Destiny 2

[RIPPA]

Lord I can only imagine how long it will take to update everything once I hook my XBOX back up to the internet

[J.T.]

*checks D2 app*

THANK YOU, ADA~!  THANK YOU SO MUCH~!

I can finally get this Tatara Gaze related Black Armory stuff done, push on with this A Study In Obsidian riddle bullshit, and knock out another long standing Pursuit out of my backlog. 

And fuck, the Flashpoint is on Titan.  Have to wait a bit longer for Tangled Shore to come back into the rotation so I can get my last Most Loyal lorebook entry.

Edited March 5, 2019 by J.T.

[RIPPA]

 

[Eivion]

10 hours ago, J.T. said:

I think this is the article where I found links to the story. Stupid internet filters at work will not let me confirm.

Knowing Bungie, they will mess with my OCD and have a triumph for completing each Joker's Wild story angle and compel me to level up either my Titan or my Warlock.

Interesting stuff though I'm not sure what was there that made you dislike

Spoiler

Hideo.

Drifter on the other hand has always been questionable. Does kind of feel though lie they are leading into something of a civil war for Destiny 3. At the very least a schism is definitely coming.

[J.T.]

17 hours ago, RIPPA said:

 

It can't be a coincidence that the two maps where Guardians can fall to their deaths are now glitched.  

16 hours ago, Eivion said:

Interesting stuff though I'm not sure what was there that made you dislike

The blurb with 

Spoiler

Hideo might not be on that page.

There is a bit on one of the narratives where Hideo says something elitist and somewhat sexist that annoyed me.

I think he referred to the Praxic Fire warlock who is central to one of the new storylines as a girl or something and I think Ikora responds by jumping into his shit.

I did jack and squat last night.  I was so busy trying to knock out Powerful Gear stuff to grind my light level up again that I did not take time out for any of the new game modes.  I got a Tatara Gaze, but I didn't go to Volunndr to finish the puzzle.

I do, however, have a complete set of Blacksmith armor so I can run the table on the Study In Obsidian pursuit and complete the three Forge ignitions with full BA gear after I do the Izanagi's Burden / Taken Encounter at Niobe Labs and finish the Satou part of the Volundr puzzle.

I will be glad when this thing is done so that I can shred all of this extra Blacksmith armor I have been lugging around for the past three weeks.

Edited March 6, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

Oh, I got the new Liar's Handshake exotic Hunter gauntlets yesterday and used them in the Crucible.

The perk buffs the initial damage for Arcstrider melee attacks and heals them after a melee kill.  It also buffs the melee damage for the other Hunter sub-classes, but only after if you are hit first and I think the healing factor only procs for Arcstrider melee attacks..

The item is very niche.   On the plus side, Hunters FINALLT have a OHK melee in the Crucible and you will win most of the close combat exchanges that you are used to losing, but trade-off is that Arcstriders are arguably the worst sub-class to play in PvP if you are a Hunter.  

The melee buff works for all Hunter subclasses, but the healing only procs if you are an Arcstrider.

If you are running Arcstrider, you probably won't want to trade the enhanced Super duration that Raiden Flux grants you for the melee buff that this item offers.

Overall, the Nightstalker's Spectral Blades is a more effective roaming super than Arcstaff is IMO and of course Thousand Cuts is probably the best Super you can run as a Hunter in the Crucible despite the nerfs.  The chance of you being shot out of a Flash Super are slim and none, so your timing and aim are your worst enemies.

And finally, the item annoys me since Bungie insists on continuing to create Exotics for Hunters that only one sub-class can benefit from.

The gauntlets are pretty rad looking and the ornament makes them look even better, so they will definitely scratch that aesthetics itch if you have one.

Edited March 6, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

Eververse continues to have awesome cosmetic armor sets for lore nerds that drop with shit perks. 

Last season, Tess had the armor sets for Andal Brask (Hunter), Wei Ning (Titan), and Ulan Tan (Warlocks).  IMO, the skins for the Eververse armor for last season should've been used instead of the ugly Vigil of Heroes shit, but I digress.

This season, it looks like the armor set for Hunters is based on the legendary Six Coyotes, but the boots currently on sale do not fucking have Traction on them.  

I like my free Mobility bump, so I will have to depend on RNG for a good drop and then I would collect a full set short of the body armor and craft that Sixth Coyote exotic armor chest piece to complete my outfit..

Then I would angst over what shader I should use to bring the ensemble together.... and then people would hate me when I played Crucible because I'd be doing this all day long.

 

Edited March 7, 2019 by J.T.

[Eivion]

I just did two rounds of Gambit Prime late last night and collected some enhancement cores from Spider before the reset. Hopefully I do a deeper dive into the new dlc stuff tonight. Gambit Prime is interesting. It will take some time getting used to the maps for it. So far the new mechanics seem to work well enough though I did have noticeably worse run than what I'm used to having with gambit. That may have just been because i was running with a Nightstalker instead of my usual solar class.

[J.T.]

I have still played zero Gambit Prime.

I did, however, put the Study in Obsidian datapad triumph to bed and unlocked the Platinum Starling jumpship triumph for forging 100 total weapon frames.  I only need to get a Begusian Night shader to finish the Black Armory Collection Seal.

I HIGHLY recommend using Ninja Pups's solo guide for the Niobe Labs encounter.  The shooting puzzle for the Niobe Labs part isn't that hard and the symbols are visible BEFORE you start the mission, so you can make a couple of test runs to get a feel of position before you start the mission for reals.

It's pretty obvious that this encounter was designed for a fireteam, though.  Once you complete the shooting puzzle, a bunch of Taken will spawn and there will be three bosses with defensive barriers that can only be brought down with the Izanami's Burden. 

That will be tricky since your load-out at the beginning of the mission will be the Spiteful Fang / Tatara Gaze / Hammerhead.  During the fracas, you will have to find time to swap out the Fang for the Burden and I would definitely swap out the Tatara Gaze for a Ringing Nail or Right Side of Wrong in the EW slot.

Once you swap weapons, you will have ZERO ammo for the Burden, so you will have to survive long enough to kill adds and hope they drop enough Special Ammo for you to get to killin'.  If you were with two or three other guys, someone would already have a Burden ready to start bringing barriers down.

There are debating theories about whether or not normal shots from the Burden will bring down the barrier, so I would just stick to Conventional Wisdom and only use Honed Edge shots against the Boss's barriers.  The extra damage the Honed Edge shot will do when it brings the barrier down will definitely help.

Once you bring down two of the Taken bosses, the last Taken boss will spawn Forge Warden shield drones to protect him in addition to his Burden barrier..  I know, right?  Just keep fighting and stay patient and eventually you will be able to clear the encounter.  Destroy the drones, bring his barrier down with the Burden, and chip away at his yellow bar as best you can.  

I recommend saving your Super for the last push when the Boss is down to about a tenth of his health.

The bad news is that if you die, you will have to start all over again.  The good news is that you get a checkpoint after you complete the shooting puzzle, so there's no need to do it over again.  If you are low on ammo, it might not be a bad idea to clear adds, gather bullets, and die a few times until you are all stocked up and then go for the finish.

After that you datapad will turn into a special BA module.  You'll be required to clear all four forge ignitions while armed with all Black Armory weapons AND while wearing a full set of Black Armory Blacksmith armor.

The BA weapons you use for the mission cannot be the Forge Warden drops or Scourge raid weapons and the armor cannot be Scourge raid armor.  You have to use the guns you make from Ada's weapon frames. 

I imagine that this mission would've been maddening if we had to do it before Bungie unlocked Bergusia on their own.  Without the Armor Polymers that Ada sells, the only way to get Blacksmith armor was to complete two weapon frames per week, so it would take five weeks at the best to get a full set of armor if you were lucky enough not to get dupes.

My weapon forging days are not quite done yet.  I still need to grind away at Volundr and Izanami because I still have the Burden and Jotunn triumphs to clear.

Satan obviously knew I was in the home stretch because I got stuck with a lot of potatoheads while trying to run the table on forge ignitions while I was in full BA gear.  It's been a long time since I experienced that many failures.

I made a clip of the cutscene and now Ada-1 is all glowy in my game.  I was a bit underwhelmed by the emblem and free Obsidian Accelerator until I remembered that this was supposed to be the mega-quest that unlocked Obsidian Accelerators in Ada-1's inventory and Bungie unlocked everything themselves since their dumb quest was broken.

I'm up to about 652 Light with my favorite shit on and I'm not happy about having to go back to the old Tangled Shore EC grind, but that's life. 

I'm going to try to knock out the AC tonight and then maybe finally see what Gambit Prime is all about.

I need to take time out to grind the new Season 6 Vanguard and Gambit pinnacle weapon quests.  I just shook my head when I saw that the 21% Delirium MG was an Arc Power Weapon.  It's like Bungie absolutely refuses to give us any decent Solar based Power Weapons.  That Vanguard grenade launcher is shit compared to the Play of the Game (Arc) and if you weren't lucky enough to get an Avalanche MG with good perks during the Dawning, your only other option is The Whisper.

Speaking of the Whisper....

it figures that I FINALLY own a Whisper of the Worm and now Bungie has nerfed the ammo reserves cap from 16 reload rounds to 3.. 

THREE~!

It's still a sweet rifle, though.

The S6 Crucible Pinnacle Weapon still requires Competitive play, so fuck that gun.  I don't think that anyone will grind for it anyway since it goes in the Energy slot and that means that douchebags will have to choose between using the new PvP Pinnacle SMG or their beloved Luna's Howl / Not Forgotten. 

I have seen zero people in the Crucible so far using the Mountaintop gyrojet rifle (the S5 pinnacle weapon) and that is probably because the Broadsword and Lunas are the PvP pinnacle weapon quests where the juice is worth the squeeze and the grind for the Mountaintop is probably too much even for hardcore Comp Crucible players to deal with. 

I think the new Crucible Pinnacle SMG may probably join the Mountaintop in relative obscurity unless the reviews are stellar.  if Datto or CammyCakes grinds for one and likes what they see, then everyone will take their shot.

Edited March 7, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

Another failed Mote Thief attempt in normal Gambit.  I was SO CLOSE~!

Invaded, blasted defenders, nabbed motes, tryhard Warlock nuked me with Chaos Reach before I could bounce.  I just shook my head.  Was it really worth the effort to kill me dude?

It probably wasn't, because the Super he burned to get me in Round 2 was the one he didn't have in Sudden Death that might've helped his team get the duke.  Asshole...

Meanwhile, the Spectral Blades I saved for a special occasion came in handy in kacking the Envoys quickly in prep for the Solar Hunter and Solar Titan on my team to melt our Prime Evil in no time flat AND IT WAS THE MALFESANCE BOSS~!  FUK U, ENEMY TEAM~!

I'll take a W in dramatic fashion over a triumph or a bounty completion any day of the week.

Thanks to that bit of strategy, I think I am riding a three match win streak in normal Gambit now and am grinding away at the 21% Delirium dealie.

Speaking of Gambit, I really do like the way New Gambit works, or should I say the way it should've worked when it was created.  There is a true advantage to sending over Medium and Large Blockers as opposed to flooding the enemy team's well with Smalls, but don't forget that Small Blockers are Goblins now and they can actually protect other Blockers. 

A flood of Small won't logjam the Bank as much as it used to because they aren't very durable, but a nice mix of Smalls, Mediums, and Larges can really keep a team busy.  In the last match my team won before I went to bed, we sent over two Smalls, a Medium, and a Large and the other team had a field day trying to clear the Bank during my mote denial invasion run.. 

The Goblins (Small) were using their eye beams to shield the Captain (Medium) and the Knight (Large) while the Captain spammed that damn Darkness Orb at anything that moved and the Knight breathed Taken Flame on everything.   It is tough to prioritize who is the bigger threat (Invader or Blockers) with debuffs, AoE attacks, and bullets are coming at you. 

In my case, the other team chose the Blockers and I rekt them to the tune of about fifty motes.  No matter how many Blockers are on your Bank, it always pays to get rid of the Invader first, guys.

Gambit is a bit more cerebral than it used to be, but it is not so strat heavy that you can't have fun as a casual and as with anything in this game, the coordinated fireteam has the better chance of winning because communication is still key.

I find it hilarious that Drifter has new dialogue in normal Gambit.  Apparently the average Gambit player is so stupid that Bungie decided that Drifter should give them verbal cues during the Prime Evil phase that it might be a good idea to kill the Envoys first.

There is also a medal (Instructions Followed) for players who bank their motes (no matter how many they have) exactly when Gambit says that you have enough motes to summon the Prime Evil.  I guess people got tired of those assholes who waste time collecting for a Large Blocker when they should just turn shit in to summon the PE and try to win the match.

And I am not sure if it was stealth patched or if it was because I've finished the Study in Obsidian quest, but I ran three Tatara Gaze runs in the Bergusia Forge over the last couple of days trying to coax a Bergusian Night shader from RNG to finish my BA Colletion Seal and I ended up unlocking all the remaining entries in the Black Armory Papers lorebook. 

I will still be doing BA stuff, though, as I have the Jotunn and Burden triumphs left and I'd also like to clear the Scourge raid at least once before I turn ninety and get the Threat Level shotty so that I can get the triumph for killing enemies with it during a Bergusia Forge ignition.

I noticed that getting rep ranks with the Vanguard by turning strike tokens in to Zavala nets you lore entries that contain classified intel reports from the Hidden:   Ikora's network of Warlock information gatherers. 

One of the intel reports spoiled the conclusion of the Most Loyal lorebook for me.

Spoiler

That son of a bitch, Variks,, was responsible for the Prison of Elders jailbreak. 

but I will still read the entire Most Loyal lorebook for comprehension once I unlock the final page.

You also get one lore entry per day from Warlock Aunor, the Praxic Fire rep, about how she feels about Drifter and his Gambit racket.  It feels like a countdown that leads leads up to the Allegiance Mission and that part of the S6 content will kick in once the backstory run-up is done.

Aunor's lore entries come in the form of encrypted datapads that are delivered to the Post Office after the daily reset and they have the ever suspicious "safe to discard" flavor text.  I was a bit paranoid about getting rid of them at first, the item text for the datapads says that you're supposed to shred them in order to fill up the pages of the lorebook.

The highlight of my night was FINALLY BEATING THAT FUCKING JUMPING PUZZLE AND SUCCESFULLY DOING THIS WEEK'S ASCENDANT CHALLENGE SOLO AND I ALSO GOT THE AHAMKARA BONES IN THAT ZONE~!

For better or worse as much as I hate having nine billion items of extra gear on me, I will always have to keep a pair of St0mp-E55's handy for these occasions.

It's my custody weekend, so I will be back in the 804 on Sunday.  I'll probably devote that night to getting my last two PvP matches in for the Crucible Weekly Challenge and then see what Gambit Prime is all about.

Edited March 8, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

Oh, and it should not surprise anyone that there are some YouTube peeps that have already completed the grinds for the S6 Gambit pinnacle weapon and the Vanguard pinnacle weapon.  I don't even think I would enjoy gaming if I had that much time to play.  It would feel like a job after a while.

And do not call the Devil by name because he will appear.   I was lucky enough to be on the same team as a four man of PvP tryhards and one of them had a Mountaintop as his Primary and a Telesto as his Energy Weapon. 

His ER was something obscene like 10.0 for 40 kills. 

I was happy with my 14 murders and 1.75 ER.

Edited March 8, 2019 by J.T.

[RIPPA]

39 minutes ago, J.T. said:

It would feel like a job after a while.

To be fair - it is their job

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

To be fair - it is their job

For guys like Datto, yeah, but every Destiny 2 YouTuber can't be full time, can they?

[Eivion]

On 3/8/2019 at 6:43 AM, J.T. said:

And I am not sure if it was stealth patched or if it was because I've finished the Study in Obsidian quest, but I ran three Tatara Gaze runs in the Bergusia Forge over the last couple of days trying to coax a Bergusian Night shader from RNG to finish my BA Colletion Seal and I ended up unlocking all the remaining entries in the Black Armory Papers lorebook. 

It was fixed in the latest patch.

On 3/8/2019 at 6:43 AM, J.T. said:

You also get one lore entry per day from Warlock Aunor, the Praxic Fire rep, about how she feels about Drifter and his Gambit racket.  It feels like a countdown that leads leads up to the Allegiance Mission and that part of the S6 content will kick in once the backstory run-up is done. 

Aunor's lore entries come in the form of encrypted datapads that are delivered to the Post Office after the daily reset and they have the ever suspicious "safe to discard" flavor text.  I was a bit paranoid about getting rid of them at first, the item text for the datapads says that you're supposed to shred them in order to fill up the pages of the lorebook. 

Hearing this and other lore stuff, it really feels like we are heading towards some sort of civil war. Also as much as I distrust the Drifter I can't say the lore entries on Aunor endear me to her. She isn't bad, but she comes across as a bit overly obsessed.

 

Didn't do much last night, just a round or two of Gambit Prime. Playing it more I have to say it is a bit annoying how the Primeval fight is set up. They make it way too damn easy for you to be annihilated by an invader since you only do real damage when in the buff zone. I see now why they have the armor sets for specific roles. Its going to suck when people have full armor sets and more semi-coordinated teams in a couple of weeks.

Also looks like there is already a cheese factor for the Gambit Prime Primevals. Apparently the buff to the Waldorf Coil is ridiculously potent to Gambit Prime bosses once they hit the second phase. I'm not even sure why they gave that damn thing a buff.

Edited March 10, 2019 by Eivion

[RIPPA]

 

[Eivion]

Was wondering if they would adjust for daylight savings.

One of these days I really need to take the time to read the lore. Just looking over the first two stolen intelligence reports reveals some interesting stuff. For instance apparently our missions to kill the Fanatic over and over again are essentially canon because that fucker really can't die.

[RIPPA]

I loaded up today for the first time in I think 2 months

So many popups

Have we always been able to drop in at the Annex or has that been added with the last bit of stuff?

[J.T.]

3 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

I loaded up today for the first time in I think 2 months

So many popups

Have we always been able to drop in at the Annex or has that been added with the last bit of stuff?

Annex became a Fast Travel point after Black Armory DLC, but you didn't need the BA content to be able to Fast Travel to the Annex..

You couldn't talk to Ada if you didn't have BA, but you could still FT to the Annex to save yourself a few steps if you wanted to get to Drifter's old location or talk to Suraya or Ikora.

Edited March 11, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

On ‎3‎/‎8‎/‎2019 at 6:59 PM, Eivion said:

Also looks like there is already a cheese factor for the Gambit Prime Primevals. Apparently the buff to the Waldorf Coil is ridiculously potent to Gambit Prime bosses once they hit the second phase. I'm not even sure why they gave that damn thing a buff.

Wardcliff Coil is the new cheese weapon for everything now:  Crucible, Nightfalls, Gambit Regular.

You name it.

I had one of those horrible nights of Gambit where either I was the problem or my shitty team was the problem.  I didn't get too many opportunities to invade last night and when I did, the results were not usually spectacular.  Didn't really get a chance to try for Mote Thief because of the way the Heavy drops fell.

Bungie has re-enabled the more powerful weekly bounties. I assume that either the new DLC broke them, or that Bungie disabled most of the Powerful Gear reward bounties to keep players from power leveling and hitting the new Light cap too soon.

I have still played zero Gambit Prime, so I will spend tonight suffering through GP and the Crucible so that I can complete my Weekly Challenge crap before Reset.  I also need to do a 100K Nightfall and put some work in on the Oxygen SR2.

Edited March 11, 2019 by J.T.

[RIPPA]

I know its been awhile since I played but... have the eliminated the clan bounties that you could do on your own?

I went to Hawthorne and all she had are the ones where you have to do them with a fire team

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

I know its been awhile since I played but... have the eliminated the clan bounties that you could do on your own?

You obviously hated one of my earlier posts.

The Clan XP system has gone back to the pre-Forsaken system where you can earn Clan XP via Public Events / Flashpoints / Escalation Protocols, PvP Activities (Gambit, Crucible), Story Mission Completions (heroic or campaign), Vanguard Strikes and Nightfalls, Raids, and Patrols.

You can't earn Clan XP from Forge Ignitions though and I hope that changes later on since it is a matchmade activity. 

The amount of Clan XP you earn from the clan bounties accounts for far more than the amount of Clan XP you can earn on your own in one shot, so the system encourages players to work with clan mates but it allows you to earn your 5K Clan XP without having to deal with Gambit or the Crucible.

Apparently there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth because it was possible for Suraya to have a set of Clan Bounties that were all PvP related and people that sucked in the Crucible hated that.

Edited March 11, 2019 by J.T.

[RIPPA]

Oh there were definitely times were she would have all Crucible bounties (though it always seemed to be more all Gambit all the time)

I noticed the XP popping up as I was doing Flashpoint

I am not going do much more until I get the Annual pass because I might as well wait till I can do the super charge bounty deals

And I know I knew - but still I hadn't forgotten - that Whisper was a quest now

[J.T.]

18 hours ago, RIPPA said:

Oh there were definitely times were she would have all Crucible bounties (though it always seemed to be more all Gambit all the time)

I usually finish positive in the Crucible unless I am in a horrible slump, so Suraya having a bunch of PvP bounties never really bothered me.

I love playing Gambit even when my team sucks and annoys the shit out of me, so the days where Suraya had like three Gambit bounties never bothered me, either.  More opportunities for me to get a good Hazard Of The Cast or Bygones roll.

Of course that all changes now that Gambit Prime gives you gear with the improved perks like Swashbuckler.

Edited March 12, 2019 by J.T.

[Eivion]

13 hours ago, J.T. said:

I have still played zero Gambit Prime, so I will spend tonight suffering through GP and the Crucible so that I can complete my Weekly Challenge crap before Reset.  I also need to do a 100K Nightfall and put some work in on the Oxygen SR2.

Gambit Prime isn't too bad as you get used to it. I might actually like it just a bit more than the regular.

[J.T.]

12 hours ago, Eivion said:

Gambit Prime isn't too bad as you get used to it. I might actually like it just a bit more than the regular.

Yeah, I went 3-2 last night in Gambit Prime and loved it and the Reckoning isn't as bad as I thought it would be either.

Gambit Prime has enough mechanics in it to satisfy the strat nerd in me without being convoluted like most Raids are.  It's Gambit at a faster pace, so nothing you do is counter-intuitive.  You've played this game before.

I love / hate the way Blockers work now.  In the two matches I lost, my teammates were pretty careless about clearing our bank and we got our motes jacked by Blockers and a Warlock in full Collector armor from the other team.  It was brutal.  

I've nearly got a full set of Reaper armor short of the arms and I've got one Weak Reaper Mote left over from last night's rush to clear all of my Weekly Challenges (SUCCESS~!) so I think I will slowly phase out my Black Armory gear in favor of the Reaper armor, but I will still keep my BA guns since the OAs give them a damage bump during forge ignitions.

Speaking of my nearly complete set of GP armor, the only problem I have with Gambit Prime is that it favors clans and the only real way to counter it is with a coordinated fireteam of your own. 

I saw last night how ridiculously efficient and effective that a fireteam of each specialty can be (Collector, Reaper, Invader, Sentry) against blueberries, and clans have organizational structure and the sheer numbers it takes to give their players a better chance of winning consistently.

Meanwhile, all I can do is toss on my Reaper crap and do my best if the small number of peeps in my clan suddenly decide they all want to play different games that evening.

I won't be doing too much BA related stuff now that I have a Study In Obsidian done other than get studied up so that I don't suck during a Scourge raid and hitting the Izanami and Volundr forges to chip away at the Burden and Jotunn triumphs. 

I got the Spare Rations hand cannon as my Gambit Prime reward.   The perks suck for a hand cannon, but I will keep it for the time being.  I got a 665 Vigilance Wing as my reward for the Reckoning Weekly Challenge.  That got infused into my Last Word.

My Malfeasance got a real workout yesterday in the Reckoning so it's going to be a part of my standard arsenal for at least the rest of this season.

And yeah, I think the Warlock Aunor III journal entries are the run-up to the Thorn quest that should go live with today's Hard Reset.  I keep forgetting that Spring Forward pushed Hard Reset ahead an hour, so it should hit by 1PM EDT my time rather than High Noon. 

Tangled Shore was recently in the rotation, so I imagine that the Flashpoint this week will be in the EDZ or maybe Nessus and I will have to wait another week to complete the Most Loyal lorebook.  Here's hoping that one of the Nightfalls this week has a Triumph I haven't beaten yet. 

I think I only have two or three open triumphs and one secret triumph (the one where you defeat Sadia in the Corrupted strike by only using the relics) before I close out that tab..

Edited March 12, 2019 by J.T.