Destiny

[Strangelove]

By the way, if trials of osiris is going to be like salvage, Ill probably drop it quickly. Salvage is just really boring and takes way too long to get through a match. Not to mention that one player alone can dominate the entire match with a machine gun. The person still has to be good with it, but the game shouldnt be that unbalanced.

[Hot Heart]

Oh, wow, so Bungie removed a great deal of the grind. New weapons and armour all start at max stats; you just have to unlock the perks (reroll them till you get the ones you want). No more grinding for materials or ascendant shards/energy.

[TheMightyEthan]

Does that apply to older weapons too?

[Hot Heart]

Unfortunately not. However, once you get some other materials from the endgame stuff you can "ascend" them. However, exotics only need exotic shards to be ascended. 365 damage Gjallahorn right away!

[FredEffinChopin]

 

 

Chopin, I'd recommend not getting it unless it's really cheap.

 

Haha thanks for the advice, but that ship already sailed a couple of days ago. Not only that, but Mr. Conservative here went and bought the full pack. It had to do with the fact that I remembered that I had a 20% off coupon, and rarely buy anything expensive at all on the PSN. I figured I could maximize the discount, especially since I picked up a couple of flash sale items. The way I looked at it, if I decided I want to buy only 1 DLC pack down the line, I'd be paying about as much, if not more. And it would be down the line. 

 

I coincidentally had acquired Diablo just a few days before that too. Just figured I'd mention it. I'm enjoying both so far, but I've only had a little bit of time to play Destiny. The nature of the game seems to require more time in a block, as it can't be paused/suspended for hours and picked up at the exact same point. I don't want to speak with confidence about too much regarding Destiny though, because frankly I can't make heads or tails of what's going on in there sometimes. I might hop on tonight, but I really hope to get some quality time in with it this Saturday. Hopefully along with my buddy who hates online games and is a controller novice. I like a challenge.

[CorgiShinobi]

Oh, wow, so Bungie removed a great deal of the grind. New weapons and armour all start at max stats; you just have to unlock the perks (reroll them till you get the ones you want). No more grinding for materials or ascendant shards/energy.

Yeah, the look on my face when I got a HoW's legendary shotgun last night and saw the skill tree. Cool new perks and no need to upgrade four nodes at the end for damage.

[SomTervo]

 

Oh, wow, so Bungie removed a great deal of the grind. New weapons and armour all start at max stats; you just have to unlock the perks (reroll them till you get the ones you want). No more grinding for materials or ascendant shards/energy.

Yeah, the look on my face when I got a HoW's legendary shotgun last night and saw the skill tree. Cool new perks and no need to upgrade four nodes at the end for damage.

 

 

This is really nice to hear. Makes me tempted to pick the game back up again. But I'll probably leave it a year or two until they finally make all this stuff free to begin with.

[CorgiShinobi]

I haven't done the strike yet, but everything that has been include in House of Wolves has blown away the entirety of The Dark Below immensely with sheer enjoyment and quality. Getting a HoW weapon is pure bliss and you can go crazy spending Motes of Light to reforge the perfect perk set for your weapon. The new characters have, get this, actual character to them! Variks is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, similar voice to (I forget) a character from Ben 10.

 

I haven't bothered with Trials of Osiris because 1) Random teammates will only lead to frustration, and 2) even with friends, there's bound to be some "MLGskillz" team to screw over your winning streak. That or a trio of Gunslinger Hunters.

[Strangelove]

Do people in general enjoy pvp in games like this? This is the only game that I've ever played pvp on. I can't say I enjoy it as much as the single player. I'm not even bad at it, but competition in general is unfun to me.

Any kind of reward or feeling of accomplishment is gone in pvp even if I do well because there's too many variables. You'll never know how good you really are. It's all random matchmaking. You can be the best and still lose because the 5 other dudes suck. Other times even if you're good you'll be way at the bottom because the people they teamed you up with are hardcore.

Pvp just carries frustration a single player game will never match.

 

I bring this up because of the trials of Osiris. I won one match, then lost 3. The other dudes were fully decked out in their trials gear and that immediately killed any desire to go back to it. It made me realize that the best pvp players will keep coming back to trials to wipe out all the weaklings, even if they get all the gear. People somehow feel accomplishment in basically barring others from rewards. That's the way I see it because playing against bad teams gets dull to me quickly. Lack of challenge is dull. I don't understand why you'd keep coming back.

[Mr. GOH!]

So Destiny has finally become a passable repetitive grindfest after 8 months and an extra $45 in DLC? GOTY material, indeed.

[Strangelove]

Had they included all the dlc and improvements for $60(full price game) on release day it could have easily been a GOTY. Its really good now, if you didnt pay the full price plus the dlc price. The grind is so minimal now, id say its slashed by more than half. Plus the "good" loot drops like crazy. Though that makes it so everyone has everything now, which Im not ok with. But whatever.

In short - they made it more like Borderlands. Which is how it should have been.

 

As it stands, its fine. A ripoff, but fine.

 

The "Definitive Edition" will be great.

[CorgiShinobi]

There's hardly a grind now given that you can also purchase telemetries from the Gunsmith. As long as you're happy with the perks you've rolled, some PvE or PvP and you've got the weapon nearly fully leveled in a day. You'll need Etheric Light to Ascend to the new damage output, but you're probably going to be playing Prison of Elders because of how much fun it is anyway.

 

I wouldn't say everyone has the same weapons right now, not to mention it's pure luck in Reforging if you're wanting a very specific set of perks for your weapon. I spent 30 Motes of Light just to get The Revelator with Outlaw and Zen Moment. I began dismantling some old armor (to convert to Motes of Light through the Speaker) because at this point I can't be ass'd with finding Ascendant Shards for old armor when the new armor doesn't require them. I'm still keeping my Ascendant Energy because I have some amazing old weapons that I've never bothered to fully level.

 

I'm just hoping one day Bungie buffs Auto Rifles a little (after the nerfing) because my Grim Citizen III use to tear apart enemies. The reload on it is lightning fast if I use gauntlets with the weapon reload perk.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Atomsk88

[Hot Heart]

Yeah, I'm liking it. Got The Ram from an exotic engram, plus I'm trying to get my 33 fireteam to attempt the 34 PoE. Just wish I had at least on etheric light to up my vision of confluence.

 

I've got a bunch of old weapons I want to ascend (shadow price, swarms, comedians, the devil you know), but with the rate that etheric light will be dropping at the moment, that could take a while...

[CorgiShinobi]

That's the Catch-22. I was at a point during Dark Below where I didn't have the armor fully leveled up. Being at Lv. 30, you could do almost everything, so I never forced myself to gain 30 more shards to get up to the higher levels I use to be once.

 

Now we have the means to raise our old armor to the newest number, but you can only do that if you have fully leveled armor that can get you in and do well in the more difficult Prison of Elders.

[Mister Jack]

Question: has the game become any better for people without the season pass?  I, like an idiot, bought Destiny digitally so I'm stuck with it forever no matter what, so I might as well try to make the best of it.  But I'm not going back to that skinner box unless they have given me a damn good reason to.

[CorgiShinobi]

If you wanted to get back in, just House of Wolves. The base game received some improvements, but what everyone is raving about now is the content in the HoW expansion. The only skinner box present is the one you can impose on yourself with Reforging and trying to level up all the Legendary weapons (which drop more frequently) as soon as possible.

 

Also you can buy all the Faction weapons and Reforge those to your preferred perks. Before half the weapons were RNG with random perks.

[Strangelove]

well I'm already level 34 and I already beat Skolas. I need the helmet and chest piece from variks and more or less I'll be set. PvE wise anyways. I don't thing I'll ever get the ToO stuff.

[Hot Heart]

Wow, did the level 34 Prison of Elders challenge with our holy trinity of level 33s and it was simultaneously the most frustrating and most rewarding experience. Each class definitely played its role at certain points.

 

Frustrating because it just chucks so much stuff at you and gives you that fucking defuse splinter mines objective far too often (and keeps switching up the order of them); rewarding because it really forces you to work as a team, to plan and coordinate. Everyone rush over to where the target spawns and just hit him with everything you can, get your hunter to go invisible and go defuse that mine that's overwhelmed, etc. Plus, you're switching up your loadouts and, sometimes, subclass.

 

So it felt good when we finally managed to take the boss down. And while I appreciate that they created a somewhat interesting boss encounter, it was an absolute pain for our hunter. Basically, at certain points, the boss sets the ground on fire (the floor is lava!) for 9 seconds except it also counts for any bit of scenery. A titan can usually survive by jumping enough and floating down (or bubble with blessing of light when they have it), a warlock can do okay using the skill where they hover in the air when aiming down sights and a hunter... well, they just have to use triple jump and hope they can last.

 

This pissed off our hunter and he either couldn't find a safe enough spot that he wasn't being shot by mobs, and whenever he found a safe corner it teleported(!) him to the middle of the arena and back on the ground (which is pretty much a death sentence). Worst part is, he thought he could quit out and bring in his warlock... except they've made it so no one can join back in once it's started. And, of course, two of us managed to beat it on that run, getting our etheric light and weapon core while he got nothing.

[Eleven]

Do you guys have any tips for new hunters? Basically just something to avoid doing, like don't spend money on something or don't ever use this skill? Something like that?

[CorgiShinobi]

Really just comes down to how you play as a Hunter. I prefer to be a Bladedancer, but as a Gunslinger you'll have class perks that will affect a weapon's stats. You'll have to see which class suits you, then determine what you want to focus on. Of course, you might have to change which perks you use for different missions and strikes.

 

Just stay away from Auto Rifles. Don't waste your time and glimmer on them as they're not as good as they use to be for both PvE and PvP. You might get lucky and have one with good perks, but Pulse Rifles can easily eclipse what usefulness Auto Rifles might have, which is ironic since Pulse Rifles use to be awful.

 

I'm a Hand Cannon guy myself. I've wasted so much time and resources perfecting the hand cannons I come across, mainly because I don't want to keep relying on the Exotic Hand Cannons. They're all great though, so it's hard to quit those beautiful bastards.

Edited May 30, 2015 by Atomsk88

[Hot Heart]

I don't think there's a wrong way to play Hunter, but I think they can take the most skill to excel at. Having all the options at your disposal will help with adapting to situations.

 

It does depend on what you'll be doing as well; whether you'll be running through strikes or doing endgame content. Bladedancer is useful for a fair few things because of the invisibility skills you can unlock, but might struggle with killing tough enemies who take too long to kill, whereas Gunslingers are better for long range and can be good for generating orbs if pinned down in one space. Sometimes, it's a matter of matching your class to any active burns a mission might have (gunslinger is solar, bladedancer is arc) or whatever team strategy you have doing. For example, Prison of Elders has an objective involving capturing points while swarmed by enemies, a bladedancer can go invisible and sneak over to them whereas at other times you'll be fighting a tough boss where staying out in the open is a death sentence so might do better as a gunslinger.

 

The other thing is which stats you prioritise on your armour. Intellect helps with getting your Super faster, Discipline for grenade regen and Strength for the melee ability regen. Generally, strength is a garbage stat, but will be more useful to certain hunters (a bladedancer, for example, has a skill to go invisible with blink strike) in certain situations.

 

The only solid advice I can offer is to avoid auto rifles, since a slight nerf has made them virtually useless now. A gunslinger does well with handcannons, scout rifles and sniper rifles, especially if they've got the Chain of Woe ability for quicker reloads. Bladedancers will still do well with those weapons, but could also seize some cheeky shotgun kills, too. With some playtime under your belt, you'll get a feel for what works best for you and which situations require what.

[Eleven]

Is the nerf THAT bad? I vastly prefer Auto Rifles, and dislike slower firing primary weapons (like hand cannons deal massive damage, but I don't like them at all. I'd use shotguns or sniper rifles if I wanted to do single shots.). Right now I'm using a pulse rifle after accidentally selling my AR and i'm itching to go back. I'd never PVP anyway, and will play with friends most of the time.

 

I think I'd have to re-read this a bit later after getting more game time, I don't understand all of it yet.

[Hot Heart]

It's a mixture of nerf and a subtle switch of available options. Used to be, you could get a Shadow Price (Vanguard auto rifle) or Vanquisher (New Monarchy one) with decent impact but a slightly slower rate of fire. They could still dish out damage and, with the right perks, be stable enough that you could maintain a constant stream of precision shots needed for taking on "major" enemies.

 

Then, after The Dark Below update, all the available auto rifles except New Monarchy's (for which you needed crucible marks from playing PvP or getting lucky with RNG) became bullet hoses. High rate-of-fire, extremely low impact and awful stability. I think the range on them took a hit too, so they were only effective at super close range. There was still Up For Anything, a Vanguard auto rifle, with alright impact but it was never great.

 

Problem was, in Crucible the exotic auto rifle SUROS Regime reigned supreme, so when Bungie addressed that with a nerf, it affected everything. I guess even a slight adjustment can have a large impact because it's a "per bullet" deal.

 

Now, with the HoW update, that Vanquisher's been adjusted and there's no real strong auto rifle for PvE. I think a pulse rifle would be a decent option, but I've only got experience with the exotic ones (which are both really good) so don't know the new ones.

[TheMightyEthan]

I don't like pulse rifles, I don't like automated burst fire, but scout rifles rock.  As do hand cannons for reduced range but increased damage.

[Strangelove]

 

It is done.