Destiny

[RIPPA]

Did the weekly heroic strike today with Mis and he was strongly encouraging me to buy Ice Breaker too.

 

Started my Warlock. God doing the first mission again after being overpowered all those times I did it was weird. "Whadda ya mean I have no super charge to one shot kill him???"

[glfpunk]

Pretty much a similar situation as when Xur had the Suros for sale. Probably the best weapon in its class. You shouldn't pass up on it. It's hard to beat the fact that you never have to worry about ammo.

[odessasteps]

Finally got my win three matches bounty.

Just need one more win in iron banner to get to level 1.

[DMN]

I really think that working on my Warlock alt (I also have a Titan alt I'll get to... at some point), and running with a hand cannon has helped out my game. I know that it's helped in the Crucible, because shotgun+melee=death.

[RIPPA]

Had my first Iron Banner match where people were bailing out because the team wasn't winning.

 

As we were loading in - it was only 4 of us and I noticed that I was on a team with 2 level 30 guys (which is the first time I have seen 30s so clearly they have been in the Vault of Glass).

 

As soon as we get in I notice two things (since we were being put in the middle of a match

 

A.) My team is losing

B.) The 2 level 30 guys are gone.

So basically it was 5 on 2 for like 3 minutes and then some more guys got brought in. (And some of them quit out too)

 

The next patch really needs to put in some sort of penalty.

[odessasteps]

What's funny is that i've done four or five iron banner matches and they dont seem any more difficult than the regular crucible matches.

Maybe because i'm getting better/stronger?

[misanthrope304]

it's not really all that different because it says level advantage enabled, but I believe Bungie is full of shit.  I can still get killed by a level 5 character with a shit weapon and shit armor.  I read something somewhere that a dev said they wanted to make it to where everybody can play and enjoy it or some bullshit, which is fucking stupid when they've been cramming the shit about lvl'ing your char for the banner down our throats since the beta, only to find out it really doesn't matter. 

 

That being said, last night I changed over to my max armor set (29) ran a blue fusion rifle because I'm working on the thorn bounty, and switched over to the suros for medium range shots and had a k/d of 6.5 for the match, effectively doubling my points in the bounty (86 pre-match, 166 post-match).

 

I wrecked fools, then ate a cheeseburger. 

 

From the weekly update on 10/10/14

 

 

Prior to Iron Banner, my Warlock had a real case of the Blues. There wasn’t a single Legendary in my inventory. Before the arrival of the Iron Lord, I stepped up my game. For two weeks, I wasn’t willing to leave the Tower without a fistful of bounties to reap. Last weekend, with a lofty reputation and a pocket full of currency, I finally stood before Arach Jalaal of Dead Orbit.

 

“The Cryptarch never loved me,” I mourned. “You have no choice. I’ve lost track of how many enemies I’ve killed for you. It’s your turn to make good on a promise you made when you sold me your bond.”

 

After cashing in the spoils of a hundred wars, I emerged in the sunshine of the Tower draped in respectable gear. Sheathed in an ominous shade of black from head to toe, I strode the plaza like a priest sworn to battle. My legend was on the rise, and I knew my favorite weapon (my void-infused fists) had received some upgrades that would serve me well.

 

This sudden flash-evolution even readied me for a Raid. Alongside five apocalyptic horsemen from my friends list, I plundered my first Legendary weapon from the Vault of Glass. It was a Scout Rifle (never my first choice) but it would have to do. Time was short, and my newfound power was about to make my investments pay off in the form of blood and glory.

 

On the first night of Iron Banner, my Level 26 Warlock looked dashing, but I was still apprehensive. Was I powerful enough? Would I be able to hang in the most challenging arena of the Crucible? After all, power matters in Iron Banner.

 

I compensated for my fears with the nastiest killers I could muster from my clan. They had become well acquainted with Atheon’s timeless rage, and bristled with the rewards to prove it. One of them was even a Level 30. Perhaps, as a team, we would be able to achieve victory.

 

Then, a funny thing happened. One of us got killed by a Level 6 Hunter.

 

“That’s impossible!” gasped a member of my team. “DeeJ, you said power mattered!”

 

The next day, some of the same questions were being whispered in our studio. One glance at our forum was enough to confirm that our concerns were being shared far and wide. The return of Lord Saladin delivered a hard spike in Crucible traffic. With it, a rush hour of confusion and downright anger had congested the Internet. Through the fumes and the tears, the basic consensus was obvious: Warriors didn’t feel as if they wielded the advantages that had been clearly advertised.

 

If you’re feeling that, we’re feeling it too. You’d probably love to talk to a designer who can shed some light on the subject. Since that’s a perk of my gig, I’ll share with you a conversation I had with Senior Designer Derek Carroll.

 

Please tell us about how Iron Banner works. There are a lot of Level 30 Guardians out there who thought they had a shot at immortality against everyone but each other.

 

Derek

:  If you were expecting to vaporize a crowd of noobs with a single burst from your SUROS Regime, I can see how you’d be disappointed. Imagine going into the Iron Banner as a mid-20s player totally unable to participate in the fun. We didn’t want players to have to complete the Vault of Glass in order to compete

 

But we told them that “Power Matters!” We even put a gaudy flaming banner on our website. Fire is hard to animate, you know.

 

Derek

:  The way we pitched Iron Banner did make it sound like a “no-holds-barred” playlist. In reality, we delivered what we felt would be a competitive experience for everyone, not just players at the level cap. The reaction from players seems to be: “No, we want it to be bad for lower-level players. That’s the point!”

 

We’re listening to that feedback, but this first Iron Banner is fairly conservative.

 

So power doesn’t matter? 

 

Derek

:  Power certainly matters, but so does skill. Our solution to add power back into the mix and keep the Crucible from turning into a ghost town is to scale it down to a reasonable level, and clamp damage on the “overkill” end.

 

A decked-out endgame Guardian can’t defeat a low-level guardian with one shot from an Auto-Rifle. In fact, “time-to-kill” is the same when you’re using higher-level gear against lower-level gear. The opposite is not true, so an enemy with average weapons is going to have a harder time taking you out.

 

If you want to test this, go back to your vault and grab some of the guns you outgrew on Venus and feel the difference in your engagements.  If you really want to feel the burn, start a new Guardian and jump right into the fray.

 

Some people have done just that, though. Can you explain how a Level 5 Guardian can use a starter gun to take down a Raid veteran?

 

Derek

:  Your skill will take you 80% of the way to victory, but that last 20% will be a much harder climb without the gear you’ve been relying on.

 

Then what is the exact advantage that I gain from powerful weapons and gear?

 

Derek

:  Having a lot of Defense reduces the damage you take from lower level players. Conversely, having a lot of Attack on your Weapons or high character level for your Abilities neutralizes the advantage higher level players might have against you.

 

To keep competition close and avoid unwinnable fights, the largest advantage you can have is around 7 levels. So, if you attacked a target 20 levels above you, you’d have a fair shot at winning that fight.

 

If this was not supposed to be a Raider’s paradise, what was the overall goal?

 

Derek

:  The Crucible is intended to be a fun, competitive experience for players of all skill levels. The Iron Banner playlist skews toward the “hardcore” end of the spectrum. We still find matches based on skill, not character level, so if you find yourself in a game with players with much better gear than you, you should feel good about that. Lord Saladin thinks you can take them.

 

Sadly, but predictably, not everyone is so confident in themselves. What are you gonna do about all the quitters?

 

Derek

:  Please remind players that, win or lose, they get Crucible Marks, XP, and Gear rewards for completing the match. As with all things Destiny, we’re looking at the data and we’ll come up with a plan to address it in future events. 

 

Allow me to assure you that data is not the only thing we’re looking at. I know for a fact that a lot of my Bungie friends will read the comments for this (and every) Bungie Weekly Update. So, tell us what you think. The Iron Banner is a different way to reap new rewards. Is it different enough to serve its purpose?

 

Lord Saladin will very likely play by different rules the next time we clear a landing zone for him in the Tower.

 

 

That being said, I can't tell you how badass my fully upgraded suros regime actually is.  When hitting headshots at range, I was killing people with 5 shots, probably less.

Edited October 12, 2014 by misanthrope304

[RIPPA]

I read the Destiny Weekly Notes thing and they said that in Iron Banner they capped how big a level difference there can be

Basically they said that the level difference could be no more than 8 (it might have been 7)

So basically if you are Level 27 and you come up on a Level 8 - you are technically only a Level 16 against them.

[odessasteps]

Stupid move of the day

Did a bounty chapter on the moon but forgot to change the level to Heroic, so it didnt count.

Will be doing it again later.

At least i got my gold tier in a couple times today.

[misanthrope304]

I was editing post and working Phil, apologies.  I've been slacking, I don't think I linked the weekly update to the thread this week either.  For shame~!!

[glfpunk]

I've been doing strikes and bounties like crazy to get my Vanguard rep up and didn't realize the cap on Vanguard and crucible marks.  I've been sitting on 200 Vanguard marks for a while apparently because that's the cap.  So I at least went and spent 30 on a mark for my Titan. 

 

I'm at Vanguard rank 2 now.  Not too much longer until I'll be able to purchase The Devil You Know.  My goal right now is to get my Vanguard rank up to 3 and get that gun and then work on my crucible rank and get that to 3 as well so that I can have the freedom to buy whatever I want from them as well.

 

I'll probably swap back to New Monarchy and FWC factions and get those up to rank 3 also as I'm currently sitting at level two on both.  I'll dip into Dead Orbit last probably. 

 

I just want to be able to be able to buy what I want and have a few different loadouts available.  Still working on getting shards and ascendant energy also.  I realize the importance of doing the weekly nightfall strike as early in the week as possible though since completing it results in XP and rep increase. 

[odessasteps]

Hooray, vanguard level 2.

Hello, purple items.

[RIPPA]

Yeah - I learned the hard way that the marks cap at 200.

 

I ended up just buying a helmet with Vanguard marks and breaking it down (of course - I got 3 Ascendant Shards for breaking it down so score).

 

I hopped on this AM to catch the fallen walker public event to maximize my vanguard marks for the week so I got that achievement.

 

And I suddenly realized there isn't anything for me to do anymore in the game. Well at least by myself.

[glfpunk]

I attempted the raid this morning after work for the first time. Went through it with some random people and it was all our first time. So it took us a bunch of tries at each phase to get a feel for it.

It was a ton of fun though. So different than the rest of the game.

Made it to the gatekeeper part and we were a man down which made it pretty difficult so we called it quits. Got some leg armor and a bunch of ascendant materials though. Was able to max out my Suros.

Can't wait to play it again.

[Brisco]

Played with Chaos Saturday tunil around 2am, which I haven't done in quite a while. I thought I would be called to work in the morning however that ended up not being the case and I was able to play with a Lebanese man I met through the Playstation Trophies group. We completed all five of our bounties and killed it in the Iron Banner. Bought chest armor from Dead Orbit after I gained level 2 and finally won a legendary weapon in an Iron Banner match which turned out to be a scout rifle. Maybe I can one shot people in the crucible now.

[RIPPA]

Don't count on it

 

I have a legendary scout rifle and I still rely on my auto rifle in Crucible as the scout rifle is way too slow.

[Brisco]

The plan is to buy Dead Orbit armor that allows me to carry more ammo for the auto rifle I will eventually purchase from DO. I am just ecstatic to finally have a couple of legendary items.

[Gonzo]

On one of my crucible runs yesterday, I actually achieved my first K/D score of 1.0 or better. (Well, it was exactly 1.0, but I'll take what I can get.)

 

Not sure what it was, but I played six Crucible runs in a row on Exodus Blue (four on Saturday and my first two on Sunday) before moving on to a different map. Not sure how they pick the Crucible battlefields or if it's random, but that was a little strange to me.

[odessasteps]

How many Crucible maps are there?

I am getting ME3 flashbacks of the same two or three maps over and over again. I hate the Venus map because inevitably, i fall to my death at least once trying to jump to the B Zone.

[Gonzo]

How many Crucible maps are there?

I am getting ME3 flashbacks of the same two or three maps over and over again. I hate the Venus map because inevitably, i fall to my death at least once trying to jump to the B Zone.

 

Eleven, apparently.

 

I know I sure as heck haven't seen eleven of them.

[Craig H]

There's been issues of the same map recycling through more than it should. The last patched fixed the one on Mars that kept showing up all the time. 

[RIPPA]

Yeah - I am not sure that it did fix it because either Friday or Saturday I played Firebase Delphi 6 straight times.

 

I have also only gotten the Burning Shire during Rumble and Salvage matches. I don't know if that is intentional but I see nothing saying that you shouldn't get that map during Control or Clashes.

 

EDIT - I never knew there were PS3/PS4 only maps (for now). That explains why I am still missing a grimore card

[odessasteps]

The one plus of getting the same maps is learning where the ammo spawns and what not.

[Chaos]

Played with Chaos Saturday tunil around 2am, which I haven't done in quite a while. I thought I would be called to work in the morning however that ended up not being the case and I was able to play with a Lebanese man I met through the Playstation Trophies group. We completed all five of our bounties and killed it in the Iron Banner. Bought chest armor from Dead Orbit after I gained level 2 and finally won a legendary weapon in an Iron Banner match which turned out to be a scout rifle. Maybe I can one shot people in the crucible now.

 

I had fun running through that on Saturday night. We did the Summoning Pits Strike, and that is a completely different animal than the Devil's Layer. It felt like they wanted to punish any casual gaming habits.

[misanthrope304]

I played mostly crucible today, getting my k/d way up from what it was (1.08) to 1.24 according to Destinytracker.com (which I advise everyone to use, it's very helpful for a number of different reasons). I had one game where I had a k/d of 6.67, and another where I had to knife a guy five times to kill him.

I ran into a lot of laggy/questionable shit like not being able to spawn, people taking no damage, being shot through walls/mounds of dirt (mars). My entire team got disconnected with about 5 seconds left in a close match (that whole thing was questionable), I'm not sure if someone was using a switch/device to fuck with their connections, Bungie having server issues, or someone doing like a ping attack on all our connections. Very frustrating to say the least.

I Maxed out vanguard and crucible for the first time, and finished the crucible part of my thorn bounty. I need sleep or I'd hop into the summoning pits to finish this thing off.

At least the iron banner headache will be over. I'm sitting at rank 1.5 on that now, there's just no way I could reach rank 2 before it ends.