Destiny 2

[Eivion]

Maintenance is said to be complete though I haven;t tried to get back in yet.

23 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

One thing people have noted is that because the power level has basically been reset - you will be underleveled  lot at the beginning 

Everyone should be at 750 and with that being the new norm then its not at all surprising we are under leveled. 

[J.T.]

As of 6:30 PM my time (EDT) servers were still at capacity and unavailable.  The D2 Companion app was also down so I don't think anyone was gaming at that time.

I put in my pre-order code on Monday night and let the nearly 30 GB update download overnight last night, so I should be GTG when I finally get online.

Edited October 2, 2019 by J.T.

[Eivion]

So if you have been saving Crucible and Vanguard tokens or Gunsmith materials, now is the time to use them. Part of the rewards you unlock are the new armor and weapon mods.

Not sure this was on purpose, but it does look like you have to reacquire some of your ornaments from your collections.

Also some gear in your collection is still considered randomized even though its supposed to grant 2.0 armor. Not exactly a shocker, but base stats on armor from rewards, missions, and open world is higher.

Also you can purchase legendary finishers from Eververse. I assume they do the same damage. They just offer a little more variety and a glow of whatever element you are under.

Edited October 2, 2019 by Eivion

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, Eivion said:

So if you have been saving Crucible and Vanguard tokens or Gunsmith materials, now is the time to use them. Part of the rewards you unlock are the new armor and weapon mods.

I didn't save any tokens, but I have a crap ton of Weaponsmith Parts in my Inventory as well as Mod Components and Enhancment Cores.

I have some old gear in the Vault that I can probably shred for the cause, and I also have nearly 10K in Bright Dust saved up so I should be able to afford a Legendary finisher or two.,

I should be outta here in another 20 minutes or so.  I thought I'd be spunky and caffeinated enough to get in an hour or so, but I am feeling myself starting to crash.  I'll get some sleep after I arrive at the crib and then play a bit after breakfast.

 

Edited October 2, 2019 by J.T.

[RIPPA]

I am working from home today but I actually have to do work plus get the place ready for my family this weekend so I am not sure how much I will play.

Probably long enough to feel overwhelmed 

[RIPPA]

Yup officially overwhelmed 

[RIPPA]

Couple of general random things y'all might have figured out

Go to the Seasons tab (just over from map/destination etc...) and collect your free exotic (if you bought the Annual Pass)

Shattered Throne is now accessed directly from the map (you don't have to wait every 3 weeks now)

Supposedly you can access all the Forges directly now too but I only see Gofannon so I am wondering if you have to do them all once before they unlock.

You get your free Armor 2.0 Solstice stuff from Banshee

[RIPPA]

God this game does not fuck around

[Eivion]

7 hours ago, J.T. said:

I have some old gear in the Vault that I can probably shred for the cause, and I also have nearly 10K in Bright Dust saved up so I should be able to afford a Legendary finisher or two.,

 

Sorry, buried the lead on that. They are Silver only at the moment. Same with one of the cooler looking armor sets. Not sure if they will be obtainable later with Bright dust or not.

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

God this game does not fuck around

No, no it does not. The first mission is the most I can recall dying during any story quest in Destiny 2 in a long ass time. Keep at least a few pieces of your previous armor because Solstice 2.0 armor sucks and has no opulence mod slot either.  Make sure to pay attention to what offers more than 10 in Resistance.

[RIPPA]

I am sorta using the armor set you get as a pre-order bonus (might be only for Annual Pass folks)

It isn't much better than the Solstice so I have a hodge podge of blue shit thrown on too.

I mean I went to the EDZ first and died a ton at the Enemies Moving Against Each Other in Trostland so that was an immediate wake up call.

Granted I forgot I had dumped all my weapons in the vault so I had no options at the start

[RIPPA]

Decided to play some Crucible to get some cheap upgraded gear

I am realizing that I don't think we can merge Armor 2.0 with the old stuff so I don't know why we bothered to keep an armor

[Eivion]

Trying Crucible at the moment. Not really happy that the only way to earn Glory is through Survival which was always one of my least favorite types in Comp before. Beyond that, the 3v3 change has made the climb for Pinnacle weapons even more of a crawl. Will say that is nice that the matches flow a bit faster.

Crucible Classic feels wild yet still kind of the same. Haven't noticed any proper adjustments to roaming supers defense like they claimed. Trust seems to be kind of shitty now as well.

Unlocked the artifact just now. The mods seemed pretty nice for my since I use HCs a good deal.

Edited October 3, 2019 by Eivion

[J.T.]

Grinded my season rewards up to the Gate Lord's Eye before crashing for work.  I've also got the catalyst for Eriana's Vow and the Ace of Spades to obsess over now.  The catalyst for the Ace only requires dead bodies but you have to have the Vow equipped while you're doing activities (Gambit / Gambit Prime, Strikes / Nightfalls, Crucible) in order to get progress.. 

It's going to be a slow going pain in my ass since I kinda hate using the Vow.  I love the intrinsic perk since it is a far better all purpose barrier breaker than the Arbalest, but that recoil animation and reload speed can eat an entire bag of shit.

I like how they pretty much got rid of nearly all of the Powerful Sources outside of the Tower.  Now I don't feel like I have to do everything every fucking week.  As long as I'm knocking out a certain number of Crucible, Gambit, Gunsmith, and Vanguard bounties a week and handling the Clan XP, I'm GTG on upgrades.

I've only done the first moon mission so far and the Hive is not fucking playing around this time.  Ghost of Crota nearly handed my ass to me and I was at the recommended Light Level for the encounter. 

I still don't trust Eris as far as I can toss her.

The Hunter armor has a strange design.  I have no idea why Bungie likes sticking us in ghillie suits, especially now that we're adventureing on the moon..... where there is no flora we can use to camouflage ourselves.

I am getting the hang of how Armor 2.0 works, but it takes a lot of planning not to fuck yourself up and spend Glimmer on a build you'll probably trash later on.

A matchmade custom Nightfall is about the smartest thing they've done in a long time.

7 hours ago, Eivion said:

Trying Crucible at the moment. Not really happy that the only way to earn Glory is through Survival which was always one of my least favorite types in Comp before. Beyond that, the 3v3 change has made the climb for Pinnacle weapons even more of a crawl. Will say that is nice that the matches flow a bit faster.

I'm pretty good at Survival, but I am lousy at Countdown.  I hope you remembered to create a Jade Rabbit for yourself so that you can chip away early at the Randy's Throwing Knife pinnacle weapon quest.

3v3 is going to be even less forgiving than 4x4, so that makes me wary about setting foot in the Freelance queue because if there are any idiots about, they will undoubtedly be paired up with me and all of the sweats will be on the other team.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Glory playlists were returned to 4v4 at some point in the future.

7 hours ago, Eivion said:

.Crucible Classic feels wild yet still kind of the same. Haven't noticed any proper adjustments to roaming supers defense like they claimed. 

I think the fix is that supers in general take longer, orbs don't return as much Super energy as they used to, and of course you cannot pack Armor 2.0 full of identical mods so no more running around with five or six Super mods.

I'm not sure if the Exotic armor pieces that return Super energy after a Super (ex. Shards of Galinor) received a soft nerf, but my guess is that they have.

14 hours ago, Eivion said:

Sorry, buried the lead on that. They are Silver only at the moment. Same with one of the cooler looking armor sets. Not sure if they will be obtainable later with Bright dust or not.

Yeah, that's too bad.  Rippa is like me so I know he lost his shit when he saw the dropkick finisher.

I wouldn't put it past him to load his armor with Bumblebee shaders in honor of Jim Brunzell if he ever got the dropkick finisher for his titan.

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

The Tribute Hall seems to be still active, so I didn't shitcan my Opulent armor in the foolish hope that I will eventually run the raids while dressed in Calus's finery.  I will probably fly to work on a winged unicorn that shits rainbows before that happens.

I did, however, trash all of my Exotic weapons since they were all 750 and I can now craft 808 LL items after only one day of grinding.  The hard light cap is 960, so getting to 900 or higher before the first IB of the season is a top priority.

I also kept my Gambit Prime armor since that one shader quest gives bonus progress to some quest steps if you are doing stuff while wearing GP armor.

Oh, and the Huckleberry is UNSTOPPABLE in PvE, especially with an active catalyst.  I was using it to chip away at the Exit Strategy quest aka the Gambit SMG Pinnacle Weapon quest for this season until I got the catalyst quest for the Vow. 

Now I'm using a Pillager as my primary in Gambit to get those SMG kills and using the Vow to smash enemy barriers and get catalyst progress.

There's no way I'm using the Vow in the Crucible, though.   That horrible reload speed is a death sentence.

I'm packing the Jade Rabbit (for the Throwing Knife PW quest) and the Recluse (for the Necrotic Bite PvP triumph).  I'll probably stick to the Hammerhead when I am grinding Glory, but will probably use the Crooked Fang LFR or the Zenobia-D rocket launcher in Classic.

If the ornaments for the rest of the Black Armory weapons are as cool as the new one for the Hammerhead, it looks like I'm back in the BA Weapon Frame grinding business again and will once again hunt for a good roll for the Blast Furnace.

Edited October 3, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

I wish this game hadn't come out on the week that I am on Graveyard.   There's a lot to get acquainted with and it's hard when your body clock is all fucked up.

I was trying to grind Vanguard bounties for a quest from the Cryptographer that is actually a tutorial on how to navigate the Season tab and earn rewards, and I fell asleep on the floor in the middle of Song of Savathun.

I didn't wake up for two hours.  I am probably on the Blocked List of the two poor saps I was matchmade with.

Thank God I didn't sandbag PvP or Gambit.  That would've been horrible.

Which reminds me, the reward for this season's PvE pinnacle weapon quest is a light machine gun, so break out your blam blam when you're running Vanguard Strikes and grind the progress on that quest. 

The good stip for VS's is Heavyweight so get to it before tomorrow's soft reset.

Edited October 3, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

7 hours ago, Eivion said:

Trust seems to be kind of shitty now as well.

Yeah, there are complaints on the reddits about the underperformance of one or two HCs post launch.  

Trust seems to lack the punch it had and Crimson still appears to be quite shitty even after allegedly receiving a buff.

Edited October 3, 2019 by J.T.

[Eivion]

2 hours ago, J.T. said:

I'm pretty good at Survival, but I am lousy at Countdown.  I hope you remembered to create a Jade Rabbit for yourself so that you can chip away early at the Randy's Throwing Knife pinnacle weapon quest.

I have never really used the Jade Rabbit. I take it its the best scout rifle for Crucible? I ended up using the Oxygen to start off. It went about as well as expected.

2 hours ago, J.T. said:

3v3 is going to be even less forgiving than 4x4, so that makes me wary about setting foot in the Freelance queue because if there are any idiots about, they will undoubtedly be paired up with me and all of the sweats will be on the other team.

What is the difference between Freefall and the regular survival. Also I was the sad loser dragging my team down int he freefall match. It was a nice confidence breaker after I did well in regular survival first.

2 hours ago, J.T. said:

Yeah, that's too bad.  Rippa is like me so I know he lost his shit when he saw the dropkick finisher.

I wouldn't put it past him to load his armor with Bumblebee shaders in honor of Jim Brunzell if he ever got the dropkick finisher for his titan.

I still have silver from forsaken's annual pass. I'm honestly considering breaking for one of those finishers. The thing is I kind of like them all, including just the regular one the Hunter uses.

2 hours ago, J.T. said:

Oh, and the Huckleberry is UNSTOPPABLE in PvE, especially with an active catalyst.  I was using it to chip away at the Exit Strategy quest aka the Gambit SMG Pinnacle Weapon quest for this season until I got the catalyst quest for the Vow. 

This is good to know. I've been using Riskrunner, but it would be nice ot have something with less...well risk involved.

2 hours ago, J.T. said:

If the ornaments for the rest of the Black Armory weapons are as cool as the new one for the Hammerhead, it looks like I'm back in the BA Weapon Frame grinding business again and will once again hunt for a good roll for the Blast Furnace.

I didn't realize BA weapons got new ornaments. Well, looks like I might be doing forges again if only for something for Hammerhead.

28 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Trust seems to lack the punch it had and Crimson still appears to be quite shitty even after allegedly receiving a buff.

Well this suck to hear. I was really hoping to use it for the second batch of Luna's Howl HC kills. Those precision kills are not easy. I've gotten 3 out of the 20 or so kills I made earlier.

[J.T.]

39 minutes ago, Eivion said:

I have never really used the Jade Rabbit. I take it its the best scout rifle for Crucible? I ended up using the Oxygen to start off. It went about as well as expected.

All scouts supposedly got buffed by this update, but PvE Pinnacle Weapons IIRC are still coded to underperform in the Crucible.

If it were me, I'd avoid the Oxygen and try using Night Watch, Tone Patrol (BA version or the normal SUROS gunsmith drop will do), or better yet, get your hands on the BA scout rifle from the Scourge raid. 

I haven't had any new Shadowkeep weapons drop for me other than the Vow, so I am not sure how any of the new season scouts will perform.

And yeah, even when scouts sucked in the prior season, Jade Rabbit was still beastly so I will go with what I know and keep my EW slot open for the Recluse.

39 minutes ago, Eivion said:

What is the difference between Freefall and the regular survival. Also I was the sad loser dragging my team down int he freefall match. It was a nice confidence breaker after I did well in regular survival first.

There are two queues for Competitive play.  The Freelance queue is strictly for solos and the Team queue is for fireteams. 

If you're rolling Freelance, you're at the mercy of Matchmaking so pray you get sweats rather than potatos or bots.

You can still solo in the team Comp queue, but you're likely to get matched against coordinated 2 or 3 stacks so pick your poison wisely.

39 minutes ago, Eivion said:

This is good to know. I've been using Riskrunner, but it would be nice ot have something with less...well risk involved.

Riskrunner is a really good all purpose SMG so keep using it if you are comfortable with its performance.  Now that purple items are mostly soft nerfed so that Exotics can shine more, using Riskrunner is actually a good move.

39 minutes ago, Eivion said:

I didn't realize BA weapons got new ornaments. Well, looks like I might be doing forges again if only for something for Hammerhead.

Tess is selling the Hammerhead ornament. Great White, for Silver this week, so I am only assuming that the other BA weapons will also have ornaments.

I'll be testing that theory out sometime this weekend after I get up from the daily crash following night duty.

39 minutes ago, Eivion said:

Well this suck to hear. I was really hoping to use it for the second batch of Luna's Howl HC kills. Those precision kills are not easy. I've gotten 3 out of the 20 or so kills I made earlier.

I think that Austringer and Service Revolver can still get it done depending on the roll and I would imagine that Better Devils will become a thing again following this alledged HC buff.

I'm not good at getting hip fire precision kills with HCs, so I don't use Last Wish in PvP.

Thorn has pretty good TTK, but only a shadow of the range it had in D1.  Most pulse rifle users will outlast you at medium range if you're using Thorn and you probably won't win short range gunfights against shottys or SMGs now that the short range bullet hoses got buffed.

Edited October 3, 2019 by J.T.

[J.T.]

Gah, I am dumb.  I'd also recommend breaking out your MIDA to get those crispy scout rifle precision kills and the sprint speed increase also helps out.

Since SMGs got supposedly buffed, you might also be good with running the CALUS Mini in your EW slot if your roll isn't crappy.

Matter of fact, I might run MIDA since there is a chance the catalyst will drop for me one of these centuries in the event that I manage to get wins in Comp.

I'm not adventurious enough to run the CALUS Mini over the Recluse in the EW slot though, even though my Mini has a really good PvP roll (Under Pressure / HIRs). The Recluse is tailor made for the Crucible.

When it comes to PvP, use your dirtiest load-out and leave your scruples at the door.

Edited October 3, 2019 by J.T.

[Eivion]

7 minutes ago, J.T. said:

All scouts supposedly got buffed by this update, but PvE Pinnacle Weapons IIRC are still coded to underperform in the Crucible.

That kind of pisses me off since the Oxygen already wasn't that great in Crucible though I did have that first few days afte getting it where I was kind of a beast with it for reasons unknown. I think I just got lucky and match up with mediocre PvP players.

9 minutes ago, J.T. said:

I think that Austringer and Service Revolver can still get it done depending on the roll and I would imagine that Better Devils will become a thing again following this alledged HC buff.

I'm not good at getting hip fire precision kills with HCs, so I don't use Last Wish in PvP.

I've still yet to get a good role for Service Revolver. I haven't tried getting better ones for Austringer yet.

I'm still not good with Last Word just using it normally. Precision hipfire is a pipe dream for me right now.

11 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Thorn has pretty good TTK, but only a shadow of the range it had in D1.  Most pulse rifle users will outlast you at medium range if you're using Thorn and you probably won't win short range gunfights against shottys or SMGs now that the short range bullet hoses got buffed.

I still don;t have the Thorn. I really need to hit up LFG and finish up the quest for it and Izanagi's Burden.

 

[J.T.]

15 minutes ago, Eivion said:

I still don;t have the Thorn. I really need to hit up LFG and finish up the quest for it and Izanagi's Burden.

The closest I have ever come to abusing prescription painkillers was while running the strike for my own Thorn and helping Rippa get his.

You really should buy yourself an XB1 and use Cross Save so that Rippa and I can help you out.

Or at least I can help and Rippa can offer emotional support since his Titan is squishier than my Hunter for some odd reason.

Edited October 3, 2019 by J.T.

[Eivion]

Fuck, now you have me scared of the damn thing. Just how bad is it?

[J.T.]

41 minutes ago, Eivion said:

Fuck, now you have me scared of the damn thing. Just how bad is it?

it is no joke.  I'll let Rippa chime in.

[Eivion]

Did a Crucible classic match. You were not kidding about Jade Rabbit being a beast. That thing is on another level compared to all scout rifles. 

Went ahead a tried double SMGs in Gambit with Huckleberry and the Calus-mini tool. So far I like it a decent deal, especially since I have surrounded on the latter. I think that will be my goto until I finish the pinnacle weapon quest.

[J.T.]

17 minutes ago, Eivion said:

Did a Crucible classic match. You were not kidding about Jade Rabbit being a beast. That thing is on another level compared to all scout rifles. 

I am all about sweaty PvP meta and I prefer not to be the guy that single handedly loses matches for my team, so I would not steer you wrong if we're talking about Crucible load-outs.

The Throwing Knife PvP weapon quest looks similar to the Revoker quest from the previous season so once you shouldn't have to solely play Comp for the SR kills or the Medals.  You should be able to get that done in any PvP playlist, including Classic.

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by J.T.