Destiny 2

[RIPPA]

Putting the Flashpoint on Mars is helpful 

[J.T.]

13 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Putting the Flashpoint on Mars is helpful 

Yeah, it didn't take Nostradamus to see that coming.  I saw you online, but I was hip deep in Flashpoint and Heroic Strike bullshit last night.  There were clans out there constantly initiating EPs to the point where it took FOREVER for PEs to get started. 

And of course you had people hogging the Javeilin during PEs now that there is a new fetchit mission from Ana that involves getting Javelin kills and there was also a Javelin Kills related Daily Challenge yesterday.

I should be online tonight messing with my Titan and my Warlock or chasing down LMs with my Hunter.  If you want to run down Shaxx's Call To Action, shoot me a party invite...

[RIPPA]

yeah - I didn't finish the Javelin part of Ana's quest because I couldn't get enough time in PEs

And I was running into people - which is clearly the new trolling bit - who would activate a EP and then flee. I never had a decent run at one.

I finished the Flashpoint but that was it as I had to bail early again due to the storms fucking with my connection

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

I finished the Flashpoint but that was it as I had to bail early again due to the storms fucking with my connection

Yeah, I saw on the news where storms had pretty much destroyed everything between Richmond and Arlington. 

It rained hard this morning in the 804 and it's cloudy now, so I think we're due for another deluge tonight when the temperatures dip.

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

yeah - I didn't finish the Javelin part of Ana's quest because I couldn't get enough time in PEs .

I didn't even bother working on Ana's new mission yesterday.  I didn't even realize it had a Javelin Kill component until AFTER I completed the Flashpoint and got in my Javelin kills for the Daily Challenge. 

Then I got that nasty surprise when I went to turn in my ten kabillion Mars tokens and took a look at the Nascent Dawn mission marker in my Inventory.

Oh well..

The Flashpoint lasts all week, so I can get in some Valkryie time tonight and tomorrow after most of the community has put in their work and there are fewer douchebags on Mars.

The weekend will be a bust because we're headed up to Rhode Island to visit family and friends.  We get back on Sunday evening and I am off on Monday and Tuesday, but I have a significant list of Honey Dos to take care of.

[J.T.]

Oh, Suros Regime.  How I have missed you so much. 

You are total beast when working in tandem with my Titan's Actium War Rig.

And the beautiful ornament that brings back your old school look. 

It is like reuniting with a long lost friend.

 

[RIPPA]

Bingo - fuck the haters. I am so thrilled to have Suros Regime back.

I actually got my 2nd one from Cayde last night

In fact - Cayde kinda dicked me over as both items he gave me slightly improved slots that we already my high ones.

I need like 5 different things to get them over 345... I got none so far

[J.T.]

43 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Bingo - fuck the haters. I am so thrilled to have Suros Regime back.

Running it in Spooled Up mode to get to the Healing part of the magazine faster and wearing an Actium War Rig to extend ammo count is almost unfair in PvE. 

It would be more game breaking than Sweet Business + Actium War Rig if the Healing proced as often as it used to. 

The SR magazine nerfs from D1 obviously carried over to D2, but that's okay because the gun still does what I expect it to do:  keep my Titan alive in serious firefights where cover is a premium..

I didn't need to have my arm twisted to spend some Bright Dust on the D1 ornament.

This is the second weapon that Titans will benefit more from than other classes thanks to Exotic item synergy. I say that because nerf fearing Titan mains love to counter with "But, LUCKY PANTS AND CRIMSON~!", but Hunters know that those things items only synergize well if:

1. You're running as a Gunslinger ALL OF THE TIME.
2. You're halfway decent with Hand Cannons, which most people avoid like the plague.
3. You don't have some other awesome, multi purpose Exotic handy like the Foetracer or Knucklehead Radar.

Hunters have like two or three decent multi purpose Exotics and the rest favor one sub-class over another.  They don't get too many items like Ophidian Aspect or the Actium War Rig that are awesome no matter what sub-class they are running.

[RIPPA]

I gave up trying to solo the fucking Heroic mission dealie "Physic Psions or whatever the fuck it was called"

I dragged myself to the end boss but there was no way I was getting through that by myself because I am too underleveled to solo it. And that was with cheesing it by hiding on the stairs.

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

I gave up trying to solo the fucking Heroic mission dealie "Physic Psions or whatever the fuck it was called"

I dragged myself to the end boss but there was no way I was getting through that by myself because I am too underleveled to solo it. And that was with cheesing it by hiding on the stairs.

I'll be on tonight working on Mercury stuff with my Warlock and then going back to Mars with my Hunter to track down more Latent Memories.  I think I have less than 15 or so to go.

Message me so I can help you get your BrayTech Energy Weapon scout rifle... which is quite awesome by the way..

I got mine last night.  I had to spawn Escalation Protocols and burn all three of my Armory Codes to get the Javelin kills for the first part of Nascent Dawn 2/5, since the Bungie devs are being assholes this week and only seem to be generating non-WARSAT Public Events for people that weren't on for Day One of the Flashpoint.

And yes, retreat to the stairs when the Cabal jump on the defense point during the last part of the mission.  That is where the best cover is. 

This week has a stip for that mission (Elite Soldier?) where Kinetic and Power Weapons do more damage, so a headshot from a sniper rifle, fusion rifle blast, or a well placed rocket or grenade will obliterate just about anything. 

My TACOM homegirl and I ran the mission yesterday and I nearly decapitated the Void Flayer with my Frigid Jackal (Void).

Bring ANY Power Weapon other than a sword because the other stip is Momentum and going toe to toe with enemies on this mission is a losing proposition since you don't regenerate health and barrier strength unless you are sprinting.

Once you're done with the mission and finished with turning in shit to Ana, the cache you will be looking for is in the Lost Sector in the Glacial Basin.  The one where that thing is.

Spoiler

Uldren's slipfighter.

Or at least that's where the mission sent us for our reward.  Your reward cache may be someplace different if that part of the mission is affected by the game's difference engine.

[RIPPA]

Yeah - you have to match your weapon type with their shield type to do any sort of damage and at this moment I have only one good Energy Weapon (which is Arc)

It didn't help that Zavala AND Hawthorne both gave me the same types of equipment that I already had better versions of.

I will never get past 348

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

Yeah - you have to match your weapon type with their shield type to do any sort of damage and at this moment I have only one good Energy Weapon (which is Arc)

1. Your Power Weapons also do elemental damage and the damage is boosted for Power Weapons in this mission thanks to the Elite Soldier stip.  That's going to be your money maker for anything with a barrier.  Try to conserve Purple ammo and then unload during the boss fight.
2. DO NOT USE A SWORD AS YOUR POWER WEAPON IN THIS MISSION~!!!  Momentum is the stip, so close combat is a risky proposition.
3. Your Kinetic Weapons will also get a damage boost for this mission thanks to Elite Soldier, so they will work just fine on Redbars and Yellowbars.
4. Yeah, Energy Weapons will help to a certain degree, but not as much as heavier ordinance..
5. For anything you don't have a corresponding weapon for, there's always your grenades and your Super..
6. You're also a Titan so you will be able to Shoulder Smash stuff and do elemental damage according to your sub-class.  Momentum won't affect you as much as it will affect me running a Hunter.  I'll be using my Melee as a last resort.
7. Should go without saying, but save your Super for the boss fight.
8. We're up against Cabal so the barriers you should be prepared to break are Void (Void Flayer, Redbar and Yellowbar Incinerators) and Solar (Solar Flayer, Redbar & Yellowbar Centurions).  IIRC the only Arc barrier you will have to deal with is the one that the Arc Flayer brings up.
9. During the last push, if you kill the Scions before they get to the conversion point, they don't turn into Flayers.  This is what you saved your Super for.  If you have any Power Ammo to spare, that's the time to use EVERYTHING.

The only think you need to be mindful of is that Momentum is bullshit and you won't regen your Health or your Barrier unless you are sprinting.   You're going to die a lot if you are firing your weapon out in the open (like my squishy Warlock partner did..) so find cover first and then start shooting.

You will get to 350 but it will be very painful.  From the looks of the dev notes, it's designed to be that way.

[J.T.]

Rippa and I ran the Nascent Dawn mission and got his scout rifle.  Headshots for days.

I got my Overdrive sparrow this morning! I now have a full set of Exotic vanity items (Sparrow, Ghost Shell. Jumpship)!

I AMUSE TOO EASILY~!!!

You don't need the Valk for the target closest to Rasputin.  If you clear the area of all Frozen Hive, you can access the door to Rasputin's server room. 

When you get to the catwalk, turn left and you should see the LM in the distance.  It is a Solar target, so it's a good thing you have that Solar damage BrayTech scout rifle, right?

Another tricky target is in the Lost Sector near BrayTech.  Once you get into the room where the Yellowbar Knight boss is, there is a room with partially opened glass doors on the right towards the back of the room. 

The doors only stay open if the boss is alive, so you have to destroy the target (it takes an Arc damage weapon to do it) BEFORE putting the boss down.

I handed the Azure Azazyel Exotic Sparrow and this weird looking Disco Ball looking Exotic Ghost Shell that I got from Tess yesterday down to my Titan.  Now I have to get his big ass an Exotic Jumpship.  I will probably buy Saint-14's Glass Pigeon for him if it comes up for sale soon..

It doesn't seem right for him to be piloting that thin little stick of a Jumpship called Holborn's Splint.

My poor neglected Warlock...  at least he has a 160 speed Legendary Sparrow.

[RIPPA]

[RIPPA]

I am also happy that the admit that the brick wall you seem to hit when you get to 345 light was harder than they anticipated and they are looking into how to make it a "smoother transition"

[J.T.]

I forgot to mention that I also got the Worldline Zero Exotic Sword last night. 

The cache is located in the Lost Sector near BrayTech and it takes 40 LMs to unlock it.

I haven't used it yet, so no thoughts, impressions, or weapon review right now.

[Basara]

I'm back! I've missed the conversation since Warmind dropped so i'm a little behind! A few points and observations before we get back into this thing proper.

The story mode, typical Bungie, it's enjoyable but too short. Kind of cheap making the 2 longer missions count as the 2 new strikes as well. Despite playing a bunch of Heroic Strikes the PS exclusive hasn't popped up yet.

Speaking of strikes. The Heroics are now harder than the Nightfalls. They have modifiers and are light 350, the Nightfall is just a harder strike now with no modifiers and light 270. That seems like an unusual decision unless there's something i'm missing.

Escalation Protocol, holy crap is that hard! we are massively under levelled for it at around 350, it's enemies are 370-380. We managed to get to the 3rd event once before failing, turns out there's 7 all together. I honestly didn't expect the new end game patrol content to actually be end game after how easy Court of Oryx and Archons Forge was.

Looks like there's a bunch of collectables and quests this time around that have been rewarding new weapons.

We tried a raid for the first time in forever! Not the new one but we went back to Eater of Worlds since we'd done a bit of it before. Didn't get it done but got to the final boss and actually got some half decent loot too. The raid grenade launcher and gauntlets. Along with a powerful engram. Not bad since we didn't kill the final boss. Our problem was we couldn't do enough damage, we were trying to 5 man it, but the gear seems to help. The gauntlets i got increase all damage by 20% in a raid after a melee kill. Other gear seems to have slimier perks. So if it stacks it should make damaging the boss, and the adds, so much easier.

I don't like that they've reduced the amount of powerful engrams you can get each week making that grind to max light even worse. Clan engrams are no longer powerful, they are just regular legendaries, and exotic engrams don't drop at a higher light anymore, rather they just drop at the same level as a normal legendary.

All in all though it's got me hooked again for a bit, especially if we can get a some what consistent raid group going again.

[RIPPA]

I now own a Sleeper Simulant

[RIPPA]

Boy I was gonna complain about needing to complete 10 escalation waves but I immediately finished one as soon as I got the quest so maybe it won't be too bad.

I need to start IBing tonight

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

Boy I was gonna complain about needing to complete 10 escalation waves but I immediately finished one as soon as I got the quest so maybe it won't be too bad.

I need to start IBing tonight

I am also one EP in to Ana's new mission, but I am in no hurry to complete it.  

Everyone and their brother will be working on that thing, so there should be no shortage of overachieving big box clans spamming EPs for their members during peak time for a while.   I should be able to leech waves from someone this week or next week.

Nascent Dawn 3/5 can wait until after I get some Season 3 IB matches under my belt and start building Crucible kill counts on my Orimund's Anvil auto rifle and Manannan SR4 scout rifle. 

Shoot me a msg if you see me online this afternoon and want to PvP.  If the DARPA crew can tear themselves from Fortnite for a day or two, we might have some help. 

I should be online by 1630 or 1700 after I get to the 'rent's crib and get something to eat.  I think I need to knock out two more Heroic Strikes and get my Luminous Engram.

[J.T.]

Two ships passing in the night.

I had an issue with my dad last night (nothing serious, just took a lot of convincing to get him in the house before dark as he got fixated on tidying up the garage) and I saw you calling it a day just as I logged on.

I didn't play any IB, though.   I got my alts through the Flashpoint and did some of my leftover missions on the other planets.

I'll be back on tonight around dinner time if you are up for IBing again.

[RIPPA]

I got home really late and was exhausted.

Played long enough to get two more escalation waves done and then the dog demanded I take her outside

Today should be normal for me

[J.T.]

I need to play first thing in the morning when the Brit kids are on more often.

I am up to 6 out of 10 EPs thanks to a 360 LL fireteam from some UK clan that went apeshit in front of BrayTech.   Once they started shooting, everyone in the zone came to help.  That's what I like to see, ulterior motives not withstanding..

We never made it past Level 2 since that fucking Soaring Keen has a bajillion yellow bar hit points, but we spammed enough Level 1s to get one of their crew his Nascent Dawn 3/5 advancement. 

Bungie really needs to bend the rules a bit for Mars so that you can either bring down two fireteams of three or allow you to get a four man fireteam planetside. EPs are fucking ridiculous.  You can barely get past the Level 2 boss even with everyone in the zone pounding on it and even then, someone has to burn one of their Armory Codes and start flinging javelins.

I was flattered to get a clan invite from one of them but sorry kids, I'm not British and I have to be to work in a half-hour.

I think I also stole someone's DARCI catalyst. I guess I need to start breaking it out more often instead of using Frigid Jackal as my preferred PvE sniper rifle and begin the lonely trek towards a MW DARCI..  I think I am a bit more than halfway done with my Crimson catalyst.

Rippa & I got our IB Daily Challenges done in like one match.  Just like old times.  We went 2-3 overall, but we put up plenty of murders and rarely strayed below 1.0 Efficiency even when we played like salted ass.

We both realized that we don't really like to play Crucible by ourselves, but some of our best matches have come via solo play.  I guess I need to trust my guns and my grit more often.  I like how Shaxx doesn't seem to want me to earn any Crucible armor ornaments this season since unlocking them requires me to use weapons types I would never use in PvP.  Autos and Scouts FTW, baby. 

I haven't gotten a sniper rifle kill in the Crucible since I perched silently on rocks and camped Control zones with Patience & Time.

Saladin's database must have gotten tweaked.  I think both Rippa and I got 350-ish Better Devils hand cannons for our IB DC rewards and I also got a 348 Battle Scar pulse rifle (353 after I bought a purple Kinetic Damage mod for it). 

Both of the weapons that I received were already Masterworked.  Bungie seems to be putting up crazy specced gear as the incentive to participate in the Iron Banner.  Whatever you can't use yourself, you can either shred for the cores if it is MW or infuse high LL items into your favorite gear to get you closer to the 370 mark..

Oh, and I got my Sleeper Stimulant last night.  I'll have to do the mission again sometime soon.  My homegirl and I two-manned the mission, but her connection crapped out at the worst possible time thanks to a power outage and I ended up having to kill Xol by myself during the final battle. 

[RIPPA]

I got two more EP levels done (I am at 5 of 10)

First time I got to level 3.

Then the Bungie servers shit the bed and everyone got booted so I just went to bed

[J.T.]

I won't be on much this weekend since it is a holiday.  We have family coming in from New York and I will be grilling on Saturday and drinking imported beer, eating leftover brats, and watching the Indy 5 on Sunday. 

If the weather is shitty on Monday and I can get my boo to spend the afternoon studying for her Security + rather than finding shit for me to do around the house, I'll be online shooting things and trying to back into more EP completions or try to complete the DCs for the IB..

[J.T.]

Okay, so I have filtered through my Lost Memory Fragment nodes and read the lore pages for the Overdrive sparrow, the Shadow Trespass jumpship, and the Worldline Zero sword.

Spoiler

Enough clues for me to come to the worst kept secret realization that the Exo Stranger from Destiny 1 is Ana's sister:  Elsie Bray.

She integrated Vex tech into Clovis Bray research projects like the Eon Trespass jumpship and the Stranger's Rifle during the Golden Age and (like her sister, Ana) fucked things up royally for the rest of us when the Vex came to wipe us all out because they figured that "we" knew too much and should be extinguished before humanity became a direct threat.

The LMs are a countdown to the day she uploaded her consciousness ("divergence") into a custom Exo body that had Vex tech incorporated into it.  That's how she's able to teleport.  So technically she's not from the future, but her Exo frame gives her the capability to travel through alternate timelines just like Osiris can.

And it makes sense that Elsie's Exo body would be state of the art given that you learned all of this if you were like me and interacted with all of the scannable terminals in the Hellas Bay Lost Sector:

A hawkeyed DARPA clansman that still plays both D1 and D2 noticed that the halved circle logo on Ana's scarf:

is emblazoned in the forehead of the Exo Stranger:

It's not the Clovis Bray logo, but it still links the two of them together.

As far as I know, there still hasn't been any revelations concerning who she was speaking to during the cut scene on Venus, but speculation is that it is a yet unnamed AI (like Rasputin) that controls whatever Trespass class jumpship she's using as transport when she is not on board.

It can't be a Ghost because Elsie is not a Guardian like her sister.

So, those Vex nodes on Io that were tampered with on Io and Nessus to allow Exo to interface with the Vex network?  Most likely that was Elsie's work.

And the repurposed SIVA nodes that were tampered with on Io in the Warmind JYS vault?  Ana covering her tracks while trying to reactivate Rasputin.

Coincidence that they may have been on the same moon at nearly the same time?  Probably not.