Destiny 2

[J.T.]

14 hours ago, Eivion said:

I didn't realize they were upping the difficulty for Faction rallies this time around. The enemies seem stronger and the healing rater is significantly slowed down so you have to pick up the little healing auras that occasionally drop. Kind of annoying, but no the worst thing ever.

I probably should've taken note of that before my first Lost Sector run.  Like Rippa, I blew myself to smithereens trying to asplode the Fallen with their own munitions while trying to beat the LS near the sewer system in the Outskirts.  I was quite surprised that I did not survive an explosion I have survived many times over in the past.

I also wasn't thrilled that I had to go do another patrol to get myself back up to 5x Renown and survive the return trip back to the LS in the Outskirts so that I could complete both of the FR Renown milestones at the same time..

That being said, I like the new Faction Rally mechanics. I just wish that Lakshmi-2 would drop some damn FWC boots so that I can get to work on the ornaments that require me to be dressed in a full set of Faction armor.

Anyway, DARCI is worth her weight in Glimmer since I have taken to buffing my Renown up to 5x and then chipping away at  LS bosses from long range like a coward until my Super comes around.  I thought I'd never say that I was putting in work to unlock the DARCI catalyst, but here I am.

Once I got a good grasp on the healing debuff, I was able to run the table on EDZ milestones.  I finally completed the Lost Sectors in the Outskirts that I have never bothered to explore.

I was also bummed that you cannot keep your Renown if you Fast Travel.   So if you want to try to kill two birds with one stone like, say, beat a LS Daily Challenge while you have Renown, you'd better build your Renown up in the zone where the LS is.

So who is the hated enemy for the other factions.  Nearly all of the FWC ornaments involve killing Vex in some form or fashion.  One armor ornament requires me to kill Vex with the Golden Gun and another requires me to kill Vex with a Kinetic Weapon while I am in full FWC regalia, which is why I need Laskshmi-2 to stop fucking around and give me pair of Simulator Boots. 

Oh, and Rippa.  I am at the Crucible part of Nascent Dawn 5/5 so give me a shout if you are online tonight and want to hit some PvP.

[RIPPA]

You can technically sparrow ride and keep it because twice I used the Public Event in the Outskirts to get up to 3 and then sparrowed back to the Trostland

You are smarter than me since I never thought about getting up to 5 to complete the 3 since that gives you some margin for error.

I was seething with too much rage.

I still need more Javelin multi-kills. I think I have 10 but I was too lazy to wait for another public event to spawn.

I am up to 360 though since Cayde hooked me up with 2 things I can use

[J.T.]

14 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

You can technically sparrow ride and keep it because twice I used the Public Event in the Outskirts to get up to 3 and then sparrowed back to the Trostland

You are smarter than me since I never thought about getting up to 5 to complete the 3 since that gives you some margin for error.

I was seething with too much rage.

I still need more Javelin multi-kills. I think I have 10 but I was too lazy to wait for another public event to spawn.

I am up to 360 though since Cayde hooked me up with 2 things I can use

• Well, yeah, I know you can travel by Sparrow and keep your Renown, but that doesn't help you on Mercury where the Flashpoint is this week and you cannot summon your jetbike.  If you have excess Renown and want to turn shit in to Brother Vance, you're either going to have to walk and hope you don't die since you're extra squishy, pray that there is an abandoned Cabal interceptor nearby that you can carjack,  or you will have to go to the LS and dump your bonus and then Fast Travel to the Lighthouse.
• I was sorta hoping that the devs would be lazy and make it so that you could knock out two milestones at once by doing an EDZ LS while you had 5x Renown.  I was correct.
• It took forever to get 15 Javelin Multikills.  Mostly because assholes were hogging the Valkryie during the WARSAT PEs.  I finally swallowed my pride and burned a couple of Armory Codes when some folks starting doing EPs.  I have two Decrypted Cache Keys now and am working on a third.  It is a shame that I may never get the chance to use them.

Speaking of Sparrows, I am bummed that my Well Rested buff wore off before I could collect enough Bright Dust to buy the Eon Drive for my Warlock so that he can keep his decrepit transport motif thing going on with the Shadow Trespass jumpship.  I'm going to have to do some grinding with an alt this afternoon to make sure I get the Eon Drive before Tess swaps out her wares. 

[RIPPA]

You really shouldn't have to stay on Mercury more than 10 minutes considering how much credit you get for doing a heroic event.

As I said - I was an idiot and tried to the lost sector on Mercury.

I was actually fine until the very end and the fucking sniper hobgoblins were the death of me

Now to be fair - I hadn't packed my DARCI because I wasn't planning on needing to snipe since I figured I would be in and out with the Flashpoint. Then I hit 5 renown and started feeling frisky

[J.T.]

1 minute ago, RIPPA said:

You really shouldn't have to stay on Mercury more than 10 minutes considering how much credit you get for doing a heroic event.

As I said - I was an idiot and tried to the lost sector on Mercury.

I was actually fine until the very end and the fucking sniper hobgoblins were the death of me

Now to be fair - I hadn't packed my DARCI because I wasn't planning on needing to snipe since I figured I would be in and out with the Flashpoint. Then I hit 5 renown and started feeling frisky

I tend not to leave a planet until I have done all of the Daily Challenges.  I completed the Flashpoint in about twenty minutes, but I still had two open DCs.

I was also an idiot on Mercury during the Flashpoint since I mostly ran Arcstrider to build up the kill count for that class when I really should've run Gunslinger and been burning Vex to death with the GG as often as I could summon it.

I've been packing DARCI on my Hunter ever since the catalyst dropped last week so for the time being, I always have a sniper rifle handy.

[RIPPA]

Oooh... I didn't realize Mayhem was back

It will be fun at least when I need PVP matches for 5/5

[J.T.]

23 minutes ago, RIPPA said:

Oooh... I didn't realize Mayhem was back

It will be fun at least when I need PVP matches for 5/5

Urgh.  I hate Mayhem.  It's the game mode that has Warlocks in mind. 

Just as your Super becomes active, boom.  Nova Bomb kills everyone.

No one really uses their guns so there goes my opportunities to score Pulse Rifle and Sniper Rifle kills towards my Crucible armor ornaments.

The one thing I do like about Mayhem is getting in that timely Void tether just as some asshole Warlock is going into his Nova Bomb wind-up.

[RIPPA]

I don't think it does but if it also counts for Call to Arms I will be doubly pleased.

 

[J.T.]

1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

I don't think it does but if it also counts for Call to Arms I will be doubly pleased.

I thought that any PvP activity counted towards CtA as well as Valor and Glory?

[J.T.]

Rippa and I finished Nascent Dawn 5/5 and the reward is the catalyst for the Polaris Lance.

We may have been in one of the best Clash teams in history and two of the worst Control teams in history.  Two manning the Nokris strike was almost trivial.  I blew that big worm's head off with DARCI.  Who knew that the joke exotic from Season One would be the Boss Killer in Season 3?

Lakshmi-2 still won't give me a pair of Simulator Boots to complete my FWC armor set, so I used my old Orpheus Rig equipped with a FWC shader while repping the cult in yesterday's Strike DCs.

I think I need to clear one more LS lugging around 4 or 5 Renown before I unlock the ornament for the FWC helmet and I am about halfway through GGing the shit out of Vex to unlock an ornament that I can't remember off the top of my head.

Unlocking the other ornaments requires me to do something while wearing a full set of FWC armor and that can't happen without boots.

I am also pleased to announce that I have purchased an Eon Drive for my Warlock so he now has two eccentric means of transportation.  For good measure I bought a Taken transmat Legendary mod for his Shadow Trespass.

[J.T.]

I start working graveyard tomorrow night and am on shift until Wednesday morning. 

I'm not going back to my crib for the weekend so I may try to find myself a rando Trials group on Saturday, or Sunday morning and try to back my way into a win so that I can get access to the Spire, meet one of the Emissaries of the Nine, and get this dumb achievement unlocked.

Sunday and Monday are the best days to play Trials since most of the serious PvPers hare probably already made their Flawless runs and are back doing other shit.

[J.T.]

Got in some quality game time in today before going in for night shift:

• Unlocked my last FWC armor ornament!  I cannot believe that I am above Rank 35.  I think this week has been the most time I have ever devoted to the Faction Rally..  Too bad that Dead Orbit will probably win out because of that shiny Graviton Lance catalyst that nearly everyone wants.  If FWC loses, it won't be because I didn't put in the work or coughed up enough Glimmer.  I even bought the damned faction sparrow that Lakshmi-2 is selling.
• Also got a free MW version of the FWC auto rifle, The Doubt, when I got my FWC faction rank up to 32.  It shreds in PvE which is all I will ask it to do since I don't plan on going into the Crucible with FWC armor and weapons unless I have to.  I got the FWC Ghost Shell as a reward for hitting FWC Rank 26 yesterday.
• Scraped together enough MW cores over the week to MW all but one FWC armor piece aka my FWC Hunter cloak.  I still need to get Legendary weapon mods for The Doubt auto rifle (Kinetic) and the Pleiades Connector scout rifle (Energy).  I'm using the Memory Interdict grenade launcher as my Power Weapon.  It's a fun weapon, but it ain't the Play Of The Game.
• I also need to replace the bullshit Blue armor mods in my FWC gear with some Purple ones.
• Got 20 kills in a PvP Victory in Control this morning and earned the Flagbearer medal in the process.  I need to start playing PvP late into the week more often when all of the serious sweaty players are done grinding Call To Action and are gearing up for Trials. The quality of opposition definitely declines in my favor when there are more casuals in the PvP queue.
• Used the Destiny companion app to track down some randos to help me get through the Nightfall on normal.  They were decent enough players and we finished the strike in less than twenty minutes.  It took about an hour of constantly replying to posts before I found a fireteam.
• I swapped out my Warlock's Ophidian Aspect exotic gauntlets for the Karnstein Armlets I got today from Xur's Fated Engram.  Yeah, I know the Karnsteins got "nerfed", but I was tired of my Warlock having the same exotic item as nearly every other Warlock in the game.   The item is still does what its supposed to do PvE and works perfectly fine, even though it "functions as designed" now and no longer breaks PvP by making Stormcaller Warlocks unkillable when they are in their Super.

[J.T.]

I got the Dream scout rifle today at 358 LL (not MW, but it came with a Legendary kinetic weapon mod), so I shredded my 353 Doubt auto rifle and use the MW Cores to buff my FWC cloak.  Now all of my FWC armor is Masterworked.  Hopefully I do not regret that decision because the Doubt was a pretty good weapon.

I farmed faction tokens on Mercury today and got Brother Vance to give me back the Machina Dei 5 pulse rifle I infused so long ago into my Vigilance Wing.

I handed that Prophecy Weapon off to my Warlock.  Now I can start getting kills with the Tractor Cannon in his Power Weapon slot and work on the catalyst.  That should prove to be an extremely painful endeavor...

[J.T.]

I hung out with my kid today before passing the fuck out in prep for work.  I got up early enough to log into my Warlock run the Nightfall with Mis and Slimy.

I'll crash when I get home after work tomorrow morning and then see if I have the patience to run the table for this 5 Crucible Match DC.  Knowing me, I'll do really well the first match and then drop the next four with .000001 Efficiency Ratings.

And yeah, double wielding two scout rifles was not a good idea.  I shredded The Dream and then farmed enough tokens on Titan to buy and upgrade another Magnum Shepherd pulse rifle. It is a bit of a potato gun, but the recoil is predictable and it does well enough in PvE.  Lessons learned.  If I am fortunate enough to have another Doubt auto rifle drop before the end of Faction Rallies, I am going to keep it.

I also shredded my Memory Interdict grenade launcher in favor of the Deicide shotty I got just as I was about to get ready for work since was pissed off about blowing myself up with a grenade while capturing supplies for extra faction tokens when I was on Titan..

[Ramo2653]

I bought a copy of the game last month on a sale. How screwed am I if I try to play this game? And do I need to join up with other players?

[RIPPA]

You can do the whole game by yourself (obviously outside the public space stuff)

There will be some things that are way easier to do with at least one other person.

[misanthrope304]

That mf... 

[J.T.]

Damn.  Uldren shot Cayde's Ghost first to make sure the second shot counted.

Well, now we know what story the ex-Bioware guys were working on for Bungie, right?

Seeing Cayde-6 like that has broken my heart, but Uldren put a knife to my throat the first time we met and this looks like my opportunity to return the favor.  I've been waiting a long time for this showdown. 

Honestly though:

Spoiler

I sorrta hope they follow through and keep Cayde-6 dead.  The revenge plot of Forsaken will be more meaningful if that happens.

I know that Bungie has a thing for the number 7 so I think that given Nathan Fillion's new ABC cop show, the devs may be setting us up for a new voice actor as Cayde-7.

That may be the meaning of the cryptic "6 will not become 7" talk attributed to Scott during the Forsaken reveal video.

I have successfully grinded my way up to Rank 50 with FWC and got my Sunshot catalyst and FWC Knucklehead Radar ornament.   RNG was kind and gave me back my Doubt auto rifle.  It was only 354 LL, but at least it has returned to my arsenal.  I will carve "Do Not Shred!" into the rifle butt with my Hunter knife.

I also went on a fucking tear in the Crucible during a Supremacy match today (screenshot posted to the Activity Feed), so nearly confirmed that the best times to go into Quickplay and not meet professional killers seems to be Thursdays and Mondays when people are either prepping for Trials or struggling to get a Flawless run in before Reset.

Competitive Crucible is probably chock full of sweaties trying to hard to get that Redrick's Claymore.  I still have no idea how to boost my Glory score, not am I terribly interested in doing so.  It'll be hard enough getting kills with the specific weapons required to unlock some those ornaments, especially that ornament that needs you to rack up Sniper Rifle kills..

I can count on one hand the number of maps that I personally feel are "sniper friendly" (i.e. they have a place with decent sightlines and are in a location that doesn't scream I AM TRYING TO KILL YOU FROM LONG RANGE~!)

[Eivion]

22 minutes ago, J.T. said:

Well, now we know what story the ex-Bioware guys were working on for Bungie, right?

I didn't realize Bungie had ex-Bioware people.

[J.T.]

25 minutes ago, Eivion said:

I didn't realize Bungie had ex-Bioware people.

Chris Schlerf left Bioware just after finishing the storyline for Andromeda and apparently took two or three people with him.

This happened two years ago, man.

Between Chris being lured to Bungie and EA keeping Drew Karypyshyn on Anthem rather than repositioning him back to the Mass Effect writing staff to fill the void, there was zero DLC for Andromeda.

[J.T.]

Yeah, that Pre-Order bonus is going to make me angry, especially if that Hand Cannon is fan fired and turns into the new darling of the Crucible.

Why am I grinding to Vanguard Rank 50 for a badass jumpship, when I can simply pre-order Forsaken and get a jumpship that looks just as cool?

I'm probably going to want all of that custom shader, too.

Damn..

[J.T.]

4 hours ago, misanthrope304 said:

That mf... 

I just hope that this isn't a bunch of FFII Golbez bullshit with Uldren trying to justify the murder of Cayde-6 because he blames the Vanguard for involving the Reef in the war against Oryx and getting his sister killed.

I don't want Uldren seeing the error of his ways and trying to redeem himself by helping us to kill the Scorn, nor do I want The Scorn denying me of my rightful vengeance by killing Uldren before I get a chance to do it.

The only way this story ends well (if Cayde-6 is forever dead) is for me to shoot Uldren in the head myself... with Cayde's gun.

[RIPPA]

 

[RIPPA]

Oh joy

Oh rapture

I get to do 5 Heroic strikes and 10 Escalation waves again...

Stupid Warlock

[RIPPA]

And Dead Orbit wins