Destiny

[J.T.]

IMO, you shouldn't use telemetries until after you complete some bounties.   Then you get the telemetry bump for any bounty XP towards your weapon progress.  The Focused Light items you get from Red Bull codes that give you a XP% buff also stacks towards weapon progress as well as your class skills.

 

The Three of Coins increase your chances of getting an Exotic Engram from any Ultras you kill (ie.  Majors have yellow health bars and / or shields and an icon indicating what level they are while Ultras have thick yellow health bars and a skull icon). 

 

Since they are stackable, the more ToCs you use, the better the % of an Ultra dropping an Exotic Engram if you succeed in killing it.

 

Since Ultras tend to be Raid or Strike bosses or tied to some Special Event, you have to be careful when you use those consumables since they are on a timer.  You need to pop those things right before a boss fight and you need to make sure you kill the Ultra before time runs out.

[Basara]

Since they patched the Three of Coins after everyone used them to farm exotics, the best way I've found is just using them how they were intended, strikes. I ran 10 strikes yesterday, each time before the boss i popped a Three of Coins. I got 2 exotics from the 10 strikes. As far as i can tell, the coins themselves don't actually have a timer (although you may loose one if you pop it, then log out, i'm not sure). But they have added a hidden cooldown which seems to be about 5 mins. Not a problem for strikes since they take around 10 to beat.

 

Also be careful with how they stack. The instructions are misleading. They don't increase the drop rate % if you use more than one at once. They increase the % each time they don't drop an exotic. So use one, if you don't get an exotic from the Ultra and you use another one on the next boos, that one has a higher % of dropping an exotic. And so on. In my experience it takes about 4-6 bosses to get an exotic. But i have had as many as 3 in 6 and as little as 1 in 11. Its all RNG at the end of the day.

 

A couple of things. and Ultra is a yellow health bar enemy with a skull next to his name. These tend to be strike bosses, raid bosses and Taken champions. But there are some in story missions too. There are a few I've found that they don't work on. There's a Cabal tank in one of the new strikes, as the skull next to his name, but it didn't use up my coin when i killed it. There is a strike on mars where you fight 3 Psions, as far as i can tell, the first 2 don't count so don't waist a coin on each. You can tell if the coin is still active if you load up your characters menu (the screen where you see your character and can change his gear) There will be a IX symbol just to the left of his head in a small white box. This means you have an active coin and don't need to use another.

[DMN]

Looks like I probably should have held off on purchasing them until I reached level 40 with one of my characters, then. I'm 33 with my Hunter, just got to Venus in the storyline, and 23 with my Titan. I still feel like deleting them and restarting with all the DLC was the right choice, and my skills in PVE have come back pretty well. I'm more than able to hold up my end of strikes now.

 

Looking for an upgrade for my primary on the Hunter. I'm running with the MIDA Multi-Tool, went Scout Rifle to force myself to work on my aim. Hell of a gun in PVE, I'm loving it. It's still weird to be dropping legendaries and exotics for green gear at some points, though...

[Basara]

It wont take you too long to level from 34 to 40. I completed 2 missions, handed in 16 bounties and a couple of old public event packages on day one of TTK and i went from 34-40 straight away. The exotics you get from the engrams wont be usable until you are level 40 though, but you can still use the coins now while playing through the story and strikes to build up a collection if you want.

 

I agree on the green engrams. It took some adjusting. In the first story mission of The Taken king i was picking up green gear with higher light than my year one raid weapons and exotics.

 

Hit up a quick 6 strike streak this morning since i have the day off. Again, nothing to advance my Warlock but i still made some overall progress. I picked up another Sublime class item which i used on my Hunter this time. In fact i opened all the glove and chest armor engrams on my Hunter since its my weakest character. Doing that, I've managed to get him to 287 now with literally no play time. Scored another exotic engram, that's 3 in 15 Three of Coins which is about the same % as what i was getting out of farming the Scourge of Winter before the patch. I got a bunch more 291-297 blues i'm keeping to power up my exotics. And I've been hoarding the exotic engrams this week in preparation of my Warlock hitting 300 so i can try for some of those 310 versions.

 

I also leveled up FWC and the package gave me that fake Fatebringer, The Vanity, at 283 so i'll probably keep hold of that and may well put some infusion in it. 

[RIPPA]

God that Witches of Coven quest/mission thingy is no fucking joke.

Thank God I know the Cosmodrome (especially the Steppes) like the back of my hand

[glfpunk]

Found another group and went to the last checkpoint to complete the raid... Found a different group. Fuck that fight. There is so much going on it's so easy for something to go wrong. I don't know if I will be able to beat it before reset.

Played some court of Oryx with a couple friends and found an exotic engram. Had completely forgotten I had a coin at the ready. Got the Jade Rabbit! One of the only things I wanted out of the 55 coins I bought. The other gun I was after was the Telesto. I've actually gotten lucky on my engrams. I've used seven and gotten two so far. My drop rate when I farmed the first time was about one in five and a half or so.

I have to really work on these quests. I have so many of them and I just put them off every day.

[Basara]

The Jade Rabbit is my go to exotic right now and I've boosted it up to 299 so far. The only time I've used something different was this weeks nightfall to cook people with the Telestos void burn. It took a little adjusting to get the perk working for me since i used to go for the head shot every time but I've pretty much mastered it now. If you can get 2 to the body and 1 to the precision point you will never need to pick up primary ammo ever again. Enemies like Servitors are just a giant ammo reserve, they take several shots to kill and have an easy critical spot. I just farm them for ammo.

 

I'm not sure if we will get a chance to finish the raid this week either. It's a lot of effort trying to get a decent amount of time when people from 3 different time zones are all on. Wont be a problem once we know what we are doing and can progress through quicker but while we are still learning and boss fights are taking an hour+ each time it will be slow progress. I'm in no rush, it will get done eventually.

[RIPPA]

I think I misunderstood the Last Word Crucible Quest

 

It appears (and maybe everyone knew this already) that Last Word kills count more than kills by another means

 

I bought Last Word Y.2.0 because I am an idiot

 

Went into a match at 4%.

 

Got 15 kills with a 1.5 K/D

 

About 9 or 10 of those were with Last Word

 

finished at 19%

 

So yeah... that seems a lot more than 1% for kill, 2% for death

[Basara]

I think you get 2% for a head shot kill with The Last Word so that may account for the discrepancy.

 

Edit. Looks like kill streaks give increased bonus % too

[RIPPA]

Okay - that makes sense

I've been mostly doing the slow grind method of only equipping it when I have my super or heavy ammo (or if team is about to win)

My good match came on Pantheon so more long range maps please

[RIPPA]

Did my first Heroic Strike

Yeah... I am not going to complain when I get 4 legendary engrams (and a blue turned into a legendary)

[assfax]

This is still like a major game but if I get that Taken King deal somewhere around November when it flashes cheap it'll still be a "game" right?  I know it ain't supposed to be some sort of revelatory experience?

 Mainly I'm still just kind of perturbed that there was no PC version within the first 5 years.   We know it's coming.   Don't even act like it ain't.  I got a PS4 but it has pretty much zero playtime due to my PC being the same goddamned thing.  I have Driveclub, Second Son, Bloodborne and UFC. Those are the games.

[glfpunk]

Went back to Oryx tonight.  There were two people in the group who had beaten it before and everyone was 298 or 299 except for one guy at 291.  On our second run we got him a little past half health and were getting a pretty good rhythm going before someone made a mistake.  Ended up going a few tries after that with some random glitchy things going on so we went back to orbit and restarted it.  We killed that asshole.  I got two guns! The scout rifle and the auto rifle.  Scout was at 302 and the auto was at 305. Both put me at 299 but the auto rifle puts me just a sliver from 300.  Also advanced the Touch of Malice quest line.  Now I need to go find about 40 more Hadium flakes to turn in to Eris.  

 

Did a little Court of Oryx today on my own and advanced that Depose the Court Eris quest.  Will probably finish that up tomorrow.  I just need to win three tier 2 and one tier 3 to complete it and get the 300 artifact.  I don't know how much that will matter because my current one is at 298.  

 

Glad I completed it though.  It's a really deceivingly difficult raid because you're never really overwhelmed with enemies at any point, it's actually the opposite.  Early days of VoG it was the adds that would eat your lunch.  Basically at every stage of it other than the maze.  Looking back at every phase of this thing it all just seems so easy but it's all reliant on every person having a specific role and they can't fail at that role in almost every case.  I really like the design and think it's an awesome raid but they might have gone a bit overly complicated with the Oryx fight though.  There's just too much shit going on there.  

 

Edit: This run at Oryx tonight took about an hour and a half by the way.  

[J.T.]

The slow grind for my new Hunter continues.  Replayed Cayde's Stash as a Nightstalker with limited abilities and got the two Dead Ghosts I was missing in the Devil's Spire.  The Saint-14 card is pretty interesting.

 

The cutscene with Cayde-6 coming to the jumpship drydock while Amanda is modding Eris's ship with the stealth drive has not gotten old yet.  Nathan Fillion must've forfeited part of his salary to get all of the best lines in the expansion.

 

Going in with an underpowered sub-class was daunting.  No access to better jumps or Armor / Recovery / Agility nodes, so just about any steady damage will take down your shields and it takes a month of Sundays for your recovery to kick in.  I definitely need to take some sojourns out to the Cosmodrome to practice Shadowshot and how to effectively use my smoke grenades.

 

Also finished Petra's Taken War quest line and now have access to her bounties which help out a little.  I completed the Kill 100 Taken and Kill 10 Devoured / Consumed Taken bounties, so now all that is left is for me to go after Irxori, Lost to Oryx.  IIRC he's the zealot that is bound to the Skywatch so I either have to team up with some randoms (probably Euros) when I am at my 'rents house during the day or pray that there are other players camping him when I get there.

 

I had a blue engram upgrade to my new Dealbreaker auto-rifle that I kept but I also got a couple of Legendary Engrams that turned into MG's with shit stability, so those got shredded and I pocketed the LMs. 

 

Things should go a bit faster once Gunslinger is max level and I am dipping my toes back into PvP to use those bounties to fast level Bladesinger and Nightstalker.

 

My next story mission is The Dreadnaught.  It doesn't look like there are any Dead Ghosts in that mission so I can just do it like normal.  One of the DGs is in one of the PS exclusive strikes, so I guess I have to wait a year to get that card.  Looks like there are 3 DGs in the SABER strike, so I will probably do that with a couple of Friends who won't rush through.

[J.T.]

The Taken have to be the cheapest enemies in all of gamedom.  The instant shift dodge and those fucking darkness waves they spam at you really piss me off, especially when a Zealot spawns and there are like five or six Devoured nuking and blinding you while the Zealot uses his special attack.

 

That barely visible Zealot at the Citadel can fuck right off.  TTK is obviously a bone thrown to the hardcore clans.  It is a lot easier for dedicated fireteams to down a zealot than it is for casual solo players who will have to depend on the charity of randoms.

 

I have had people send me Friend Requests because I stick around to help fight Taken and assist in spawning / killing the Zealot rather than leave players hanging on my way to another zone.  Naturally I have an ulterior motive because I am XP grinding my skills and trying to score engrams and dropped weapons to turn in to Banshee, but I'd help out anyway.

[J.T.]

Has anyone gotten the mystery Wheel of Fortune / Hangman random patrol thing where you have to decrypt a message by performing some sort of action in game? 

 

I got a burst transmission while hunting a Zealot in the Mothyards and had to dance, score headshots, and kill enemies with my super in order to get the message text to show up. 

 

Got nine Strange Coins and XP as a reward.

[Basara]

Good work on the oryx kill glfpunk.

Took a quick crack at the deathsingers, got the last one down to the tiniest piece of health twice but I didn't have time to stick around too long. I don't know if they actually finished it or not.

It's going to be hard getting this raid down at the moment. Only 3 of us are in the UK, the other 3 are various parts of the US so one group of us has to play it at a ridiculous time.

It's a good raid but I really think a lot of these mechanics are out of spite on Bungies part. Everyone took the piss out of the first 2 raids and found ways to cheese it. Then everyone complained Skolas was a bullet sponge. So they've made a raid where you need at least 5 people for most of the it and if one person screws up chances are it's a wipe. It feels like being under levelled in the Crota hard mode fight on repeat for 6 hours at times.

Speaking of Crota, we stumbled on some people trying to take out Baby Crota in the tier 3 Court so we joined in. This is why you don't have matchmaking in a raid! First few attempts were just a giant cluster fuck. Everyone seemed to know the mechanics but there was no way to communicate who was doing what job. Once everyone realised the guy who initiated it should be running sword (he was over 300 and taking the green bastards health off in chunks) we 3 sworded it. Since it went well and we knew what was going on, somone else used a rune and we killed him again. Didn't get anything worthwhile directly from it but I got a 300 artefact from Eris for beating the Court. Not enough to go up a level but still 3 more light than my old artefact.

Has anyone gotten the mystery Wheel of Fortune / Hangman random patrol thing where you have to decrypt a message by performing some sort of action in game?

I got a burst transmission while hunting a Zealot in the Mothyards and had to dance, score headshots, and kill enemies with my super in order to get the message text to show up.

Got nine Strange Coins and XP as a reward.

I've heard of people encountering those but I haven't had a chance to do one myself. Not spent too much time in patrol lately. The bounties get done while I'm farming strikes and the only time I've gone on a patrol is to kill a Taken Champion.

[RIPPA]

Mis, Damien and myself did one of those decide thingys on Venus

I have zero memories what my reward was after completing it though.

It was amusing as it was the weirdest version of Wheel of Future ever. We would like two letters and then be hilariously wrong in our guesses.

[RIPPA]

Also finished Petra's Taken War quest line and now have access to her bounties which help out a little.  I completed the Kill 100 Taken and Kill 10 Devoured / Consumed Taken bounties, so now all that is left is for me to go after Irxori, Lost to Oryx.  IIRC he's the zealot that is bound to the Skywatch so I either have to team up with some randoms (probably Euros) when I am at my 'rents house during the day or pray that there are other players camping him when I get there.

 

I also still have to kill Irxori.

 

You will love it JT - there is a quest where Cade sends you to kill all the Champions on the Cosmodrome.

 

I would have killed the one in the Divide but I died and when I respawned the Walker had shown up and cock blocked me from getting back to the Champion (he was over by the tanks)

[misanthrope304]

Im running a complete set of dead orbit armor on my hunter (including cloak) and im sitting at 299 (crazy good blue and purple drops on my hunter, who is my main character, but i started on the titan last week). Cost a lot of lm's though, b7t worth it cuz it looks badass. I even have the dead orbit shotgun that i got from a D.O. package from ttk day one that ive infused from 245 up to 297.

Im at 300 with my raid ghost (doorway before warpriest from titan) on, boots (from golgoroth), and shotgun (deathsingers...more of oryx spawn that he sends to die by my hands). Id like to finish and send oryx into orbit today, but im not sure im going to have a chance, what with a 6 hr car ride on the agenda.

I started the raid at 289, by the time we killed the deathsingers i was sitting at 300 with my best shit on.

Oh yeah, that crota fanatic, weve been farming his ass over on the one lol. Ive been trying to get a blue primary to drop @ 295+...but the game is like "fuck you, here is a full set of armor at 298"

[misanthrope304]

3 strange coins, Phil

[RIPPA]

Oh yeah, that crota fanatic, weve been farming his ass over on the one lol.

 

I have fought him a fuckton but have yet to beat him.

 

I think mainly because I keep joining groups that have never beat him before.

 

I need one Antiquated Rune Summons victory and I am assuming the fanatic is the dude I need to get it.

 

Of course not getting an antiquated rune myself (since it seems to only drop in the Raid) is going to be an issue.

[glfpunk]

I got my antiquated rune from Eris in a package when I leveled her up to rank 5.  I'm not 100% sure that you need to be the one with the rune either.  It may count for you if you're on the fireteam. 

[RIPPA]

Oh yeah - you don't have to be the summoner. I just want to have one so I ensure that battle happens.

[Basara]

Rank 5 isn't a guaranteed rune it seems since I didn't get one when I levelled Eris up. I think they can also drop from Nightfalls. I've never actually had one, just a ton of tier 1 and 2 drop for me.

I can confirm you don't need to be the one to use the rune though. You don't even need to be in the fireteam. I finished that quest yesterday from joining one already in progress with some randoms.