that's not even available yet (and adds two new maps). Plus, who the .... knows what else Bungie will be adding. I've played every day since it's release and still didn't know the Queen's missions/bounties/loot were coming. At the time I bought the game I didn't even know there would be raids. Who knows what could come. The game isn't in it's final form yet, and it's unfair to judge the game as a whole when it's in this stage (progressing), especially when he hasn't even experienced it all. The only points he makes about why the game is bad is because it's short, repetitive, and the loot system sucks, all of which are subjective as there are PLENTY of people who absolutely love almost all aspects of the game.
> 
> Angry Joe is just a man-child who won't be satisfied until he gets the perfect game to match his wants, which will never happen. The fact that I've seen him in stream throw a chair across the room when he didn't get a reward for completing a mission in Watch Dogs, in my opinion, makes any of his arguments a moot point.


So you're saying he shouldn't put out a review until the game is completed in its entirety?... in 10 years time? He played the game *alot* for 1.5 weeks and released his review around the same time as other reviewers (IGN, Gamespot etc). I think after 1.5 weeks of playing a game you'd have a pretty damn good idea of what it's like. Particularly considering the campaign in it's current lame, repetitive form takes 8 hours to complete. 
Queen's Bounty is basically the exact same bounty's over and over again, that are very similar to other bounty's.
You've even pointed out that: _"The only points he makes about why the game is bad is because it's short, repetitive, and the loot system sucks, all of which are subjective as there are PLENTY of people who absolutely love almost all aspects of the game"._ Pretty big reasons to not like the game I'd say. Bungie have even admitted to stuffing up the loot system and are going to try and fix it. Which is good, but there are way more issues with the game than just those three.
Also, you've said: _"Angry Joe is just a man-child who won't be satisfied until he gets the perfect game to match his wants, which will never happen"._ Umm, well, it already happened awhile ago. He gave 'The Last of Us, Remastered" a 10/10.


----------



## MoshJosh

I haven't watched his full review but I felt his pre review was pretty spot on and every review I've seen has basically said the same things Joe has said. 

I think the best review I've seen said something like "is it a good game? Sure. Is it game of the year? No." 

I would add "is it a good game? Sure if you've got time and friends" but that's just me


----------



## loqtrall

ZeroS1gnol said:


> This is where the game breaks hardest I guess. It's cool to have insanely difficult raids, but you just can't expect people with a busy life to be able to easily get five friends online at the same time for a casual night of gaming, not even considering not everyone will have that many friends with both the same game and console. So Id rather have them tailor the stuff to be able to do it with randoms and still let it be fun. Bungie should not only open this up for the h4rd0re no-lifers (I mean no offense by the way



That's how skill based "dungeon/raid" multiplayer RPG's are most of the time. Look at the most popular MMO's. Even in games like WoW, Guild Wars 2, Neverwinter, etc. the hardest and most rewarding activities (Raids) are only do-able if you're a hardcore player and invest a lot of time into the game. There's no way you'll buy WoW and be doing the hardest raids in two or three weeks, especially by yourself. For instance, if they nerfed the Vault of Glass to enable people to run it by themselves and blast through it without much difficulty, they shouldn't even call it a raid anymore. Anyways, that'd be impossible, seeing as it takes 6 players alone to open the door to the vault to even get in and start the damn raid.


----------



## loqtrall

Dooky said:


> So you're saying he shouldn't put out a review until the game is completed in its entirety?... in 10 years time? He played the game *alot* for 1.5 weeks and released his review around the same time as other reviewers (IGN, Gamespot etc). I think after 1.5 weeks of playing a game you'd have a pretty damn good idea of what it's like. Particularly considering the campaign in it's current lame, repetitive form takes 8 hours to complete.
> Queen's Bounty is basically the exact same bounty's over and over again, that are very similar to other bounty's.
> You've even pointed out that: _"The only points he makes about why the game is bad is because it's short, repetitive, and the loot system sucks, all of which are subjective as there are PLENTY of people who absolutely love almost all aspects of the game"._ Pretty big reasons to not like the game I'd say. Bungie have even admitted to stuffing up the loot system and are going to try and fix it. Which is good, but there are way more issues with the game than just those three.
> Also, you've said: _"Angry Joe is just a man-child who won't be satisfied until he gets the perfect game to match his wants, which will never happen"._ Umm, well, it already happened awhile ago. He gave 'The Last of Us, Remastered" a 10/10.



Judging a game with well over 100 hours of gameplay to absolutely cap your character and have nothing else to do but play multiplayer in a mere 1.5 weeks while also streaming and playing other games doesn't prove much from his review. Most of the actual gameplay in the review isn't even him, and is his friend Del playing. He released his review before he was even a high enough level to ATTEMPT the Vault of Glass. Hell, we don't even know what level HE actually is, because the person streaming Destiny on his channel is Del, not him. Del even had to explain the Queen's Wrath missions and bounties in his "Post-Review Discussion" because Joe didn't even know what they were.

But I still stand by what I said. He's an immature cynical asshole who rips apart games he doesn't like in the fashion of thinking he's the voice of the collective gamer population of the world. The game is obviously good, it's still in the top chart spots for most platforms and Bungie are still having overpopulation issues that are crashing their servers. The game obviously isn't finished yet and wasn't made to be. This isn't Halo, and people comparing it to Halo is getting old. It's not made to be like a finished first person shooter. They're going to be constantly adding content to it, which is proven so far by the Vault of Glass, Queen's Wrath, and the upcoming Iron Banner, Trials of Osiris, and other raids that have been hinted at. He didn't review Destiny, he reviewed a chunk of Destiny that he played and got bored of. And so far the Queen's Wrath missions are THE ONLY missions in the game that guarantee legendary drops, so the fact that he's still bummed about it being a repeat of a story mission after spending days saying he can't get legendary gear is just comical. Joe's reviews are either 100% negative, or 100% positive. Notice how he waited until the last 10% of his video to actually say positive things about the game at all. The other 90% of the video he purely focused on what he didn't like about it.

The funniest thing is that him and Del for DAYS have been saying Destiny is horrible on stream and shout to high heavens that they're never playing it again when they don't get good loot drops, then they persist to play the game for countless hours afterward.

The fact that Joe himself said the devs ....ed up the game, it has horrible design flaws, most of the game is horrible and not worth playing, then clearly says "But I just GOTTA keep playing it!!!" is evident of his ass-backwards way of thinking, like his huge temper is just a giant ruse to get views.


----------



## loqtrall

MoshJosh said:


> also anyone having luck getting the full set of queens armor? So far I have two helmets and 3 chest pieces. . . a friend got the ship but 3 or four helmets and chest piece



There's only 4 rewards: Chest, Helmet, Ship, and Sniper Rifle. The ship and sniper are a much lower drop chance, but are still guaranteed if they DO happen to drop.


----------



## Jake

So this far I've gotten 3 exotics.....2 of which have now been for hunter class when I'm a warlock 

getting a lot of purples still though just not the right kind of armor that I need 

EDIT: Finally got an exotic helmet from Xur at least and up to level 26 now


----------



## monkeybike

I am about to go on a rampage. I got just about every network error the game can give you. Turns out my kids have Netflix, minecraft, sims 3, tablets all running killing my home network. Apparently Destiny doesn't like dropped packets on the network.


----------



## MoshJosh

^^^ I've been getting booted from 75% of matches/missions I try and play, with my laptop and phone disconnected from my wifi sooooo. . . Not sure what's going on


----------



## monkeybike

Maybe the script kiddies are ddos'ing the servers again.


----------



## monkeybike

I went thru and set up my router with a static ip for the ps4, port forwarded all the required ports, turned off upnp and still issues. Network test on ps4 settings says I am getting 11Mbps down, 2Mbps up. Should be working fine but nope.

Edit: http://www.vg247.com/2014/09/25/destiny-servers-dropping-players-bungie-on-the-case/


----------



## thedonal

Less kick out for me today

Finally some meaningful co op and crucible with a mate. Won some. Got hammered on others.


----------



## splinter8451

Choop said:


> Guys playing on PS3, what's the social environment like? I'm curious if it feels like it maybe is hard to find party members, er, something? I guess I'm just asking if it seems like a lot of people are playing the PS3 version. I won't be getting a PS4 any time soon due to moneys, but I really want to play this game!



There are definitely a lot of people playing on PS3. I have not had much luck getting random people to join my squad though  you should get it so we can play! 

I have had 4 people add me from doing strikes together but they never join my game when I send them invites... so I wonder why they even sent me requests.


----------



## loqtrall

splinter8451 said:


> I have had 4 people add me from doing strikes together but they never join my game when I send them invites... so I wonder why they even sent me requests.



Yeah, I get that a lot, too. I have no idea why they'd add me and then not want to play, especially since a lot of content requires two or more people that you can't get from random matchmaking.

I mean, I could be in the middle of a strike or a crucible match and if someone invites me, playing with other people is so fun that I'll immediately stop and join their fireteam. The weirdest part about that is most of the time when I invite people, they're just walking around a planet on Patrol, not in a fireteam or anything. You'd think they'd want to do SOMETHING with a friend.


----------



## splinter8451

loqtrall said:


> Yeah, I get that a lot, too. I have no idea why they'd add me and then not want to play, especially since a lot of content requires two or more people that you can't get from random matchmaking.
> 
> I mean, I could be in the middle of a strike or a crucible match and if someone invites me, playing with other people is so fun that I'll immediately stop and join their fireteam. The weirdest part about that is most of the time when I invite people, they're just walking around a planet on Patrol, not in a fireteam or anything. You'd think they'd want to do SOMETHING with a friend.



I completely agree. I sent one of my new "friends" an invite while we were both just chilling at the Tower, and what did he do a couple minutes later? Went to Orbit and started the level 26 strike by himself 

I would have gladly joined him, but he did it solo.


----------



## The Reverend

One of the things I hate is that Destiny doesn't really give you the opportunity to even make friends to play the harder strikes and raids. I don't want to send a million invites to random people at the Tower just to hope to find someone around where I'm at in level and gear, and wants to do what I want to do. There needs to be a chat or something, or perhaps an option to enable matchmaking. After all, if I can't meet people in the game, how am I going to round up five people to do the Vault raid?


----------



## MoshJosh

another night of not being able to play. . . sweet!

Anyone know if there is a customer support line I can call to find someone to yell at? haha


----------



## splinter8451

The Reverend said:


> snip



I do wish the high level raids had matchmaking.


----------



## Gothic Headhunter

Anyone up for doing the weekly strike on PS4 in like 15 minutes? Username is KingOfTheDust


----------



## loqtrall

splinter8451 said:


> I do wish the high level raids had matchmaking.



I could also see potential in this, especially now that they plan on implementing voice chat into matchmade fireteams. But it'll probably be ruined by an influx of level 24's who just unlocked the raid attempting to do it. The raid is VERY hard for first timers. My level 26 friend tried it with another 26, a level 28, and 3 level 27's that were all random, and they still couldn't even get the door open. Unless you're in a party with voice chat enabled your fireteam will have little to no coordination or communication. Matchmaking for TVOG would be awesome, but only if they required you to have a specific gear score to participate in the matchmaking part of it. Because all I can see is level 24's and 25's queuing up to try to get better gear, just like level 21's and 22's doing level 24 Strikes.


----------



## thedonal

I tried the lweekly strike with a mate yesterday (level 22 or 24?). Bloody hell that was tough. Just breaking the 3 servitors was a real challenge. I was level 20, my mate 22.

I'm finding some of the crucible matchmaking a bit tough. I think there should be some sort of level window, but that may be tricky to implement. It takes time to find matches as it is,

But God I eat that fusion rifle that charges as quickly as the one that took me out repeatedly today. A level 28 opponent.. 

I've tried a few missions that are no more than 2 levels above me and they are a real challenge. Even 1 level seems to make such a different in this game.


----------



## thedonal

Still loving it though.


----------



## asher

... does this game really not have a Looking For Group tool?


----------



## thedonal

Nope. Player connections certainly seems to be something that could be worked on in the future.

I guess gamer forums are the place to go for now...


----------



## loqtrall

thedonal said:


> I'm finding some of the crucible matchmaking a bit tough. I think there should be some sort of level window, but that may be tricky to implement. It takes time to find matches as it is,
> 
> But God I eat that fusion rifle that charges as quickly as the one that took me out repeatedly today. A level 28 opponent..


 
Well all of the stats are normalized, so a level 5 can kill just as fast as a level 30. The only difference is that weapon and armor upgrades (including damage) still take effect. Until the Iron Banner levels don't mean anything in the crucible. Just yesterday I had a level 6 mowing me down with an auto rifle in one second flat.

Oh yeah, Bungie explained that the reason auto rifles are so overpowered in the crucible is because all primary weapon damage is normalized around 30~ dmg per shot. That's PER SHOT, something Bungie didn't notice while auto rifles shoot around 3-4 rounds per second. Meaning someone using an auto rifle does 90-120 damage per second or two, whereas health is normalized around 200~.

I'm SO happy they're nerfing them and the shotgun. That's all I see in the crucible any more: auto rifles, shotguns, and rocket launchers.


----------



## splinter8451

loqtrall said:


> Well all of the stats are normalized, so a level 5 can kill just as fast as a level 30. The only difference is that weapon and armor upgrades (including damage) still take effect. Until the Iron Banner levels don't mean anything in the crucible. Just yesterday I had a level 6 mowing me down with an auto rifle in one second flat.
> 
> Oh yeah, Bungie explained that the reason auto rifles are so overpowered in the crucible is because all primary weapon damage is normalized around 30~ dmg per shot. That's PER SHOT, something Bungie didn't notice while auto rifles shoot around 3-4 rounds per second. Meaning someone using an auto rifle does 90-120 damage per second or two, whereas health is normalized around 200~.
> 
> I'm SO happy they're nerfing them and the shotgun. That's all I see in the crucible any more: auto rifles, shotguns, and rocket launchers.



Man rocket launchers are getting super annoying  at least in Halo you could USUALLY avoid death if you saw it coming. In Destiny it seems like the lag between jump and jetpack is too much to avoid the blast radius. But I might just need to get my FPS reactions back to where they were in the Halo 2 days. 

It kind of sucks scout rifles don't do a little more damage. Hopefully they are more useful once AR's are nerfed. Because right now, even with mostly precision shots I get beat out by someone running at me with an AR


----------



## thedonal

I've been so reliant on the Stranger's pulse rifle.

I'll need to get me a decent auto rifle for now, until rebalancing occurs.


----------



## ScottyB724

Always looking for more people to play with. Currently level 25 hunter on PS4. Feel free to add me. PSN ID: Tremulant402


----------



## monkeybike

I think I spent most of the day trying to kill that Phogoth mofo in the moon raid, still couldnt do it. Think I need to level up more...

Only had one network drop today though!


----------



## MoshJosh

I finally got to play today, all it took was calling Microsoft and manually entering DNS codes. . . Whatever those are. 

Gonna try grinding strange coins tonight to spend on exotics


----------



## RickSchneider

I was using a scout rifle for missions and strikes and jumped into the crucible with it and decided to just stick it out rather than using my auto rifle. While I didn't go as well as i normally do, I still managed to get a ~1.5 kdr. In saying that I was relying on melee/grenades/shotgun in conjunction with the scout rifle, while when i use my auto rifle I can basically ignore all other weapons



splinter8451 said:


> It kind of sucks scout rifles don't do a little more damage. Hopefully they are more useful once AR's are nerfed. Because right now, even with mostly precision shots I get beat out by someone running at me with an AR


----------



## loqtrall

splinter8451 said:


> It kind of sucks scout rifles don't do a little more damage. Hopefully they are more useful once AR's are nerfed. Because right now, even with mostly precision shots I get beat out by someone running at me with an AR


 
They are in fact increasing damage done by scout rifles. Alot of people were complaining that scout rifles were severely underpowered compaired to everything else in the crucible. I think they nerfed scout rifles because they were so overpowered in the beta.

They're also supposed to be making exotic weapons more useful outside of the crucible. There was a lot of uproar that exotic weapons were often killing AI enemies much slower than legendaries, even though they initially do more damage and some have 5 damage upgrades.

I still don't understand the game's level-to-difficulty ratio. Because I'm level 26 and sometimes it still takes me 2 melee hits to kill a level 3-5 vandal while patroling Earth even though I'm over 20 levels higher than them and it only took me two hits to kill them when I was actually level 5. Or the fact that I have a fully upgraded exotic scout rifle that does 300 dmg and it still takes me two mags to kill majors and ultras that are 20+ levels lower than I am. I'm beginning to wonder if enemies are levelled simply to portray their threat to you, and it has nothing to do with how much damage you do to them in comparison to your level. I mean, it's not that bad, but the fact that I'm 4 levels and a couple pieces of raid gear away from hard cap and have one of the most powerful weapons in the game and still can't one-shot a level 2 Dreg in the chest is ridiculous.


----------



## thedonal

Having run a few missions on hard on Earth now, I'm finding that the fallen out in the Cosmodrome in general still have a low level marker, but take a lot more damage than you'd expect.

I'm wondering if the level marker more indicates aggression and intelligent behaviour, rather than damage dealt. The odd "yellow" target turns up too on patrols. A level 20 enemy will stil dish out and receive more damage, but will also be far more active and aggressive...

Nearly did the strike of the week today, but only two of us and that final boss is a bitch with all the vex spawns along the way. We abandoned in the end...I made it to the final boss solo too, which felt like progress.

Have decided my favourite Crucible match is control. Though bikes with guns seem a touch overpowered for it.  

This is my first real taste of PVP on the 360 and it feels good to actually get kills, I got a COD game with my XBox and tried on that, but as the game was oldish by then I was way behind on perks and didn't stand a chance.. &#55357;&#56836;

I'm also doing the "get 9000xp without dying" bounty. I got so close, but lost it running a mission on hard, dammit.

Still liking the game a lot, but starting to see where improvements could be made..


----------



## MoshJosh

^^^ I noticed that about the level indicators to, was fighting some level 9s who were soaking up most of my clip (I'm level 25) I think there is some weird scaling that goes on.

Also I got "The Supremacy" from the queens missions, it's pretty cool, to bad I'm awful at sniping


----------



## thedonal

I wonder if a Bungie will introduce and progress more story as Destiny moves forward.

I'd like to see this, with changes to the landscape and missions, including huge public events at story progression points.

I'm guessing they haven't really considered this, given how little "narrative" we're given. I get that this is designed as a multi player mission game, but repeating the same missions ad nauseous will probably get a little dull.

I'm getting that there isnt a dynamic story as such- that would be really hard to implement and maintain (expensive too), but some progression would be nice. I'm hoping for more of an evolving world.


----------



## Pav

thedonal said:


> I wonder if a Bungie will introduce and progress more story as Destiny moves forward.


I thought that was their plan all along.


----------



## monkeybike

They supposedly have a 10 year plan for the game. So far it is just the 2 dlc add ons.

Made it through the black garden mission going solo before the servers got nuked last night.


----------



## thedonal

Pav said:


> I thought that was their plan all along.


 
Indeed. I guess it's just the initial content that doesn't feel like there'll be much progress. It does seem like a bunch of levels than you can replay with mates on. Enjoyable as that is.

I guess I was hoping for a bit more player driven or interactive storytelling (ie events unfold depending on player contribution or success of events). I'd love to see the world change as the story progresses- before we get as far as the sequels.

The weekly events seem mainly to be more challenging aspects of what you've done already. 

I guess what I expected are the public events, but on a bigger and more deterministic scale.


----------



## HighGain510

I'm hoping they patch the legendary engrams deal. I was debating sitting on them but I had like 4-5 of them sitting in my queue so I had to free up space... 3 of them turned to RARE items which was pretty annoying, one was a legendary piece of armor I could use and the other turned into an Exotic machine gun which is a bit useless for me as it has a 32 round magazine of electric rounds but the stability is awful so by the time you get a few guys you have to pray they don't move before you can get a hit off. I'm going to keep it for now as I'd like to save it in case there is a "kill X amount of guys with a machine gun" mission eventually, but I was like "jeez what a waste of an exotic gun..."  

I love my exotic sniper rifle and I have a piece of armor that gives me more sniper shots too (so up from 4 to 6 per magazine), but I would have preferred either a better exotic armor piece (have an exotic helmet right now, legendary for everything else but boots) or some legendary boots and instead I get another exotic weapon I don't need.  At least the legendary engrams didn't ALL turn into rare pieces, that's super frustrating.  That patch can't come soon enough! 

In other news Horizon 2 drops tomorrow so you'll likely be seeing less of me on Destiny for a little while, I'd still like to do the Vault of Glass so I might try to boost a bit more tonight and if anyone is around maybe we can get a big fire team together.


----------



## HurrDurr

I keep hearing about how much damage lower level-units take and I'm here one-shot'ing everything be it with melee/shotgun/burst/etc., so it's confusing to me but I know it's a real thing because I've had several people tell me. What's so special about my Titan?


----------



## HighGain510

HurrDurr said:


> I keep hearing about how much damage lower level-units take and I'm here one-shot'ing everything be it with melee/shotgun/burst/etc., so it's confusing to me but I know it's a real thing because I've had several people tell me. What's so special about my Titan?



I dunno, early on it seemed like a single shot to the dome was enough to get most guys, but I think it changes as you level up higher. I'm like 26/27 now and I'm noticing some guys are taking 2-3 shots to the head so it might be something internal to the game that runs a calculation to balance the "difficulty" to your character level. It seems odd that guys I used to be able to one-shot are now taking 2-3 hits before they go down even when they are direct headshots, so I've noticed it too.  The higher-level heroic strike missions become increasingly apparent that there is a mis-match too.


----------



## sakeido

Some guy worked out how the levels work for damage... 

It reduces your damage if you are a lower level than the enemies, until you are 4 levels below them. Then you will do no damage. 

It never BOOSTS your damage though. If you are the same level as a mob, that is the most damage you are going to do to them - you don't get bonus damage for shooting at level 4 mobs when you are 26. Only the stats of your weapons matter. So if you aren't one-shotting guys with your guns, it's because your gun doesn't do enough damage. 

If you are doing lots of PvP you will probably swap your gun for one that has lower damage but better upgrades - if you don't switch back to a PvE gun with more damage, you are going to have to put in a bit more work in PvE. I've been one-shotting in PvE with hand cannons since I was level 8. But I'd never (ever ever) use a hand cannon in PvP.

I don't know if there is any way to boost the damage of your melee attack. I can only one shot guys if I hit them from behind or have my energy drain charged


----------



## loqtrall

sakeido said:


> Only the stats of your weapons matter. So if you aren't one-shotting guys with your guns, it's because your gun doesn't do enough damage.


 
That's not necessarily true. Weapon damage SHOULD matter, but looks as if it doesn't. If you could 2 shot a level 4 dreg at level 4 with a grey level 4 scout rifle that does 29 damage, why do I still have to 2 shot said level 4 dreg when I'm level 27 with an exotic scout rifle that does 300 damage with all 5 damage upgrades? That's literally my situation. What's the point in having a level system when all levels do is enable you to kill low levelled bosses easier? (which seemingly keep the same amount of health no matter what level you are, unlike general enemies.)


----------



## thedonal

It does seem a strange system.

I was doing a Venus mission today on level 14 difficulty (ie 1 setting above standard), just to top up my "9000xp without being killed bounty" (Unstoppable). 

Got to the research base and a friend joined. Next minute, I was getting creamed by Axis Minotaurs in the final battle (3 of them), supposedly at level 14 (I'm now 23).

None of the levelling seems to make much sense. Maybe Bungie have over complicated things being based on armour with "light", rather than the levelling, damage (including types of damage) and armour in most games with RPG elements.


----------



## splinter8451

It has probable been said already, but there should be matchmaking for everything except Raids. Maybe even for Raids if they keep it regional, so you do not get thrown in with people speaking different languages


----------



## loqtrall

Exactly. A moderately levelled (10-15) major or ultra could mow through me pretty quickly even without heroic modifiers turned on. So far other than gaining the ability to damage higher level enemies, the level system just seems like a useless visual reminder of the illusion of progress in the game. The only positive I see in gaining levels is normal enemies of a lower level do less damage. But that's all gear defense dependant, if it was level dependent, they'd also TAKE more damage from higher level players. So, as of yet, I see no point in the level system if every enemy will react as if it's about the same level as you with reduced damage when you're clearly 23 levels higher.


----------



## MoshJosh

Anyone else getting cattle error code? My friend and I both tried playing last night and both got that error code over and over again. I'm getting pretty sick of this sh*t. I've contacted both Microsoft and my internet provider and everything seems to be fine on my end but it has gotten to the point where I can't play for more than 5 minutes without getting kicked off. Probably gonna trade Destiny in

Edit: this has been going on for about 4 days and many different errors not just cattle code


----------



## sakeido

loqtrall said:


> That's not necessarily true. Weapon damage SHOULD matter, but looks as if it doesn't. If you could 2 shot a level 4 dreg at level 4 with a grey level 4 scout rifle that does 29 damage, why do I still have to 2 shot said level 4 dreg when I'm level 27 with an exotic scout rifle that does 300 damage with all 5 damage upgrades? That's literally my situation. What's the point in having a level system when all levels do is enable you to kill low levelled bosses easier? (which seemingly keep the same amount of health no matter what level you are, unlike general enemies.)



Are you not hitting them in the head or something? I've never had a problem one shotting baddies.. I'm looking forward to some tougher enemies popping up because the game has been too easy for me for a while. Maybe damage isn't the same between weapons? ie. 300 damage from a hand cannon is more than 300 than the scout rifle. I know there is some strange stuff about how they normalize weapon damage.

^^ MoshJosh the servers went down last night. The notification was up on XBox Live information. Destiny and a couple Call of Duty games were unavailable.


----------



## MoshJosh

Yeah but this has been happening to me for 3 or 4 days now

And so far I can't play today either


----------



## loqtrall

sakeido said:


> Are you not hitting them in the head or something? I've never had a problem one shotting baddies.


 
That's exactly my point. I'm purposfully NOT headshot'ing them to prove my point. In any other level-based RPG-esque game (i.e: WoW, Guild Wars, Borderlands, Mass Effect, Fallout, TES, ect.) if you're 23 levels higher than an enemy, you can hit them in the legs and one-shot them. That's the way most level-based games work, and is evidently the way Destiny SHOULD work. Because so far levels seem to be nothing more than a visualization of how much good armor you have.


----------



## HurrDurr

I think I figured it out... Do you guys do a lot of Heroic/Epic/etc. strikes and story missions? because regardless of level, those special higher-level missions have all kinds of enemy HP, damage, and tactics modifiers that alter their playing style completely. Ultras and Majors rush you (and sometimes even flank), and standard minions flank and lay down a barrage of fire from distance in large numbers as well as plenty of well-positioned snipers. I think these mission modifiers are what contribute to this because yeah, I have a hard time bringing down just about anything in a LVL 22 and up Heroic/Epic mission and I'm LVL 26 and yet I can one-shot melee nearly everything in standard patrol missions and other lower-level story missions when I'm helping someone get through a tough mission.


----------



## loqtrall

Can't be that, I'm talking about just a on a normal patrol of the Cosmodrome, in the place you first spawn where enemies are only level 2-4. I wanted specifically to try out my damage on the lowest of the low level enemies to see how the damage-to-level scaling worked, and it seems non-existent.


And I've proven that said damage scaling IS in fact non-existent. I was doing the "Complete 6 Patrol Missions In The Cosmodrome" bounty, so obviously I was very aware of the fact that I wasn't one-shotting low level enemies unless I shoot them in the head, but then I went Mars to farm Relic Iron for upgrades and the level 17-20 enemies there reacted *EXACTLY THE SAME WAY*. There was literally no difference. It took me a few shots (4-5) for Legionnaires (just like Vandals) and it took me two body shots to down a Sentinel (just like Dregs), but they were a whole 10+ levels higher than the Fallen in the Cosmodrome.

I'm honestly surprised nobody's brought up this fact with Bungie and they haven't addressed it, seeing as a huge majority of the game is specifically about leveling up and getting better gear to take down baddies. If your weapon kills enemies just as fast at level 27 as they did at level 4, that's a big disappointment when you think about all the work you have to do to get that great gear that makes NO difference when it comes to killing any level of enemy.


----------



## Pav

Finally got to run Vault of Glass for the first time last night. Holy shit, what an experience. We spent nearly 4 hours...got to the final boss but couldn't finish him due to exhaustion. However I still came away with 8 ascendant shards, 3 ascendant energies, a legendary class item, legendary sniper rifle and an exotic auto rifle. That white shader WILL be mine!

Has anyone tried the raid on hard mode? I can't even imagine how unforgiving it would be.


----------



## loqtrall

Pav said:


> Has anyone tried the raid on hard mode? I can't even imagine how unforgiving it would be.



It's absolutely the most rewarding and beyond the most difficult aspect of the game.

Best loot you can get from it is the Vex Mythoclast exotic Fusion Rifle. It's a Fusion Rifle that's modified to be a primary weapon instead of secondary, it has an active upgrade that you don't have to pay for that makes the rifle fire all the bolts (that usually spread on normal fusion rifles) all at one time in an accurate cluster, and basically fires like a Scout rifle, it also actively does fire damage. The first guy who ever uploaded a video of it was killing people in the Crucible in 2 or 3 hits without any damage upgrades on the weapon at all. It's two other main upgrades are more stability the more damage you do, and bonus damage after each kill for a short time.


----------



## sakeido

loqtrall said:


> Can't be that, I'm talking about just a on a normal patrol of the Cosmodrome, in the place you first spawn where enemies are only level 2-4. I wanted specifically to try out my damage on the lowest of the low level enemies to see how the damage-to-level scaling worked, and it seems non-existent.
> 
> 
> And I've proven that said damage scaling IS in fact non-existent. I was doing the "Complete 6 Patrol Missions In The Cosmodrome" bounty, so obviously I was very aware of the fact that I wasn't one-shotting low level enemies unless I shoot them in the head, but then I went Mars to farm Relic Iron for upgrades and the level 17-20 enemies there reacted *EXACTLY THE SAME WAY*. There was literally no difference. It took me a few shots (4-5) for Legionnaires (just like Vandals) and it took me two body shots to down a Sentinel (just like Dregs), but they were a whole 10+ levels higher than the Fallen in the Cosmodrome.
> 
> I'm honestly surprised nobody's brought up this fact with Bungie and they haven't addressed it, seeing as a huge majority of the game is specifically about leveling up and getting better gear to take down baddies. If your weapon kills enemies just as fast at level 27 as they did at level 4, that's a big disappointment when you think about all the work you have to do to get that great gear that makes NO difference when it comes to killing any level of enemy.



I don't see any problem with it. I finally hit 20 and unlocked the hard modes of all the old missions and the enemies take the same damage in all of them and just get smarter, come in bigger numbers or more frequently in the "elite" version of the normal enemies that are more durable and can't be one shotted with primaries at all. I think if the game has pro-rated your damage numbers downwards, the numbers will be gray instead of white when you shoot somebody. 

I dunno, it is the most minor of inconveniences. I kinda like that if they throw sufficient amounts of level 10s at you they actually are still a threat and you can't just shoot an auto rifle from the hip and drop them all in one shot by hitting them in the legs and arms like it's a Call of Duty game. I am still getting a feel for it but lower level enemies usually don't even get to shoot back after you hit them the first time anyway, because the higher impact on your gun sends them into their stun animation for the free shot you need to finish them off. 

Higher level gear is more about having more, or better, passive abilities than the damage anyway.. damage doesn't matter in PvP


----------



## loqtrall

sakeido said:


> Higher level gear is more about having more, or better, passive abilities than the damage anyway.. damage doesn't matter in PvP


 
That's exactly my point. Your weapon choice shouldn't matter because its abilities grant you bonus ammo and let you reload faster after a kill. It should be about "can this weapon drop enemies faster than what I currently have", and so far that isn't the case at all. That's how it is in every game Destiny's seemingly taken ideas from. I'm not complaining about it, I'm just wondering what the point is. Take Mass Effect and Borderlands, the 2 games that can be the closest compared to destiny. In both games you kill significantly lower level enemies in one shot from any hit box. Even if they're the same level as you, if you find a gun that does more damage, it'll kill them quicker. That's the only good way a level and gun damage system can work, otherwise levels mean nothing other than being able to damage and withstand higher level enemies. This is literally the first RPG-esque stat-based game I've seen make the level system so insignificant when it comes to actual gameplay. It's not that big of a deal, like level 2 baddies are unkillable, but to someone who revels in this specific genre of game (like me), it's definitely noticeable compared to similar games.

I guess what I'm saying is, not killing the level 2 version of the easiest enemy in the game with one body shot when I'm almost level 28 and have one of the best guns in the game gets pretty fvcking annoying, but it's not a game-breaker.


----------



## loqtrall

Patch went live today, seems to have fixed A LOT of the gear and engram reward/decoding issues a lot of people were complaining about.

So far I've done 4 level 24 strikes and at the end of each one I've gotten 2 blue engrams/items for rewards, then I get a random Cryptarch Engram reward, and a couple times I got a strange coin.

Also got a legendary engram for the first time after the patch, and it turned into the Cryptic Dragon, so what they said about legendary engrams always being legendary or better is also true.


----------



## Jake

loqtrall said:


> Patch went live today, seems to have fixed A LOT of the gear and engram reward/decoding issues a lot of people were complaining about.
> 
> So far I've done 4 level 24 strikes and at the end of each one I've gotten 2 blue engrams/items for rewards, then I get a random Cryptarch Engram reward, and a couple times I got a strange coin.
> 
> Also got a legendary engram for the first time after the patch, and it turned into the Cryptic Dragon, so what they said about legendary engrams always being legendary or better is also true.


I feel like I was one of the few people who's legendary engrams turned into legendaries and better even since I managed to get 3 exotics (rocket launcher, fusion rifle, and chest piece) just off purple engrams alone that I found on patrol missions. (mind you that the chest piece was for a hunter and I'm a warlock  ) I also had 3 blues turn into legendary items which definitely was unexpected. However I have yet to get a purple drop today so I can't really say for certainty how that's looking for me 

I will say I'm fvcking pissed I just went 22 and 4 in the crucible and got jack shit while my "teammate" who went 2 and 12 got a strange coin and a blue engram 

Also heres my character at the moment. Level 26, almost 27. Just need some puruple gauntlets and boots....


----------



## loqtrall

Funny thing is now that legendary engrams are guaranteed to be legendary, people are complaining they don't get enough engrams....


----------



## loqtrall

And for the sake of being bored, here's my Hunter, level 27, halfway to 28. Can't find Ascendant Materials to upgrade my shit...Seems some of the stats on DestinyDB aren't working correctly, as my PvE score isn't 0 and I have much more than 9 Agility, so take it with a grain of salt.


----------



## IChuckFinleyI

If anyone on XB1 and wants to do some Strikes or Raids, just message me. It's usually just myself and one of my buddies playing.


----------



## stevo1

finished the raid tonight! it was pretty fun, but I didn't get much loot sadly. I got the ship at the end, and some shards, and some boots, and that's it


----------



## loqtrall

stevo1 said:


> and some shards


 
The only thing I want.


----------



## thedonal

So I had my first experience yesterday of people just stood still during a strike. 

Kind of annoying and a bit of a shame that people play the game that way. 

Repetitive as it can be, not actually 'playing' it to reap the rewards surely undermines things massively.

I wonder what Bungie could do to actually cover this- aside from aiming rewards at the people who contributed most. 

I realised what was going on and quit the strike to start again. Got a better team second time around, but it wastes time too.


----------



## loqtrall

thedonal said:


> So I had my first experience yesterday of people just stood still during a strike.
> 
> Kind of annoying and a bit of a shame that people play the game that way.
> 
> Repetitive as it can be, not actually 'playing' it to reap the rewards surely undermines things massively.
> 
> I wonder what Bungie could do to actually cover this- aside from aiming rewards at the people who contributed most.
> 
> I realised what was going on and quit the strike to start again. Got a better team second time around, but it wastes time too.


 
Unfortunately there's not much that can be done unless they decide to rewrite the code corresponding with random loot rewards, which could take some time. I've come to terms with the random reward system at the end of missions/matches. It doesn't bother me when I don't get better rewards for trying harder, because I understand it's absolutely random. It's not like the system rewards those who put in less effort, it's just random. You all know that if YOU joined a crucible match that was 99% finished, got no kills, then got an exotic for a reward, you wouldn't complain about it like you do when it happens to others. You'd probably laugh and celebrate.

But that's where the RNG loot system contradicts the random reward system. It doesn't apply to the crucible, but if you're doing a strike and don't get anything but a couple engrams throughout the strike, THEN get nothing as a reward at the end, you just completely wasted time. And that's where Destiny falls very short. I know about wasting time doing strikes, as I did 25 strikes in one day just to get the Bad Juju bounty done, and Ive determined that doing any strike from level 8 (sepiks) to 24 (vanguard tiger) is a waste of time about 70% of the time. And that's very bad considering those are the only non-competitive things to do in the game without having a 6-man fireteam.

Honestly, with all the great games coming out in the next 5 months, if Bungie doesn't fix it's technical problems (errors), it's shit loot system, and if the DLC doesn't add a substantial amount of content for both the storyline and to defeat the overall repetitive aspect of the game (adding new planets, enemies, sub-missions for cults, new cults, player chat, trading, bigger explorable worlds, more in the worlds besides enemies, raid and high-level strike matchmaking, new crucible gametypes), I don't see Destiny lasting another 5 months, let alone 10 years. It's fun and all, but in it's current state it's not really that great of a game.


----------



## thedonal

loqtrall said:


> Unfortunately there's not much that can be done unless they decide to rewrite the code corresponding with random loot rewards, which could take some time. I've come to terms with the random reward system at the end of missions/matches. It doesn't bother me when I don't get better rewards for trying harder, because I understand it's absolutely random. It's not like the system rewards those who put in less effort, it's just random. You all know that if YOU joined a crucible match that was 99% finished, got no kills, then got an exotic for a reward, you wouldn't complain about it like you do when it happens to others. You'd probably laugh and celebrate.
> 
> But that's where the RNG loot system contradicts the random reward system. It doesn't apply to the crucible, but if you're doing a strike and don't get anything but a couple engrams throughout the strike, THEN get nothing as a reward at the end, you just completely wasted time. And that's where Destiny falls very short. I know about wasting time doing strikes, as I did 25 strikes in one day just to get the Bad Juju bounty done, and Ive determined that doing any strike from level 8 (sepiks) to 24 (vanguard tiger) is a waste of time about 70% of the time. And that's very bad considering those are the only non-competitive things to do in the game without having a 6-man fireteam.
> 
> Honestly, with all the great games coming out in the next 5 months, if Bungie doesn't fix it's technical problems (errors), it's shit loot system, and if the DLC doesn't add a substantial amount of content for both the storyline and to defeat the overall repetitive aspect of the game (adding new planets, enemies, sub-missions for cults, new cults, player chat, trading, bigger explorable worlds, more in the worlds besides enemies, raid and high-level strike matchmaking, new crucible gametypes), I don't see Destiny lasting another 5 months, let alone 10 years. It's fun and all, but in it's current state it's not really that great of a game.



All fair points. The public events need to vary more too. I get the Warsat event too often and tend to complete it solo as there are rarely others about (360 version not too popular in my time zone?).

I still think planned mass public events would be a good way to go if they offered the right rewards and progressed what is there of the story.


----------



## Pav

I sure hope the next Iron Banner event is less conservative than this one. The cap on level advantage is so low, it basically feels the same as the usual Crucible.


----------



## monkeybike

I blow ass at pvp and I already have rank 1 in the Iron Banner. Only played 4 rounds of control.

Also regarding public events, they are timed on the hour. Easy way to rack up shards, etc. I do spider tank @ the divide at quarter after and quarter of the hour then shoot to the mothyard at the top and bottom of the hour.


----------



## stevo1

Anyone looking to do the raid?


----------



## loqtrall

I can't even play anymore. 100+ hours of doing the same thing over and over again on two separate characters. I'm pretty convinced that this game won't last past DLC (if you've seen the DLC leak, it's just a few more missions and strikes, Activision map packs anyone?). This game will be pretty dead once big major games start coming out soon like CoD, Far Cry, Halo MCC, the Halo 5 beta, Sunset Overdrive, The Witcher 3, etc. Compared to those AAA titles that are coming out, Destiny is seriously lacking content, and so far the only thing Bungie has proven is that they can add content that's just rehashing old missions and bounties. Sure, the raid's fun, but there's only so much you can do of that, too. It's all just the same thing over and over again. Enemies always spawn in the same place, loot chests always spawn in the same place, materials, too. I was all for Destiny before I got this far in to it. There's literally nothing for me to do besides monotonously repeat everything I've done so far. If I created a Warlock, in a couple weeks I'd actually have NOTHING to do, at all. 

I'm not sure how Bungie felt justified in releasing such a small and insignificantly short game after having a decade's worth of experience with developing and winning awards for Halo, of all games. I mean, I really had fun playing with other people, especially SSO buds; but even then we're still forced to just do the same thing over and over again. The only "non-repetitive" aspect of the game is The Crucible, and the maps are so small that even THAT gets monotonous, and if you're not using an auto rifle, shotgun, fusion rifle, sniper, or heavy weapon you'll more than likely get destroyed more than half the time.

It just seems like they spent more money hyping this game than they did developing it.


----------



## Pav

stevo1 said:


> Anyone looking to do the raid?



Do you play on PS4? Me and my clan run the raid multiple times per week including 2-3 times every tuesday after the refresh. We're always looking to expand our ranks.


----------



## thedonal

I'm now getting to a point where the raid seems more viable, but will need to expand my connections to get a fire team for it.

I'm finding better drops boosting me a bit more now- got a legendary helmet after a cryptarch reputation level up yesterday. 

I am starting to agree with the lack of content. It is VERY repetitive. Even the daily missions/strikes/bounties. HOW many times CAN you do the Winter Kell mission?

I also think there should be some new rewards each time you replay a mission on a harder difficulty for the first time.


----------



## stevo1

Pav said:


> Do you play on PS4? Me and my clan run the raid multiple times per week including 2-3 times every tuesday after the refresh. We're always looking to expand our ranks.



No, Xbox one man.


----------



## insaneshawnlane

stevo1 said:


> Anyone looking to do the raid?



I am. You're on Xbox one?


----------



## stevo1

yeah man, what's your gamer tag?


----------



## sakeido

loqtrall said:


> I can't even play anymore. 100+ hours of doing the same thing over and over again on two separate characters. I'm pretty convinced that this game won't last past DLC (if you've seen the DLC leak, it's just a few more missions and strikes, Activision map packs anyone?). This game will be pretty dead once big major games start coming out soon like CoD, Far Cry, Halo MCC, the Halo 5 beta, Sunset Overdrive, The Witcher 3, etc. Compared to those AAA titles that are coming out, Destiny is seriously lacking content, and so far the only thing Bungie has proven is that they can add content that's just rehashing old missions and bounties. Sure, the raid's fun, but there's only so much you can do of that, too. It's all just the same thing over and over again. Enemies always spawn in the same place, loot chests always spawn in the same place, materials, too. I was all for Destiny before I got this far in to it. There's literally nothing for me to do besides monotonously repeat everything I've done so far. If I created a Warlock, in a couple weeks I'd actually have NOTHING to do, at all.
> 
> I'm not sure how Bungie felt justified in releasing such a small and insignificantly short game after having a decade's worth of experience with developing and winning awards for Halo, of all games. I mean, I really had fun playing with other people, especially SSO buds; but even then we're still forced to just do the same thing over and over again. The only "non-repetitive" aspect of the game is The Crucible, and the maps are so small that even THAT gets monotonous, and if you're not using an auto rifle, shotgun, fusion rifle, sniper, or heavy weapon you'll more than likely get destroyed more than half the time.
> 
> It just seems like they spent more money hyping this game than they did developing it.



You complain a lot, and say some pretty stupid things. They spent more money on hype than development... Crucible is monotonous... because the maps are small?  de_dust2 is tiny and extremely linear compared to any Destiny map, and it's one of the best shooter maps of all time.

Like, Good God. You played the game too much, ran out of things to do, and it's the games fault. These next gen AAA games couldn't come out soon enough.. anything that makes the bitchers leave.

In other news... auto rifle nerf probably could have been a little more intense since Suros Regime is still the clear best PvP gun, and the scout rifle buff wasn't enough to make them usable in PvP. but in PvE, good god. My legendary scout rifle is really good now, hits like a truck even before damage upgrades.


----------



## loqtrall

sakeido said:


> You complain a lot, and say some pretty stupid things. They spent more money on hype than development... Crucible is monotonous... because the maps are small?  de_dust2 is tiny and extremely linear compared to any Destiny map, and it's one of the best shooter maps of all time.
> 
> Like, Good God. You played the game too much, ran out of things to do, and it's the games fault. These next gen AAA games couldn't come out soon enough.. anything that makes the bitchers leave.
> 
> In other news... auto rifle nerf probably could have been a little more intense since Suros Regime is still the clear best PvP gun, and the scout rifle buff wasn't enough to make them usable in PvP. but in PvE, good god. My legendary scout rifle is really good now, hits like a truck even before damage upgrades.



EDIT: Nevermind, I'm not even going to get into this with you. I like my SSO account too much.


----------



## sakeido

Yeah, totally for real. More than half of your posts in this thread are just complaints. Just a few posts ago you said you were going to stop playing. You liked the raid, now you hate it. You were bitching about how enemies went into cover and then stayed there rather than wander out into your line of fire, FFS. Coming from Bethesda games you are likely used to shallow, easy, exploitable combat but dude, come on. 

And yeah actually, de_dust2 you know exactly where all of the players are going to be. Good map design will funnel players into a small handful of central areas so they can do the one thing the game is built around (shoot each other). You listed the most contested control point on all of those maps. 

5 shots with a scout rifle is still useless in PvP. Too many shots. If it was 4 or less maaaybe it would be okay. It can't hang with a smart player using a Suros. My scout rifle is just fine, thanks, only ones better are raid gear with an element on it. Pro-tip: crucible damage is normalized so all weapons of a given type do the same damage


----------



## thedonal

Right then chaps. Is there an SSO clan on the 360? I keep missing my buddies and really need to start on the weekly strikes to get some ascendant materials together.... 

Gamer tag is The Donal.


Cheers

D


----------



## stevo1

This game is about as repetitive as most other games that i've put 100+ hours. Everyone complains that it lacks content, but I thought it was pretty good. But I also didn't blow through the story mode in two days. I took my time with it, for each mission too. I stalked, waited for the kill, strategized on how to fight the enemies, and had fun. 

I still enjoy it a great deal. Sure it's a bit repetitive, but like I said before, most games are after 100 hours of play time.

I don't know why people are comparing this to games like CoD when CoD isn't any better.


----------



## monkeybike

Totally agree man ^^^

Btw, finally level 27, I want to join a raid if any ps4 players make a run. T1M9995


----------



## loqtrall

EDIT: Sorry, just, no. I'm not gonna do this today.

Double Edit: And please, Sakeido, stop posting anything concerning me.


----------



## stevo1

monkeybike said:


> Totally agree man ^^^
> 
> Btw, finally level 27, I want to join a raid if any ps4 players make a run. T1M9995



about to hop on the raid myself soon. I hear they changed things for it with new update.


----------



## Tyler

havent played in about a week, just havent had any motivation to do so. The grind killed it for me real quick


----------



## loqtrall

Tyler said:


> havent played in about a week, just havent had any motivation to do so. The grind killed it for me real quick



Exactly the situation I'm in. I really just wish there was more to do in the game than the same strikes and missions over and over. I mean, there's patrols, but the "free roam" aspect of the game is pretty lackluster. I know they'll be adding things later in the game, but for one it's in the form of DLC, and two: there should have been more to do at launch. The game just feels kind of empty, and it seems you're going to have to pay $100~ to get the full experience that should have been in the game from the get-go.


----------



## Jake

At level 28 still finding it pretty fun 

I'm excited to see what the DLC will bring to the table. I'm still finding new things in the game world even now so that's always fun. Plus I finally got an exotic bounty today so that gives me something new to do.

Just need to do the damn Vault of Glass and get to level 30 with the ridiculous amount of ascendant shards I've hoarded


----------



## stevo1

To anyone that has done the vault of glass, they changed the game during the Templar part, so you have to fight him head on. No more going to the platforms on the side anymore. Should be a change of pace though! Just finished the Weekly and nightfall strike. Sepiks prime on the nightfall is a beast.


----------



## thedonal

While I'm also near level 27, I'm still on rare weapons, rather than legendary/exotic. I really don't feel I have the damage level yet to do it justice yet.

Or a big enough network to make the fire team for it.


----------



## sakeido

stevo1 said:


> To anyone that has done the vault of glass, they changed the game during the Templar part, so you have to fight him head on. No more going to the platforms on the side anymore. Should be a change of pace though! Just finished the Weekly and nightfall strike. Sepiks prime on the nightfall is a beast.



Cool vid of a guy soloing Templar post-patch. Looks like the level shrinks if you do it by yourself, and the Templar has a lot less hit points


----------



## asher

sakeido said:


> This is actually a pretty full and complete game as-is with more content than basically anything else you can get for $60. Be objective for two ....in seconds. It is not Bungie's fault you had nothing else to do and spent four-plus full days of your life playing Destiny in a month, and got tired of the game.



MMOs, basically, live and die on their ability to have enough to do, and if it's a grindy game (as Destiny very much is), either finding ways to keep it fresh or continually adding enough new content to do. This requires a metric assload of stuff to do, in practice, and in a lot of respects there are only so many ways to "go here and shoot stuff", especially if it's as cut and dry as has been described above. Elsewhere I've heard similar concerns - Bungie didn't really have enough content at launch. It's hard to get right, especially for a _fresh MMO dev_. The challenges of making a good MMO are very, very different than from making a good shooter.


----------



## loqtrall

sakeido said:


> This is actually a pretty full and complete game as-is with more content than basically anything else you can get for $60. Be objective for two ....in seconds. It is not Bungie's fault you had nothing else to do and spent four-plus full days of your life playing Destiny in a month, and got tired of the game.



Dude, please, ....ing stop. I've already reported you asking the mods to PM you to stop personally attacking me on this thread. I'm about to report you again.

And just in my defense, games you can spend $60~ or less on and get more content than Destiny (that will also take longer to complete than Destiny): Any Assassin's Creed Game, Any Elder Scrolls Game, Grand Theft Auto V, World Of Warcraft, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas (which is laughable), and many more. I don't get where you're coming up with the idea that Destiny has "loads of content". It has 20 campaign missions that only last a whopping 8 hours, compared to the tacked on campaign of Battlefield 4 that had 7 missions that lasted 6 1/2 to 7 hours. It has 5 strikes that are literally just the same thing over and over again. People say raiding is fun, but sadly there's only one. And that's it for things you could (potentially) do by yourself in a non-competitive environment. You could literally do everything besides the raid in Destiny in less than a day if you really wanted to. That's not "loads of content". It took me longer to beat Spyro Year of The Dragon on PS1 than it did to casually walk through Destiny on two separate characters.

What does my criticism of this game have to do with you at all? Why are you personally attacking me? Just stop, it's not warranted and you're just being a jerk, dude.

EDIT: Also, the time I've invested in the game has nothing to do with the amount of content in said game and has nothing to do with why I'm bored of it. While playing 100+ hours of Destiny, I was also playing other games. I didn't burn myself out on it by playing too much. Only 10-15 of those hours were completing the story missions TWICE. The rest of that time was doing the same strikes and crucible matches over and over in a monotonously repetitive neverending circle. The hours I didn't spend doing that, I did patrol missions. I've done EVERYTHING in Destiny besides the raid. Every strike, every story mission (twice), every patrol mission (several times for bounties), I even got outside the map on every planet and got into TWO separate locked out DLC areas that I wasn't supposed to get in to. There's just not much to do. That means that 80+ hours of my gameplay in Destiny was doing the same thing over and over. I'm just glad it took me 80+ hours to get bored of it, as I haven't got much else to play until November, but it was fun while it lasted.


----------



## MaxOfMetal

*Fucking hell you two. Are you really getting all uppity about a video game in a thread on a guitar forum? 

First off, if either of you acknowledge eachother's existence in here one more time you're both getting long naps. IDGAF who started it. 

Also, for the record, it's not the Mods jobs to slap folks on the wrist over a couple posts you find to be jerky. This is the Internet, you'll run into folks who vehemently disagree with you and have no problem letting you know it. Nothing really crossed the abuse line, although some were close. The report feature is anonymous for a reason and waving it around is just pouring gas on the flame. You were in the right til the second you came back in here. 

Sakeido, your conduct and tone in here is reminding me of the shit storm in the Batman thread. Lets knock it off, okay? 
*


----------



## sakeido

haha well good thing I refreshed the page one more time before I posted. What batman thread?


----------



## loqtrall

Good enough for me.

In other news, have any of you gone to the old loot cave and seen what Bungie put in there? Kind of cryptic and really neat.


----------



## Spike Spiegel

Always looking for people to play with, especially weekly heroic strike. Feel free to add me.
PSN:SpikesSwordfish


----------



## stevo1

loqtrall said:


> Good enough for me.
> 
> In other news, have any of you gone to the old loot cave and seen what Bungie put in there? Kind of cryptic and really neat.



Are you talking about the one that spawned the hive guys? I've been in the area, but not in the actual cave in a while.


----------



## loqtrall

stevo1 said:


> Are you talking about the one that spawned the hive guys? I've been in the area, but not in the actual cave in a while.



Yeah, it's that cave. It's actually this weird pile of remains, when you activate it, it says some weird message about Rahool and stuff. I didn't really stay to listen to it much. It's pretty cool, though.


----------



## yuvioh

this is cool that we got a destiny thread going on. I'm totally neglecting my guitar practice over this game haha! It's been a long time since I've been addicted to a game. I'm level 29 at the moment anyone here on ps4? feel free to message me their PSN, I'm always game for raids or crucible matches and helping out other players with stuff.


----------



## Pav

The Templar patch is only more motivation to earn that fifth chest in the Vault of Glass.


----------



## sakeido

loqtrall said:


> Yeah, it's that cave. It's actually this weird pile of remains, when you activate it, it says some weird message about Rahool and stuff. I didn't really stay to listen to it much. It's pretty cool, though.



It says a million deaths are not enough for Master Rahool and that's it. It's a joke, or maybe a Dune reference - in the first Dune book, "a million deaths are not enough for Yueh!" is one of the chapter lead ins. In the game, a million deaths were not enough for Rahool to give you decent shit


----------



## stevo1

loqtrall said:


> Yeah, it's that cave. It's actually this weird pile of remains, when you activate it, it says some weird message about Rahool and stuff. I didn't really stay to listen to it much. It's pretty cool, though.



i'll check it out when I get home. Pretty cool they put something there though.


----------



## Tyler

Finally Im done with midterms this week so I might hop back on this weekend. To any of my ps4 brethren, my psn is zeeConn


----------



## HighGain510

I've been splitting my time between Horizon 2 and this, so since I still haven't played the Hall of Glass, if folks want to play through the raid tomorrow night on XBO, I'm down!


----------



## loqtrall

HighGain510 said:


> I've been splitting my time between Horizon 2 and this, so since I still haven't played the Hall of Glass, if folks want to play through the raid tomorrow night on XBO, I'm down!



If you and other guys want to try the raid tomorrow night, I'm totally down. Not much for me to do in the game anymore, but I'd still love to try the raid.

Just give me a time and I'll be on.

EDIT: and if we are planning to run the raid on xbone, if you haven't done it, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlQ3cuZ9VaE (ignore the parts about the exploit on the Templar fight, that's been fixed)


----------



## HighGain510

Sounds good. I'll be on all night, but preferably around 8 or so maybe?


----------



## Pav

Just an fyi, the original templar exploit was patched but there's a new one that's even easier and guarantees access to the fifth chest.


----------



## Jake

The Templar has kicked my ass multiple times today going at him with a small team. After everyone got frustrated and quit I managed to almost solo kill him until that damn enrage started 

I'll finish it eventually


----------



## loqtrall

Sigh...Tried doing VoG with HighGain, we got 6 people, loading screen froze. Restarted and got 6 more people, got in the Vault, got pretty far into the Templar fight, ended up wiping, then my fvcking internet went out.

Really pissed. First time I successfully got into the Vault and started running it and had two problems with it.


----------



## Pav

loqtrall said:


> Sigh...Tried doing VoG with HighGain, we got 6 people, loading screen froze. Restarted and got 6 more people, got in the Vault, got pretty far into the Templar fight, ended up wiping, then my fvcking internet went out.
> 
> Really pissed. First time I successfully got into the Vault and started running it and had two problems with it.



So you haven't fully cleared the vault yet? You've been missing quite a bit!


----------



## loqtrall

Pav said:


> So you haven't fully cleared the vault yet? You've been missing quite a bit!



I hadn't even played it until today, and got fvcked out of it. My main problem is finding a group to do it. I've used the Bungie forums, destinylfg.com, lots of forums, and even messaging/inviting people, and no luck. I got ONE group ONCE, and they ended up only wanting to do the Nightfall.

THAT is why I think they should implement matchmaking for the raid, like raid finder in WoW. Some people just don't have luck finding groups of people to run it, especially when those who have done it on Hard Mode don't even get loot for running it on Normal. I can't tell you how many "Looking for xbox one players for VoG" threads I've responded to.


----------



## IChuckFinleyI

I'm down for doing the Vault tonight. XB1 tag is lChuckFinleyl Those are lower case L's by the way.


----------



## loqtrall

Again, I'm always down for doing the vault, or playing in general. If there's one thing that's still entertaining about Destiny, it's playing with others.

If any of you ever want to find a group for the vault/nightfall/whatever, PM me on here or message Opened Lord on xbone if I'm online.


----------



## Jake

Managed to finish the nightfall yesterday finally, was pretty tough but not tooo bad with two other competent players. 

The VOG is still kicking my ass though  I would love to be able to find a decent team on 360 to do it with.


----------



## Gothic Headhunter

Just hit level 26 and got that exotic helmet from Xur today. It's a pretty good feeling when you notice your defense is over 1000 

Will probably be looking to do raids/nightfall soon, I'll message you PS4 guys if I get the time (busy with college application stuff, so maybe not this weekend)


----------



## Pav

loqtrall said:


> Again, I'm always down for doing the vault, or playing in general. If there's one thing that's still entertaining about Destiny, it's playing with others.
> 
> If any of you ever want to find a group for the vault/nightfall/whatever, PM me on here or message Opened Lord on xbone if I'm online.



Destiny is most definitely a social game. I've noticed you say a few times that you're getting bored with the game. It's shocking to me, because even as a level 29 I'm almost overwhelmed with the amount of shit I have to do daily. Then again, I'm in a clan with 20 members and there's never a shortage of people looking to run the daily heroic, the nightfall or the raid. Sometimes I have to turn my headset off just so I can hammer out a few bounties in peace.

Plus once you start running and finishing the raid you'll start getting raid gear, which opens up a whole new tier of Destiny to explore.


----------



## thedonal

I'm a 360 player. Level 27. Do we have an SSO clan? 

Could do with some buddies to at least do the weekly strikes. I need ascendant shares baaaadly! 

The Donal is me tag...


----------



## loqtrall

Pav said:


> Destiny is most definitely a social game. I've noticed you say a few times that you're getting bored with the game. It's shocking to me, because even as a level 29 I'm almost overwhelmed with the amount of shit I have to do daily. Then again, I'm in a clan with 20 members and there's never a shortage of people looking to run the daily heroic, the nightfall or the raid. Sometimes I have to turn my headset off just so I can hammer out a few bounties in peace.
> 
> Plus once you start running and finishing the raid you'll start getting raid gear, which opens up a whole new tier of Destiny to explore.



See, that's the thing. I don't have people to play with. Aside from randoms (twice), the only person I've played with is HighGain. And I have nothing to do. Maybe it might be just a personal thing, but I can't see all the "loads of content" in the game that other people seem to be talking about. Because I've done it, I've hopped on every single day for hours and played, and to me it just seems like I'm doing the same thing over and over again. There's only so many dozen times I can do the same strikes before I wonder why the .... I'm doing them in the first place, because all I get is strange coins, motes, or blue items (for the level 24 strike, which is the highest level strike I can do without a fireteam). And what do I need strange coins and motes of light for? So I can buy a weapon from Xur? For what? To go do the same strikes over again with a different weapon? 

I just, I can't see where people get the idea that this game has virtually unlimited things to do, especially seeing as there are games like TES, Fallout, GTAV, etc. where there are literally HUNDREDS of things to do that never repeat. Sure, in Skyrim one could argue that you do one side quest that says "go to this cave and kill this guy" and then another side quest that makes you do a similar objective, but at least it doesn't make you go to THE SAME CAVE over and over. 

PVP in the Crucible WOULD be able to hold my attention, if there weren't only 3 monotonous gametypes that play out on the same 5 tiny maps. What happened to Bungie and multiplayer, by the way? What happened to Big Team Battle, Capture The Flag, King of the Hill, Oddball? All I can do in Destiny is kill 6 players or capture control points, and SOMETIMES use vehicles on a map. I mean, sure, Halo had it's share of tiny maps, Battle Creek, Longest, Prisoner, etc. But it also had it's share of HUGE maps that utilized several types of vehicles and allowed players to actually use different strategies to overcome opposition aside from crowding to the most densely populated area to farm kills with your overpowered autorifle. 

I mean, why did the crucible have to be stat based at all? Sure, the level and damage advantages are gone, but upgrades (including damage upgrades) still apply to weapons, and armor upgrades still apply to the player. It literally just seems like they put the crucible into the game just for the sake of having a competitive multiplayer aspect to the game. Like I said before, it feels tacked on and seems like they could have put more effort into it to make it balanced across the board for all players to enjoy. And before you go breaking my balls saying "IT IS BALANCED, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?", let me say these few words to blast away that argument: Suros Regime, Vex Mythoclast. Two weapons that absolutely dominated PVP and could kill players in a mere second (literally, sometimes less than a second).

I guess it's just from personal taste, or the fact that I play LOTS of games that seem (to me) to have more to do for longer periods of time, but Destiny just seems really lacking to me.


----------



## Pav

loqtrall said:


> LONG


The matter of taste is always a valid argument. I love Elder Scrolls games but never touch GTA, those games bore me to tears. Everyone is different. But the games that you referenced seems like you were or are simply expecting something other than what Destiny is aiming to be. Elder Scrolls, Fallout and GTA are all games created with a single player RPG-type experience in mind. They're designed from the ground up to be enjoyed solo if you want. 

Do you do any PC gaming at all? Bungie has said many times that Destiny is not an MMO, but let's not kid ourselves. It's an MMO in the form of a first-person shooter. With that in mind, it would be much more accurate imo to compare Destiny to games like Guild Wars, Aeon and even World of Warcraft. Have you ever tried to play any of those games solo for an extended period of time? It sucks man. It's boring, repetitive and simply not enjoyable. Spend a few days trying to grind, by yourself, in World of Warcraft. You'll hate it and you won't understand why ANYONE would really get into the game, let alone sink their entire lives into it like people have.

Destiny is the exact same way. A huge chunk of the experience comes from the social aspect. Now, I won't argue that the game could already use more content. More planets, more explorable areas per planet, more subclasses, more weapons, more strikes...more everything really. But again, they're trying to build an interactive universe here, it isn't as simple as adding some story chapters to the campaign. Ask any MMO veteran what their favorite game was like in its infant stages and they will all tell you that these worlds take time to hone and expand before it really becomes what the developers intended.

I would very much encourage you to seek a public Xbone clan to join for Destiny. I can almost guarantee that once you land in a decent 6-man fireteam and finally run the raid for real, you'll start to understand how people can already be so absorbed. It's just like if/when someone in Warcraft goes from aimlessly running around to joining a 20+ man raid. One minute they're ready to uninstall, but once they get going they're saying HOLY SHIT I GET IT NOW!!!


----------



## loqtrall

Pav said:


> The matter of taste is always a valid argument. I love Elder Scrolls games but never touch GTA, those games bore me to tears. Everyone is different. But the games that you referenced seems like you were or are simply expecting something other than what Destiny is aiming to be. Elder Scrolls, Fallout and GTA are all games created with a single player RPG-type experience in mind. They're designed from the ground up to be enjoyed solo if you want.
> 
> Do you do any PC gaming at all? Bungie has said many times that Destiny is not an MMO, but let's not kid ourselves. It's an MMO in the form of a first-person shooter. With that in mind, it would be much more accurate imo to compare Destiny to games like Guild Wars, Aeon and even World of Warcraft. Have you ever tried to play any of those games solo for an extended period of time? It sucks man. It's boring, repetitive and simply not enjoyable. Spend a few days trying to grind, by yourself, in World of Warcraft. You'll hate it and you won't understand why ANYONE would really get into the game, let alone sink their entire lives into it like people have.
> 
> Destiny is the exact same way. A huge chunk of the experience comes from the social aspect. Now, I won't argue that the game could already use more content. More planets, more explorable areas per planet, more subclasses, more weapons, more strikes...more everything really. But again, they're trying to build an interactive universe here, it isn't as simple as adding some story chapters to the campaign. Ask any MMO veteran what their favorite game was like in its infant stages and they will all tell you that these worlds take time to hone and expand before it really becomes what the developers intended.
> 
> I would very much encourage you to seek a public Xbone clan to join for Destiny. I can almost guarantee that once you land in a decent 6-man fireteam and finally run the raid for real, you'll start to understand how people can already be so absorbed. It's just like if/when someone in Warcraft goes from aimlessly running around to joining a 20+ man raid. One minute they're ready to uninstall, but once they get going they're saying HOLY SHIT I GET IT NOW!!!




I know how raids are, I've been playing (and still play) World of Warcraft since The Burning Crusade's release (the actual day I bought the game). I actually have Warlords of Draenor pre-ordered, and have 5 level 90's waiting to get to 100. I've raided countless times.

But here's the difference between WoW and Destiny in terms of the "mmo" aspect of it: You don't have to physically find 25-30 people to run a 25-man raid. They have raid finder, they had utilities to find people to run content with. They have an extensive chat system. You don't need to be in a raiding guild, or be in a guild at all, to actively raid. Sure, raid finder has it's flaws, but it's a great base model that Destiny could have used. Also, it's very hard to compare Destiny to WoW because there's SO MUCH TO DO in WoW. Right now trying to get the Halloween achievements is a blast.

My problem with Destiny is that, of course it's just a shooter, but Destiny promised, themselves (not hype), a living breathing world, a social experience like no other, "if you can see it, you can go there", a game that could easily consume 100's of hours of your time. All of those are bold faced lies. The most "living" part of the world are the NPC's that come and go in the tower (Xur, Iron Banner, Queen's thing), other than that, no matter WHAT you do, it's always exactly the same. EXACTLY THE SAME, nothing different at all, whatsoever. Everything even spawns in the same place no matter what. Of course, it doesn't take you more than a mere 12 seconds in the game to realize that them saying "if you can see it, you can go there" was a lie. As well as "a social experience like no other" in a game with absolutely no in-game communication. Hell, 80% of the story is on the internet instead of actually in the game.

Unlike world of warcraft, that has great communication, ways to raid without physically finding people to do it with, if you can see it you CAN actually go there, and things change in the world on a daily basis (halloween right now, for instance).

I'd love to see what DLC brings to the table, but at this point I'm willing to bet it'll just be another disappointment to me.


----------



## sakeido

Entitlement in the Destiny community. : DestinyTheGame

I liked that post. Just about crucible rank 2.... 26 here we come


----------



## thedonal

Derailing the discussions on where Destiny could be better for a moment, does anybody find wielding the Sword of Crota as much fun as I do? (This is not an euphemism. Hopefully!).

It's one of those missions I love going back to..


----------



## Gothic Headhunter

It's my favorite non-strike mission. It is just the coolest feeling when you slam into the swarm princes with that thing


----------



## Jake

I wish I could use a sword in this game more often 

10/10 would fvck around with sword on patrol missions.

In other news I'm almost finished with my first exotic bounty  a friend and I successfully managed to continuously run the nexus strike in about 7 minutes flat per attempt for the 25 strikes it required me to do. I just have to wait til Xur comes back to do the next part of it now.....ugh

Also the nightfall this week was tough, or at least I thought so


----------



## loqtrall

Jake said:


> In other news I'm almost finished with my first exotic bounty  a friend and I successfully managed to continuously run the nexus strike in about 7 minutes flat per attempt for the 25 strikes it required me to do. I just have to wait til Xur comes back to do the next part of it now.....ugh



Next part will be getting 10,000 points in the crucible (sounds like a lot, but should only take you 15~ or so crucible matches), then you'll get the Bad JuJu. At first it might seem like it sucks a bit, but don't give up on it. Bungie said they WILL be giving the Bad JuJu (specifically) a buff, and the gun isn't even remotely useful until you unlock it's upgrade that allows it to literally NEVER reload. After you get that upgrade, it becomes an absolute powerhouse in the crucible. No reloading ever really gives you a huge advantage over other players.


----------



## sakeido

thedonal said:


> Derailing the discussions on where Destiny could be better for a moment, does anybody find wielding the Sword of Crota as much fun as I do? (This is not an euphemism. Hopefully!).
> 
> It's one of those missions I love going back to..



The sword itself is pretty fun but the princes are way too easy to kill. hit them, run back until the red shield runs out, hit them again, run back, until they are dead. The DLC is about Crota, I believe, so I am guessing we will get to use it again



Jake said:


> I wish I could use a sword in this game more often
> 
> 10/10 would fvck around with sword on patrol missions.
> 
> In other news I'm almost finished with my first exotic bounty  a friend and I successfully managed to continuously run the nexus strike in about 7 minutes flat per attempt for the 25 strikes it required me to do. I just have to wait til Xur comes back to do the next part of it now.....ugh
> 
> Also the nightfall this week was tough, or at least I thought so



The Nexus strike is kinda funny.. I hated it until somebody pointed out you can run past more than half of it without having to fight. You get three of the fragments you need from the weekly and the nightfall altho I dunno if you can do the weekly over and over again and get the fragments every time, or if it is like the rest of the weekly rewards where you can only get them once

Bad Juju is just bad right now. The magazine is so small you have to be really good to use it in PvP cuz if you miss one shot or try and split between two targets, you lose the fight. No margin of error with that gun. I like the Stranger's Rifle better for a pulse rifle in Crucible. But it'd be worth it to get Bad Juju then wait for Bungie to tweak it like they said they would .. my guess is all they are going to do is increase the clip size and make it a bit more stable

I've been really diggin scout rifles in PvP after the buffs but my Shingen-E is too good.. it is just a blue, but the stability bar is completely full, rate of fire is crazy and reload time is decent. I only switch to my Cryptic Dragon for First Light and Bastion


----------



## Jake

loqtrall said:


> Next part will be getting 10,000 points in the crucible (sounds like a lot, but should only take you 15~ or so crucible matches), then you'll get the Bad JuJu. At first it might seem like it sucks a bit, but don't give up on it. Bungie said they WILL be giving the Bad JuJu (specifically) a buff, and the gun isn't even remotely useful until you unlock it's upgrade that allows it to literally NEVER reload. After you get that upgrade, it becomes an absolute powerhouse in the crucible. No reloading ever really gives you a huge advantage over other players.





sakeido said:


> The sword itself is pretty fun but the princes are way too easy to kill. hit them, run back until the red shield runs out, hit them again, run back, until they are dead. The DLC is about Crota, I believe, so I am guessing we will get to use it again
> 
> 
> 
> The Nexus strike is kinda funny.. I hated it until somebody pointed out you can run past more than half of it without having to fight. You get three of the fragments you need from the weekly and the nightfall altho I dunno if you can do the weekly over and over again and get the fragments every time, or if it is like the rest of the weekly rewards where you can only get them once
> 
> Bad Juju is just bad right now. The magazine is so small you have to be really good to use it in PvP cuz if you miss one shot or try and split between two targets, you lose the fight. No margin of error with that gun. I like the Stranger's Rifle better for a pulse rifle in Crucible. But it'd be worth it to get Bad Juju then wait for Bungie to tweak it like they said they would .. my guess is all they are going to do is increase the clip size and make it a bit more stable
> 
> I've been really diggin scout rifles in PvP after the buffs but my Shingen-E is too good.. it is just a blue, but the stability bar is completely full, rate of fire is crazy and reload time is decent. I only switch to my Cryptic Dragon for First Light and Bastion



Yeah I picked the bad juju in anticipation for the buff that should hopefully be coming soon. Although I don't play a ton of PVP right now. I'm really digging the loadout I've been running with this week.

I've got the A.1F19X-RYL legendary scout rifle but mine has the firefly upgrade that causes enemies to explode when killed with headshots...it's satisfying.

Then I've got the Final Boss sniper or Final Rest fusion rifle that both kick ass

and lastly the Truth Rocket launcher as my exotic, although I have the plan C fusion rifle too if I need it, also kicks ass. 

Also the doctor nope auto rifle has been my main for a few weeks now and it is literally a bullet hose


----------



## stevo1

Jake said:


> Also the nightfall this week was tough, or at least I thought so



I think this week's nightfall strike is going to be even worse. We'll be getting phogoth more than likely, and it's going to be a beast to do. My brother and I got a taste of it yesterday, as he was doing the thorn mission on the special phogoth strike, which is lvl 26 with the epic modifier. the lvl difference between the two might make a slight difference, but the damage modifiers are going to be bad, esp. with those wizards. I particularly don't look forward to it .

I hopped on with some people to help with atheon on hard, and finished it. It's more or less the same, maybe more supplicant spawns, and when he teleports people, those personal barriers from the templar part spawn around you.

I ended up getting a raid helmet that I have no use for atm (I have 2 maxed out exotic helmets already) and the raid sparrow, which is awesome.


----------



## Jake

stevo1 said:


> I think this week's nightfall strike is going to be even worse. We'll be getting phogoth more than likely, and it's going to be a beast to do. My brother and I got a taste of it yesterday, as he was doing the thorn mission on the special phogoth strike, which is lvl 26 with the epic modifier. the lvl difference between the two might make a slight difference, but the damage modifiers are going to be bad, esp. with those wizards. I particularly don't look forward to it .
> 
> I hopped on with some people to help with atheon on hard, and finished it. It's more or less the same, maybe more supplicant spawns, and when he teleports people, those personal barriers from the templar part spawn around you.
> 
> I ended up getting a raid helmet that I have no use for atm (I have 2 maxed out exotic helmets already) and the raid sparrow, which is awesome.


I'll be headed into the special Phogoth strike in a couple of days probably  Just need to grind out the PVP portion of the void kills which is annoying. 

At least I have some stuff to look forward to with Thorn and Bad Juju now though


----------



## Pav

Has anyone else actually leveled Truth? Literally no one in my clan paid any attention to it until I convinced them to, the consensus was that Gjallahorn was the only worthwhile exotic heavy. 

As soon as I leveled the Prototype Trueseeker ability, I had people from my next two crucible matches send me messages mid-match saying that they were recording me and I was going to be banned for cheating. Truth's homing function is so dirty powerful, it's downright game-breaking in PvP that promotes grouping up like Salvage or Skirmish. That plus the heavy payload to max out the blast radius and it's practically a guaranteed multikill if you can lock on without getting sniped. 

Out of the five exotics I've really used so far (Truth, Hard Light, Ice Breaker, Last Word and Thorn) Truth is easily my favorite, hands down.


----------



## Jake

Truth kicks ass in both PVP and PVE. Literally cross map seeking missiles that explode on proximity. Probably my favorite exotic at the moment.


----------



## Pav

I use it more than my primary when I can right now, it's so reliable. Then again I have yet to get my hands on OP weapons like Suros Regime or...the mother of all gamebreakers...Hawkmoon.


----------



## sakeido

what's Hawkmoon? haven't even heard of that one.. Bungie mentioned in their last update the auto rifle tweak didn't do enough to balance Suros so it will probably get a specific change soon 

Anybody know when they are changing how the raid works? Atheon's teleport mechanic is supposedly going to change, and I won't be able to get carried through it anymore after that


----------



## Jake

Holy fvcking hell the Thorn summoning pits strike is ridiculous. On that same note holy fvcking hell this weeks nightfall strike is ridiculous. Shit.

This one could take me awhile to get...


----------



## beerandbeards

Looking to play the raid. I obviously can't do it alone. If anyone needs another member to their fire team on PS4 hit me up: Stevius86

Human-Hunter-level 27


----------



## Pav

sakeido said:


> what's Hawkmoon? haven't even heard of that one.. Bungie mentioned in their last update the auto rifle tweak didn't do enough to balance Suros so it will probably get a specific change soon
> 
> Anybody know when they are changing how the raid works? Atheon's teleport mechanic is supposedly going to change, and I won't be able to get carried through it anymore after that



Hawkmoon is an exotic handcannon. It's a timed exclusive for the PS3 and 4. It's thing is that when leveled, 3 of its rounds per magazine do big crit damage. In the crucible it's a consistent 3-shot kill from any range.


----------



## thedonal

Aww- Hawkmoon- a Michael Moorcock or Hawkwind ref? 

I'm desperately short on legendary guns right now- I just have the Epitaph sniper rifle, still not quite maxed out. I much prefer the scout/fusion rifle combo and closer combat. I have the exotic fusion bounty on the go right now but rare fusion rifle drops to dismantle for it are...well....quite rare. 

I also accidentally trashed the Stranger's Rifle. 

I'm starting to hammer the strike playlists as well as the daily heroic mission(seriously- HOW many fvcking times does it come as a juggler? Bored of that now) just to get Future War rep and vanguard marks, plus some more crucible (I'm often awful in PVP) to get some, as they never seem to drop.

I may have to message out to network for the weekly strike and for a raid beginner crew. Mates are rarely online at the moment and one is still below level 20...

Still enjoying the game though (despite repetition) and slowly getting better at PVP.

I wonder what's next for the time limited events- the upper central part of the Tower has been closed for a while. Awaiting a big refurb, or just Bungie working out how to move forward with better content, after the Queen's Bounty and Iron Banner criticism?


----------



## Jake

I'm actually kind of happy the strike mission to get the Thorn is so damn difficult as I feel like I'm actually doing something new for once 

I do have one criticism for this week though, every time my cryptarch levels up I never get fvcking purple engrams. Literally I'm up to cryptarch level 19 and I think I've gotten purples 3 times. Granted last time he gave me 3 of them at once but still! Come on man!


----------



## loqtrall

Jake said:


> I do have one criticism for this week though, every time my cryptarch levels up I never get fvcking purple engrams. Literally I'm up to cryptarch level 19 and I think I've gotten purples 3 times. Granted last time he gave me 3 of them at once but still! Come on man!



Ever since they patched his decryption, all I've gotten from him was blues, and I've had to have leveled him up like 10-11 times since the patch and got absolutely no purples, which I think is absurd seeing as the only thing the package has the option to turn into is blue or purple items.

That's another thing that I've been wondering about in this game. What's the chance percentage of actually getting a legendary item from a rare/blue engram? Because I've played A LOT, hundreds of hours on two characters, and I've NEVER gotten anything better than a blue item from a blue engram. Yet the engram blatantly states that legendary engrams can be produced from rare engrams. I've decrypted hundreds of rare engrams with the cryptarch (level 32 now), and still have yet to even get legendary materials from them, let alone an actual usable legendary items. I'm just wondering, because I've gotten mount drops in World of Warcraft that have a less than 1% drop chance, I've gotten the Conference Call shotgun in Borderlands 2 that has less than a 1% drop chance, but I've decrypted countless blue engrams and..nothing. 

I know I've seen some people post on the Bungie forums that they get legendaries from blue engrams all the time, so would that mean that the RNG system Destiny uses is a generally unfair system? Because I've also seen people post threads on the Bungie forums that say the RNG system _does_ seem unfair because they can't seem to get ANY legendaries no matter how long they grind and how hard they play, which I'm very familiar with. The only reason I have the legendaries I do now is because I either bought them or got them from the queen's bounties. I got both my exotic primaries from a pre-patch reward from Xur and an exotic bounty. Every legendary engram I HAVE found (which is very few) turned out to be nothing or a legendary for a separate class.

Just wondering, because some players seem to find A LOT of legendary engrams and have blues constantly produce legendaries on a regular basis, whereas others can't even find legendary items or engrams and end up having to endlessly grind vanguard and crucible rep to get legendary weapons and items to level up, just seems quite a bit unbalanced.


----------



## Jake

I have gotten 3 legendary items from blue engrams. One was for the wrong class. I have gotten 4 exotics from purple engrams, two for the wrong class. But a lot of the time when I decrypt purple ones I get ascendant shards.

As for actually finding purple engrams in game and not having them given to me by the cryptarch I think I've found 3....maybe 4 total. Not once at the loot cave either. I tend to get them in higher level missions though idk


----------



## loqtrall

I can't find any, really. I think out of the hundreds of hours I've played the game I maybe found...like 5 or 6. The last one I found was before the big patch, which sucked because it was a legendary secondary weapon engram, which is the only item slot I still only have a rare weapon for, and of course it was before the patch so it turned into a rare weapon and not legendary. Ever since the patch, I've found nothing legendary, my gear literally hasn't changed at all. I just can't find anything useful. Even in the absurd amount of crucible matches I play, I still haven't received anything above rare from a random reward at the end of a match. It seems to happen to a lot of people, not being able to find anything useful. I'll probably end up getting my Crucible rank to 3 to buy the Final Boss without doing ANY bounties and buying the Final Boss before I ever find another legendary secondary engram.

Another thing that's really really hard for me for some reason: I can't for the life of me find Ascendant Shards to upgrade my armor, thus leaving me stuck at level 27. I literally spent 3 hours on Earth running public events and got a shit load of ascendant energy, and got ONE ascendent shard. I'm fairly sure that having all of my armor fully upgraded would either get me to level 29 or damn near it, but I still have 8 upgrades to do, with a total of 52 ascendant energy needed to be fully upgraded. I'm just about to give up on trying to find them at all and just stay at level 27.


----------



## jakrentschler

If anyone here is level 29+ and wants to run Vault of Glass on hard mode with my clan, hit me up.

PSN: jackwanders


----------



## Jake

I think I got really lucky with the amount of ascendant shards I found early on. I tend to get a lot of them from public events and I got to 28 pretty quickly however I don't want to upgrade my armor any more than it is now because I can't get to 30 without the raid gear anyway. 

If you do end up waiting and purchasing the final boss you wont regret it, it's truly awesome.

On another note I got Thorn just now, man that shit was tough but it felt so satisfying to take down that son of a bitch xyor  My brother and I (he's level 27) did it in 3 attempts, first attempt Xyor spawned with a whole f_u_ckload of wizards and knights at the same time and we basically got our asses handed to us immediately, 2nd attempt Phogoth got both of us early on and the 3rd attempt I ended up hiding in the cheap under the map spot when Xyor spawned and he immediately came right for me but my fusion rifle owned his shit lol


----------



## Pav

Tuesdays are the best. Last night me and my clan collectively ran the weekly nightfall, the weekly heroic, the daily heroic, the raid on normal, the raid on hard mode and three public events. Came out with 12 shards and 26 energy. Didn't get my final pieces of raid gear but the legendary sparrow that drops in hard mode is pretty nice.


----------



## MassNecrophagia

Hide in the room immediately before where the anti-camp shrieker spawns. Nothing will chase you further than the middle of the shrieker room, and doesn't immediately re-spawn out into the arena area, allowing a couple of knight/wizard kills at a time. Turned a frustrating attempt at killing Xyor into a 20ish minute walk in the park, solo.

Edit: You will have to occasionally lure baddies to the room. Hiding behind the pillar also despawns the shrieker after a bit.


----------



## Jake

MassNecrophagia said:


> Hide in the room immediately before where the anti-camp shrieker spawns. Nothing will chase you further than the middle of the shrieker room, and doesn't immediately re-spawn out into the arena area, allowing a couple of knight/wizard kills at a time. Turned a frustrating attempt at killing Xyor into a 20ish minute walk in the park, solo.
> 
> Edit: You will have to occasionally lure baddies to the room. Hiding behind the pillar also despawns the shrieker after a bit.



I used the method of hiding under the map on the far side and having my teammate lure the knights towards me to take them out while he handled the wizards. Of course until Xyor spawned and I wrecked his shit with my 77 Wizard in two shots lol


----------



## loqtrall

Nevermind. Found a great way to farm Ascendant Shards, a way to get at least 18 per week. I usually max out my vanguard and crucible marks (200) every week. That allows me to buy 3 pieces of armor (65 points) from both the crucible and vanguard vendors. Then I just break them down to get 3 shards each. Got me to level 28. No idea why I didn't think of it earlier.


----------



## Jake

loqtrall said:


> Nevermind. Found a great way to farm Ascendant Shards, a way to get at least 18 per week. I usually max out my vanguard and crucible marks (200) every week. That allows me to buy 3 pieces of armor (65 points) from both the crucible and vanguard vendors. Then I just break them down to get 3 shards each. Got me to level 28. No idea why I didn't think of it earlier.


I was planning on mentioning that as well 

Must have forgotten to put it in my post. I think I might try to tackle the nightfall strike again today but idk.

I'm working on upgrading Thorn as well, I've seen a lot of people complain about it but I'm not having any issues with it other than reload speed. Pretty solid fun little gun


----------



## sakeido

Found a good circuit to run to farm Relic Iron last night... have enough to get to 27 now but I just need a bit more experience on my gauntlets to unlock the last upgrade before I have to start throwing ascendant shards at them. Got my Cryptic Dragon almost leveled up to the ascendant energy upgrades too. Now if I kill a target with precision damage, they explode.. that should be fun. 

man I love this game 

pro-tip -- when cashing in your bounties, whatever gear you have equipped gets the experience from it. This also applies to your sub-class. Once your stuff gets maxed out, take a second to equip other stuff you want to build levels on so you don't waste that experience on your existing gear. Not sure how that affects gaining motes of light.. I don't think it does.


----------



## Mendez

Been stuck on the pocket infinity for a while, too lazy to do the nightfall kills 

I am on the other hand stuck in this game, I'm on the endless grind to pass 27. I'd like to get with some ppl to run VoG, so if any of you guys are free add me on psn.

PSN: VashTK-

Edit: forgot to mention I'm on ps4


----------



## thedonal

Man. I'm crying out for a legendary primary weapon. Tried the shrine of oryx daily heroic on 28 last night. Now way Jose! Had to drop to 24 to get through it. Though all those thralls on light switch make it fiendishly tough.

I too am crawling through level 27 right now. I'm gonna have to go public request on VOG now just to increase my chances of progression.


----------



## Jake

Finally got the damn sunbreakers...of course after I already fully upgraded my exotic helmet god damnit. Guess I'm just gonna upgrade em and use them for PVP after I get another legendary helmet back since I stupidly broke down the other one I had.

On another note Suros Regime is for sale again and oh it's gonna be mine once I finish the weekly heroic strike on 28. Already beat the nightfall so it should be a piece of cake compared to that.


----------



## Pav

I bought out hard from Xur this morning. Picked up Suros Regime, the Crest of Alpha Lupi exotic chest, the exotic gauntlet engram and some hand cannon telemetry. Now I may hit 30 if I can find the boots or helmet on my next raid.


----------



## Jake

Also picked up Suros Regime and loving it so far.


----------



## Mendez

I'm literally one strange coin away from picking up Suros Regime, but in destiny fashion, every blue engram has given me motes of light over the coins


----------



## Jake

My exotic weapons cache is looking pretty strong right now 

So far I've got:
Thorn
Truth
Bad Juju
Suros Regime
Plan C 
And I'll have Invective by tomorrow as I just finished the 25 point spread part of it

Suros is pretty good in the crucible and so is Thorn at least for the way I play


----------



## Pav

For all of the complaining people do about Thorn, it seems like a plenty strong crucible weapon. That damage over time can be nasty.


----------



## loqtrall

I pretty much exclusively use my MIDA Multi Tool Exotic Scout Rifle since the buff they got. I almost never use my secondary weapon. At range I can off someone easily with 5 body shots. 3 Headshots at medium to close range is a guaranteed down, and very easy to pull off with the hair trigger upgrade. It also allows you to move 1.5x faster than everyone else, which is great for getting out of sticky situations or dodging an incoming grenade.

Plus, it has 27 rounds per mag, which means guaranteed kills at range no matter how many shots I have to put in to them. Combine all that with the fact that it has little to no recoil, and it's an absolute killing machine.


----------



## Jake

Seems like a hell of a gun. I actually ended up getting invective already too as it was a lot easier than I thought it would be

Regarding Thorn it's pretty damn powerful the way it is. I guess with the buff coming it'll be even more so but I'm just hoping they somehow up the reload speed on it because that's a major downfall of it. Probably gonna purchase the devil you know from the vanguard as a solid stand in for Thorn when I don't want an exotic primary.


----------



## thedonal

So finally, after much grinding of the strike playlist Tiger missions, I now have a legendary scout rifle (A.1F19X.RYL...)AND exotic body armour (voidfang vestments- "YOU WILL DREAM OF TEETH AND NOTHING ELSE". ).

A few days of levelling these up and I'll be looking at taking on the VoG. Looking forward to it.

The Summoning Pits on level 24 is TOUGH man, but a break from cycling the Archon Priest strike (just done it with 2 Guardians, rather than 3- got killed loads more than the other guy. I must learn to be less gung-ho!!).

I'm still having a nightmare getting rare fusion rifles for the exotic bounty, BUT- 

Progress at LAST!


----------



## IChuckFinleyI

Pav said:


> Has anyone else actually leveled Truth? Literally no one in my clan paid any attention to it until I convinced them to, the consensus was that Gjallahorn was the only worthwhile exotic heavy.
> 
> As soon as I leveled the Prototype Trueseeker ability, I had people from my next two crucible matches send me messages mid-match saying that they were recording me and I was going to be banned for cheating. Truth's homing function is so dirty powerful, it's downright game-breaking in PvP that promotes grouping up like Salvage or Skirmish. That plus the heavy payload to max out the blast radius and it's practically a guaranteed multikill if you can lock on without getting sniped.
> 
> Out of the five exotics I've really used so far (Truth, Hard Light, Ice Breaker, Last Word and Thorn) Truth is easily my favorite, hands down.


 
It was actually the first exotic weapon I completley maxed out. I barely touched any of the other rocket launchers until I got that thing. It's just a monster. I don't use it as ofter an my other exotics though. 

Hard Light
Envective 
Ice Breaker
Truth
Super Good Advice

In the process of getting Bad JuJu and Pocket Infinity. 

I'm still down to run the raid with anyone on here. XB1 tag is lChuckFinleyl Those are lower case L's. Just let me know you're from here so I don't think it's one of the randoms.


----------



## Jake

Hooooly shit my PVE score is #629 in the entire Xbox Live community 





Also a quick look at some of the weapons I've been using. Crazy.


----------



## loqtrall

My Hunter seems pretty well balanced, in statistical terms. DestinyDB STILL has my PVP score glitched at zero, though.


----------



## Pav

Speaking of glitches, bungie has yet to say anything about the two glitched dead ghosts and the handful of glitched grimoire cards. I know they're trivial things but the completionist in me can't wait to maximize his grimoire. Those two glitched ghosts are the only ones I haven't picked up yet, I even managed to hop up into the terminus and grab the three ghosts that don't appear in the grimoire yet.


----------



## monkeybike

Finally got an exotic bounty today, didn't think I'd ever get one. Chose Bad Juju. Been pretty happy with the Devil You Know up until now. I've got it almost maxed out. Still stuck in the 27 to 28 grind. Damn shards are holding up my progress. Am I gonna have to do PvP to get them?


----------



## Pav

No, the quickest way to amass shards is to run through the Vault of Glass, complete the weekly strikes and score gold in public events. Ascendant materials are pretty rare to drop in the crucible.


----------



## sakeido

You can spend your marks on legendary items from the vanguard & crucible vendors and dismantle them too. If you level them up first, you get more ascendant mats, but it is a little random so you could still get just 1 material even tho it is maxed out. You don't actually have to upgrade them to get the extra mats, just having experience on them works.


----------



## thedonal

"Killing an enemy with a precision shot makes them explode"

Oh joy! Now THIS is fun!


----------



## loqtrall

I wasn't really bummed out about Xur selling super powerful exotic weapons until today. I mean, the Suros Regime is pretty bothersome in the Crucible, but it's not exactly game-breaking (like the mythoclast was).

But just earlier I was trying to get some Crucible bounties done, and I played 4 matches in a row (not a single match played with the same players as before) of Combined Arms, and EVERY match there had to be over half the enemy team using the Ice Breaker. It was so ridiculous that it got to the point where I couldn't even move across the map anymore. It was so bad on First Light that if I literally went outdoors on the map at all, I'd almost be guaranteed to get sniped by someone with Ice Breaker.

I mean, it's obvious that the majority of players bought it when Xur sold it, and it feels like it kind of ruins the game a bit, because the Ice Breaker is quite obviously one of the most powerful weapons in the game. I was really against it before, but now I'm feeling in agreement with those who argue that Xur selling exotic weapons every week is pretty detrimental to the game. It'd be different if he sold like Bad JuJu, Red Death, etc, because those are the least "exotic" of the exotic weapons. But the fact that every week he sells overpowered weapons like Suros Regime, Ice Breaker, Truth, etc. is kind of sad. Especially since they don't cost that much, and good players who know how to get strange coins will pretty much have a new Exotic Weapon every single week.


----------



## beerandbeards

Looking to play VOG. Add me on PS4 stevius86


----------



## thedonal

1st attempt at the Raid today. Didn't finish it- the last section was too much for us at the time and members had to go. 

BUT- some good experience and the loot chests are really upping my ascendant material collecting. 

And oh how, after laughing at so many with the platform section, I finally felt their pain!!

Legendary guns all round now and a second exotic bounty on the go. It's looking good for progress.


----------



## Pav

thedonal said:


> And oh how, after laughing at so many with the platform section, I finally felt their pain!



If you're talking about the jump puzzle, there's a very easy way to bypass it. Jump on the first platform, then to the second, then jump aaaaaaaallllll the way over to the wall, landing on the catwalk of a ridge down there. Just follow the little ridge to the next area and you don't have to screw with hitting most of those platforms.

And there has to be an easy way to record and post video clips with the PS4. New guys are always asking me how I beat it so fast when we get to that section.


----------



## thedonal

Pav said:


> If you're talking about the jump puzzle, there's a very easy way to bypass it. Jump on the first platform, then to the second, then jump aaaaaaaallllll the way over to the wall, landing on the catwalk of a ridge down there. Just follow the little ridge to the next area and you don't have to screw with hitting most of those platforms.
> 
> And there has to be an easy way to record and post video clips with the PS4. New guys are always asking me how I beat it so fast when we get to that section.



You know- after trying the shortcut several times and failing miserably, I finally did it using the full sequence of platforms!!


----------



## stevo1

To the people who get bad juju, that reloading effect is only if you kill something. You will have to reload if you run a clip dry and didn't drop anybody. That really put me off of using it. 

I have to agree with xur and the exotic weapons. I think they should do legendary weapons, with maybe an exotic weapon every so often. The armor on the other I have no problem with. It's just that now everyone has Suros regime after this last visit. 

I've been jonesing for mida multi-tool or the fate of all fools, but I haven't gotten the bounty for that one yet. 
The exotics I have are:
Hard light 
Truth
Suros regime
Bad juju
Pocket infinity
Super good advice x2
Invective
The last word 
Thorn
And that's about it. I just need the gloves to get to Lvl 30, so hopefully tomorrow is my day!


----------



## HighGain510

I need to go back and check which ones I have at this point, I know I've picked up several (and would have more if I had been completing the weekly strikes for coins, which I've only done twice, of course ) and I have the Thorn "get to 500pts in crucible, deaths remove points" in my queue (gotten to almost 400 IIRC?) and Shattered Memory Fragment is in there as of last night but I haven't even looked at the challenges for that one yet. 

Anyone up to do the weekly strike tonight on the highest level? I did that last week and got a ridiculous amount of coins, a piece of legendary armor as well as an exotic!  Going to try to do that every week, I teamed up with just a single level 30 buddy on my list so if 1-2 of us put together a fire team, I'm sure we could blow through it tonight. I still have my game save from the vault of glass and haven't beaten it yet as everyone bailed last week after one of the guys rage-quit.  Let me know if any of you XBO peeps want to play tonight, I'm game.


----------



## no_dice

I just got the game this week. I've been trying to find people to play with, but it seems like that's going to be almost impossible until I get into the 20s.


----------



## sakeido

HighGain510 said:


> I need to go back and check which ones I have at this point, I know I've picked up several (and would have more if I had been completing the weekly strikes for coins, which I've only done twice, of course ) and I have the Thorn "get to 500pts in crucible, deaths remove points" in my queue (gotten to almost 400 IIRC?) and Shattered Memory Fragment is in there as of last night but I haven't even looked at the challenges for that one yet.
> 
> Anyone up to do the weekly strike tonight on the highest level? I did that last week and got a ridiculous amount of coins, a piece of legendary armor as well as an exotic!  Going to try to do that every week, I teamed up with just a single level 30 buddy on my list so if 1-2 of us put together a fire team, I'm sure we could blow through it tonight. I still have my game save from the vault of glass and haven't beaten it yet as everyone bailed last week after one of the guys rage-quit.  Let me know if any of you XBO peeps want to play tonight, I'm game.



I have to do the weekly to get Invective. I could jump on tonight, what time do you think you'll be on? I'm only lvl27 tho.. altho I just saw it is The Nexus with easy modifiers so it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

edit: altho I noticed my snipe doesn't have void damage on it. Shit! My machine gun does tho...

new patch notes! Atheon can't be walked off the ledge anymore, random people get teleported in VoG. next patch - exotic weapon tweaks and an increase on how many bounties you can have at one time.


----------



## thedonal

Aand a nice night for getting constantly kicked off the servers...


----------



## thedonal

Aaaand it seems to be server kickout night on the X-Box 360. Can't believe this isn't sorted yet...


----------



## stevo1

Ran the weekly heroic and most of the nightfall by myself today. The only person online all day on my friends list was highgain, but he was having server issues. Didn't get much done other than that. 

The update brought a gift to the mail person in the tower. A little Halloween present.


----------



## HighGain510

stevo1 said:


> Ran the weekly heroic and most of the nightfall by myself today. The only person online all day on my friends list was highgain, but he was having server issues. Didn't get much done other than that.
> 
> The update brought a gift to the mail person in the tower. A little Halloween present.



At first I was thinking it was just my connection as it seemed like I was getting a combo of lag (which was making my shots not hit the targets or guys popping up right next to/behind me without seeing them, super frustrating) and getting booted with the "monkey" error code, but then I searched for the error code since it kept popping the same one and it seems like it was from the patch they issued yesterday. Seems there were LOTS and LOTS of people who were getting the same thing. Way to not test your patches thoroughly, Bungie!  

Would be nice if they gave out some sort of "we're sorry!" gift now as they basically blew the entire day. I had to get my winter wheels swapped on early as one of my summer tires blew on Monday during the commute home (sidewall blown too, of course, so no chance of repair) and I didn't want to drop $260 for the replacement just yet when I was about to toss on the winter ones in a few weeks anyway.  Ended up spending the rest of the day at home since I wasn't feeling so hot and couldn't play destiny for more than 15 minutes max without getting booted all day. SO AWESOME.  Normally I don't really give devs a hard time, but when Bungie keeps "fixing" stuff that they feel is broken in the game, they need to NOT jack up the game to the point where you can't even play it normally without constant server kicks. Previously I only had it happen occasionally and it was annoying, but to get 90% of the way through a map and then have to start all over? RIDICULOUS.  Ain't nobody got time fo dat!


----------



## MassNecrophagia

The weekly heroic will give 3 strange coins for each difficulty, for a total of 9 coins. 

I also don't get what the deal is with crucible difficulties. You can throw the first auto rifle you get in the game on and still go positive if you know what you're doing. That said, PvP is not for everyone.


----------



## HighGain510

MassNecrophagia said:


> The weekly heroic will give 3 strange coins for each difficulty, for a total of 9 coins.
> 
> I also don't get what the deal is with crucible difficulties. You can throw the first auto rifle you get in the game on and still go positive if you know what you're doing. That said, PvP is not for everyone.



Right, if you complete the Weekly Heroic Strike on the 1st setting it's 3 coins, 2nd setting is 6 coins and highest setting is 9 coins. That being said, I think you only get coins for the FIRST TIME you play the Weekly Heroic Strike, so your best bet is to team up with some friends and run it on the hardest setting so you get the 9 coins instead of just 3. 

Crucible is tough, if you have low-damage weapons and the guy you're facing has legendary and exotic armor, you're going to have a hard time getting the kill. I don't think that's even up for debate, a lot of the weaker guns can take 6+ headshots to kill guys with an exotic (fully-leveled) helmet.  If you took that same guy and armed him with an exotic weapon against the exotic armor guy, it can be a very different experience. I only compete in the crucible when I'm running my lvl 27 warlock, my level 16 hunter would likely get destroyed as their matchmaking doesn't pair people with similar armor/weapon levels in the same match.  That being said, once you hit 20 and above and start rocking some exotic weapons, the game becomes a lot more fair and fun.


----------



## Jake

Breezed through the entire first part of the nightfall solo up to the nexus. Breezed through the minotaurs. Nexus opened and rained hellfire down upon my poor existence with no remorse and ended that run in under a minute. Sad.


 Guess I'll have to get my brother to help with it.


----------



## sakeido

I solo'd the weekly last night, got my Invective, and a legendary engram that turned into a Grim Citizen III. Very good night. Now the only legendary I still need is a heavy weapon. The Nexus was easy once I figured out that if I unloaded on it with my void machine gun, it would reel back and stop shooting. So intense, I'm going to try and solo it on 28 too. The Nightfall version tho.. kills you soooo fast, and that Angry modifier is a pain in the ass. 

You can get UP TO 9 coins from the weekly.. if you do it on the lowest difficulty, then go back later on the higher difficulty, you will get the difference in coins. So running it on 22 first then 28 later, you'll get 6 coins for completing it on 28.



HighGain510 said:


> Crucible is tough, if you have low-damage weapons and the guy you're facing has legendary and exotic armor, you're going to have a hard time getting the kill. I don't think that's even up for debate, a lot of the weaker guns can take 6+ headshots to kill guys with an exotic (fully-leveled) helmet.  If you took that same guy and armed him with an exotic weapon against the exotic armor guy, it can be a very different experience. I only compete in the crucible when I'm running my lvl 27 warlock, my level 16 hunter would likely get destroyed as their matchmaking doesn't pair people with similar armor/weapon levels in the same match.  That being said, once you hit 20 and above and start rocking some exotic weapons, the game becomes a lot more fair and fun.



In Crucible, damage is normalized. All attack & defense ratings are ignored.. the only things that count are how you have your class setup (toughness/agility/recovery), the stat bonuses on your gear (strength/discipline/intellect) and the perks on your weapons and armor that aren't "Upgrade Damage" or "Upgrade Defense." Attack power and defense only count in PvE and Iron Banner. Impact does make a difference for Crucible damage but I don't think anyone has figured out the formula yet.. you can get low level gear with decent impact anyway. 

Per shot damage for guns goes hand cannons > scout rifles > pulse rifles > auto rifles. I am still testing it out but it seems hand cannons can 3 shot, scout rifles 4, pulse rifles 4-5, and auto rifles need 10+ headshots to kill. 

Playing at low level is just a pain in the ass because you don't have your full talent tree and your best gear is only greens with shitty perks on it. When you try and go for a shotty battle against somebody with one of the cheap double range boost shotguns like the Comedian or something you will definitely notice your gear sucks, but I've been wrecked by low level guys before. They just have to play smart.


----------



## stevo1

well, I tore through the nightfall by myself. Did a bulk of the work on Sekrion with my grenades, and destroyed the ads with my New Monarchy machine gun. I ended up getting a legendary fusion rifle, and was a bit disappointed. But oh well. 
Hopefully doing the raid tonight!


----------



## thedonal

Damn. Even being just under L28, I struggle with the daily heroic on 28. There's no way I'd solo the weekly strike.

Though my exotic weapons are definitely coming along. Nearly full damage now on my Scout Rifle.


----------



## HighGain510

stevo1 said:


> well, I tore through the nightfall by myself. Did a bulk of the work on Sekrion with my grenades, and destroyed the ads with my New Monarchy machine gun. I ended up getting a legendary fusion rifle, and was a bit disappointed. But oh well.
> Hopefully doing the raid tonight!



Yeah after playing last night I realized I need to check more on elemental exotics and gear myself up for success when running solo or 2-player in the strikes.  Having the void damage items equipped for bosses that are susceptible to void damage is definitely a good thing.  Still want to complete the vault of glass, wish I had known I only had a week before my game save would be lost as we were all the way to the final guy so that would have saved time if we could just load my save instead.


----------



## loqtrall

Finished the Vault of Glass last night. It was okay, I guess. Best part was the maze and the jump puzzle. Other than that, it felt pretty bland. I was in a group who had never done it, and we breezed through it. We killed Aetheon in less than 5 minutes. All I got was a cape, Chatterwhite shader, and like 25 Ascendent Energy, so I didn't even get a piece of gear or any shards to raise my light. I honestly expected it to be more fun and rewarding.

Also, the fact that a group of completely random 27's and 28's (and one 26) blew through the raid in an hour with only one wipe, and considering none of us had completed it before, makes me realize how delusional the people are who swear matchmaking would never work for the raid. So far, the only way for a player with no friends online to do the raid is to look for random people online. That's basicly manual matchmaking as it is.


----------



## Ralyks

I'm sadly torn between trying to give this game another go, or trading it in. I only got to level 10, but I'm having a hard time keeping interest. Its weird, I feel like I would love MMOs, yet can never invest time into them (Same thing happened to me with Warcraft. Got to level 20, then didn't care at all).


----------



## Pav

Unless you have an active group to play with, chances are it won't hold your interest.


----------



## loqtrall

Yeah, I often have people to play with, but I'm still trading it in soon. If you want to trade it in, you better do so quickly, because trade-in value just went down to $30 (price dropped to $49.99). There's simply not enough to do to hold my interest. I finally finished the VoG, which was all I had left to do, and afterward it changed nothing. Obviously from this thread we've found out that monotonously grinding linear missions and playing the same 3 crucible gametypes over and over can hold the interest of some, but I guess it's not my cup of tea.

The DLC is painfully bland for an already lacking game. 3 missions, 3 crucible maps, a strike, and a raid? No thanks. The 3 new missions and the strike will all take place somewhere you've already been in other story missions, which is sad. Plus the light level only went up by 2, meaning those that are already level 29-30 can just do the new raid until they get 3 pieces of armor from it, then they'll already be capped. They added nothing different to do for players already near or at endgame. That means high level players only have 3 missions, a strike, and a raid to do until the next DLC in 6~ months. I could barely last 3 months before trading it in. The fact that Bungie refers to the DLC as an expansion is comical. 3/4ths of that content could have been patched in for free.


----------



## Pav

That sucks. I'm still enjoying the hell out of it.


----------



## sakeido

loqtrall said:


> Yeah, I often have people to play with, but I'm still trading it in soon.



could you please hurry up


----------



## loqtrall

....


----------



## The Reverend

I have faith in it. I don't really have a choice, since I didn't buy a physical copy.


----------



## Gothic Headhunter

Just picked up doctor nope and patience and time last night. Can't wait to upgrade them and wreck in the crucible


----------



## thedonal

Here's a possibly silly question. But has the bunker on the Forgotten Shore always been there?

Only discovered it the other day. Even as a level 18, the Oryx Celebrant is really tough to kill. A little tease of things to come? It definitely looks like a mission or even just a patrol location.

Got my Titan levelling up now and already lined up a few legendary/exotic bits of armour for when she reaches 20..


----------



## loqtrall

Yeah, I've seen that bunker there since the beta. Thinking it's the entrance to a strike, more than likely.


----------



## thedonal

Aha! The things you miss when you're running around on missions!

It's nice to still have more areas to explore though..


----------



## loqtrall

Yeah, I wish there were a truly open world to explore, because their level/map design and art direction is really awesome. But with me being a huge fan of open world exploration games, I've already explored everything, gotten outside the map on every planet (in multiple areas), and have been in all but one of the "locked" DLC areas, some of which even look finished. Having a truly living, breathing, open world would have been something to behold in this game.


----------



## monkeybike

Finally finished the 25 strikes and 10000 points in crucible to cash in my exotic bounty, hope Bad Juju is worth the trouble.


----------



## loqtrall

Sadly, it's really not.


----------



## Jake

I'd agree that it pretty much sucks. Thorn on the other hand is actually really good now that I have the mark of the devourer


----------



## Pav

I abandoned the Bad Juju bounty. It felt like one of the longest bounties resulting in one of the worst weapons.

I finally finished leveling Last Word last night. Moved on to the Monte Carlo and holy crap, I'm in love. It has so little recoil right out of the gate it will work beautifully with the way I'm tailoring my defender for the crucible. Can't wait to unlock that Monte Carlo Method.


----------



## thedonal

I'm so bad at PVP that the Crucible part of the exotic bounties would take me years to complete. I've got a couple going on my Warlock right now, but unless they upgrade the bounty slots soon, I may abandon them...


----------



## monkeybike

Yeah the 15 round clip on Bad Juju seems pretty lame. I have a maxed out Devil You Know that is pretty hard to quit using. Just got the Invective shotty bounty.


----------



## Jake

monkeybike said:


> Yeah the 15 round clip on Bad Juju seems pretty lame. I have a maxed out Devil You Know that is pretty hard to quit using. Just got the Invective shotty bounty.


The Devil You Know is really sweet too and I enjoy using it. Invective is decent in my opinion. I haven't used it too much but when I have it did the job. Suros Regime is still my go to exotic though.


----------



## stevo1

Was playing in the crucible this morning, doing bad trying to complete the melee bounty, and I ended up getting universal remote in the rewards.


----------



## loqtrall

Lucky! I still haven't gotten anything more than a rare item from the crucible, not even a strange coin.


----------



## MassNecrophagia

I have a friend who I do the crucible parts of the exotic bounties for. I'm really beginning to dislike the Suros Regime for pvp, the first auto-rifle is a little bit better for me. 

Slowly gearing up to take a shot at Vault of Glass. I'd really like something better suited for Voidwalker than voidfang vestments. Heart of the Praxic Fire has a huge effect on Sunsinger, and it feels like there's no equivalent.


----------



## HighGain510

Finally managed to wrap up the Thorn bounty this weekend (thanks again for jumping on to assist, Steve! ) so I'll probably finish upgrading my Sauros and then work on that next. I LOVE pistols in the game and getting the Mark of the Devourer upgrade will make things awesome for getting 1-2 shots off on guys who hug corners camping and then run away.  Finding myself doing better in the crucible these days, always breaking even at the worst or sometimes running a train on the other team. Had several times where I got the 5-kill streak without dying which is nice as I remember struggling to go 1:1 for the longest time.  Sauros Regime is working out pretty well in the crucible for the most part, really need to find myself a better sniper rifle and some armor (think my sniper is only a rare from the crucible, I got so used to using Time and Patience and the Ice Breaker that anything else seems substantially less awesome! ) but overall I can still hold my own in 6v6 even if one or two members of the team are awful.  

We managed to win by FIVE points against a team that was really good and working together just between myself and the #2 guy on the team, because our bottom two were running like a 2:13 K/D.  Would be nice if we had a decent team of ss.org folks on XBO to run some of the vault stuff, seems like my list of random folks are never on at the same time and I still haven't made it through the Vault of Glass completely yet, never seem to be able to get enough folks in a fire team at the same time.


----------



## sakeido

thedonal said:


> I'm so bad at PVP that the Crucible part of the exotic bounties would take me years to complete. I've got a couple going on my Warlock right now, but unless they upgrade the bounty slots soon, I may abandon them...



on the positive side, if you are a voidlock most of the bounties are somewhat easier because your melee, nade and super all do void damage. 



MassNecrophagia said:


> I have a friend who I do the crucible parts of the exotic bounties for. I'm really beginning to dislike the Suros Regime for pvp, the first auto-rifle is a little bit better for me.
> 
> Slowly gearing up to take a shot at Vault of Glass. I'd really like something better suited for Voidwalker than voidfang vestments. Heart of the Praxic Fire has a huge effect on Sunsinger, and it feels like there's no equivalent.



for a voidlock, the Skull of Dire Akamhara is a better exotic PvE piece than Voidfang Vestments. increased grenade throw range, grenade hits return additional super energy, and you take reduced damage when throwing nova bomb. Still not that great, I guess, but with the right build you can regenerate your nova bomb really quickly and throw more of them. iirc Vex are weak to void too? which helps on the raid.

sunbros get way better stuff for PvE. voidfang in PvP is soooo awesome though.


----------



## thedonal

sakeido said:


> on the positive side, if you are a voidlock most of the bounties are somewhat easier because your melee, nade and super all do void damage.



Indeed. But I'm THAT bad, I die more than I kill (kill sprees are like hens' teeth for me!), so I just keep ending up at 0 again.


----------



## Pav

If you have any raid weapons, those are the easiest way to amass void kills imo. It took me all of three matches to finish that part of the bounty as a gunslinger with zero void abilities. If you have guns like Atheon's Epilogue or Corrective Measure, suddenly any and all kills you score as a voidwalker will be void kills.


----------



## thedonal

Thanks for the info- that will help- only attempted the raid once and didn't finish it at the time. Hopefully new attempts soon.

I'm slowly building a stash of legendary guns at the mo- 2 hand cannon's though- I guess one will go to my Titan.


----------



## loqtrall

Well, guys. Now's when I'll be hopping off Destiny until I trade it in on the 11th when Halo MCC comes out. I got a level 26 Titan, a level 28 hunter, completed every strike, the raid, got rank 3 for Vanguard and Crucible and Dead Orbit, got multiple exotics, got my cryptarch to level 32, explored every inch of the map and even some locked areas outside the map. It was fun while it lasted! I just have too much more to focus on with Sunset Overdrive and Advanced Warfare, to the point where I just decided that when Halo comes out I'll definitely not have any time to pop Destiny in to see what's new.

I'll totally be checking in to see what those of you who are still playing think of the DLC! Might pick up the game again if they ever add a substantial amount of content to run through. Keep up the fight, Guardians!


----------



## stevo1

Did the nightfall strike this morning first to get the xp boost as early as possible, and ended up getting the Universal Remote again.


----------



## sakeido

Any tips for dealing with Phalanxes with the angry modifier on? It is hard to take those guys out if they don't flinch out of their shields


----------



## Pav

I've only found two tricks to dealing with phalanxes. You can aim off to the side of their shield, where their exposed weapons peak out. If you manage to hit them un the arm while they're shooting, they'll usually stagger. Besides that, just use grenades, rockets and supers. Anything with enough splash damage to negate their shields. As a gunslinger, I have the added bonus of Golden Gun piercing right through their shields, but titans and warlocks should be able throw out enough AOE to keep them stumbling and exposed.


----------



## stevo1

They won't stagger with the angry modifier ^^^^

Just widow them down by shooting them in the arm, or try to hit the sliver of exposed head if you can get the right position. You should be able to snipe a portion near their head and get a crit on them.


----------



## Pav

Don't they still stagger if you hit them with something hard enough, like Ice Breaker? I could be wrong...but I usually lay into them with explosives then finish them off by shooting their arm or leg or something.


----------



## stevo1

Pav said:


> Don't they still stagger if you hit them with something hard enough, like Ice Breaker? I could be wrong...but I usually lay into them with explosives then finish them off by shooting their arm or leg or something.



Nope, they won't stagger whatsoever. I find it a tad annoying that they include that modifier on all cabal levels when you do it on a harder level, such as the daily etc. but it can be worked around!


----------



## Jake

stevo1 said:


> Nope, they won't stagger whatsoever. I find it a tad annoying that they include that modifier on all cabal levels when you do it on a harder level, such as the daily etc. but it can be worked around!


Actually just ran the nightfall and weekly at 28 and they did stagger from my Suros Regime, was kinda surprised. Not sure why but it worked.


----------



## sakeido

hmm that's odd. I thought with Angry on they would only stumble if you hit them with the flashbang special, or they ran into a bubble when you had the certain Titan exotic helm on 

I PvE with a scout rifle and don't have a Suros yet so this is going to be a struggle ... :/


----------



## stevo1

Jake said:


> Actually just ran the nightfall and weekly at 28 and they did stagger from my Suros Regime, was kinda surprised. Not sure why but it worked.



Hmm, that's weird, they've never staggered for me when the angry modified is present. Maybe you guys aren't getting the effects?


----------



## sakeido

The weekly doesn't have Angry on it, but the Nightfall does. 

Weekly I think it is just Heroic & Lightswitch (enemies one shot you with melee)

Nightfall it is Heroic, Angry (enemies don't flinch), Lightswitch, Juggler (no ammo for whatever weapon you have equipped) and Nightfall (go to orbit if everybody dies)

I still have mostly Crucible bounties so I didn't try and solo the weekly but I think I could do it on 26. 28... doubt it, but I will try. I did the daily on 28 but they are a lot easier than the weeklies. 

Did my first Ascendant upgrades last night too... almost to 28! Still grinding away to try and get the Send It perk on my Invective ... need more shotty range. Guys with Comedians can still 1 shot me from further away than I can 1 shot them. Need the range upgrade on my AR too.. the grind in this game is so addictve


----------



## stevo1

It would be pretty cool if they implemented trading. They could do it in a way no one would get ripped off, as in I have/ looking for etc. You post what you have to trade, and what you're looking for, and people that have what you want only can reply to you / set up a trade. I'd be down for trading one of my exotics for a mida multi tool


----------



## thedonal

I don't know. I really think that the way they want to keep Destiny going is to have you actually play and earn all of the good stuff. That is evident in how quickly they shut down exploits and loot caves.


----------



## Pav

It seems that way, and I like it. No kind of cheap auction house to undermine everything you do in the game.

And Xur has nothing for me this weekend...still holding out for that Mida Multi-tool or the Universal Remote.


----------



## thedonal

I just don't have the strange coins for that scout rifle, sadly. Maybe in the morning things will change.

Building a network of X-Box live friends now through random VOG invite messages.

Sadly still not completed the VOG yet- got to the same bit- the Vault and the two gates. We only had a fireteam of 5 though and no-one was really paying attention or co-ordinating...


----------



## Compton

RNGesus blessed me in hardmode this week after 7 runs on multiple toons of nothing but purple weapons that i didnt want. Seriously, With probably 14 different vog runs i got 1 armor piece on my lock. Snagged hard mode helm and boots, timebreaker, hard mode pistol and fusion rifle, AND Vex Mythoclast. Stokkeeddd


----------



## sakeido

thedonal said:


> I just don't have the strange coins for that scout rifle, sadly. Maybe in the morning things will change.
> 
> Building a network of X-Box live friends now through random VOG invite messages.
> 
> Sadly still not completed the VOG yet- got to the same bit- the Vault and the two gates. We only had a fireteam of 5 though and no-one was really paying attention or co-ordinating...



I haven't cleared the raid at all yet either and would help out. I listen well, hahah. plus I have two friends who are 29 we could bring in to help dependent on availability


----------



## thedonal

On 360?


----------



## sakeido

ahhh no... Xbone. I keep forgetting this game is on 360 too


----------



## thedonal

lol. Cheers for the thought though...


----------



## Jake

Got sick and tired of waiting for VOG matchmaking and decided to use my 30 ascendant shards to get myself to level 29....2 light points away 

FVCK

oh well I can get the remaining shards in the next few days, I don't even care about level 30 anymore just sick of being 28


----------



## thedonal

Finally did the Vault today. With members coming in and out. One of the few who saw it end to end- it took hours!!!

One player was using KINEX for comms. This meant that we had sh!t loads of background noise and it was horribly distracting. He also got kicked late on for just being useless.*

Because I did a partial attempt 2 days ago, very little loot drops for me in the maze area. I got a shader, lots of ascendent energy and a few legendary drops. 

* friended him anyways. He seems OK- just needs to listen!! We did the weekly strike on 26 too earlier in the day. THAT was well tough. Had a go at nightfall last night- NO WAY! Fearsome!! 

Definitely moving forwards though. Still at level 28 and a third. Need more shards!!

It's good that I have a bunch of buddies for more Crucible action though now- I might start getting somewhere. Especially as I'm levelling up The Comedian and a legendary hand cannon.


----------



## monkeybike

Solo'd the nightfall and got Jack-shit for rewards. Then I went and started doing tiger strikes. Finished my first strike (Archon priest) with one other guy because the 3rd dude bailed, he scores Universal Remote and I get crap. Damn rng.


----------



## thedonal

So I bought Truth from Xur.

Then I levelled up my Cryptarch reputation and got a legendary Engram, which produced an exotic weapon.....Truth again. 

Same here- damn the rng!!


----------



## sakeido

I bought the exotic helmet engram ... was for a hunter, not a warlock


----------



## thedonal

I got that a few weeks ago. I've also had other Hunter and Titan drops. I just stashed them- when I got my Titan to level 20, the gear I stashed raised her 4 levels instantly. Will be the same when I get round to levelling up a Hunter.

I may run another Warlock- just so I can grind ascendant materials a little more quickly.

I did the level 28 daily heroic with two buddies last night- the difficulty really ramps up when you play as a team- we had to abandon... Oh well. It's a tricky one anyways when the final spawn of Minotaurs and Hobgoblins turn up.


----------



## Ibzzus

Been hearing a lot about this game. Is it an MMORPG like WoW? Is it free-to-play?


----------



## thedonal

You have to have a console and the game. After that, it's down to if you have an X-Box Live subscription or similar for Playstation Network (I don't know how this works compared to XBL). DLC will expand the content (which after a month of play, feels a touch on the limited and repetitive side).

It's limited MMO- the meaningful actvities (missions, strikes, the raid and crucible) are solo, 3 or 6 player. 

There are open parts of the game- 'patrols'- in an open area with lots of mini missions available. but only the public events here have no limit on players attending. You will encounter other players here and also when travelling through these areas of the gameworld to a mission. But unless you team up, you will disappear from each other's view in the mission itself.


----------



## sakeido

Finally did the raid! Was so much fun... I quite enjoyed that. Atheon was actually the least fun part.. still pretty cool, but the two Templar bits were more enjoyable, imo. Atheon I got teleported almost every single time, go figure. Was nice going with an experienced team tho, they brought me right up to speed. Next time I am going to have to get on the DLC raid sooner since as is I don't think I got the full effect of what it's like to run a new raid.

Got the raid boots... twice. :/ And a ton of ascendant energy when I needed shards more. At least one pair of boots had a way better stat roll, and the other scrapped into three shards. Should be able to hit 28 now and get most of the way to 29. I was really hoping for a new gun though. Been a while since I got anything new to play with, firepower wise.


----------



## thedonal

I'm in the same position on rewards. Same legendary sniper 2 raids in a row, Chatterwhite again, loads of ascendent energy (saving these for Truth) and few shards.

I did get the raid chest armour this time though. 
I also have Bloodpact thrice now.

But got the raid done in half the time of previous attempts due to experience, character progress and a more solid team.


----------



## no_dice

After 60+ hours I got my first legendary engram, and then another within 10 minutes. One is a class item and the other is a helm for a hunter (I only have a warlock atm). The cryptarch gives me two more purples for leveling up - hunter boots and a pulse rifle. Yay.


----------



## sakeido

I have still had great luck only getting items for my class.. except for the exotic engram that gave me a hunter helmet, I only have gotten two pieces of stuff for a class that isn't Warlock. Just last night I got a legendary engram from a Tiger Strike that turned into some gear I won't use, but it leveled up my Cryptarch and he gave me two more legendary engrams. A primary, and a special. I really, really, really need a legendary sniper rifle but the special turned into two ascendant shards, and the primary turned into the exotic pulse rifle Red Death. :/ don't think I will ever use it.

And Xur's inventory this week sucks... The Last Word is pretty good but good GOD do I ever need a better special weapon for strikes.


----------



## no_dice

I got pretty lucky with getting the Epitaph 22-whatever from leveling up to vanguard rank 3. Right now I'm saving crucible marks to buy the Vanquisher VIII, but I wouldn't mind if I randomly got something nice as a crucible reward on the way there.

Yeah, Xur let me down. I was really hoping for Heart of the Praxic Fire. I wouldn't have been as bummed on the Voidfang Vestments if they had discipline instead of strength. I would have just saved my coins if the engram I bought didn't turn into an exotic hunter helm.


----------



## sakeido

haha I just spent 150 vanguard marks on a Shadow Price since the version the vendor has right now has armor piercing rounds so you can shoot through walls, and clear out groups of mobs because your bullets will pass through them.. maybe the Epitaph would have been the better buy. I'm still holding out hope for a legendary or exotic snipe to drop, or maybe Xur will have Icebreaker again next week.


----------



## Pav

I'm sad over Xur's stock this weekend. I was enjoying being one of the few who had Last Word...and I still need Red Death and MIDA Multi-tool


----------



## thedonal

Ascendent Energy. Aaaaaall the bloody time!


----------



## MassNecrophagia

Pav said:


> I'm sad over Xur's stock this weekend. I was enjoying being one of the few who had Last Word...and I still need Red Death and MIDA Multi-tool


Got Red Death from a legendary engram. Tried it out, not really impressed.


----------



## stevo1

I have a feeling that most pulse rifles aren't that good. They have nothing to really set them apart, taking the fallbacks of both weapons that they fall between; auto rifles, and scout rifles. They Have the lower accuracy and lower impact of auto rifles, with the lower ammo count of scouts. I feel they need to buff something to make them more usable. I hardly see any one using one in field.


----------



## sakeido

I started out with pulse rifles but haven't looked back after I got a scout rifle for PvE and a good assault rifle for PvP. Red Death is pretty rough by Pulse Rifle standards though.. it shoots so slowly! Looks cool though. Finally wrapped up the Bad Juju bounty too, it looks awesome but man it is just no good.


----------



## thedonal

Scout rifles are definitely the one for clinical precision in the primary weapon stakes.

I can see how Auto Rifles are more popular for PVP, but I am starting to fall on my hand cannon (Lord High Fixer) for that duty. I also have The Chance, but the 6 bullet clip and REALLY slow reload make for a potentially disastrous PVP gun, despite being an FWC Crucible weapon..


----------



## Pav

So who else is enjoying the overdue updates? Even the "house cleaning" they've done so far has spruced things up noticeably for me, but I tend to nitpick over UI stuff. New Iron Banner is back as well...already bought myself the necessary boots to finally hit 30. But it just hit me that I have to go farm _80 effing helium filaments_ to upgrade them. My goodness...if I have one real complaint about this game so far, it's the uber-tedious repetition of farming upgrade materials from each planet.


----------



## monkeybike

I'm enjoying the heck out of Far Cry 4, it's nice break from grinding away on the same strikes everyday.


----------



## stevo1

Update is pretty cool. I like how they changed the icons for some of the items, so that the picture showed in the gear page actually resembles the item; ex. The insurmountable skull fort. 

Just working on iron banner, just got to rank two today, but I need to get to four before the event is over, so I can get the gloves.


----------



## thedonal

Just being able to hold 10 bounties us a massive step forward in itself.

I joined in the raid endgame the other day and got my 3rd Chatterwhite shader. 

The game also seems loth to give me ascendent shards. Still. At least I'm levelling up my guns fairly well. Second warlock is almost raid ready too.


----------



## Pav

I was worried the 10 bounty slots would make XP too easy to farm, but now it feels about right. And as it turns out, those 80 helium filaments took less than an hour to farm and included two public events, so it wasn't as bad as I expected. So ready for the new raid in three weeks.

New Iron Banner feels legit this time around as well. I'm half way to rank 5 and that sweet Goldspiral shader.


----------



## Gothic Headhunter

Iron Banner is a motherf ucking skinner's box. The other team is always better. I played 10 matches today and I only won one, and that was because I joined late. Even in matches where my team had the lead, the other team came back and dominated. Oh, but if you lost, it's ok, because here's a medallion that only matters _if you win._ F.U.C.K. THAT.


----------



## stevo1

Come hell or high water, I'm going to be lol 30 by Tuesday. Iron banner or from xur, I just need gloves.


----------



## Pav

Hell yeah, Xur has MIDA Multi-tool this weekend!  That narrows down the exotics I'm missing to Plan C, Hawkmoon, Red Death, Vex Mythoclast and Super Good Advice. That puts me at 15 I think? I should really start leveling some more of them but the Iron Banner seems to want specific weapons for its bounties.


----------



## thedonal

Pav said:


> Hell yeah, Xur has MIDA Multi-tool this weekend!  That narrows down the exotics I'm missing to Plan C, Hawkmoon, Red Death, Vex Mythoclast and Super Good Advice. That puts me at 15 I think? I should really start leveling some more of them but the Iron Banner seems to want specific weapons for its bounties.



Blinding. Though I've nearly maxed Truth out and find it really useful in boss fights. Trueseeker being my favourite perk after Firefly Damage.

Would quite like the Mythoclast too.


----------



## sakeido

Good run through the raid last night... got Atheon's Epilogue, Found Verdict and the Hezen Vengeance. 

Atheon is not my style of gun at all but I'm going to use it to finish up this stupid Thorn bounty, Found Verdict looks like it might be almost as good as Invective so I think I'll level it up for Crucible in case I want to use an exotic primary or heavy instead.. and Hezen Vengeance is clearly way better than any other heavy I had, since I only had blues. It looks like it will be a total monster in PvP too, huge blast radius, the MIRV perk on top of that, very high velocity, and it loads 3 shots so with my raid boots equippd I think I can hold up to 9 rockets at once 

Still need a fkin snipe tho! Altho I was doing 11.5k to Atheon with an unupgraded blue this week.. not sure how I was pulling that off


----------



## stevo1

That's the time's vengeance you get during the fight. 

Hit lvl 30 a couple minutes ago!


----------



## sakeido

grats man! I'm short a helmet and gloves for 30.. and did not put enough time into Iron Banner, so I stand almost no chance of getting the IB gloves.


----------



## thedonal

My crucible skills are definitely improving- but I'm on the Invective bounty at the moment- the "earn 25 more kills and assists than deaths" bit- I made a good start at 7 but this soon dropped to 2!! Still. It's encouraging. 

Iron Banner is a touch too hardcore for my shockingly bad PVP skills. So I'm going to have to hang in for the RNG to be nice to me in forthcoming Vault attempts. I'm missing the raid boots and helmet. Getting boots alone would max me to 30- I have an exotic helmet I just maxed out PLUS my second Warlock is about ready for doing the Vault too. 

Still- at least I have Praedyth's revenge in 3 different damage flavours and 3 chatterwhite shaders now. (rolls eyes!).

I love the MIDA Multitool though- it's like a rapid firing sniper rifle!!


----------



## sakeido

I grinded all the way to level 4 in Iron Banner yesterday so I could get the gloves.. what a slog that was. It took I think about 60 matches to go from zero rep to rank 4, and I didn't get one single drop the whole time. Saw so many of the hand cannon and machine gun go to other people, and I got one measly legendary engram in all that time. 

On the flip side the gauntlets look awesome on my guy and have better perks than the raid gauntlets.


----------



## thedonal

Praedyth's Revenge. Aaaaaall the bloody time!

At least I got Hezen Vengeance this time around. But still can't do the last bit with the current group. Had to abandon before proper ragequit occured!  I think I need to leave the raid for a bit...


----------



## Pav

Anyone else excited for the pending updates next week??? I know I is!!! FINALLY they should be fixing some of the exotic weapons!


----------



## sakeido

I'm definitely looking forward to it. I tried using my Red Death again today.. what a pea shooter. 

Ran the raid, got my third pair of boots, a shit ton of shards, and a Vision of Confluence. YES. I was just about ready to write it off as a bad run when that dropped after Atheon.

Then I'm picking up a Swarm heavy machine gun and the Final Boss snipe. My Hezen Vengeance was a rockstar in the raid. And it's Xurday tomorrow! gonna be a good week I hope


----------



## thedonal

Here's a question. How much more difficult is the raid on hard? Given I'm level 29 and one bit of raid gear short of 30?

I'm figuring it may be worth trying at least the first few sections if I can persuade others it's worth a go... Otherwise I will resign myself to repeatedly breaking down praedyth's revenge each time I do it..


----------



## Pav

It's noticeably harder. With seemingly double the amount of enemies. 29 is usually when you want to start raiding on hard though, it will be tough but you're strong enough.


----------



## HighGain510

I still haven't been through the vault of glass yet.  Might need to look into those sites that offer up groups to join to run through them, tired of getting halfway through and people leave making it a bit too tough when playing on Hard to complete solo.


----------



## sakeido

We tried hard mode last night. It was.. pretty tough to say the least. The bosses are actually by far the easiest part.. or so I'm told anyway. We couldn't get past the confluxes altho we did come close.


----------



## Pav

The bosses on hard mode don't feel any different from normal. It's the huge waves of adds in between bosses that will get you. Defending the confluxes in front of the templar takes some serious coordination.


----------



## thedonal

So is it a just a numbers thing with the enemy? I'm guessing at 30 they take a little more taking down. Do you get more enemies with shields like on heroic/nightfall strikes?

I did the weekly strike on 28 last night. The battle with 4 wizards really took some getting through (I'll never do the strike without dying bounty on a weekly!!).


----------



## sakeido

Nope, there are two modifiers they can slap on a strike/raid: 

- Heroic. More enemies, and tougher enemies (more yellow health enemies)

- Epic. A lot more enemies, more tough enemies and shielded enemies (shanks! ....ing shanks!) 

The weekly is Heroic, the Nightfall (and Thorn bounty) are Epic. The hard mode raid is only Heroic so you don't have to worry about previously weak enemies getting a very powerful shield and becoming a complete nuisance. Rumor has it they will add an Epic version of the strike when the DLC comes out. 

And it is both a numbers thing and a level thing.. if you are playing the normal strike at 29, the enemies all get a damage reduction so you have much higher survivability. If you run the hard mode at 29, instead your damage is reduced (by 30% roughly) and they do full, serious damage to you, on top of there being way more guys you have to worry about. More minotaurs are upgraded to praetorians, more axis harpies, fanatics are tougher.. 

The go-to strats right now are basically to cheese everything you can. Cheeses I know about right now...

- Confluxes, when it says "the templar is summoning its legions" on hard mode this is insane. They will throw sooooo many guys at you, instead of fighting them you run to the spirit bloom cave and hide in there until the enemies all de-spawn 

- Oracles, you all just stay up top and one person drops down to make the Oracles spawn. Either they die or they do a tricky jump to get back up top, where you can overlook the whole map and pick off the oracles as they come up. Only one or two hobgoblins can even hit you from up here

- Templar, push him off the cliff by pushing him around the center post and then all the way back.

I don't think you can cheese anything after, or should, because it is easier to actually fight Atheon rather than cheese him


----------



## thedonal

Cheers. Brilliant info. We cheese The Templar already. It's less faff. I can't imagine how tough the precursors are on 30 through the gates in the vault. 

I may see if i can get the gang to try it.

can't wait for more content though. I have the upgrade pass sorted so looking forward to it.


----------



## Pav

sakeido said:


> - Oracles, you all just stay up top and one person drops down to make the Oracles spawn. Either they die or they do a tricky jump to get back up top, where you can overlook the whole map and pick off the oracles as they come up. Only one or two hobgoblins can even hit you from up here



When my group runs the raid, we have whoever drops down run all the way to the back, behind where the templar would sit. There are a couple oracles that can be tough to hit from up top due to some obstacles but the man in the back can be awesome backup.

And today turned out to be a damn good day. Not only picked up Plan C but also picked up and finished the Voice in the Wilderness bounty for Super Good Advice. That's all five exotic bounties complete for the moment. Time to start finishing more hard raids for that Mythoclast.


----------



## sakeido

How was the Super Good Advice bounty? I just got it.. they offered me that one or the bounty that I believe leads to a Pocket Infinity, and I took SGA since I just bought Plan C from Xur. 

I can't believe I didn't try fusion rifles before.. they do so much damage! Mine isn't even upgraded yet. They are so powerful, cheap and stupid in PvP I am not sure if I will even use one there... they are so cheap and imo need a nerf in Crucible. They are like shotguns that shoot 50 feet. In PvE they are great though, they make short work of everything you shoot them at. 

Had good luck on the nightfall this week.. got an Ice Breaker! Now I hope my good luck carries through for our HM Raid run this week and I get my helmet on my first try :loL:


edit: holy shit guys check out the patch notes, this is the best patch yet!! 

https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2nyk13/12012014_destiny_patch_notes/


----------



## thedonal

Fusions are my favourite special weapon. Though I find the spin up on them in Crucible a balancing factor- it's audible and slows down firing. Just like reloading shotguns is that balancing factor.

So far the exotics rebalance is good- just gone up damage on MIDA without worrying about ascendant (this week, I'm getting lots of shards, because I need energy more! ) and the increased impact is nice.


----------



## Pav

If Bad Juju is now usable, the patch is a win.


----------



## HighGain510

sakeido said:


> How was the Super Good Advice bounty? I just got it.. they offered me that one or the bounty that I believe leads to a Pocket Infinity, and I took SGA since I just bought Plan C from Xur.
> 
> I can't believe I didn't try fusion rifles before.. they do so much damage! Mine isn't even upgraded yet. They are so powerful, cheap and stupid in PvP I am not sure if I will even use one there... they are so cheap and imo need a nerf in Crucible. They are like shotguns that shoot 50 feet. In PvE they are great though, they make short work of everything you shoot them at.
> 
> Had good luck on the nightfall this week.. got an Ice Breaker! Now I hope my good luck carries through for our HM Raid run this week and I get my helmet on my first try :loL:
> 
> 
> edit: holy shit guys check out the patch notes, this is the best patch yet!!
> 
> https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/2nyk13/12012014_destiny_patch_notes/




I only had the chance to play a bit last night when I got home finally but I like what they did to Thorn which is great as I'm trying to upgrade that one next! Excited to try the rest of them out! Agreed on the fusion rifles too, I'm hoping to find whatever one someone was raping me with in PvP the other day, could never have a chance unless I hit him with a grenade first or he didn't see me coming.


----------



## no_dice

thedonal said:


> Fusions are my favourite special weapon. Though I find the spin up on them in Crucible a balancing factor- it's audible and slows down firing. Just like reloading shotguns is that balancing factor.



With Plan C, you can open up on someone with your primary, then quick swap to it and it's an instant shot. It's pretty disgusting.

Everyone is thrilled about the nightfall being solar burn this week, but the only solar weapons I have above blue are Invective and SGA. Shit.


----------



## sakeido

It's nice because there is only one enemy in the entire strike that does solar damage to you.. the captain at the beginning. Aside from that you outdamage everybody hugely, we powered through the 28 weekly & the nightfall in less than half an hour


----------



## oracles

Finally had a little bit more time to get into destiny lately, hopefully starting the raid soon once I hit level 26. Add me on xbox one if you like.


----------



## no_dice

sakeido said:


> It's nice because there is only one enemy in the entire strike that does solar damage to you.. the captain at the beginning. Aside from that you outdamage everybody hugely, we powered through the 28 weekly & the nightfall in less than half an hour



I'm pretty sure the hobgoblins do solar damage, and possibly the goblins and harpies too. Once I got a couple friends with their VoC and Ice Breakers, we blew through it easily. I broke down the shields and they mowed them down. I'm not too happy about my rewards though. I did it on both my characters and got a 2nd Heart of the Praxic Fire and a 3rd The Last Word.


----------



## sakeido

no_dice said:


> I'm pretty sure the hobgoblins do solar damage, and possibly the goblins and harpies too. Once I got a couple friends with their VoC and Ice Breakers, we blew through it easily. I broke down the shields and they mowed them down. I'm not too happy about my rewards though. I did it on both my characters and got a 2nd Heart of the Praxic Fire and a 3rd The Last Word.



what do ya know, you are right. 

Ultimate Guide To Enemy Weapon Damage : DestinyTheGame

I thought Vex were pretty much 100% void for some reason. 

I had better luck... got a Hard Light! I am on a crazy good run of getting good stuff right now. Hopefully it holds for the raid tonight


----------



## HighGain510

Anyone looking to pair up tonight? Thinking I might take a break from some of the other games (picked up like 6 new ones over Black Friday, just started up Shadows of Mordor last night! ) and play some Destiny tonight. Would love to finally do the raid if anyone is interested, name a time (in EST, please ) and I'll jump on.


----------



## The Reverend

sakeido said:


> what do ya know, you are right.
> 
> Ultimate Guide To Enemy Weapon Damage : DestinyTheGame
> 
> I thought Vex were pretty much 100% void for some reason.
> 
> I had better luck... got a Hard Light! I am on a crazy good run of getting good stuff right now. Hopefully it holds for the raid tonight



Hard Light is the only exotic weapon I've come across. I randomly picked up the engram for it, which was really cool. Mine's fully upgraded, and more or less useless. The stability is really high on it, but the special effect of bullets bouncing is less usable than you would expect.


----------



## sakeido

I was thinkin about that too, and figured you'd have to be a goddamn genius to be able to bounce bullets around corners and stuff with any kind of consistency. I don't want to think that hard. That kinda sucks it's still no good, because it looks and sounds awesome. 

There is a good chance I will scrap it for an exotic shard soon... since my luck totally did hold for the raid last night, and I got Suros Regime! And Thunderlord! And another Vision of Confluence! 

That's exotics numbers 7 and 8.


----------



## no_dice

sakeido said:


> I was thinkin about that too, and figured you'd have to be a goddamn genius to be able to bounce bullets around corners and stuff with any kind of consistency. I don't want to think that hard. That kinda sucks it's still no good, because it looks and sounds awesome.



Someone said Hard Light is a champ against Angry Phalanxes if you aim at their feet under their shield. I can't confirm, since I don't have it.


----------



## Pav

I certainly wouldn't say it isn't good. Even before the buff it was stronger than most legendaries. The ricochet just isn't actually useful the way you might expect.


----------



## stevo1

I never found it to be useful either, but it's fun to fool around with. The overpenetration it provides is very helpful with anything with a shield. 
I've had hard light the longest and was my first exotic more or less. 

Decided to try out super good advice after the buffs to replace a legendary machine gun that I stupidly broke down. It's actually prett usable now I feel.


----------



## Pav

Aw shit, it's finally expansion time!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## thedonal

Last night the level cap on heroic story missions raised to 30. Even that 1 level adds a fair bit of difficulty while I'm still on 29 (particularly with modifiers and while I'm still levelling up guns on my second warlock).

I'm hoping there will be more light in armour that doesn't rely on RNGesus going forward, so I can progress further without bashing through the Vault of Glass any more. There's bits of the raid I really like, but is so tuned to having the right group together, there's little margin for comfort in it.


----------



## sakeido

There totally is... vendor gear plus an exotic will get you to 31! Also, the raid "remembers" what loot it has rewarded you with, or so Bungie has said... so now you won't get the same drops over and over and over and should be able to complete a raid set with less heartache. I'd like that. The Vault only ever gave me boots, and lots of awesome guns. 

I have some legendary engrams saved and my Crucible, Vanguard and Dead Orbit reputations are all just below what I need to rank up so hopefully I can get geared up tonight for a raid tomorrow.


----------



## thedonal

Blinding. I just bought some better boots to get me levelled up. Plus I helped a crowd finish Atheon on normal and got....SOMETHING DIFFERENT! The ship in this case, so nothing spectacular, but a start.

My gods- the siege is tough. Though I'm doing it as a level 29 on the 30 difficulty. May level these boots up first and get myself closer to being good at it.

I love the bunker though.


----------



## Pav

Holy SHIT, these DLC missions are tough!


----------



## HighGain510

Tried the first mission solo and got to the second guy inside the cave and died twice so I said screw it and I'll come back when I get a party together (I'm only level 28 still, haven't played much in the last couple weeks).  

I joined a group of gents from the UK this evening and did the Vault of Glass all the way through finally! Of course all I got was ascendant energy, a legendary machine gun and from Atheon... I got.... a shader.  Sigh. Hoping to run through that raid and the new one and get some better gear next time around.


----------



## thedonal

OK. So the two DLC missions are done (on L25- I need a bit more levelling to do them on 30 solo).

I haven't done the strike yet or started the raid so can't comment on those BUT-

They promised 3 new story missions. One has disappeared completely and- asides from the bunker itself being a great environment and a slight change from the crumbling decor of the rest of the game and the general difficulty of them, there's not much to them, is there? It kind of feels like Bungie have been lazy with these- we really need more story missions as the rinse repeat of the original set has become rather stale and more than just two rooms with lots of waves of thralls. 

I've enjoyed playing through them and beating the missions on 30 will be an achievement. But it's not much, is it? It's nice to have a new set of bounties, but this raises another reputation marker to grow for more gear. 

I dunno- I currently feel a little bit short changed and almost wishing I hadn't bought the expansion pass. I do hope that the next update gives us more story missions to add to variety. Because for a game that Bungie and Activision want us to play long term, there will need to be some more change and variety.

It's early days though- just one evening of play. Perhaps when more unfolds I'll feel more value from it.


----------



## no_dice

The DLC missions are cool, but extremely short. My friend and I did the Siege on 30 with both of us at 29 and it was a bitch.


----------



## sakeido

Took maybe an hour to power through the story missions.. we were underleveled too. They were so fun though! Those were some extremely intense fights, easily the hardest ones in the story ever. The actual story side of this though... very underwhelming. I am going to have to revise my expectations for story content in this game way, way down in the future.

Haven't had time to run the strike or the raid yet. Bought an ugly vanguard helmet to work my way towards 31. Continued crushing in Crucible... hit my goal I set week 1 of Destiny. K/D over 1.5, and I just made it last night with a 1.51 and it is still going up and up. 

Gerd damn I love this game

edit: lol wow I catch untagged negs all the time these days. Hypocrit how?


----------



## thedonal

Damn. The strike is well intense. 

Level 30 now. It makes a massive difference on doing the siege mission at level 30.

Loving Murmur so far though.


----------



## Pav

My only complaint is this expansion feels less like DLC and more like we're finally getting the rest of the base game. Area like the Grottos and the Jovian Complex on earth have been available since the freakin' alpha. Now with the Dark Below, much of the unused space finally makes sense, but so much of it was there for so long acting as a "placeholder" I can't help but feel this stuff was _supposed_ to be part of the base game, only to be pushed back or trimmed out late in development for the sake of creating more potential microtransactions.

Normally I don't like to speculate on the development process behind a game, but as someone who has followed Bungie's work for quite some time, the entire Destiny process has felt a little out of character for them, as though Activision is actively dictating how much content is to be released and when.


----------



## thedonal

Pav said:


> Normally I don't like to speculate on the development process behind a game, but as someone who has followed Bungie's work for quite some time, the entire Destiny process has felt a little out of character for them, as though Activision is actively dictating how much content is to be released and when.



I'd say that if you haven't hit the nail on the head, you are still fricking close.


----------



## loqtrall

Pav said:


> My only complaint is this expansion feels less like DLC and more like we're finally getting the rest of the base game. Area like the Grottos and the Jovian Complex on earth have been available since the freakin' alpha. Now with the Dark Below, much of the unused space finally makes sense, but so much of it was there for so long acting as a "placeholder" I can't help but feel this stuff was _supposed_ to be part of the base game, only to be pushed back or trimmed out late in development for the sake of creating more potential microtransactions.
> 
> Normally I don't like to speculate on the development process behind a game, but as someone who has followed Bungie's work for quite some time, the entire Destiny process has felt a little out of character for them, as though Activision is actively dictating how much content is to be released and when.


 
Saw this coming from a mile away. My money is on the House of Wolves DLC feeling the same way.

The Destiny forums are up in arms about TDB "expansion". No cutscenes, new tower NPC and her quests are almost clones of the Queen's Wrath event, No incentive to do her missions at all, contradicting dialogue ("You've destroyed Crota! Now go destroy Crota again in the raid", "He's a myth, but I know him"), ect.

Eh, at least the new gear looks cool.


----------



## Pav

I pretty much saw this coming at launch when there were so many unused areas available to us.

The "quality" of the story and the number of cutscenes actually doesn't bother me much at all. I'm all about the gameplay and rarely pay attention to any attempted storytelling in a FPS. What does truly bother me is the way they delivered this new content. I honestly can't understand the thought process behind their method of upgrading the existing weapons. It's actually so out of whack, I'm tempted to not touch any of my existing gear in anticipation of a patch that will change this system, because it's downright stupid as it stands.


----------



## loqtrall

I felt the same way. Having glitchy but accessable "placeholders" for expansions seems pretty shady. Most of those places had fully modelled environments and some even had enemies and dead ghosts. Seems more than likely the expansions were cut from the game to make a quick buck. Especially since some of the DLC areas are on the maps of planets, but are supposed to be inaccessable, as opposed to games like TES, Fallout, or Borderlands that had DLC areas added to the map after they were released. Those DLC areas were there and still blocked off in the alpha, and the initial gameplay trailers shown at various conventions showed off areas and characters that don't exist in the actual game. Which makes it seem obvious that shit was cut from the core game to be used as DLC. 

I guess they just thought people wouldn't notice.


----------



## Pav

Either cut from the base game or they simply decided to rush the launch before everything was completely finished. I feel it's becoming too common for publishers to force a game to launch at a certain time, like they're trying to have SOMETHING out there for the holidays or SOMETHING out there to say they beat CoD to release or whatever AAA title may be on the horizon.

Fortunately for Bungie, seeing some of the brand new weapons in action has me re-hooked already, so I'll probably continue to ponder what happens behind closed doors while playing Destiny.


----------



## sakeido

New raid is crazy good, very tough. One weak link on the team will wipe you almost every time. If you are all solid, apparently you can blow through the whole thing in 30 minutes... good to see it reward skill like that. Hard mode on this raid is going to be absolutely insane. Not a bad value for my money considering I would have spent $45 on a WoW sub cost by now 

And weapons are guaranteed to drop from Crota! 

We haven't made it that far yet though, we are stuck at the Deathsinger for now. Just hit 31 so that should make it a lot easier.


----------



## Pav

So you haven't fully cleared it yet? I've heard it's almost impossible to finish without someone level 31 or higher, apparently Crota himself is insanely tough.


----------



## sakeido

Nope not yet. We are taking another stab at it tonight, we have I think five 31s and a 30 now. We were trying it with 31-30-30-30-29-29 before, and me and the other 29 kept dying ... the enemies in the first leg are 30, gatekeepers are 31, and at the Deathsinger they are 32. In hard mode they might actually be leveled higher than the cap will let you go.

Deathsinger should be easier now that we are all leveled. Crota we have no idea what to expect haha, we are trying to figure it out ourselves and haven't used any guides yet. Hopefully we can beat him though, apparently Deathsinger doesn't drop any loot  there is supposedly a chest there but I don't think anyone has found it yet. It'd be nice to get a bit more raid gear but since it has it's own materials it'll be a long long while before anybody is hitting the cap.


----------



## Gothic Headhunter

The Omnigul strike isn't bad, but the one on Mars is f uckin great. Those Vex precursors look badass! Vanguard Roc is pretty cool too. I hit 29 yesterday and will be looking to try the raid soon if I can get some people together. Crota sounds like it's gonna be a tough fight. I agree with the fact that a lot of it feels like it was cut before launch, though. Not sure if I'll by any future DLC. And I think it's bullshit that they're calling it an expansion, giving you the same amount of content as your average DLC and charging more for it. Expansions are supposed to offer hours of new content, not minutes.


----------



## thedonal

I think that Bungie really risk losing their audience. OK- a lot of people bought the game. A lot of people (myself included) got the expansion pass as the game is basically very well put together and also because the existing content was getting a touch stale and we hoped for more of the game.

What we seem to have received is 2 story missions with two one off missions (an introduction and an end mission to the 'urn bounty') that disappear afterwards. 

We have another strike and another Raid.

If you have a Playstation, despite the X-Box owners HAVING SPENT THE SAME MONEY on the game/expansion, you have another strike.

Aside from that, there's yet another faction/character (Eris) to grind reputation for (admittedly, you only get rep for her bounties- regular bounties still go to Vanguard, unless you have faction class item), and more gear to grind for.

The focus is SO much on grind and not content, I really think they're stretching the premise. Unless they really show up with something special for House of Wolves (I've paid for it now, so I'll get it), I'm likely to leave it alone. I actually plugged in Kingdoms of Amalur- Reckoning. Not perfect- many of the dungeons are repetitive and a chore, BUT you get a HELL of a lot more content and variety in the base game than I expect Destiny will show in any additional DLC.

Even the bounties and heroic missions repeat WAY too frequently- very few of the missions even come up for heroic, given the quantity actually in the game.

The DLC cost roughly half as much as the game on the 360 in the UK. There's way less than half the content of the game in it.

In summary- a great idea, good gameplay mechanics with a great focus on co-op play, let down by limited execution and content. I agree this is probably Activisions doing, but it WILL reflect on Bungie.

Yours,

Disappointed,

Surrey

(no doubt I'll copy this to the Bungie forum later)


----------



## loqtrall

I couldn't have said it better myself.


----------



## asher

I honestly think a lot of that is Bungie, while having a lot of experience with FPS games, having zero experience with MMOs. The development and content demands are *extremely* different - not only do you need good mechanical gameplay, but you have tons of other needs layered on top that really require a different kind of expertise that I just don't think they have (yet?).


----------



## loqtrall

sakeido said:


> It'd be nice to get a bit more raid gear but since it has it's own materials it'll be a long long while before anybody is hitting the cap.


 
Warlock named EnormousTrash is already 32 and fully geared.


----------



## sakeido

Wow that guy jumped on the grind and got lucky. That's a piece of armor on three characters plus nothing but radiant shards and even then you need 63 radiant shards to hit 32. My guess is he had three warlocks, ran the raid three times, then deleted a character, made a new one, leveled them back to 20, then did the raid again... then he did that a few more times. Maybe you could do it in five runs total? Mats drop at a higher rate from Crota than they did from VoG it seems. 

....ing crazy.

The Crota fight would be really easy at 32.. you would do so much damage to him you could play very conservative and still take him out in only 2-3 rounds. 



asher said:


> I honestly think a lot of that is Bungie, while having a lot of experience with FPS games, having zero experience with MMOs. The development and content demands are *extremely* different - not only do you need good mechanical gameplay, but you have tons of other needs layered on top that really require a different kind of expertise that I just don't think they have (yet?).



I don't know why they even think they need it. The game at its core is so much fun I would play it constantly even without the constant carrot-on-a-stick grind bullshit. Gear this time was easy peasy, it was only maybe five hours for me to get to 31 from 29. Guns are still a pain. Next time around I hope they give you something for the experience you already have a gun when you go to upgrade it.


----------



## thedonal

Thinking about it, I reckon they really designed this around gamer psychology.

Which strings they can pull with the game- the loot, levelling and grinding system. The amount of currency you can get towards sorting the gear out is really limited per week. The rest is purely based around luck.

They also sold the expansion pass without giving many details about the expansion content. So people buy into it and then Bungie don't really have to deliver all that much, because the pass is non refundable.


I guess from that and the financial point of view, Bungie got it right at the expense of the gamers.

It's the last console release I pay full price for. I got burned on the expansion pass. Never again.


----------



## sakeido

They literally did hire a guy with a PhD in some psychology discipline, who specializes in making games addictive. Normally he would be the guy who designs slot machines, VLTs, whatever to keep people playing them for as long as possible - he talks about the "theater" of winning, like how a slot machine will light up and make a bunch of noise. Destiny does the the same thing when you get an exotic, with the gold colors, special effect and the noise it makes.

I dunno though, that's not what brings me back. The game is mega fun. Down to $0.60 per hour played including the extra charge for DLC. Three missions, a strike, three Crucible maps and a raid is good enough value for my money since it is tied to that extremely solid Bungie gameplay I can't get anywhere else. $25 is peanuts anyway

edit: I should add my enjoyment of this game may be colored by the lucky horseshoe that is jammed way up my Guardian's ass. Suros Regime, Hard Light, Bad Juju, Thorn, Invective, Icebreaker, Gjallarhorn, Dragon's Breath, Super Good Advice, Thunderlord, Plan C and Red Death.... Suros, Thorn, Icebreaker, Dragon's Breath, SGA and Thunderlord are all 331 attack.


----------



## Pav

asher said:


> I honestly think a lot of that is Bungie, while having a lot of experience with FPS games, having zero experience with MMOs. The development and content demands are *extremely* different - not only do you need good mechanical gameplay, but you have tons of other needs layered on top that really require a different kind of expertise that I just don't think they have (yet?).



Part of it definitely falls on Bungie but I wouldn't say it's because of a lack of MMO experience. I feel they were almost too over-zealous with the size of the universe they wanted to create on the given platforms. A typical MMO is released on one or two platforms: PC, maybe Mac, and maybe even Linux if you're lucky. Destiny on the other hand was developed from the ground up for four platforms: Xbox 360/One and PS3/4. Just think of how much time must have been spent chasing bugs and making sure all four consoles, all with noticably different hardware, were running the game equivalently. That's a LOT of time spent "housecleaning" and fixing their existing ideas when they could - or should - have actually been adding new content. Just my .02.

I come back daily because regardless how half-assed the story may be, the crucible by itself I think is a natural progression of Bungie's multiplayer console FPS expertise and I get lost for hours at a time, stomping noobs into the floor.  But I'm also very competitive.


----------



## HighGain510

I finished leveling my Suros Regime to max (of course it's the original version, not the newer upgraded power level rating one ) and am almost done leveling my Thorn (again, lower power version of course ) to completion and already have the shard waiting for it to max it out. I'm up to level 29 on my Warlock and I think 22 on my Hunter? Still need to grab a legendary sniper so I have something else to use when I am not using Icebreaker or Patience and Time as I only have a rare sniper as my backup.  

Typically on the new maps from the DLC I've been running around with Thorn-Comedian-(whatever my legendary rocket launcher is?) or my legendary machine gun if it's the close quarters maps and on the open ones I'm using my fire-spec'd legendary pistol-Icebreaker-legendary rocket/machine gun. Seems to be working out well for me in PvP!  Got first place for two of my wins last night and am typically at least in the top 3 lately.  Had a few guys who are excellent snipers that I seem to continually get pitted against in PvP (recall their GT's as I seem to keep seeing them over the span of a week) but once I figure out where they are hiding I either flank them or outsnipe them eventually.  I was getting a ton of latency which shouldn't be happening since I have a 75mbps FIOS connection, so I finally broke down and bought some 100ft cat6 cable and I'll be running it from my living room to the basement so my PC and XBO will be on wired connections finally. I couldn't figure out why my dead-on headshot sniper fire was not landing until I looked at the select menu and saw my ping was low red almost to the bottom.   This should fix any issues I was seeing in multiplayer as well as some of the random errors like wasp and marrionberry as well since they seem to be wireless router-related so that's an added bonus.

I will say once you get the perk for Thorn that does the extended damage called Mark of the Devourer, that thing is an absolute beast now that they upped the shell count to 9!  Taking out 1-2 guys per clip when I'm lucky, I got a triple kill last night when I knocked out two guys with headstocks and hit the third with a body shot and a grenade to the back when he tried to run away!  PvP has become MUCH more enjoyable now that I have some weapons that let me fight back, it was tough when I had ZERO exotics going against guys who had full teams loaded with exotics and raid gear. 

Now I need to get from 29 to 30/31 so I can take on the new Crota raids. Any tips beyond running vault of glass to get more raid gear and ascendant shards?


----------



## asher

Pav said:


> Part of it definitely falls on Bungie but I wouldn't say it's because of a lack of MMO experience. I feel they were almost too over-zealous with the size of the universe they wanted to create on the given platforms. A typical MMO is released on one or two platforms: PC, maybe Mac, and maybe even Linux if you're lucky. Destiny on the other hand was developed from the ground up for four platforms: Xbox 360/One and PS3/4. Just think of how much time must have been spent chasing bugs and making sure all four consoles, all with noticably different hardware, were running the game equivalently. That's a LOT of time spent "housecleaning" and fixing their existing ideas when they could - or should - have actually been adding new content. Just my .02.



Sure, but the guys doing the bug hunting and code fixing aren't the same guys who make the content.


----------



## loqtrall

And the guys who create the content more than likely aren't the guys who choose how much content goes into the game/DLC. Seeing as they've probably been working on TDB since Alpha (since TBD areas existed in the alpha build), that gave them nearly a year to work on that lackluster DLC they call an expansion. Three missions, a strike, and a raid doesn't feel like a years worth of work, especially with the size of their studio and financial backing.

Look at the size and amount of content in the upcoming game No Man's Sky: Thousands of whole planets and outer space to explore, every planet is different, seamless travel from planet surface to space or vice versa without loading screens, space combat and trade routes (for bandit players), almost instantaneous jump speed travel across space, each planet has unique plant and animal life and different minerals to gather, seamless multiplayer which includes random PVP if you run across an asshole.

That huge, original, ambitious game is being developed for Xbox One and PS4 by 7 people in a studio apartment who have no experience developing for consoles. SEVEN ....ing people. Bungie has no excuse.


----------



## sakeido

loqtrall said:


> And the guys who create the content more than likely aren't the guys who choose how much content goes into the game/DLC. Seeing as they've probably been working on TDB since Alpha (since TBD areas existed in the alpha build), that gave them nearly a year to work on that lackluster DLC they call an expansion. Three missions, a strike, and a raid doesn't feel like a years worth of work, especially with the size of their studio and financial backing.
> 
> Look at the size and amount of content in the upcoming game No Man's Sky: Thousands of whole planets and outer space to explore, every planet is different, seamless travel from planet surface to space or vice versa without loading screens, space combat and trade routes (for bandit players), almost instantaneous jump speed travel across space, each planet has unique plant and animal life and different minerals to gather, seamless multiplayer which includes random PVP if you run across an asshole.
> 
> That huge, original, ambitious game is being developed for Xbox One and PS4 by 7 people in a studio apartment who have no experience developing for consoles. SEVEN ....ing people. Bungie has no excuse.



You just compared two completely, entirely different games. No Man's Sky is 100% procedurally generated. There is no "content" at all, there's just an algorithm. I'm all for randomly generated games and played a bunch of the Starbound beta but this is literally apples to oranges. They say there is like 6 quintillion different possible planets in NMS. You think those seven guys are actually making all of those? 

You can 100% Ocarina of Time in about six hours. That game cost me $65 back in 1998 which is $90 in today's money, so the same as Destiny and it's first expansion combined. Does it suck ass too because you can do everything there is to do in the game in an afternoon? Is the story ass because there is only about four cutscenes in the whole game (not even voiced!) and all you are doing is rescuing a princess? Is there not enough content because you have only four weapons to use, and no character progession at all? 



HighGain510 said:


> Now I need to get from 29 to 30/31 so I can take on the new Crota raids. Any tips beyond running vault of glass to get more raid gear and ascendant shards?



You can get to 31 with the following:
- an upgraded exotic 
- two pieces of 33 light vendor gear 
- one piece of 30 light Vault of Glass gear or Iron Banner gear 

You only need one piece of gear from the Vault, and then run it after that for shards and energies. Shard the stuff you don't want to upgrade your other gear. 

Then rank up your Vanguard and Crucible marks by running the strike playlists & Crucible plus bounties. Once you rank those up, you will get a Vanguard or Crucible commendation that will let you buy a 33 light helm or chest. There is also a chance you'll get new gear from them without needing to buy it, which would be ideal... I got gloves and boots that way and then used the marks I saved to buy materials instead of farming. Level the new gear and you'll be 30 in no time. 

You might have to wait for Xur to sell a good exotic item or upgrade before you can hit 31, because the above loadout gets you to 31 with no points to spare. 

You can run the first leg of Crota at 29 no problem and start getting the chest there. It'll have radiant materials in it you will eventually need, and there is a chance it'll drop an exotic too. Beating the first leg gets you drops (I got boots, class item and shards) then the second leg gets more drops plus a chance at a second chest. After that you will really want to be 30 at least, but you have Icebreaker so you can still do damage at 29.


----------



## Pav

asher said:


> Sure, but the guys doing the bug hunting and code fixing aren't the same guys who make the content.



No, but it's commonplace for new content to be put "on hold" until all versions are running up to snuff. They aren't going to keep adding new stuff if the existing stuff isn't working properly.


----------



## loqtrall

Edit: Eh, nevermind, there's no getting through to you, what with all the people who "don't agree with me". Hope the House of Wolves DLC redeems the game, but that's not likely.


----------



## sakeido

Matt, the new hotfix today made it so that Crota raid gear starts at level 30 and then levels to 32 from there. You can beat the first leg at 29 so I'd start taking a crack at that trying to get some raid gear that you won't have to spend time and effort working on gear that tops out at level 31. Then there is currently a super cheesy strat for the gatekeepers section, so you can jump into a random group, power through the first two legs and get a chance at one exotic chest, one materials chest and two raid drops (armor only - only Crota drops guns, but he is guaranteed to give you one). 

The hotfix also made it so that the helm drops on normal mode. Between that and the RNG system "remembering" what awards it has given you previously, it is a lot more feasible to hit 32 through raiding this time around.. the new system is apparently working as the two guys from my usual group that ran the raid early today both received different armor drops than they got last week and are already half done a set of raid armor.

VoG still has a place tho, as there are no other elemental primaries in the game as of right now and you want those for the Nightfalls, so I'd sneak in runs on there for mats plus chances at Visions of Confluence (solar), Atheon's Epilogue (void) and Fatebringer/Praedeth's Timepiece (arc - hard mode only). Plus y'know maybe you'd get a Mythoclast which is totally boss again after they buffed it back up.


----------



## HighGain510

sakeido said:


> You just compared two completely, entirely different games. No Man's Sky is 100% procedurally generated. There is no "content" at all, there's just an algorithm. I'm all for randomly generated games and played a bunch of the Starbound beta but this is literally apples to oranges. They say there is like 6 quintillion different possible planets in NMS. You think those seven guys are actually making all of those?
> 
> You can 100% Ocarina of Time in about six hours. That game cost me $65 back in 1998 which is $90 in today's money, so the same as Destiny and it's first expansion combined. Does it suck ass too because you can do everything there is to do in the game in an afternoon? Is the story ass because there is only about four cutscenes in the whole game (not even voiced!) and all you are doing is rescuing a princess? Is there not enough content because you have only four weapons to use, and no character progession at all?
> 
> 
> 
> You can get to 31 with the following:
> - an upgraded exotic
> - two pieces of 33 light vendor gear
> - one piece of 30 light Vault of Glass gear or Iron Banner gear
> 
> You only need one piece of gear from the Vault, and then run it after that for shards and energies. Shard the stuff you don't want to upgrade your other gear.
> 
> Then rank up your Vanguard and Crucible marks by running the strike playlists & Crucible plus bounties. Once you rank those up, you will get a Vanguard or Crucible commendation that will let you buy a 33 light helm or chest. There is also a chance you'll get new gear from them without needing to buy it, which would be ideal... I got gloves and boots that way and then used the marks I saved to buy materials instead of farming. Level the new gear and you'll be 30 in no time.
> 
> You might have to wait for Xur to sell a good exotic item or upgrade before you can hit 31, because the above loadout gets you to 31 with no points to spare.
> 
> You can run the first leg of Crota at 29 no problem and start getting the chest there. It'll have radiant materials in it you will eventually need, and there is a chance it'll drop an exotic too. Beating the first leg gets you drops (I got boots, class item and shards) then the second leg gets more drops plus a chance at a second chest. After that you will really want to be 30 at least, but you have Icebreaker so you can still do damage at 29.





sakeido said:


> Matt, the new hotfix today made it so that Crota raid gear starts at level 30 and then levels to 32 from there. You can beat the first leg at 29 so I'd start taking a crack at that trying to get some raid gear that you won't have to spend time and effort working on gear that tops out at level 31. Then there is currently a super cheesy strat for the gatekeepers section, so you can jump into a random group, power through the first two legs and get a chance at one exotic chest, one materials chest and two raid drops (armor only - only Crota drops guns, but he is guaranteed to give you one).
> 
> The hotfix also made it so that the helm drops on normal mode. Between that and the RNG system "remembering" what awards it has given you previously, it is a lot more feasible to hit 32 through raiding this time around.. the new system is apparently working as the two guys from my usual group that ran the raid early today both received different armor drops than they got last week and are already half done a set of raid armor.
> 
> VoG still has a place tho, as there are no other elemental primaries in the game as of right now and you want those for the Nightfalls, so I'd sneak in runs on there for mats plus chances at Visions of Confluence (solar), Atheon's Epilogue (void) and Fatebringer/Praedeth's Timepiece (arc - hard mode only). Plus y'know maybe you'd get a Mythoclast which is totally boss again after they buffed it back up.



Cool, yeah I saw the news about the patch so hopefully that improves things. I'm still a bit miffed that they handled the exotics the way they did... it's basically punishing the folks who took the time to level them up previously, now even max'd out it's still like 30+ damage lower than the same thing on the latest version of the patched game.  Bums me out as I just finished Suros Regime and am about to finish Thorn but I wasn't sure if I should use the crystal for the final upgrade or not since it will always be less powerful than the latest version of the exotic Thorn. I really love the gun so I might keep it regardless but it does suck a bit. 

My bigger problem is that I still need to find peeps to do the raids, I used that site folks have been using to make parties and that worked for VoG the last time I went all the way through, but half of the guys were idiots and kept getting themselves killed and forcing us to restart because they wouldn't listen to the guy holding the shield.  Hopefully I can get a party or two together so I can run through the DLC one as well as VoG again, maybe I'll be able to find a VoG party more easily if there are less folks doing that and more trying to run the Crota raid.


----------



## thedonal

I think the other thing with exotics is the epic amount of work you have to do if you're grinding exotic bounties. I think that should be toned down going forward- but this would also be an affront to those who did all the strikes, raid or crucible work to get them.

While I agree with the game objectives invite you to explore all of the content (ie not just missions or just crucible etc), and that I agree there should be a sense of achievement in attaining a high level or piece of gear, it would appear that at some point, Bungie forgot that Destiny is a piece of entertainment, rather than a job (and relied FAR to heavily on the RNG)


----------



## Pav

FWIW, I'm pretty much already over the shitty gear leveling system. For one thing, the more I play the new high level content, the more I realize that our current weapons are FAR from useless. I solo'd the Weekly Heroic last night with a previous-gen totally un-upgraded Patience and Time. The crits were hitting for well over 10000 damage and I cleared it by myself at level 30. 

On the hand, the latest Iron Banner event feels like the most ruthless yet. I played at level 29 and was consistently the lowest level in the match. There's nothing but 31s with brand new maxed-out exotics that just hit so damn hard.


----------



## The Reverend

My biggest gripe is still Raid matchmaking being nonexistent. I don't know anyone IRL who's playing Destiny on PS4, and my attempts at joining various sites and figuring out have been shit. They need to work on that a whole lot more. My previous MMOFPS experience was on Dust 514, which while ripe with problems was very good about the social aspect of online games. I've even created real-life friendships through that game. Not something likely to happen with Destiny. I keep hearing about how awesome the raids are, and yet can't even attempt them. It's really annoying, and making me not want to play the game at all. 

It's as if they've taken the best parts of the game and made them available to a small section of the mass of people who own the game.


----------



## IChuckFinleyI

@ HighGain510

If you're on Xbox1, I can help you out with the Raids and stuff. I recently changed my tag to "Reluctant Medic". Just let me know it's you so I don't mistake you for some random lol


----------



## Pav

Their reluctance to institute matchmaking for the highest-level strikes and raids is pretty confusing. Bungie was always one of the absolute best when it came to behind-the-scenes matchmaking. They keep reiterating that for the toughest stuff in the game like raids and nightfalls, it isn't as simple as finding other people with similar skill levels. Which I understand completely; raids and nightfalls take real coordination to complete, not just top-tier weapons and armor.

But I keep coming back to the same simple solution: add matchmaking for these things to the best of their ability. But rather than throw them right into the instance like usual, put the matchmade group together, in orbit, with each individual player having to "ready up" before launch. This gives the group an opportunity to talk everything out and coordinate before being thrown into the deep end. If anyone in the group doesn't like how things look, that also gives them opportunity to leave and match with someone else before everyone wastes their time.

A pretty simple idea but IMO it seems like it would give us ample opportunity to avoid the trainwrecks that Bungie is afraid would ensue with raid matchmaking. And at this point, anything is seriously better than nothing.


----------



## stevo1

I, for one, don't mind there not being a match making for the raids and such. I see why they say that they wanted people with in tightly knitted groups, as everyone knows each other and knows how to work with one another.

With my raid group, it takes us maybe an hour tops to clear the VOG, while having fun with each other. If they're not available, and I find a group of random people, it takes an hour just to clear Atheon most of the time. Sometimes, I don't even finish. Some of the people I've played with have been pretty enjoyable to play with (as in a laid back, chill sort of sense) but I rarely get too far with groups like that, as the amount of buffoon-ery is quite high, and I run out of time. Other times, there have been people I've played with that I've found very agitating, and these people usually end up rage quitting (which then usually the team then falls apart).

I've met some cool people that knew what they were doing, and I friended them because of that. But that's very rare, as most of the people I've gotten through random encounters have been buffoons, or ragers.
I don't really know how it is on the weekly strikes end, as I do those with my brother exclusively, in our clan.

Still haven't done much with the new raid yet sadly. Everyone's too busy at the moment, so it might be a while before I ever clear it fully. The most I've done consecutively is from the beginning to the bridge section. I've fooled around in the actual Crota battle for a bit too.


----------



## thedonal

Maybe there should be a strike/raid lounge- or visible stats of raid completion so that it's clearer who is skilled for it.

I finally finished an exotic bounty today- Bad Juju. It's gonna have to wait until I've levelled MIDA up again- I'm more of a scout rifleman by preference.

I even got to Crucible rank 1! 

Still getting loads of ace dent energy rather than shards- will this happen EVERY time I need to level up armour?


----------



## asher

stevo1 said:


> I, for one, don't mind there not being a match making for the raids and such. I see why they say that they wanted people with in tightly knitted groups, as everyone knows each other and knows how to work with one another.
> 
> With my raid group, it takes us maybe an hour tops to clear the VOG, while having fun with each other. If they're not available, and I find a group of random people, it takes an hour just to clear Atheon most of the time. Sometimes, I don't even finish. Some of the people I've played with have been pretty enjoyable to play with (as in a laid back, chill sort of sense) but I rarely get too far with groups like that, as the amount of buffoon-ery is quite high, and I run out of time. Other times, there have been people I've played with that I've found very agitating, and these people usually end up rage quitting (which then usually the team then falls apart).
> 
> I've met some cool people that knew what they were doing, and I friended them because of that. But that's very rare, as most of the people I've gotten through random encounters have been buffoons, or ragers.
> I don't really know how it is on the weekly strikes end, as I do those with my brother exclusively, in our clan.
> 
> Still haven't done much with the new raid yet sadly. Everyone's too busy at the moment, so it might be a while before I ever clear it fully. The most I've done consecutively is from the beginning to the bridge section. I've fooled around in the actual Crota battle for a bit too.



Yeah, PUGs mostly suck in every game, but there are a lot of players who just don't know enough people playing to fill out a group. You shouldn't make it even harder for them to do all the content.


----------



## sakeido

My luck has apparently turned  

A legendary handcannon with crappy perks for the Nightfall, the fusion rifle from Crota, and in a full hard mode Vault run from start to finish only about 15 ascendant shards (when I needed energy), three pairs of boots, one pair of gloves, my third Vision of Confluence and the raid sparrow. 

Time to start a second character I think. I really need one of the new 331 attack primaries, and I only ran the vault to try and get a Fatebringer. Crap! At least being all level 31s we made it through in less than an hour


----------



## sakeido

Delete?


----------



## HighGain510

So I guess I totally missed it in one of the recent patches but it seems you can no longer SELL crafting materials. Is that right? I had like 800 spin metal in one of my characters and just realized I had lost my upgrade spots since o had four blocks of 200 just sitting there.  Is there any way to use it besides upgrading weapons or just straight discarding it? I figured when they changed the glimmer amounts to be so much smaller that they would still let you sell materials, but perhaps not? I'm just going to transfer it over among my Titan and Hunter since my Warlock has plenty.  I know a lot of the weapons need spinmetal for upgrades now with the latest patches so I'm sure I'll find stuff that can make use of it later, but wasn't sure if you COULD still sell it anywhere?


----------



## Pav

Can you not trade materials in to the vanguard/crucible quartermaster still? I don't remember them getting rid of that but I haven't checked. Lately I've only been wanting to stock up on as many mats as possible. There should still be a way to trade in mats, 10 at a time.


----------



## sakeido

Nope, when they added buying materials for marks they took out trading in materials for marks. I think before it was 50 mats for 10 marks which was a total ripoff but I have more spirit bloom than I even know what to do with right now.

I actually am out of things to do this week in Destiny for the first time. Maxed Vanguard and Crucible marks, HM vault cleared, Crota cleared, got two rep levels each for Vanguard & Crucible (and got NOTHING for them) ... time to start a second character! yay! haha


----------



## IChuckFinleyI

thedonal said:


> Maybe there should be a strike/raid lounge- or visible stats of raid completion so that it's clearer who is skilled for it.
> 
> I finally finished an exotic bounty today- Bad Juju. It's gonna have to wait until I've levelled MIDA up again- I'm more of a scout rifleman by preference.
> 
> I even got to Crucible rank 1!
> 
> Still getting loads of ace dent energy rather than shards- will this happen EVERY time I need to level up armour?


 
I'm in the same boat as you. I have nearly 200 energies and less than a dozen shards. I have plenty of the new radiant stuff for the CE raid, but most of it is pretty ugly and corny looking for the titans and warlocks


----------



## Pav

I like the look of the new gear, much more than the Vex-themed stuff from the vault of glass. I'm also very hard up for shards at the moment. I never seem to drop below 60 energy but between all three of my guardians, I spend my shards as fast as I earn them and still have two guys below level 30.


----------



## sakeido

Started leveling up a Hunter... from zero to 26 in six hours. That's still with green boots too, I didn't have a legendary for that spot so I'll run Vanguard Roc strikes until I get rep level 2 & the marks, or who knows maybe a set will drop. Legendary drop rates on the Roc strikes are very high

Atheon dropped another Gjallarhorn for me :/ awesome, but really? most people can't get one, and that's three


----------



## thedonal

Things I finally managed this weekend.

The Crota raid. Over about 4 hours. Jesus that was hard going. 

Eris reputation 3 for the runed core (murmur nearly maxed) and an embalming orb. 

I got Husk of the Pit upgraded (The World's Grave on the lowest heroic level seems quickest for this). Despite being a scout rifle fan at heart, I quite like Eidolon Alley. 

Helped some new kids do the final Atheon battle too and got....3 shards and Chatterwhite. AGAIN!! Oh well. Some VoG primaries would be nice. But hey. That's Destiny..

Looking at some alleged release schedule, it does feel more like a business plan than a game, but for Bungie/Activision, I guess it is. They've paced the grinding just right for each release to come around...


----------



## sakeido

The stretch between House of Wolves and Comet, the September 2015 DLC, seems very long... not sure how they are going to keep the hooks in people that long. Maybe smaller DLCs of just new weapons? 

Comet is supposed to be big - 12 new missions, 4 new strikes, a new planet, a new raid, and an increase in the "Base level cap" to 30 up from 20 

VoG HM today, got a Fatebringer off the Templar! 
Only guns left on the shopping list now are Black Hammer and MIDA Multi-Tool


----------



## Rock4ever

I'm getting a ps4 today and there's a promocode for a free game- Destiny, Far Cry 4, LBP3 or some NBA Game. I wish dragon age was an option.

I'm leaning towards fc4 as destiny seems to be a very polarizing game. I've heard good things and bad- mostly with the endgame. I loved far cry 3.

I wont know too many ppl with destiny- how is it playing with strangers? I've read about a lack of content at max level. is this still the case?

I'm wondering if I should hold off on destiny until maybe there's a bundle/goty edition later this year.


----------



## thedonal

To be honest, I would hold off. I haven't played FC4, but if the previous far cry game is anything to go by, it'll be 5 times the game destiny without stringing players along with very stingy DLC.


----------



## loqtrall

I'd go with Far Cry 4. The first month I had it, I put upward of 35~ hours into it and was still only 65%~ done with the game. I still haven't done everything in the game yet. I have 62 hours logged and am still only at 98%. The map is massive and there's tons of shit to explore and tons of things to do.

If anything's wrong with FC4, it's that the multiplayer is pretty stale. If they'd just add a normal TDM gametype, the multiplayer would be pretty great.

Destiny was pretty good, but it got fairly stale after you complete all that there is to do, which isn't much. The whole thing (apart from the raid) can be done in less than 10 hours. After that there's just grinding until you can do the raid, and then once you've done the raid over and over 100 times and get to level cap, there's pretty much nothing else to do aside from competitive multiplayer (if that's what you like).

The PVP aspect of it was pretty fun, but the overall non-competitive side of the game felt pretty lacking and got stale really really fast.
It's definitely fun for the first 15~ hours you play it. Then it turns into a repetitive grindfest that relies on spending more money for more things to do.

But, whatever your preference in games is.


----------



## TheShreddinHand

There are demos of both Far Cry 4 and Destiny on the playstation store. Just download them both and try em'.


----------



## sakeido

If you don't have people to play with I couldn't really recommend Destiny. I think the game is fun as hell and love it to bits, haven't played a game this much in years, but half the fun is hanging with my buddies in-game running strikes and raids. 

Give it a year, September 2015 there will be four raids, four planets, I think about ten strikes, more PvP options and a lot more gear. They are planning on selling it at retail too according to the leaked Bungie info, so you could get the game plus three DLC packs for a normal price.


----------



## Pav

With the possibility of a brand new area to explore! I will be enjoying the hell out of the next 8 months.


----------



## sakeido

In case you guys don't have one already, Xur is selling Icebreaker! Get on it!


----------



## thedonal

Damn. Haven't been on enough to earn the coins! 

Anyways, I still have Patience and Time to level up...


----------



## Pav

.... yes! I needed that Ice Breaker! That saves me a ton of glimmer from having to upgrade my old one. I picked up the Obsidian Mind helm for my warlock too, it's about to be raining nova bombs in the iron banner.


----------



## HighGain510

I finally decided to use the raid tracker last night and jumped in with a group starting End of Crota fresh, we got about 80% through and then XBL Friends went down last night and booted half the party from the game.   I only managed to grab the ascendent materials too, no good drops like weapons or armor and some noob jumped us past the chest so we missed out on that too. GRRR!!! I am hoping to get back on tonight and complete that finally as my Warlock is 31 and my Hunter and Titan are both 29 almost 30 so I'd love to get them all to 32 soon if I can!


----------



## HighGain510

HighGain510 said:


> I finally decided to use the raid tracker last night and jumped in with a group starting End of Crota fresh, we got about 80% through and then XBL Friends went down last night and booted half the party from the game.   I only managed to grab the ascendent materials too, no good drops like weapons or armor and some noob jumped us past the chest so we missed out on that too. GRRR!!! I am hoping to get back on tonight and complete that finally as my Warlock is 31 and my Hunter and Titan are both 29 almost 30 so I'd love to get them all to 32 soon if I can!



Update to this! I got together with a group of 5 guys at night on the 20th who actually knew what they were doing and we worked very well together! Did VoG on hard in the first try, then moved on to End of Crota and did it twice (including one run with my level 29 Titan for good measure! ). Such an awesome feeling finding a group that clicks and everyone is up for running things like a team.  Everyone added each other at the end so I'm hoping I can get them to do the crota raid on hard tonight, really want to try for the new armor and guns! The chest piece I got for my Titan in the Crota raid is on-par with my exotic chest piece!


----------



## jarnozz

how did I miss a Destiny post xD I quit enjoy Destiny as of now but finding 5 others for raids is such a pain sometimes. no one only or end up with 4 people that don't know what they are doing... Add me on ps3 if someone is looking for an extra backup guardian! psn: juvija


----------



## Dooky

loqtrall said:


> I'd go with Far Cry 4. The first month I had it, I put upward of 35~ hours into it and was still only 65%~ done with the game. I still haven't done everything in the game yet. I have 62 hours logged and am still only at 98%. The map is massive and there's tons of shit to explore and tons of things to do.
> 
> If anything's wrong with FC4, it's that the multiplayer is pretty stale. If they'd just add a normal TDM gametype, the multiplayer would be pretty great.
> 
> Destiny was pretty good, but it got fairly stale after you complete all that there is to do, which isn't much. The whole thing (apart from the raid) can be done in less than 10 hours. After that there's just grinding until you can do the raid, and then once you've done the raid over and over 100 times and get to level cap, there's pretty much nothing else to do aside from competitive multiplayer (if that's what you like).
> 
> The PVP aspect of it was pretty fun, but the overall non-competitive side of the game felt pretty lacking and got stale really really fast.
> It's definitely fun for the first 15~ hours you play it. Then it turns into a repetitive grindfest that relies on spending more money for more things to do.
> 
> But, whatever your preference in games is.


Umm, aren't you the same guy who went on a number of rants defending Destiny like it was a member of his own family after I said basically exactly what you've just said above?


----------



## MoshJosh

^^^ Yeah I got a tongue lashing for saying Destiny wasn't going to be unique/innovative/good enough to hold its own against "next gen" titles (sort of like Farcry 4) after playing the beta. Haha but I still bought it (as I said I would) and will admit Destiny was damn fun for a minute, as long as you had friends to go alien hunting with.


----------



## loqtrall

Dooky said:


> Umm, aren't you the same guy who went on a number of rants defending Destiny like it was a member of his own family after I said basically exactly what you've just said above?


 
What are you on about? Where is everyone getting this idea? I've criticized this game since page 2 of this thread. Please go back through this entire thread and show me where I ranted about Destiny "defending it like it was my own family".

The ONLY rants I had on here were about what I think of AngryJoe and with Sakeido about me DISLIKING this game.



MoshJosh said:


> ^^^ Yeah I got a tongue lashing for saying Destiny wasn't going to be unique/innovative/good enough to hold its own against "next gen" titles (sort of like Farcry 4) after playing the beta. Haha but I still bought it (as I said I would) and will admit Destiny was damn fun for a minute, as long as you had friends to go alien hunting with.


 
And with you, that was the Beta thread. You know, before Bungie released the full game, which turned out to be a shitstorm of glitches and unfulfilled promises on Bungie's part (zoo errors, party dropping, no voice chat or chat at all, "if you can see it, you can go there"). 

Even in that thread I stated that the Crucible was torture and the exploration zones sucked.

It's not unheard of to change your opinion over the course of almost 5 fvcking months. I'd love to know where everyone got the idea that I vehemently adored this game and defended it like it was my child or something.

While it was enjoyable, Destiny got boring fast and Bungie looked like they were never going to do anything worthwhile with it. So far, even with the new "expansion", I still feel the same way.


----------



## sakeido

Fun fact - I love this game to bits and play it quite a bit. logtrall claims to hate it and his average playtime per day is still 50% higher than mine.

Just quick refutations here - Destiny works perfectly if your NAT is set up, which is a platform issue not a game one. The Master Chief Collection is a shitstorm of glitches, gamebreaking ones, of which Destiny has exactly zero. They added chat functions that, to this day, nobody uses. 

You also just said Crucible was torture but just a short distance up this page you say the PvP is enjoyable so which is it? You also only ran the Vault once on normal mode, so you have no idea what the end game is actually like.

It is also funny you bailed on Destiny for being too grindy then jumped to Far Cry 4, where you can beat the campaign in about 10 hours (hmm about the same as Destiny on a first run through) then run around for another 40 collecting useless trinkets, doing pointless side quests and shooting exactly the same enemies in a pretty but mostly empty open world. I remember in Far Cry 3, I went to buy a gun but found out my wallet couldn't even hold enough money to buy it, so I had to shoot animals to get leather to buy a wallet, but for some reason my backpack was full so I had to shoot different animals to get different leather to make a bigger backpack to hold more leather to make a bigger wallet to hold more money to buy a first act starter gun. Did they fix that, or is stupid timewaster bullshit like that still in the game?


----------



## loqtrall

sakeido said:


> Fun fact - I love this game to bits and play it quite a bit. logtrall claims to hate it and his average playtime per day is still 50% higher than mine.
> 
> Just quick refutations here - Destiny works perfectly if your NAT is set up, which is a platform issue not a game one. The Master Chief Collection is a shitstorm of glitches, gamebreaking ones, of which Destiny has exactly zero. They added chat functions that, to this day, nobody uses.
> 
> You also just said Crucible was torture but just a short distance up this page you say the PvP is enjoyable so which is it? You also only ran the Vault once on normal mode, so you have no idea what the end game is actually like.
> 
> It is also funny you bailed on Destiny for being too grindy then jumped to Far Cry 4, where you can beat the campaign in about 10 hours (hmm about the same as Destiny on a first run through) then run around for another 40 collecting useless trinkets, doing pointless side quests and shooting exactly the same enemies in a pretty but mostly empty open world. I remember in Far Cry 3, I went to buy a gun but found out my wallet couldn't even hold enough money to buy it, so I had to shoot animals to get leather to buy a wallet, but for some reason my backpack was full so I had to shoot different animals to get different leather to make a bigger backpack to hold more leather to make a bigger wallet to hold more money to buy a first act starter gun. Did they fix that, or is stupid timewaster bullshit like that still in the game?


 
Considering I haven't played Destiny since early November, I'd take that statistic with a huge grain of salt.

I have no idea what you're getting at with NAT types. Mine has been Open for as long as I can remember.

The Crucible was much better and balanced at the time I stopped playing. If you had read carefully before responding, you'd have caught the part where I said "even in that thread" in reference to the Beta thread, not this thread.

The campaign was short in Far Cry 4, but it actually had an involving story with a ton of backstory and history explained. You could make choices that determined how the game turned out, and missions had variety instead of mindlessly protecting Peter Dinklage while he scans things every mission. There were more than just enemies out in the world and there were numerous things to do aside from story missions. Reading the serial killer's (The Goat's) notes he left behind while you destroy the masks of Yelung was more engaging than anything I did in Destiny. The short side quests had more story and cenematics than the entirety of Destiny. I'd learn more history of the game's plot in a car ride from Point A to B than in an entire mission in Destiny.

If you had trouble with the crafting system, I'm sorry for you. It takes mere minutes to find the animal you need on the map, kill it, and craft what you need. It's more simple than Minecraft, man.

Anything else?

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot: The end game! I was one upgrade from 29 (when the cap was only 30) when I stopped playing. So tell me, Sakeido, how is the endgame? Because I doubt 1 1/4 levels would have changed the game and unlocked several more things to do. What would level 30 have gotten me that I didn't already have access to or that I hadn't experienced? Hard mode? What a difference.


----------



## sakeido

"Average play time per day" buddy. It already accounts for you quitting the game before the first DLC  

I remember people said Far Cry 3 had a good story too and it turned out to be poorly acted, badly written, have a stupid twist in it, and then go on too long after it should have ended. I read too many books to be impressed by the shit that passes for story in most games - there are maybe two or three studios in all of gaming with the writing chops to pull off a good story, and Ubisoft owns exactly zero of them so I am sure that FC4 is still only good to people working with a small reference pool. Reading notes, eh? Like the 100+ grimoire cards? 

You might also want to account for the mechanical differences between Destiny, which is still a truly one of a kind game, and Far Cry 4, which is not at all, and then try and think about how those mechanics influence the storytelling options a writer has. Hint: you can't affect Destiny's world because you share it with (at last count) 13 million people.

Mere minutes, eh? Actually no - I needed more leather than there were animals, so I had to .... around and wait for them to respawn. I said forget it and just kept playing with trash guns. The game was so easy it ended up not being a big deal.

The endgame is exactly that, except the key thing with enjoying Destiny is unlocking "friends" and playing with them. I've kicked back and enjoyed the raids about 30 times now, still enjoy it, especially the Vault. It is the most finely crafted experience I've come across in a FPS so far. 

You prefer single player time wasters, I've been gaming for 20 years and have played a bunch of those already. I prefer a co-op, newer thing that admittedly falls flat in many areas but at least they are pushing the envelope, way further than anybody else has even tried lately when it comes to FPSes. You also buy marketing hype hook, line and sinker and are falling for it yet again with No Man's Sky so I can see how you are permanently disappointed and cynical.


----------



## loqtrall

sakeido said:


> "Average play time per day" buddy. It already accounts for you quitting the game before the first DLC
> 
> I remember people said Far Cry 3 had a good story too and it turned out to be poorly acted, badly written, have a stupid twist in it, and then go on too long after it should have ended. I read too many books to be impressed by the shit that passes for story in most games - there are maybe two or three studios in all of gaming with the writing chops to pull off a good story, and Ubisoft owns exactly zero of them so I am sure that FC4 is still only good to people working with a small reference pool. Reading notes, eh? Like the 100+ grimoire cards?
> 
> You might also want to account for the mechanical differences between Destiny, which is still a truly one of a kind game, and Far Cry 4, which is not at all, and then try and think about how those mechanics influence the storytelling options a writer has. Hint: you can't affect Destiny's world because you share it with (at last count) 13 million people.
> 
> Mere minutes, eh? Actually no - I needed more leather than there were animals, so I had to .... around and wait for them to respawn. I said forget it and just kept playing with trash guns. The game was so easy it ended up not being a big deal.
> 
> The endgame is exactly that, except the key thing with enjoying Destiny is unlocking "friends" and playing with them. I've kicked back and enjoyed the raids about 30 times now, still enjoy it, especially the Vault. It is the most finely crafted experience I've come across in a FPS so far.
> 
> You prefer single player time wasters, I've been gaming for 20 years and have played a bunch of those already. I prefer a co-op, newer thing that admittedly falls flat in many areas but at least they are pushing the envelope, way further than anybody else has even tried lately when it comes to FPSes. You also buy marketing hype hook, line and sinker and are falling for it yet again with No Man's Sky so I can see how you are permanently disappointed and cynical.


 
Well average play time per day doesn't mean shit when I havent played the game in three months.

What someone thinks is a "good" story is subjective. I'm concerned more that Far Cry 4 actually had a story and wasn't filled with "I _could_ tell you" or "I don't have time to explain why I don't have time to explain". It also didn't have huge story inconsistencies.

And yes, reading notes, when I pick them up in-game, not out of game where I have to browse through them on the internet. How you thought this would help your argument is beyond me.

If you didn't realize that one type of animal spawns in dozens of locations on the map, that's your fault. You're really trying hard to overcomplicate one of the most simple crafting systems I've ever seen.

Your use of "time-wasting" is giving me a headache. That's entirely subjective. I could just as easily say Destiny is a time-wasting game with nothing to back it up.

The endgame is what? Doing the same thing you do at lower levels? Sorry my friends don't play games like I do. Most of them are musicians, not gamers. You yourself said you wouldn't recommend Destiny if you didn't have friends to play it with.

No Man's Sky will deliver exactly what I want: Exploration. If the game was otherwise on a small-scale, I wouldn't be interested in it. No Man's Sky is getting no hype and has fallen off the radar. The majority of people don't even know they dropped development for the Xbone. What people enjoy or not is their opinion. You can stop with your "matter-of-factly" attitude. The games I enjoy are no more time wasting than the games you enjoy.

I'd love to understand your need to personally attack my tastes and opinions of games just because I don't like a game that you "love to bits". I haven't attacked you personally before or thus far, and it's getting childish.

I'm leaving this thread because I'm tired of being ridiculed for my opinion like we're in High School.

Have a good one, enjoy Destiny.


----------



## sakeido

loqtrall said:


> I'm leaving this thread because I'm tired of being ridiculed for my opinion like we're in High School.
> 
> Have a good one, enjoy Destiny.



You said that before, so I doubt you'll stick to it. And I ridicule you for being so godawful at backing up your arguments (the enemies run into cover and stay there! The AI sucks), not for thinking differently.


----------



## Dooky

loqtrall said:


> What are you on about? Where is everyone getting this idea? I've criticized this game since page 2 of this thread. Please go back through this entire thread and show me where I ranted about Destiny "defending it like it was my own family".
> 
> The ONLY rants I had on here were about what I think of AngryJoe and with Sakeido about me DISLIKING this game.
> 
> 
> 
> And with you, that was the Beta thread. You know, before Bungie released the full game, which turned out to be a shitstorm of glitches and unfulfilled promises on Bungie's part (zoo errors, party dropping, no voice chat or chat at all, "if you can see it, you can go there").
> 
> Even in that thread I stated that the Crucible was torture and the exploration zones sucked.
> 
> It's not unheard of to change your opinion over the course of almost 5 fvcking months. I'd love to know where everyone got the idea that I vehemently adored this game and defended it like it was my child or something.
> 
> While it was enjoyable, Destiny got boring fast and Bungie looked like they were never going to do anything worthwhile with it. So far, even with the new "expansion", I still feel the same way.



It's funny, because the criticisms you've recently been saying about Destiny are the exact criticisms AngryJoe said in his review 5 months ago


----------



## sakeido

The game has come a long way since then. Luke Smith, the lead designer, made a pretty cool post on NeoGAF that touched on the changes they made going from the Vault to Crota's End. He also mentioned what they are taking a look at for the next raid. 

NeoGAF - View Single Post - Destiny |OT16| Enrage is here, there, everywhere...

I can say there are way more 32s running around than there ever were 30s, so some of the changes did work. It's too bad he posted on such an obscure channel but I guess that's how it has to be.


----------



## stevo1

They did make it easier to get to Lvl 32, as they fiddled with the reward system for the new raid, But I wouldn't say the game has come a long way. They made getting to 32 pretty easy, but then they decided to make leveling up old exotics excruciating. 

There has been mention that there is a high chance they're going to be changing that system for house of Wolves, as it brought a ton of grief. 

I finally got around to beating Crota on regular this morning. I also got mida multi tool. I haven't been playing too much recently due to school, and me getting kind of bored.


----------



## HighGain510

stevo1 said:


> They did make it easier to get to Lvl 32, as they fiddled with the reward system for the new raid, But I wouldn't say the game has come a long way. They made getting to 32 pretty easy, but then they decided to make leveling up old exotics excruciating.
> 
> There has been mention that there is a high chance they're going to be changing that system for house of Wolves, as it brought a ton of grief.
> 
> I finally got around to beating Crota on regular this morning. I also got mida multi tool. I haven't been playing too much recently due to school, and me getting kind of bored.



Yeah I saw that too, really hoping if they change it, that it's ACTUALLY for the better. I have a bunch of old version exotics I'd love to level up but having to try to grab strange coins to buy exotic shards or breaking down other exotics to get the shards to upgrade other ones I want to keep has sucked. I blew away 2-3 exotics I didn't have doubles of just to make sure I could upgrade the ones I DID want to keep and max at the new levels (Suros Regime, Thorn, etc.) but I'm sitting on several original versions of guns from when they were still random loot drops like Mida Multi Tool and Ice Breaker that I'd really like to up to the new damage levels. 

In other fun news, I think I've found a group of guys I gel well with running raids and the nightfall strikes, we managed to beat Crota on hard with only dying like 3 times total and that was my first time playing it on hard.  Beat that with my 31 warlock, then switched to my 29 Titan and we did Vault of Glass on hard mode last night with 4 people. THAT ONE seems more painful than Crota on Hard for whatever reason!  I'm still bummed as I've done VoG on hard like 2-3 times now and still haven't gotten Vex Mythoclast and that's one of the exotics I REALLY want!  I got the VoG speeder last night and some random pulse rifles I think. I got the helmet and boot drops from Crota on Hard for the Warlock and I love those, the helmet for the warlock reminds me of the Predator helmet!


----------



## asher

This is...

um....



Bungie knew about Destiny&#x27;s Loot Cave,.it just didn&#x27;t think you&#x27;d care about.it | Polygon

I guess they never talked to anyone with any MMO experience, then, because they would have been told without any doubt whatsoever that players would farm the hell out of it.


----------



## jarnozz

HighGain510 said:


> THAT ONE seems more painful than Crota on Hard for whatever reason!  I'm still bummed as I've done VoG on hard like 2-3 times now and still haven't gotten Vex Mythoclast and that's one of the exotics I REALLY want!



VoG is way harder than crota. If one team member screws up and dies your whole team is pretty much dead. everything up to eathon is pretty easy though. 

I haven't had any problems with crota's end. it is pretty easy and fun! 

i've done the VoG so many times and have never got the mytho... instead I get bulk stacks of ascended shards and energy!  because who the hell needs that anymore.


----------



## HighGain510

jarnozz said:


> VoG is way harder than crota. If one team member screws up and dies your whole team is pretty much dead. everything up to eathon is pretty easy though.
> 
> I haven't had any problems with crota's end. it is pretty easy and fun!
> 
> i've done the VoG so many times and have never got the mytho... instead I get bulk stacks of ascended shards and energy!  because who the hell needs that anymore.



Ha yeah I hear you there man, I've been doing VoG on Hard Mode weekly with all THREE of my characters and STILL don't have Vex Mythoclast.  I was bored and decided to compile a list of weapons to see what I was missing for the exotics, seems like I'm doing pretty darn well considering two of them are PS exclusives for another 6+ months, one NO ONE can get except that one guy (Fate of All Fools) who was gifted one from Bungie directly, and the other one isn't out until the House of Wolves drops (and I'm sure there are more, this was just compiled from the Destiny Wiki). Guns shown in red are the ones I have thus far. 

*Scout Rifles*

Fate of All Fools (Not available for anyone but one player currently)
*Mida Multi Tool*

*Auto Rifles*

*Suros Regime*
Necrochasm
Hard Light
Monte Carlo (Sony Exclusive until Fall 2015)

*Pulse Rifles*

*Bad Juju
Red Death*

*Hand Cannons*

*Thorn*
Hawkmoon (Sony Exclusive until Fall 2015)
The Last Word

*Shotguns*

*Invective
Universal Remote*
The 4th Horseman (Sony Exclusive until Fall 2015)
Lord of Wolves (not out yet - next DLC)

*Snipers*

*Ice Breaker
Patience and Time
No Land Beyond*

*Rocket Launchers*

*Gjallarhorn
Truth
Dragon's Breath*

*Fusion Rifles*

*Pocket Infinity
Plan C*
Vex Mythoclast

*Machine Guns*

*Super Good Advice*
Thunderlord

I actually had Thunderlord right after they made the change to the exotic shards and change in weapon max levels from 300 to 331, so I broke it down to upgrade one of my 300-level guns to a 331 as I hadn't realized they were going to be doing the weekly Xur dealio later and was short on coins anyway. I haven't seen another one since, of course! 

I have two 31's and one 32, my 31's are close but still need like 1-2 pieces of raid gear for my hunter and titan to get them to 32. Hoping that the House of Wolves DLC is a decent amount of content, the Crota stuff was fun but rather easy and short...


----------



## toiletstand

i picked up the multi tool and fang of ir yut. both are pretty sweet. gally wouldbe nice though 

also, im on ps4 as toiletstand if anyone wants to hang .


----------



## Dooky

Wow, people still play this game?


----------



## HighGain510

Dooky said:


> Wow, people still play this game?



No, clearly no one is still playing this game.  People still go onto discussion forums to rag on games even though they're not playing them?   

Bungie added DLC which means there are still lots of exotic and legendary items you can ONLY get through doing the DLC raids, so yes, there are a LARGE quantity of people playing Destiny still. There is another DLC pack coming out in the next few months as well, not sure why you bothered to drop in and make a snide comment but yes clearly people are still playing and shockingly enough, people are still excited for the new content. 



toiletstand said:


> i picked up the multi tool and fang of ir yut. both are pretty sweet. gally wouldbe nice though
> 
> also, im on ps4 as toiletstand if anyone wants to hang .



I still don't have fang of ir yut yet, but I have about all of the other Crota weapons except that one and Light of the Abyss. Keep hoping for one of those two to pop in a drop, because I have three Black Hammers now (which I kept since Black Hammer kicks ass and having a max'd one on each character is not a bad thing! ) so I guess they keep it "random" enough that you will need to keep doing the raids if you really want to collect them all.


----------



## thedonal

I haven't played Destiny or kept up with it for well over a month- has anything changed as such? (not content- just balancing stuff etc)


----------



## Pav

I've slipped into a hiatus with this game. As much as I love it, the Crota's End DLC capped out WAY too soon for me. Granted, I have (or had) a very active group to play with so I can tackle just about anything as soon as it's released. But I have three level 32s, a grimoire score of 2875 and I'm only missing three exotic weapons (not counting Fate of All Fools). I last played a couple weeks and found myself truly bored for the first time, since there's literally nothing left that I haven't done countless times already. I think it has to do with the raid more than anything - VoG was so exciting and interesting to explore, while Crota is just a highly cheese-able run from point A to B with very little in between. That being said, I still love the game and my only real beef is the new content seems to be trickling in very slowly.  I can't wait for House of Wolves and I'll be jumping right back in when it comes out...and it just struck me that it isn't too far off now! 

Also, I LOVE the inferno variant in the crucible. It needs to stay and it continues to irk me that they have a stash of crucible playlists that we're only given limited access to.



thedonal said:


> I haven't played Destiny or kept up with it for well over a month- has anything changed as such? (not content- just balancing stuff etc)



Yeah, pulse rifles are generally pretty strong now. And shotguns have become far more useful in PvE.


----------



## toiletstand

HighGain510 said:


> I still don't have fang of ir yut yet, but I have about all of the other Crota weapons except that one and Light of the Abyss. Keep hoping for one of those two to pop in a drop, because I have three Black Hammers now (which I kept since Black Hammer kicks ass and having a max'd one on each character is not a bad thing! ) so I guess they keep it "random" enough that you will need to keep doing the raids if you really want to collect them all.


 id love a black hammer or three  im doing alright when it comes to raid gear but my weapon drops havent been to varied. a lot of people in our group keep walking out with oversoul edicts hahah


----------



## HighGain510

thedonal said:


> I haven't played Destiny or kept up with it for well over a month- has anything changed as such? (not content- just balancing stuff etc)





Pav said:


> Yeah, pulse rifles are generally pretty strong now. And shotguns have become far more useful in PvE.



Yeah basically they've "balanced" the guns yet again a bit more to "help" people move onto other weapons beyond just the auto rifle and pistol for primary weapons.  Pulse rifles are better all around, shotguns are actually useful now.  Auto rifles got nerfed a bit and hand cannons were changed so I think the first shot was not as dead accurate as it used to be IIRC?  The next update is supposed to increase vault space (hallelujah!!! ) and as far as weapons go, they're buffing the Necrochasm since it has like no impact currently so people do the work to get it and then never use it.  I have the Husk of the Pit, just waiting for the item Crota drops on hard to make mine into the Necrochasm. 



toiletstand said:


> id love a black hammer or three  im doing alright when it comes to raid gear but my weapon drops havent been to varied. a lot of people in our group keep walking out with oversoul edicts hahah



Ha yeah I've gotten dupes of several of the guns now (oversoul edict, black hammer, etc.), but several I've only seen once if at all! I still haven't seen the Light of the Abyss fusion rifle yet and I would love to add that one as I think it's the only one I'm missing! I got a second Hunger of Crota last night, I got the Fang of Ir Yut 2 days ago and I also finally got a Vex Mythoclast!  Only missing a couple exotics and I need the crota raid helmet for the hunter and the boots for the titan (I think?), I got a second helmet for my Warlock yesterday and the intellect is slightly higher so I am going to break down my max'd one and level that one up instead.  Always something to do when they drop something with slightly better stats, getting that self-res faster for Warlock is a life-saver (literally! ) in raids!  If you were on XBL I'd be happy to join up and help you out but I'm only playing on XBO sadly.  Which also means I have to wait until next fall to get the freaking exotics that are Sony-exclusives for the next 6 months.  


All-in-all, I'm just playing to collect all the good guns and hopefully they open up the vault space soon (next 2 weeks I believe for the upcoming patch) so I can stop breaking down some otherwise decent guns due to running out of space or frustration getting stuff to/from characters quickly.  The DLC should arrive just in time for me to have finished max'ing out my characters to 32 across the board loaded up with exotic armor and weapons that are also max'd.  BRING ON THE HOUSE OF WOLVES!


----------



## Nick

i'm really enjoying destiny and im up at level 27 now but I find the leveling (at this point) really time consuming. Do you guys who have loads of exotics/are at level 30+ play every day and do all of the dailys etc? 

Highgain you said it would be good if they open vault space - I have: 

1 character
3 purple primary weapons (one almost fully upgraded and 2 of them scout rifles with different special abilities)
1 Gold secondary weapon (sniper rifle bought from Xur the weekend before last)
Purple greaves and bracers
Blue armour
Blue helmet

Sorry for using the colours (cant remember whats exotic and whats legendary)

I feel like I have been playing it for a long time then i see guys who have 3 characters fully upgraded and have about 5 fully upgraded/gold weapons each.

Do these guys just play it 8 hrs a day!?


----------



## HighGain510

Nick said:


> i'm really enjoying destiny and im up at level 27 now but I find the leveling (at this point) really time consuming. Do you guys who have loads of exotics/are at level 30+ play every day and do all of the dailys etc?
> 
> Highgain you said it would be good if they open vault space - I have:
> 
> 1 character
> 3 purple primary weapons (one almost fully upgraded and 2 of them scout rifles with different special abilities)
> 1 Gold secondary weapon (sniper rifle bought from Xur the weekend before last)
> Purple greaves and bracers
> Blue armour
> Blue helmet
> 
> Sorry for using the colours (cant remember whats exotic and whats legendary)
> 
> I feel like I have been playing it for a long time then i see guys who have 3 characters fully upgraded and have about 5 fully upgraded/gold weapons each.
> 
> Do these guys just play it 8 hrs a day!?



So here's the best thing to do:

WORK TO GET 3 CHARACTERS. It makes it much easier when you have three guys as leveling up weapons can be spread over 3 character's worth of bounties each day. Usually pick the easy ones (get 200 _____ on each planet by killing guys, 6 missions on cosmodrome, kill 10 fallen/hive majors etc.) so you can burn through them quickly and then switch the weapons over to the guy before you collect the bounties as the bounties boost those weapons and armor sets quickly.  It's definitely a grind for the first part of the character building process but it gets easier as you get better/stronger armor and weapons after level 20. 

Work your character up to the Vault of Glass Raid Minimum (forget what level that is, like 27 maybe?) and run that on normal a few times to get the feel for it. It helps if you have a good group to explain it to you, if you get stuck with a hopeless group it is impossible to beat and becomes VERY frustrating. Once you get leveled high enough to do it on Hard, do that. NOTE: You can ONLY get the drops from the raid ONCE PER WEEK, it resets every Tuesday! Before someone told me that I was like WTF I did it on hard like 3 times but got nothing...   DERP!

Once you get VoG armor and weapons, start working to max those out. Once you get to a decent level, say 30 or so, you can try to work on the Crota raid but again this requires the DLC so if you don't have that, you're missing out. The only way to get to light level 32 is to have a full set of max'd raid armor from Crota and an Exotic max'd out to 36. 

For Raiding purposes, you'll want to set up your classes as follows:

Warlock - Sunsinger
Hunter - Blade Dancer
Titan - Defender

Reason? Sunsinger's max'd super = self-revive, which is CRUCIAL on Hard Mode Raids. Hunter - Blade Dancer has the perk to allow him to melee someone and turn invisible, if you get the exotic "Don't Touch Me" gauntlets one of the perks lets any melee hit to you turn you invisible (also super handy for Crota in the early section on hard mode with all the thrall when you're running to the lanterns) and max'd blade dancer super allows you the option to hit the trigger to turn invisible which is great for regaining health or running away if you get swarmed. Titan max'd super allows you to throw up the bubble to either give you and your teammates extra shield or added damage (Blessing of Light/Weapons of Light) and one of the perks allows any damage fired at the bubble to generate orbs so that is helpful for your teammates. They get their supers faster which means their super kills = more orbs for your super. 

I have three characters set up as above and with a good raid group, have managed to beat Crota on Hard the first time through several times, and Atheon on Hard the first time through unless there is a glitch with the teleports.  Hope that helps! There is definitely a lot of grinding, especially getting stuff max'd out, but the raids are the fun part and it's awesome when you get a lot of high level folks together who know what they're doing and blowing through the raid quickly to collect the nicer legendary and exotic items.


----------



## sakeido

Nick said:


> i'm really enjoying destiny and im up at level 27 now but I find the leveling (at this point) really time consuming. Do you guys who have loads of exotics/are at level 30+ play every day and do all of the dailys etc?
> 
> Highgain you said it would be good if they open vault space - I have:
> 
> 1 character
> 3 purple primary weapons (one almost fully upgraded and 2 of them scout rifles with different special abilities)
> 1 Gold secondary weapon (sniper rifle bought from Xur the weekend before last)
> Purple greaves and bracers
> Blue armour
> Blue helmet
> 
> Sorry for using the colours (cant remember whats exotic and whats legendary)
> 
> I feel like I have been playing it for a long time then i see guys who have 3 characters fully upgraded and have about 5 fully upgraded/gold weapons each.
> 
> Do these guys just play it 8 hrs a day!?



I only run two characters and only maybe 8 hours a week, but only my warlock is level 32. My hunter has the gear for 32 but I only made her for nightfalls and Crucible so I am not spending the shards for 32.

The XP for the daily only goes onto your armor, not weapons, and since all my armor is maxed or unnecessary I skip the daily more often than not. 

The only "must run" activities are the Nightfalls for me, I always run those as early as possible in the week because you get a really good shot at exotics and legendaries there plus you get a 20% boost to experience and reputation gains for the rest of the week. I might skip everything else but I always run the Nightfall. 

The weekly heroic is important too, you always want to make sure you have at least ~40 coins so if Xur sells an exotic primary and armor piece you want, you can afford both. 

I ran Nightfalls on both my characters Saturday, got my 3rd SUROS Regime on one and my first MIDA Multi-Tool on the other. Then I ran two days of bounties (vanguard & Eris only) on both characters and that was enough to max my MIDA already. The telemetries Xur sells are handy for leveling guns up fast, they boost experience another 20% so that plus the Nightfall will get you very far very quickly. Total it took less than four hours to max MIDA.

Since you are lvl27 I'd recommend running the Vault as much as you can to get more legendary weapons. You could actually get taken through Crota Normal Mode too which is nice cuz armor drops there and it starts at lvl30 so you could get levels very quickly. Somebody "cheesing" it doesn't really need your help so you can just get carried right through. I'd buy an exotic armor piece from Xur next time he comes through too.


----------



## Nick

Thanks guys it looks like I have work to do!


----------



## Nick

another question - how do you get guys to join you for VOG? Is it just in the voice channel?


----------



## HighGain510

sakeido said:


> I only run two characters and only maybe 8 hours a week, but only my warlock is level 32. My hunter has the gear for 32 but I only made her for nightfalls and Crucible so I am not spending the shards for 32.
> 
> The XP for the daily only goes onto your armor, not weapons, and since all my armor is maxed or unnecessary I skip the daily more often than not.
> 
> The only "must run" activities are the Nightfalls for me, I always run those as early as possible in the week because you get a really good shot at exotics and legendaries there plus you get a 20% boost to experience and reputation gains for the rest of the week. I might skip everything else but I always run the Nightfall.
> 
> The weekly heroic is important too, you always want to make sure you have at least ~40 coins so if Xur sells an exotic primary and armor piece you want, you can afford both.
> 
> I ran Nightfalls on both my characters Saturday, got my 3rd SUROS Regime on one and my first MIDA Multi-Tool on the other. Then I ran two days of bounties (vanguard & Eris only) on both characters and that was enough to max my MIDA already. The telemetries Xur sells are handy for leveling guns up fast, they boost experience another 20% so that plus the Nightfall will get you very far very quickly. Total it took less than four hours to max MIDA.
> 
> Since you are lvl27 I'd recommend running the Vault as much as you can to get more legendary weapons. You could actually get taken through Crota Normal Mode too which is nice cuz armor drops there and it starts at lvl30 so you could get levels very quickly. Somebody "cheesing" it doesn't really need your help so you can just get carried right through. I'd buy an exotic armor piece from Xur next time he comes through too.



Yep forgot to mention it in my post, make sure you do the Nightfall FIRST (find two other people to help you via the Raid Tracker site below) and then do the Weekly Heroic immediately after. The XP bonus from the Nightfall helps you get more out of the Heroic and potentially a better chance at a drop (I've gotten several exotics or legendary engrams that turn into exotics since I started doing the Nightfall and then the Heroic, FWIW). There are three difficulty settings for the Weekly Heroic, so make sure you select it and do the HARDEST as that gives you 9 strange coins per character. As sakeido stated above, you save those up for Xur each week and if you have 3 characters that's guaranteed to net you 27 coins at least each week which should be enough for at least an exotic weapon and an exotic piece of armor (or two exotic pieces of armor), plus whatever coins you're able to snag throughout the week on top of that. I've found (at least in recent weeks, seems like Bungie has upped the drop rate since everyone was complaining about never getting anything for the work they put in on the Nightfall/Heroic... ) that if you have three guys and do those events each week for all three characters, that at least ONE of the Nightfall or Heroic runs will gift you either an exotic or a chunk of strange coins. Last week I got zero exotics, but I got a 10-pack of strange coins and a legendary engram that turned into the Helm of St. 14. This week (last night) I got the Hard Light finally! One more off the list!  Now it's time for raiding! 




Nick said:


> another question - how do you get guys to join you for VOG? Is it just in the voice channel?




This site has been a life-saver for me! 

Destiny Tracker Raid Finder - Looking For Group (LFG)

You can log in with your PSN ID or XBL tag. Make sure you click on the LFG that relates to your console as well!  Once you go in you can either try to join someone by sending them a message asking for an invite or post your own using their format and tagging (makes it easier to see who wants to do what, and please don't spam the chat like an idiot ). That's how I've found my raid groups and it seems like when you find groups that work well together, most folks want to add you to their friends list and then it makes it easier to get groups together for the Nightfall and the Raids.  Destiny is, sadly, one of those games where you really HAVE to know people to get a Raid going. It's annoying that they fixed the Weekly Heroic to have matchmaking finally (so that's one you can get folks added to your fireteam if you can't find other people to play with, FWIW!) but the Raids and Nightfall don't have the same option. I try to help out friends who still need assistance doing Nightfalls or whatever, but basically I set it up so when the reset happens on Tuesday I get my Nightfalls/Heroics all completed no later than Wednesday and that frees up Thursday-Monday for raiding. 

Again just to be clear on raid options: For each character, the reset is Tuesday. There are certain weapons you can only get from doing raids on Hard Mode, and once you have completed the raid on a character, if you try it again in the same week before the next Tuesday's reset, you won't get a loot drop after beating Atheon or Crota (or any of the other spots either, IIRC). The chests also give you nothing as well. So basically try to do both each week, even if it's only on normal as the raid gear is better than most of the stuff you can buy, especially the Crota Raid Gear which maxes out at light level 36.  Hope that helps!


----------



## Nick




----------



## HighGain510

Also not sure if you're running Android or iOS (I'm only familiar with the Apple version of the app) but the Bungie app was updated recently and is TREMENDOUSLY helpful now! You can move inventory to/from the vault now and it shows with an indicator which raids you have done on which characters. It's awesome for when you finally get to 3 max'd guys and lose track of who still needs to do what raid(s) that week!


----------



## sakeido

Ho man that app being able to transfer gear now is one of the best improvements they've made to this game! So convenient. Apparently they will expand the Vault with the next patch too ... mine is full all the time  hopefully they double or even triple how much space we can have. 

Nick, since you haven't run a raid before you could try get "sherpa'd" through it too. 

Destiny Sherpa

These are guys who specialize in running newbies through the raids so they will show you the ins and outs of each encounter and they'll do what they can to carry you through. The Vault in particular is tricky the first time through, so a sherpa would help a lot there. 

In the end you want to try and have one primary with each element on it (arc, void, and solar). Those will help a lot for Nightfalls, because they usually have a Burn on them that will triple damage dealt by that element. You can get a full set of elemental guns from either raid, but to get the arc primaries from the Vault you need to run on HM which I wouldn't recommend until you are lvl30. 

The drop rate for armor from Crota NM is very high, over 45% vs. < 15% for the Vault, so that will be your quickest way to level up. Crota also has "smart loot" haha unlike the Vault. So you will get full sets of armor from Crota faster than you will from Vault. The Vault has a bad habit of deciding you will get one or two pieces of gear over and ....ing over again and never giving you anything else. Like I've had six pairs of boots, and two pairs of gloves, but no chests and only one helmet after 15 clears. Whereas in five runs of Crota I got full armor for my warlock, and one good Crota run got full armor for my hunter.


----------



## HighGain510

I think Bungie is just trolling me now.... Last week I got Red Death, so of course Xur puts it up for sale. This week I got Hard Light... yep... Xur is selling it.   Maybe next week I'll get one of the last ones I still need like The Last Word.... and then Xur will sell that.


----------



## toiletstand

who's doing angry banner? i picked up a scout rifle after a match and im trying to get up to rank 5.


----------



## toiletstand

Nick said:


> i'm really enjoying destiny and im up at level 27 now but I find the leveling (at this point) really time consuming. Do you guys who have loads of exotics/are at level 30+ play every day and do all of the dailys etc?
> 
> Highgain you said it would be good if they open vault space - I have:
> 
> 1 character
> 3 purple primary weapons (one almost fully upgraded and 2 of them scout rifles with different special abilities)
> 1 Gold secondary weapon (sniper rifle bought from Xur the weekend before last)
> Purple greaves and bracers
> Blue armour
> Blue helmet
> 
> Sorry for using the colours (cant remember whats exotic and whats legendary)
> 
> I feel like I have been playing it for a long time then i see guys who have 3 characters fully upgraded and have about 5 fully upgraded/gold weapons each.
> 
> Do these guys just play it 8 hrs a day!?




it helps to have more than one character definitely. i have a group of friends that get together after the reset and we'll spend some time doing the crota raid on normal for all three of our characters. maybe a nightfall or two depending on how fast we finish.


----------



## thedonal

So. What are people's first impressions of House of Wolves?

I'm utterly underwhelmed so far. again.

It's the last time I pay for content in advance and the last time I pay full price for a console game.

It's only day 1, sure, but I can see nothing worth really continuing to play this game so far.


----------



## Dooky

Like I said months ago - I really am amazed people still play this game and continue to pay for "new" dlc


----------



## SjPedro

So far first impressions after playing about 1-2 hours. The character dialog seems a bit better, missing cinematics (call me old fashioned but I prefer a good cinematic than a loading screen with exposition dialog). 
So far the story missions have a slight variety to it although the bullet sponge bosses are there full throttle. I'm hoping that the new Prison of Elders is as good as it they make it out to be. 
So to sum it all up, I'm enjoying it so far. we'll see what will come from this expansion in the upcoming months


----------



## thedonal

Dooky said:


> Like I said months ago - I really am amazed people still play this game and continue to pay for "new" dlc



Yeah- I got the expansion pass when the game was fairly new and I was hooked into it. This is before the whole grind-repeat thing became so apparent.

Then the first DLC appeared and, even when they unlocked the intro missions for repeat play, the whole "is this it?" thing got bigger.

Was late last night and I was tired and a bit grumpy, but the battle at the top of the tower on Venus seems VERY overwhelming (on level 30 with an L31 Warlock). 

But it's the only bit of _minimal_ extra mission scenery they've added. Everything else seems to be the same locations, played back to front.

The new social area is nice enough, but nothing really new per se.

Definitely not worth the cost of the expansions- pass or not.

Though the upgrade path seems a little better now, it really depends on how often the drops come or quickly you can buy more aetheric whatnots to do it. But once more, there are even more faction reputations to grind and grind and the rewards seem few and far between.


----------



## loqtrall

*mod edit: You've been warned before to stop trolling this thread, the bans are going to get longer every time you come back.*


----------



## HighGain510

thedonal said:


> Was late last night and I was tired and a bit grumpy, but the battle at the top of the tower on Venus seems VERY overwhelming (on level 30 with an L31 Warlock).



Haha I am 32 and while I was playing it on Heroic mode, I thought that part was a bit too challenging to play single player.  I think that's the last normal map before you move over to the Trials of Osiris and whatnot, but I'm likely going to have to pull in a friend or two for that part as you get swarmed from all directions and with that much fire and no room to hide to recuperate, you're pretty much effed by wave # 2. 

I'm going to give it some time, I haven't seen much of the new weaponry yet (or new exotics?) so I'd like to see how the trials and prison segments play out. I think the multiplayer events should add some variety but agree the campaign segment was yet again lacking a bit. I know they said they are planning new raids for DLC content for THIS version of the game (so not even for Destiny 2) and currently I'm not sure if I'm going to bother paying them for DLC again since it's clear the amount of content they deem acceptable for a $40 expansion doesn't quite meet what most consumers are expecting to receive.


----------



## thedonal

HighGain510 said:


> Haha I am 32 and while I was playing it on Heroic mode, I thought that part was a bit too challenging to play single player.  I think that's the last normal map before you move over to the Trials of Osiris and whatnot, but I'm likely going to have to pull in a friend or two for that part as you get swarmed from all directions and with that much fire and no room to hide to recuperate, you're pretty much effed by wave # 2.
> 
> I'm going to give it some time, I haven't seen much of the new weaponry yet (or new exotics?) so I'd like to see how the trials and prison segments play out. I think the multiplayer events should add some variety but agree the campaign segment was yet again lacking a bit. I know they said they are planning new raids for DLC content for THIS version of the game (so not even for Destiny 2) and currently I'm not sure if I'm going to bother paying them for DLC again since it's clear the amount of content they deem acceptable for a $40 expansion doesn't quite meet what most consumers are expecting to receive.



I think there's at least 1 major expansion if not 2, plus DLC for each of those. The majors are I think what we're were really expecting in terms of game content for the 2 expansions we've had. I think they really are expecting to milk this game, though future expansions may change the map as the "story" developes.

I'd say I'm out after this. It just feels like a blag. I will give House of Wolves more time, but not much..


----------



## Pav

I had also bought the expansion pass but part of me doesn't want to risk trying out House of Wolves. As much as I enjoy this game on the whole the DLC is just too little content for too much money over too long a period of time. At this point it really feels less like a finished game and more like we've been paying a ....load of money to join Bungie in the development process. Maybe the piece-wise DLC model wouldn't feel so awful if content was coming more regularly, but at this rate we'll have a total of two additional raids to play a full year after release. Not to mention their decision to release HOW with no raid, while logical, only twists the knife a little further. I've had intense oodles of fun in this game but man...all of the new stuff they promised is coming at such a slow trickle it's tough to stay attached for long periods anymore.


----------



## sakeido

Etheric Light is a guaranteed drop on levels 34 and 35, if you are good enough to clear the Prison three times on underleveled characters you can hit 34 in a week. There are a bunch of 34s running around already.

If you have treasure keys, which will sometimes drop from the new Fallen events on Earth, Venus and the Moon, you can open the big treasure chest in the Prison and from the sounds of it the drop rate for exotics is extremely high, almost guaranteed on your first open, and it pours out legendaries too.

Played 10 Crucible matches last night and got two legendary weapons. Saw a few rounds where 3-4 weapons dropped. Way better variety of vendor gear and a lot of good weapons there... you get double Crucible marks now too so it is much easier to earn the money for the faction gear. So you definitely get a lot more gear now than before.

Next DLC is the big one. New planet, three new strikes, ten missions, new raid. Sold at retail as a complete game too. Those guys buying it then definitely are getting a better deal than people who bought Destiny day one  but whatever, a year of Warcraft costs like $200 plus the cost of the game so still not bad. 



Dooky said:


> Like I said months ago - I really am amazed people still play this game and continue to pay for "new" dlc



Back in my day, we played this game called Halo 3 that only had one campaign with a pretty ....ty story. There was only ten levels, and there was no loot at all. Any gear was just cosmetic and you had to pick up new weapons as you ran around the maps, and there was only like twenty weapons and more than half of them sucked and were useless. 

But boy howdy did it ever play tight. Everything felt right. So does Destiny. 

If I want to see an endless amount of new things and experience cool stories and good dialogue, I go outside. If I want to have fun playing a game, I play D.


----------



## asher

Halo 3 was not an MMO. It's an important distinction.


----------



## sakeido

Destiny isn't an MMO either. No monthly sub and only six people in a zone at a time except in very rare cases.. and even then, it still tops out at 12 players or less. So I guess that axes "massive" from the description.


----------



## asher

sakeido said:


> Destiny isn't an MMO either. No monthly sub and only six people in a zone at a time except in very rare cases.. and even then, it still tops out at 12 players or less. So I guess that axes "massive" from the description.



New MMOs haven't really done much with subs for several years now. The model has very much shifted to normally priced box buys (40/60) with paid expansions and/or (cosmetic, but not always) microtransactions.

Just because it involves instances and didn't ship with all its social functions grafted on doesn't mean it's not aiming at an MMO style player base and experience.


----------



## Dooky

sakeido said:


> Back in my day, we played this game called Halo 3 that only had one campaign with a pretty ....ty story. There was only ten levels, and there was no loot at all. Any gear was just cosmetic and you had to pick up new weapons as you ran around the maps, and there was only like twenty weapons and more than half of them sucked and were useless.
> 
> But boy howdy did it ever play tight. Everything felt right. So does Destiny.
> 
> If I want to see an endless amount of new things and experience cool stories and good dialogue, I go outside. If I want to have fun playing a game, I play D.


Back in my day, we played this game called Double Dragon that only had one campaign with, by todays standards, a pretty ....ty story. There were only 4 levels, and there was no loot at all. Any gear was just random and you had to pick up new weapons as you went through the levels, and there were very few weapons and more than half of them sucked and were useless.

But boy howdy was it more memorable than Destiny 

*mod edit: we get it, you don't like the game... you've said so repeatedly now move along*


----------



## HighGain510

Dooky said:


> Wow, people still play this game?





Dooky said:


> Like I said months ago - I really am amazed people still play this game and continue to pay for "new" dlc





Dooky said:


> Back in my day, we played this game called Double Dragon that only had one campaign with, by todays standards, a pretty ....ty story. There were only 4 levels, and there was no loot at all. Any gear was just random and you had to pick up new weapons as you went through the levels, and there were very few weapons and more than half of them sucked and were useless.
> 
> But boy howdy was it more memorable than Destiny



Dude... we get it already... you don't like Destiny. Can you PLEASE go find another thread to troll? People who constantly pop into threads just to complain about the topic over and over repeating the same stupid/pointless "this is terrible" line are not only annoying, but don't realize they add absolutely nothing to the thread or topic. You've made your point 3 times, you don't like the game. Duly noted, now please move along and let the people who wish to DISCUSS THE GAME continue to do so.


----------



## thedonal

Well I managed the Queen's Ranson mission last night (solo on L30) With a few deaths and some swearing. 

Ran through the strike on normal. It's ok actually. Levelling the sidearm up definitely helps...

I can say it's definitely an improvement on The Dark Below, but still don't feel the price point justified.

I'm sure I'll hook up with a few neglected XB Live buddies for the prison of Elders this weekend..


----------



## sakeido

It's time for the Trials of fkin Osiris! Got all my regular Destiny buddies coming over to my house tonight so we can geek it up  Eight dudes, one basement ... place is gonna smell mad funky but it should be fun.

If you get nine wins you get access to another new social space. If you go 9-0 you get an elemental primary and an exotic emblem. Looks like the nine win Trials chest gives a guaranteed exotic too. Should be able to get my first runs through the Nightfall and Prison done tonight too.. ho man. The hype is almost overwhelming.


----------



## thedonal

Aaaand I forgot how bad I am at PVP. Though first shot at the trials and we all pretty much got one shot by the opponents. Now that's what a drubbing feels like!


----------



## Pav

I would like to try out the Trials of Osiris. IMO it was way overdue. Is there any kind of hardcore/SWAT-style playlist happening these days?


----------



## SevenStringJones

Hey guys, if anyone on PS4 is looking for someone to play with just shoot me a message.

I've got a Warlock, a Titan, and a Hunter that are all level 33 or higher.


----------



## SjPedro

I won't be playing Trials of Osiris this week....I really don't like that map and people seem to abusing the Thorn hand cannon so I guess I'll wait for next week. 
Although, Iron Banner should start sometime on Tuesday so I'll be there for Etheric Light farming! see if I can ascend all my sweet gear/weapons


----------



## IChuckFinleyI

I'd love to do the harder Prison of Elders stuff. I've only managed to have enough people on at the same time who aren't already grouped up. It's usually me an another buddy, so if anyone wants to team up just send me a request.

Reluctant Medic
Xbox One


----------



## sakeido

managed to go 9-0 in Trials. was so intense, might be my favorite part of this game so far. I was using MIDA the whole time but after looking at my numbers after .. I really shoulda used Thorn instead. nobody stuck their head out long enough to get kills with MIDA consistently. Thorn, popping them twice and letting the poison finish them off would have been a lot better.

pay off for a 9-0 run is so good too. 3 etheric light, a 42 light pair of boots, I got two exotics, and that sweet sweet emblem. wish there was a shader though.


----------



## toiletstand

so jealous dude. i keep getting my ass handed to me in trials.


i play on the ps4 and my username on there is toiletstand. I might have posted it here before but im always looking to make new friends on there!


----------



## CrushingAnvil

Even though I started this thread, I now can't stand Destiny  My brother is borrowing my copy and the only reason I want it back is so I can sell it.


----------



## HighGain510

sakeido said:


> managed to go 9-0 in Trials. was so intense, might be my favorite part of this game so far. I was using MIDA the whole time but after looking at my numbers after .. I really shoulda used Thorn instead. nobody stuck their head out long enough to get kills with MIDA consistently. Thorn, popping them twice and letting the poison finish them off would have been a lot better.
> 
> pay off for a 9-0 run is so good too. 3 etheric light, a 42 light pair of boots, I got two exotics, and that sweet sweet emblem. wish there was a shader though.



Damn that's pretty good! I haven't even competed yet!  I've been typically playing with a few guys consistently, many of them are from down South and then a couple are from Austria and Germany so lining up with the Euro folks has been challenging since by the time I get online they're already in groups of 3 leaving me the odd man out.  Hoping to compete soon, the German group ran it a few times and got to 9-0 and I'm better at PvP than one of the guys in that squad so I'm hoping to get that soon myself as they all got several exotics each. I STILL don't have a single new exotic yet oddly enough despite having completed up to the 34 PoE runs with treasure keys!  

So far two of my guys are up to level 34 now (Warlock and Titan), I still need another armor piece for my Hunter since he didn't get to run the PoE last week and I didn't realize the armor was rotating to a specific type of armor every week for all 3 characters so I missed out on my chance to get a piece for the Hunter.  Hoping to get some of the new exotics soon, the hunter helmet with the monster golden gun shot looks incredible... SO MUCH WANT!!!


----------



## sakeido

I don't have any of the new exotics yet either ... the only way to get them are to down Skolas on level 35. He'll drop an exotic bounty sometimes, and you can pick which of the new guns it'll turn into. My buddy has the Queensbreaker's Bow, a fusion rifle sniper - same one the Vandals use - that's pretty decent. 

I actually got a 365 arc hand cannon from my Trials chest too, forgot about that thing. It is dope! Haha. Hits like a truck, and it has 3rd Eye on it and the new Icarus perk so when you are jumping around your shots still go exactly where you aim them. I was really hoping for a void primary though .. I don't want to have to use Atheon's Epilogue anymore. Never could get Word of Crota (or Black Hammer, for that matter) to drop from Crota's End.

Only my warlock is 34 so far ... I hardly play my hunter anymore, don't enjoy the class at all. I think I could gear her up to 33 but I just can't be bothered haha. Maybe when Xur sells Lucky Raspberry I would start getting her gear sorted out.


----------



## HighGain510

sakeido said:


> I don't have any of the new exotics yet either ... the only way to get them are to down Skolas on level 35. He'll drop an exotic bounty sometimes, and you can pick which of the new guns it'll turn into. My buddy has the Queensbreaker's Bow, a fusion rifle sniper - same one the Vandals use - that's pretty decent.
> 
> I actually got a 365 arc hand cannon from my Trials chest too, forgot about that thing. It is dope! Haha. Hits like a truck, and it has 3rd Eye on it and the new Icarus perk so when you are jumping around your shots still go exactly where you aim them. I was really hoping for a void primary though .. I don't want to have to use Atheon's Epilogue anymore. Never could get Word of Crota (or Black Hammer, for that matter) to drop from Crota's End.
> 
> Only my warlock is 34 so far ... I hardly play my hunter anymore, don't enjoy the class at all. I think I could gear her up to 33 but I just can't be bothered haha. Maybe when Xur sells Lucky Raspberry I would start getting her gear sorted out.



Yeah that fusion rifle sniper is the one gun I really want! Out of my exotic engrams this morning I got two of the new Warlock chest pieces and a new crest of the alpha lupi for the titan that was better than the one I had. So now I have the new warlock gauntlet and the new warlock chest piece, but nothing else.  I would love to pick up the new hunter helmet and that exotic sniper, I'm a huge fan of hand cannons and snipers or hand cannons and shotguns.  I have two word of crotas so far, it is a really useful one for void burn days (or the PoE ones with void burn bonus) but I still prefer the fatebringer. I've got 3 of those so eventually when I get to the point where I have spare etheric light upgrades I'll do all three of those first as all my exotics are max'd at 365 now. That arc hand cannon sounds pretty baller though, if I get that one with the same perk set I would keep it as well.


----------



## toiletstand

i want a fatebringer so bad! have you guys been using etheric light? are you using it on any of your old drops? ive seen some VOC rifles ascended to 365

i picked up a matador shotgun that has awesome impact but the rate of fire is caca. gonna try and reroll cuz it looks like it has tons of potential.


----------



## sakeido

The only weapon I've ascended has been my Vision of Confluence haha. The Cabal room in the Prison of Elders is way too big of a pain in the ass without one. Otherwise I just used it on my gear to get to lvl34 with decent stuff for Iron Banner and Trials.. I'm sitting on a few right now, so torn with indecision about where to spend them. I was never the biggest Fatebringer fan but maybe.. 

The Matador is a dope shotty! It'll shoot as far as Felwinter's Lie, but it shoots like 33% faster. Still pretty slow, but at least it is usable.


----------



## IChuckFinleyI

I used EL on my VoC as well. That gun's way too good to not have at 365. I was gonna use another on either my Three Little Words or Spare Change pulse rifles, but got an Arc damage Messenger from Mercury. So I've been going through and just leveling up my armor that I like the best so I'm not a clone looking like everyone else. That's one that really annoyed me that in order to be the highest light level, you had to use the Raid gear and look the same as everyone else. So glad that's changed.


----------



## Buffnuggler

i've just been getting into destiny, i have a level 30 hunter and not many good guns but i'm actually really enjoying it. i'm glad i got to miss the early days, it gets a little old grinding strikes but the gunplay is really excellent. i'm stoked for when i get some good enough gear that i can start doing vog hard/crota and the new HOW content. 

if the game improves as much as it already has for the remainder of its life span, it will be nuts by the end. i know characters transfer over to Destiny 2, but does gear (you'd think so since it is your levels).


----------



## toiletstand

didnt get to play much over the week but i got one of my characters to rank 5 in iron banner today. i just need some glimmer to pick up the etheric light.


----------



## HighGain510

Finally got my Fellwinter's Lie in a random drop during Iron Banner yesterday!  Got a whole bunch of other random ones, multiple snipers (think like 4 of the same one with different perks, breaking most of them down obviously ) and I broke down two Radagast Fury rocket launchers but after getting hit with it multiple times I might keep the last one I got yesterday and re-roll it for better perks and use it in Iron Banner.  Because I didn't start playing IB until Friday night I only got 3/4 of the way to level 5 so only one etheric light for me sadly. Need to get my armor up to 34 for everyone then cherry pick extra armor pieces for my guys for "preferred" armor combos. After that I'll be doing all 3 of my Fatebringers to 365 and hopefully finally find a vision of confluence. 

Also didn't see anyone talking about it but some details leaked early regarding the next DLC coming this fall. It's called "The Taken King" and sounds like they're adding a new raid against Oryx himself now (Crota's daddy ). It's going to be $40, all three characters will get the missing elemental sub-class (void for hunter, solar for titan, arc for warlock) from before so that extra empty box will finally have something in it.  Apparently it's supposed to be an electrical storm for Warlock, a gravity bow for Hunter and a flaming hammer for Titan.  Should drop September 15th which is nice that they have a solid date for it instead of "fall 2015" like it was rumored previously.  Obviously in addition to the raid there will be new strikes and I haven't seen it mentioned but I would imagine now we'll be going to Jupiter since that was one of the missing planets from before.  E3 is in a week so my guess is this was just a teaser and the full info will be coming then, but for anyone who missed the info floating around there it is!


----------



## IChuckFinleyI

I remember the rumored Fall DLC name was "Comet" at one point. I'm pretty sure they mentioned something about a Cabal Raid. I think that would be pretty cool. If they make another Hive Raid, I hope the weapons look better than the ones from Crota's End. The armor plating and glowing green stuff looks corny to me. Adding weapon shaders would be really cool. I'd love to have all black weapons.


----------



## Malkav

Howdy Ya'll

I've recently gotten this game, because peer pressure, and have been digging it so far. Just wondering if any of you are broke like me and are jamming it on X-Box 360? Would be rad to have more company while running stuff


----------



## bulb

Just for fun, enjoy!


----------



## thedonal

Nice work! 

Kinda reminds me of Call of Ktulu in places, but with a more modern vibe.


----------



## Matyrker

my GT: Matyrker on Xbox One. Feel free to add me!


----------



## Khoi

I'm way late to the party, but I just bought The Taken King Special Edition PS4 and I'm so stoked to finally get to play. I've wanted to play Destiny since before it was released, then heard it didn't quite live up to the hype until now.

Sounds like The Taken King really fixed a lot of issues with it and figured now would be a great time to join in!

Anyone else playing? Feel free to add me on PSN, I have no friends that play and would love to play/level/eventually raid with some people!

PSN ID: HarrisonFjord_


----------



## splinter8451

I recently got back into this with the Taken King. Definitely a much more polished game now! 

Anyone can add me on PS4, I still haven't done any raids because all my friends have Xbox One....  so if anyone wants to do the Vault of Glass or the new raid that would be sick! 

PSN: splinter8451


----------



## toiletstand

i been playing here and there since taken king came out but i feel like im falling behind because theres so much to do now haha.

ima share my psn again incase anyone wants to have destiny hangs: toiletstand

all my friends jumped ship and i need new destiny pals


----------



## HeavyMetal4Ever

Thoroughly disgusted with the way Bungie have handled pre existing game content with The Taken King release. Basically, if you don't buy the latest dlc you get locked out of a lot of previously available content.

Seriously uncool Bungie.


----------



## Churchie777

We got any Aussies on here that play PS4? ive never done raids........i wanna do raids


----------



## Malkav

HeavyMetal4Ever said:


> Thoroughly disgusted with the way Bungie have handled pre existing game content with The Taken King release. Basically, if you don't buy the latest dlc you get locked out of a lot of previously available content.
> 
> Seriously uncool Bungie.



So much ....ing this...

I've just switched over to playing Mass Effect 3 multiplayer instead.

Playing on X-Box 360 is pretty much a ghost town with Destiny though even before "The Taken King", and because I'm generally broke and have to do the adult thing I'm not going to upgrade my console anytime soon, so I'm waiting till November when according to a friend of mine there's going to be some sort of unification between X-Box 360 and X-Box One to see if that means that we'll all be able to jam Destiny together (cause other than improved graphics on X-Box One it's the same ....ing game) and if that's not possible I'm just gonna cancel my X-Box gold account and buy Mass Effect 3 for pc and continue jamming that there instead.

Would love to go back to playing Warframe as well but my pc refuses to let me log into it


----------



## thedonal

I completely agree. Im not prepared to pay the cost of the game again for an expansion, especially having been ripped off for the last two (I foolishly bought the expansion pass).

Such a shame- the game promised so much, delivered on so little in terms of scope and content, even though the gameplay mechanic is amazing.

My Destiny days are long gone...


----------



## toiletstand

Churchie777 said:


> We got any Aussies on here that play PS4? ive never done raids........i wanna do raids



add me dude! (psn: toiletstand) the clan im a part of has a bunch of aussies always playing and theyre bad ass.


did anyone start the sleeper simulant quest today? its fun as hell
Destiny's Sleeper Simulant Quest Has Begun--And It's Awesome [UPDATE]


----------



## chaneisa

Hey dudes! Anyone interested in playing destiny TTK with me at any point, add me on XBL, Gamertag: BlastGatr. Don't really have anyone to play the game with currently.


----------



## absolutorigin

This game has been taking way too much of my time lately. I'm always down to play with others, so let me know. I got a few other dudes that I play with, and we're looking for a couple more to do the raid with. My Hunter is 290 light. The grind to 300 is real . 

I play on PS4, my gamertag is ChaFoShizzle.


----------



## toiletstand

ima add you. anyone doing the quest for the no time to explain exotic today?


----------



## absolutorigin

What weapons are you guys rocking right now? 

I got the Hung Jury SR4 as my primary, special is 1000 yd. stare, and my heavy is the exotic sword Dark Drinker.



toiletstand said:


> ima add you. anyone doing the quest for the no time to explain exotic today?



I missed out on it, because I never turned in the dead ghost from the paradox mission. It does look like a sick pulse rifle. This being my first year in Destiny, some of the quests are tedious as hell. That exotic sword quest was a bitch and a half. Glad I got the sword though, it tears through enemies .


----------



## toiletstand

seriously i was working on the first curse quest for weeks. i looked up the reward and threw my hands in the air. im no longer in a rush to finish it lol


----------



## absolutorigin

.... jumping puzzles. That is all.


----------



## QuantumCybin

I was really late to actually get into this game, but I've had it for about a month now and I love it. Everyone has told me that this was the best time to get into Destiny because The Taken King fixed a lot of problems that the Year 1 version of the game had.

I usually always play with a couple of good friends of mine back down in Florida, so that probably makes the game a lot better. I got my light level to 303 last night, was doing trials of osiris with a couple buddies. Really wanting to do the hard mode Kings Fall raid...I need some 320 gear for my Hunter.

If anyone wants to play, I'm on PS4 and my username is Polyrhythm423 (I'm so original)


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## BIG ND SWEATY

If you're looking for 320 gear you should be focusing on doing the hard mode challenges for the raid bosses, I'm 99% certain you get a guaranteed 320 drop from each one you do. they rotate week to week tho so its best to find out which one is coming up so you can prepare for it. Also if you're using the 3 of coins for exotics I suggest you wait to decrypt them until you're at 310+ because they'll all decrypt to 310 instead of 280 so you don't have to go through the hassle of infusing it all the way up which is now much harder for newer players


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## TMatt142

I'm on PS4 as well (gt- Timm142). We just did the Warpriest challenge the other night (my first time) and it's so worth it. 2- Quillims Terminis, one at 310, one at 320, 320 artifact, 311 rocket launcher. By the time we finished "sisters" I also had aquired 316 harrowed chest piece, 316 shot gun, 316 cloak. 

Like I said, well worth it, and HM isn't too difficult if you can find the right group. As far as exotics, they'll decrypt @ 310 even if you're not 310 or higher. Most of my 310's I've gotten when in the 305- 310 range.


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## QuantumCybin

Who's still playing this since the April update? couple friends of mine got back into it and we're getting our light up to 335 now. they made it easier in the sense that max light gear doesn't just come from the raid; you can get it from lots of different sources like tier 3 court of oryx, trial of elders, exotic engrams. 

The new DLC is coming out fairly soon I think, adding a new raid and whatnot.


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## toiletstand

still playing. sad iron banner was canceled last week.


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## QuantumCybin

Been playing this a couple nights a week still with some good friends from back home, did the hard mode raid for like the 4th time in a month. My light level is now 331. Pretty happy since the new DLC is coming out in a couple months, and now I'll have an easier time doing trials since I won't be getting dominated purely off of light level differences.

Did the raid tonight with a full group of people we are all friends with, and all solid Destiny players, and holy fvck what a difference it makes having a group of competent people. The raid took us about 3 hours, maybe a little less. Did the Warpriest challenge this week, too. Majority of the time when we attempt the raid, we unfortunately have to pick up 2 or 3 randoms, and it's always miserable in terms of how long it takes us. There's been times where we've spent two hours on JUST Oryx because people can't stay consistent.

Some people really just don't get it and I don't understand. There's nothing inherently ridiculously hard about the raid, particularly Oryx. We just always run the 16's method as if it's the challenge because it makes things so simple. But with randoms there's always an issue it seems. They don't know what plate is which, they forget to kill the light eater knight, they fvck up as the runner, etc. But now that we're all pretty high up in light, we agreed we are officially DONE with King's Fall. Oryx can finally fvck off and drift off into Saturn forever


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## Stijnson

Still playing it here too, I was a late buyer though. Actually bought it right before the april update. Loving the game! If anyone is up for playing, I'm on ps3 (for now!), username Stijnson23


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## thedonal

So I thought I'd re-install Destiny on my X-Box 360 to see how it plays now with all the newest updates and if it's worth getting The Taken King (I don't run XBL Gold at the mo for multiplayer..).

I was expecting a bit of download/installation time but it's been going strong for about 2 hours now. 

HOW IS THIS ALLOWED?


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## Drezik27

I reached my breaking point earlier this year with this game, havent played since probably Jan/Feb

How of the newer updates been? Anyone still playing?

Had enough time off gaming that I'm thinking about pre-ordering Rise of Iron.


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## thedonal

So I weakened and bought the Taken King expansion.

After playing a fair few missions and pottering around as I did of old, I'm guessing that I'm not going to really get very far without getting an X-Box Live sub again and grinding strikes and (dare I say it) raids? That or wait for Xur to get the materials..

Currently stuck at 180 light and missions are getting to the "need 200 light" kind of difficulty (the one with the Echo Of Oryx on top of the Spire on Venus got infuriating last night). 

That said- I do like the new missions and volume of content in The Taken King- it goes well over and above the previous 2 expansions.. But it's so long since I last played and they seem to change the weapon upgrade requirements with each new expansion which means...grind, grind, grind again on all your old weapons...


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## Black_Sheep

Rise of Iron will be released tomorrow. Anyone here still play this game? 

Would love to try and get the "Flawless Raider" trophy with some people.


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## thedonal

Sadly, being an X-Box 360 owner, I'll not be getting the new content.

I have to say though- despite my earlier gripes, I'm quite enjoying the Taken King- they have improved a lot.

I do notice though, for my first attempts at raids yesterday in over a year- no one uses the voice channel any more- communication just doesn't exist, making things much harder...


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## toiletstand

im ready for tomorrow 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQOm-srBi6Q

this is a decent little video to prep for the expansion tomorrow. the info is prob obvious to most but it helped me!


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## sakeido

I can't believe how short the new story was ... interested to see how the raid is, hopefully more like the Vault. Crota's End sucked and King's Fall while challenging is just so long and complex it isn't how I want to spend my spare time, or any time really. 

been crushing a lot of custom games though, Destiny shooting... so good


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## absolutorigin

I'm still playing a lot and going strong. I've been taking it easy with this expansion as I don't want to burn myself out on the content within a week or something. The grind to a higher light level is definitely more apparent compared with the April update though. 

The new guns are sick and I'm super happy I finally got a Matador 64. The new raid looks incredibly fun and a diverse weapon load out seems to be encouraged. If anyone wants to add and play my PSN is ChaFoShizzle. I'm primarily a PvP player though, but still enjoy some PvE. I hope everyone else is having as much fun as I am!


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## toiletstand

i cant wait to get that new exotic pulse rifle but im dreading all the steps to get it. 

still excited!!!!


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## thedonal

Well we're at the end of the dev path for the older gen. consoles. I was hoping we might get another couple of levels opened up but no. 

I had a recent shot at the Taken King raid and Crota's end again- but no dice as no-one was on voice, it was really hard to communicate and work together. 

That said- I've become rather hooked again on Destiny's shoot-twitch-twitch-shoot formula, repetitive though it is and have a decent range of gear (I love the Ixelos fusion gun- absolutely banging against dail epic mission bosses). 

I'm gonna have to put it down soon though or I'll get nothing done ever again!


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## QuantumCybin

Beat the (normal difficulty) new raid with 5 friends last night. Got the raid auto rifle, shotgun, and rocket launcher out of it, and got my light up to 374. I really like Wrath of the Machine; not only are the mechanics more fun and team-oriented, but the art direction and level design of the raid is awesome. The final phase of Aksis was such a bitch for us at first, but we saved the checkpoint, slept on it and tried it again and beat it. The last fight is way more entertaining than fighting Oryx. Much more communication is needed from the whole team than in Kings Fall where the runner called out stuff.

Really looking forward to doing the hard mode raid and getting my Hunter the set of raid armor and also the exotic pulse rifle Outbreak Prime. Overall I've been really enjoying Rise of Iron. Definitely has our group playing Destiny again.


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## toiletstand

nice! right now the grind to 400 is kicking my butt.


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## QuantumCybin

Oh yeah man, getting to 400 is going to be a BITCH. I am not looking forward to the heroic WOTM at all  I'm just thankful I actually have five buddies from back home that all can play together with me; it makes the grind bearable lol


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## toiletstand

i glad dude! thats really the best part of the game. sharing it with friends and shooting the .... while you shoot the fallen haha


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## QuantumCybin

Exactly man


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## ittoa666

I'm badly in need of a raid team. Only one I've had the chance to beat was VoG back in vanilla. I've been screwed out of the rest.


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## toiletstand

my friends are moving on to battlefield and im pretty sure titan fall so ima be without a raid team again haha. if youre on ps4 add me! my name on there is: toiletstand. 

the destiny app is pretty good abotu setting up raid teams so ima start using that more.


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## QuantumCybin

My group uses the destiny companion app to pick up randoms to fill a hole or two in a team; it's super easy to find people. Whether or not they're actually good at the game is another matter


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## QuantumCybin

Had one of the most productive Destiny sessions ever tonight haha. We beat the raid in record time, under three hours AND we did the four monitors, including the diamond room. Beat Aksis, then we did 3 crucible matches with a Titan, warlock, and hunter, and then the nightfall....getting really close to Outbreak Prime since we already have all the SIVA clusters.

Just from doing the raid today, I got the boots, arms, artifact, and cloak, so I went from 376 light to 383. Not too bad at all I'd say


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## toiletstand

nice dude!! i havent had much of a chance to play. my characters are past 390 now. i want to start that heoric raid soon haha


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## Stijnson

Really enjoying rise of iron though, but the grind to 400 has started, hit 386 after my first raid and then it takes a while to level up again. Iron banner next week though so that should help! Psn is Stijnson23 if anyone on ps4 wants to team up sometime!


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## Black_Sheep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNHaheqB1-w

Yes! 

I can't wait for this! Also credit to Bungie for re-hiring Nathan Fillion to play Cayde-6.


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## Alborz

damn i miss this game so badly. reading this thread brought the nostalg'


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