Destiny

[RIPPA]

Yeah - that is the same way it is doing it on the Xbox

And for us it is a 36 gig download.

But definitely something screwy was going on because the first attempt at a download it deleted Dark Below and House of Wolves for some reason

[RIPPA]

I wasn't a rusty as I thought I was going to be.

Of course the game was very friendly and basically said we are going to ease you back in by giving you your bread and butter - and everything was arc based.

Now a couple of questions

- is there any reason for me to keep the sparrow racing bounties and gear with no light level? I mean I assume Sparrow racing will come back eventually (like IB) but I don't want to waste the bounty space if they haven't said anything about it in a while (And the same goes with the racing gear that has now light level)?

- did they tweak the orb creation again. Since suddenly I can generate 7 orbs of light at a time again. If so - maybe I can finally finish that fucking quest that requires 3 7-orbs of light creations?

 

[Basara]

I assume Sparrow Racing will be back eventually. It seems like a hell of a waist to create an entire new game mode and just have it as a one time event. Hell if they had kept it under wraps a little longer and added a bunch more tracks they could have probably got away with charging for it like a mini DLC. I deleted the unfinished bounties. The only possible use for them would be if it comes back with an entire new set of bounties so you can hand both sets in on day one.

The gears down to your preferences. I like to collect things so I've kept mine. They do give you an advantage in the races so you'll start off on level footing with other people if it ever comes back. But it's not a huge advantage. 

Haven't noticed a difference with the orb drop but i don't really pay attention. If you're having trouble with the 7 orb quest just go to the Undying Mind. Either the stairs in the middle or the boss fight it's self when the majors teleport in. I did it by accident in there the first time without even realizing.

Hell of a Prison run tonight. We carried through our 308 buddy to get him some new gear and the bastard got the new Taken ghost on his first try. He also got the new Malok helm on his first run of the new strike and his very first exotic was Gjallarhorn. I hate him. Then we two manned the last prison we needed on our alts. We've got it down to a fine art now and got the 90,000 points done in just 2 games. Along with a crap load of fallen and queen legendary gear from Variks, I also got 2 of the 3 Prison exotics to drop.

Leveling is going real well. I've got my main up to 323 and my alts to 320 and 319 in 3 days of playing this. 

In unrelated news, i still cant kill Ebrietas in Bloodborne, goddamn squid!

[Eivion]

So the game for some reason thinks I abandoned the main quest that I finished long ago. It also had me complete the Dark Below which may have happened, but I don't recall beating the last mission. And even with this I seem to be fine doing House of Wolves.

[RIPPA]

Well rumblings are now that they Bungie hid a major hint in the new update that the next Destiny related release will be 9/20

http://kotaku.com/well-heres-a-fun-new-destiny-conspiracy-theory-1771072131

[Basara]

Farming the Challenge of the Elders is the way to go. Our 3rd wasn't on for Trials so we knocked out another Nightfall and then hit up CoE. Nightfalls are relevant again, i got the new Malok hood at 322 and a random helm at 323 along with a Sparrow Racing Kit. CoE is better than strikes if you're after gear, we got two manning it down to about 9 mins. You could probably do it in 5 or 6 with 3 people. I ended up with the Queensbreaker Bow at 327, the Warlock bond at 328 and the awesome looking Ghost at 327. On top of that i got 2 exotic engrams that netted me a 326 Dragon's Breath and a 327 Saint-14 and a crap load of blue infusion fodder at 315+

[RIPPA]

The one nice thing for me is that since I stopped at Light level 306 - I can get increase just from simple shit.

Like I got another Dead Orbit rank and got a 312 Sniper rifle which is the highest secondary light level I now have.

[Basara]

On 4/15/2016 at 11:34 PM, RIPPA said:

The one nice thing for me is that since I stopped at Light level 306 - I can get increase just from simple shit.

Like I got another Dead Orbit rank and got a 312 Sniper rifle which is the highest secondary light level I now have.

I'd rank up the Gunsmith too if you get chance. I never used to bother because the reward packages were 280 before and most of the guns seemed to have terrible perks but he drops weapons up to 330 now. If you are 306 you should be getting weapons dropping around the 310 level. He gave me a rather nice full auto Pulse Rifle at 329 yesterday. Just make sure you are wearing your highest level gear when you pick up your faction/Gunsmith etc packages.

Managed to hit 326 with my Warlock last night. That's 9 levels in 5 days without ever stepping foot in the raid. Also got my Titan to 325 and Hunter to 323. We've farmed 24 Challenge of the Elders over the past 5 days and it looks like the drop rate for end game rewards is a little over 50% or so. I've had 14 323-330 drops in those 24 games. We stuck on a House of Judgment rep boost last night and ranked Variks up in 2 hours to get another 330 gun a package. The trip from 330-335 will be a bit of a slog without raiding since Iron Banner and Exotics are really the only place that will drop them for me but there's no content over 330 anyway and even that, at the moment, is doable at less than 320 light.

[EVA]

Challenge of Elders is absurdly easy this week.  You're a fool if you don't score what basically amounts to free loot for your characters.  No guarantee the modifiers or enemy groupings will be quite this easy going forward.

I think the big "problem" (from Bungie's perspective, if they didn't intend it to be this easy) is that Variks's penalty for taking too long really isn't all that punitive.  It's something like 500 points ever couple of minutes.  You can easily make that up in, like, 20 seconds with one good mob wipe.  That makes it possible to just leisurely hang around, mopping up adds to pad your score.

Yesterday, we did a two-man run and put up 45,000 each time through.  Today, we might experiment to see if it's possible to hit 90,000 on one trip.

[Basara]

12 minutes ago, EVA said:

Challenge of Elders is absurdly easy this week.  You're a fool if you don't score what basically amounts to free loot for your characters.  No guarantee the modifiers or enemy groupings will be quite this easy going forward.

I think the big "problem" (from Bungie's perspective, if they didn't intend it to be this easy) is that Variks's penalty for taking too long really isn't all that punitive.  It's something like 500 points ever couple of minutes.  You can easily make that up in, like, 20 seconds with one good mob wipe.  That makes it possible to just leisurely hang around, mopping up adds to pad your score.

Yesterday, we did a two-man run and put up 45,000 each time through.  Today, we might experiment to see if it's possible to hit 90,000 on one trip.

Yup, the first 2 characters we did it on, as soon as Variks got impatient we smashed the boss. We ended up with about 37000 each run. On our 3rd characters we just took the time to kill every wave, even after Variks got annoyed, and you are easily making more points than you loose. I don't think we ever actually lost any. I think our record for one CoE was 49,000. You could crack 50,000 but I don't think it's possible to do all 90,000 in one run. Maybe 3 people, with 2 getting assists and one getting the headshot might be able to rank it up enough. Plus you loose a fair amount of bonus kills in the last round due to Shanks not having a critical spot. Our 'record' for farming it was about 20 kills total between us. We just tether the boss and burn him down 

I think this week is just a gift to us and they will crank up the difficulty on Tuesday. Who's up for a Fallen round with arc burn and lightswitch?

 

[Basara]

So, it seems the end of mission drops in the CoE for Ghosts and Class items (and the 3 exotics?) go to 335 too. I initially thought it was just the 2 items from Variks that dropped up to 335 and the normal rewards were 330 since Bungie love the grind. But that's not the case, I got a 331 Ghost and my friend got a 332 cloak. 

It's almost like Bungie have just decided to let us have fun playing the game for once....

[EVA]

Challenge of Elders is definitely more challenging this week (particularly the 2nd round with the Cabal boss with the Psion flayers), but even then, me and a buddy still just pulled off a 2-man run with a score of 40,000.

[Basara]

Yeah, definitely a step up in difficulty this week. We struggled that Cabal round the first time it popped up. A correctly set up Voidwalker is so much fun in there. The only time I fired my gun in the Hive round was to kill wizards and damage the boss. I was getting my grenade to charge before the one I just threw had finished exploding.

Got my Warlock to 330 yesterday. The grind returns when you hit 330 (unless you  raid which I haven't done for a couple of months). But even then you still feel like you're making progress. Every package from the vanguard/factions/gunsmith etc drops at 330 now and exotics decode at 331+. So it's all infusion fodder to build up your other characters and gear. My usual shoes problem has returned. Despite me being 330 my boots are still the 316 raid boots from months ago. The only ones I ever got. I just can't get a damn pair of shoes! If I can get some to drop I'll be 331, maybe even 332.

The Iron Banner is back on Tuesday with Clash and "totally fixed drop rates. No seriously. We promise". I'll believe it when I see it! Apparently there were several issues. Higher rank gear and normal legendary drops were in the loot table at lower ranks so you'd end up with nothing. They've fixed this by getting rid of all non Banner legendaries and the rank restrictions. So you are eligible for any of Saladins drops right from your first game. I used to get a drop from maybe 1 in 10 games.

[EVA]

IB is AMAZINGLY glitched right now.

[Basara]

14 hours ago, EVA said:

IB is AMAZINGLY glitched right now.

What's wrong with it? I've not had the pleasure yet. I was just going to play on the Monday. I've got enough bounties left over from last time to nearly jump to rank 5 on my main then I was just going to do the dailies in one go on my alts and take advantage of the rep boost. But I hear the drop rates are actually fixed and if you're high enough light it's throwing out 335 gear like it's going out of style. Might put a few extra games in and farm on my Warlock for boots and primary infusion fodder.

Managed to hit 333 on the Warlock last night thanks to both the gun and armour dropping at 335 from Variks. Prison is another easy one this week. Trickle makes it somewhat annoying but the melee killing is fun. Plus it's an easy one to farm again. Aside from the Fallen round at the start the other 2 bosses are stationary and easily burnable. And even then the Fallen boss is nowhere near as bad as the Cabal last week. It's basically a Taken Skolas and can be killed quickly with heavy the same way.

[EVA]

For about 30 minutes after IB went live, everyone's rep didn't reset, so you could buy whatever you wanted, like the good old days of the IB reset glitch.  Obviously that's not the same boon as it was in Y1 when drops weren't as good and there were no rank packages, BUT I went ahead and banked the god roll on the IB auto rifle, just because.

Also, and I'm not sure this is a glitch but surely it's not "working as intended," I got numerous 320+ rocket launcher drops when I still still on rank 0-2.  I know they said there would be drops at those low levels now, but usually the weapons don't come into your loot tabel until rank 3.

[Basara]

You know what, I actually logged in to pick up any bounties I needed (hoarding them to do over the weekend) and didn't even notic I could buy the gear! Both guns have great perks this time.

The second thing is actually working as intended. They mentioned it in last weeks update. Basically there was an issue with previous IBs where you could roll a reward from the loot table you weren't eligible for. For example your drop during rank 2 would have been the rank 4 reward so you got nothing. Hence the low drop rates. To combat that, and to stop people having to spend more time at a certain rank if they were after a specific peice of gear, they just made all drops available from rank 0. Seems to have worked as people are receiving a lot more gear this time.

[Basara]

A fairly successful Iron Banner considering the small amount of games i played. About 15 across the three characters since i had most of the bounties left over from previous Banners. Decent drops but a larger variety would have been nicer. 4 Class Items, 3 at 335 and one at 334. So at least all my characters have a 335 class item now. And one pair of Hunter shoes at 333, the best he's got.

Rank 5 drops were the Auto Rifle at 335, the Titan helm at 335 and the Rocket Launcher at 334.

My Warlock is now 334 and my Titan and Hunter are 333. Might actually hit the light cap before they increase it again this time.

[RIPPA]

via leaked marketing material

Quote

Destiny’s next expansion is called Rise of Iron, according to leaked marketing materials that popped up on Reddit last night. The expansion, which is expected in September, should be officially revealed at E3.

Two sources familiar with Bungie confirmed the authenticity of this poster to Kotaku last night. The Rise of Iron expansion will feature a new raid (likely Fallen-themed) and will be larger than the two year-one DLC packs, according to a source. (Of course, as The Taken King showed us, the amount and scale of content in a Destiny expansion can vary wildly and it may not be fair to compare this to previous DLC.) It’s not clear how this expansion is related to Destiny’s regular Iron Banner PVP event, but that appears to be Iron Banner maestro Lord Saladin brandishing a hammer (or axe) in the poster.

Rise of Iron’s raid is based loosely on the raid that was cut from last year’s House of Wolves DLC, according to sources. At one point Bungie had planned to launch it in April, but it was delayed a while back.

 

[RIPPA]

Oh and Trials of Osiris was cancelled this weekend because players discovered a unlimited Heavy Ammo glitch. (And by proxy - there won't be an Iron Banner until they fix it)

From the Weekly Update

Quote

Rocket Science

Heavy Ammunition is a rare commodity in the Crucible, and with good reason! There are few defenses against a well-aimed Rocket that lands squarely at your feet. We limit the deliveries of purple crates to the battlefield to make those explosive moments the highlight of a match.

When we learned that some Guardians had discovered a way to earn unlimited rockets, we knew it was time for a bug hunt. Rather than punish players for playing the game in a way we didn’t predict, we’ve been waging an investigation into our code. These things happen, so please don’t panic. We’re on the case - and we’ve slayed more dreaded bugs than these.

In the meantime, Trials of Osiris is cancelled for this weekend.

The thought of a Trials map being renamed “Rocket Town” sends a shiver up our spine. The esteemed Brother Vance will be ordered to stand down. Trials of Osiris will return of course - and that right soon - but we’re going to ensure that we can restore the Heavy economy to its usual balance.

We know this will come as a disappointment to some. Our hope is that it won’t be as disappointing as being denied a trip to the Lighthouse by an opponent with a Rocket Launcher that works like a clown car.

The same holding pattern applies to Iron Banner. Lord Saladin will be granted approach to the Tower once our work is done. Please watch this space for updates.

 

[EVA]

Ugh.  Banner was a GOLD MINE last time around.  I was really looking forward to getting at least one of my characters to 335 next time.

[Basara]

I actually managed to get my last 2 characters to 335 tonight after hitting it on my main a few weeks ago.Scored some 335 exotic boots i can use as infusion fodder for my Hunter then a trip to the Court of Oryx netted me the last 2 335 artifacts i needed. I could do with a 3rd 335 Ghost so i don't have to swap them about but that's a minor problem. Haven't stepped foot in the raid for months, in fact I've still not finished hard mode, yet I've made more progress in the past month just playing casually than i did in the 7 months since TTK was released. Hopefully they stick with the multiple paths to max light with the next expansion.

[Basara]

24 hours after getting all 3 characters to 335 i finally got around to getting the Destiny Platinum. I only needed Flawless Raider and a few salvage captures so i figured i may as well go for it. We 2 manned a Crota's End normal mode and after a slight screw up on the bridge, got it on our second try. It's crazy how much of a joke that raid is now you are overleveled. The Vault still has its challenges but all of Crota's Ends mechanics can pretty much be cheesed. I got the remaining Salvage captures in 2 games.

We decided to do some Ghost hunting then. That and Kings Fall hard mode are all i really have left to do in Destiny. I'll be settling into an even more casual play again soon until the new content drops in September.

[misanthrope304]

Came back to this at the last iron banner, now im sitting at 334 on my hunter...need a heavy, ghost, boots, and helmet.   I still need to do kings fall on hard, and complete a raid without dying, but yesterday I completed the salvage probes part for my achievements.  I think it was the third time I played salvage, and we mercy ruled the fuckers...1 guy quit about a minute in and we all had at least 5.0 k/d.  

[J.T.]

It has been a while since I gave more than zero fucks about Destiny.  New glitches do not make a return seem more likely.

I got the Salvage achievement a long time ago back when running Bladesinger wasn't a complete joke thanks to the fuck-ups to hitbox recognition.  Playing in a coordinated fireteam with players who know what's what makes things a lot easier.