Destiny

[danielpholt]

I've put upwards of 140 hrs into this game and I've not completed so much as a Nightfall strike (Hell I'd like to be able to finish the Prison of Elders stuff but alas, No matchmaking). I understand the lack of Matchmaking for the Raid, everything I've read about it makes it sound like a diabolically different set of skills is required, but at the same time Nightfall and PoE should include Matchmaking, as far as I know those just require that you can use a gun....right?

[TheMightyEthan]

destinylfg.net

[Eleven]

r/fireteams at reddit has a, uh, a "higher quality" of people, I've found. They're more likely to be mature and relaxed.

 

Destinylfg.net, however, has the better website. I wish you could do that stuff over at reddit, but I guess it serves as a filter in the sense that only the people who want to be there will be there. LFG attracts all kinds of people as it's the default. Still, it's a step above randoms you find in strike matchmaking.

 

Edit:

There's also r/DestinySherpa who have people that will teach you the raid. If you can find a slot open, or get lucky with a Sherpa who picks up your post, then that would be the best option for a first time raid (unless you wanna run blind with fellow raid newbies). I was never able to get a group there, though.

Edited November 3, 2015 by Eleven

[Thursday Next]

tbh, I just wanna matchmake into it. I know, I know "oooh its so complicated", "oooh you need to stand here while they stand there" blah blah blah. Given the option of never seeing it because I can't find five people who jump online as soon as I snap my fingers or hopping online and hoping a fireteam is about, I just would appreciate being allowed to try and muddle through with randos on my own time.

 

LFG and the other sites are just matchmaking outside of the game. It's pants.

[TheMightyEthan]

They're not just matchmaking outside of the game.  The quality of player you get from LFG is miles above what you get from matchmaking in-game.

[Thursday Next]

How is it different if I go to a website, join a lobby of random people who want to play a certain game mode then go back to Destiny and make a fireteam, versus I join a lobby in Destiny to play a certain game mode with random people?

 

Even if it is a clusterfuck, it's a clusterfuck I can theoretically play versus a raid I definitely can't.

 

I mean ffs people can beat bosses in Dark Souls 2 with Twitch chat I'm sure a group of people could eventually muddle through Crota's End or Vault of Glass if a few of them at least are mic-ed and coordinated..

[TheMightyEthan]

I honestly think it's the extra effort involved that makes the difference.  Someone who goes through LFG is much more invested in playing with you than someone who just clicks on the mode and has the game match them.  That's just my theory, I don't actually know why it's different, what I do know is that it is different.

 

And you could play the raid, because you could go to LFG.  Nothing stopping you.

[Hot Heart]

In a nutshell, matchmaking might find you some arsehole who wants to sit there and do nothing while still getting carried through the thing (as is the case with many heroic strikes at the moment), picking up the loot at each checkpoint whereas LFG is full of people committed to getting something done, using mics and actually communicating.

 

EDIT: seriously though, join these guys and they'll help you get all sorts of stuff done, with people on most times of the day.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Hot Heart

[Thursday Next]

I might also find people like me and Mister Jack and Danielpholt though... With three people actually trying to do stuff and three others just muddling around killing things, and given that we're way over-levelled for the raid I'm sure we'd scrape through. Or at least be able to get through *some* of the checkpoints.

 

I'm just saying, I'd like it as an option. It doesn't stop anyone else not using it.

[CorgiShinobi]

What Ethan and Heart said. The downside to any LFG site will be the insufferable asses that demand some ridiculous requirement (like Light Level 300 for Vault of Glass), but the userbase is dedicated to the task at hand. Matchmaking gives you a mix bag of players, and while that's fine and dandy for a majority of the content, it just wouldn't work for the raids.

 

Hell, try playing with randoms in the higher levels of Court of Oryx on the Dreadnaught. You're suppose to, as a team, attack the Wannabe Crota's shield, and then attack him with the sword relic. Couldn't get two of the four people playing a few nights ago to understand that and some poor soul essentially wasted his Antiquated Rune.

 

As an FYI, I've been playing since Day One. A break here and there, but I've put time into this game. Still have never played a Raid. I'm not comfortable with random groups, though I have thought about a Sherpa in the past. Thing is, I know it's asking for trouble if matchmaking was put into Raids. Hell, AFK players in Heroic Strikes is such a pain and Strikes are very straight forward.

 

My hours after work are usually 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM MST. Apply that to your respective time zone, but I will mention I've decided I'm going on a typical Destiny break. The nerfing of resources made it an easier decision, not to mention 70% of the new exotics are meh/

[CorgiShinobi]

Double Post, but just wanted to say real quick that the First Curse quest line is even worse than The Chaperone quest line. The Chaperone was possible because, if need be, other kills outside of The Last Word would count for your score and you could always unequip the gun when you didn't have a Super or Heavy Ammo. After all, you could be a baller with The Last Word, but with just the gun itself you would have needed multiple killstreaks and at least a 2.0 KD.

 

The First Curse quest is alright at first, but it's the Imprecation step that's pure ass. Outside of the two time gated steps (yes, wait for Armsday twice), you have to use literally the worst gun in the game. After the terrible handcannon nerf, this terrible handcannon is even worse! You have to Infuse it to over 260, which is alright because it takes two 280+ guns and done. The 7 enemy kill spree in PvE is a bit challenging, but basically find a group of Thrall and make sure to activate Triple Tap once and done.

 

It's the Crucible step that's absolute shit.

 

You have to get seven precision kills in one match. You might say to yourself, yeah I get headshots quite a bit, so that's possible. You have to get those headshots with the Imprecation, no other gun in your layout. Have I said how terrible the gun is? I mean, I could write an essay on everything wrong with the gun. What further aggravated me was all the matches where I got six headshots with the gun, but couldn't find another player in time before said matches would end. The recommended mode, if you're solo, is to go into Rumble.

 

Have I mentioned how ass the Imprecation is? Very rarely can you challenge anyone, especially a Scout or Pulse Rifle. Preferably you might want to get a fireteam together, in a 3v3 mode, and have your friends do most of the damage so then you finish them off with a headshot. The problem going solo is that it's a race against the winning team/player. One instance last night I had a damn "tryhard" decked out in Trials gear and (of course) Sunbreaker cleaning up all the inexperienced players. Before his final kill I tried to find the four other players, but lo and behold I come across him, he breaks into his Super, dances because he knows there's no effective counter unless I have my Super and shoot at him before he tosses a hammer in 0.5 seconds.

 

I did not have my Super.

 

I only pasted this step because I got lucky in another Rumble match an hour later. The hit detection on the Imprecation is the pinnacle of the handcannon nerf. If you look into this, as others have posted about it, I was lucky to find an AFKer in the beginning of the match. Stood still and fired at his head three times. The second shot somehow registered as a body shot. HOW?! Well anyway, the top player was at 2475 (out of 2500) and I was still at six precision kills. I had accepted defeat, but the top player still hadn't finished the match. Then I see a group of players duking it out and knew it was my last chance.

 

I did it. I danced. I died. I didn't care. Know I wait for Armsday to receive one of the most mediocre Exotics of Destiny. If anyone would attempt this quest, I volunteer as your sacrificial lamb as another strategy to complete the step is to enter Rumble with a friend and have the friend be your seven precision kills. There are players against this, but you don't even have to finish the match, so once the seven headshots are done, just leave the match.

Edited November 7, 2015 by Atomsk88

[Eleven]

I dismantled my Imprecation. It was just taking up space  and I know I'll never use the exotic I will get from it anyway as I'm not a fan of hand-cannons. Is the gun at least good for PvE? I think Ace of Spades is probably a better exotic, and I think you're a hunter anyway.

[CorgiShinobi]

I don't have The First Curse yet, but I've seen enough videos of its performance to know what I'm getting out of the weapon. If I had to rank the Year 2 Exotic Handcannons, it would be (best to worst):

 

PvE: Hawkmoon, Ace of Spades, The First Curse, The Last Word

 

PvP: Hawkmoon, The Last Word, Ace of Spades, The First Curse

 

Pretty much nothing beats Hawkmoon and The Last Word is a PvP gun, not a PvE gun.

[danielpholt]

Despite my trepidation, I finally started a secondary character. Female Awoken Warlock. Two or so hours in and I've got to say, Warlocks are real fun to play. 

 

Iron Banner is back today, is anyone going to bother or is the general concensus a big 'meh' after the previous event?

[Eleven]

Didn't they say there was a bug that prevented loot from dropping? I suppose they fixed that already.

 

Anyway, apparently there are changes in Iron Banner (got the summary from the reddit thread):

• Clash, instead of Control.
• Iron Banner reputation from winning matches increased by 20%
• Activity completion rewards increased at all ranks, with even more significant increases at Rank 2 and above
• Packages from Lord Saladin upon reaching Rank 3 and Rank 5
• Iron Banner Artifacts can be obtained from the Rank 3 package
• Iron Banner Ghost Shells can be obtained from the Rank 5 package or activity completion reward.

If I were still playing, I would jump into that (on the weekend, of course, when the buffs are big enough to matter).

[Hot Heart]

Iron Banner definitely feels different. As much as I disliked Control because half your team played it like Clash... playing Clash exacerbates the whole team coordination thing. If I run solo, I still try and stick with groups but without communication, any half decent fireteam can flank you and teamshoot you much more effectively, plus camping becomes too viable. My performance can vary drastically, and without Control zones as a focus or rallying point it's a little too hectic. My K/D varies from 0.75 to 2.75 match to match.

[Hot Heart]

When you get the heavy ammo all to yourself in a Rumble match.

 

I definitely think playing with my cousin puts the skill level for matchmaking waaaaaay lower.

 

Of course, now when I go solo in matchmaking, I get wrecked and am the worst person ever.

 

Anyway, I had a good Iron Banner overall. Bought everything just because and got a 319 helmet drop from getting rank 5 (thank fuck, because the raid is stingy as fuck for helmets for me)

Edited November 23, 2015 by Hot Heart

[CorgiShinobi]

I tried Iron Banner. I do prefer Clash, but obviously there will be some matches where people are camping and so it can be a much slower game of Clash.

 

Sunbreakers are still OP. Had one at 3/4 health and was going to finish him with my rocket. From the time I fired and the time the rocket directly hit him, he killed a teammate of mine and got all his health back. If you don't know, Sunbreakers at full health can tank a rocket. He survived, killed me and regain all his health back. Probably went off somewhere to tank a Golden Gun shot somewhere else too.

 

I did get a 300 armor piece out of Iron Banner that helped me increase my Light...

 

Had a killer game of Rift to relax from the stress. Maybe I'll upload some of it later.

[Hot Heart]

If you hate Sunbreakers, check out this video from 2:50 onwards. Soooooo satisfying, particularly the very end.

 

He was probably thinking, "We got this in the bag now..." *KCHUNK*

[Hot Heart]

Now, this is podracing.

 

[CorgiShinobi]

I'm excited for it, just as soon as I was able to break away from the game and continue Fallout 4. Now they're pulling me back...

 

Went to the subreddit and I can't believe people would complain about this. Yeah it's not story-based DLC, but people have been itching to do something with their Sparrows. Well, you know, besides speed through certain segments of Strikes.

 

Also, that armor is sexy awesome. Sexsome?

[deanb]

Soooo....

 

Hints & Tips?

[Hot Heart]

Heh... where to start?

 

(Apologies in advance if any of this sounds like teaching your grandma to suck eggs, but I'll just do general "everything" guidance/advice)

 

Have you chosen a class? All of them are good and can serve multiple roles, but since the subclasses can take a good while to level up, it might be worth prioritising one over others. Not that you can really go wrong with any.

 

Warlock - I think by default, it makes you Voidwalker, which is decent but I find Sunsinger is a real powerhouse. You'll gain a melee ability that can grant you an overshield (real lifesaver), a super ability that allows you to revive from death (a real lifesaver) and the ability to carry two grenades (one is great for zoning, another is good for single target damage). Stormcaller is also decent, but is more of an weak-adds-killer (or PvP class) than anything else. Warlocks have better innate recovery (health regen)

 

Hunter - default is Gunslinger, which is very good. Bladedancer is equally good, but might give you more utility/survivability with the invisibility perks. Nightstalker is a support class (and the only I haven't really tried). It's very good for endgame content and has some decent all-round abilities. No real preference here. Hunters have better innate agility (run speed and jump height).

 

Titan - default is Striker, which is fun but probably the weakest of the choices. Defender is what most Titans play in PvE because it has an amazing super "bubble" ability that can grant shields or buff weapons. Sunbreaker is a fun, throwing hammers of flame class but seen more in PvP; worth considering though. Titans have better innate armour.

 

If you decide on Warlock, their jump/glide is a bit funny. To get the most out of it, you need a quick double-tap. Titans have the most forgiving and useful jump. Hunters have a standard sort of jump, which is either great or unhelpful depending on what you're up to (endgame content has "jumping puzzles")

 

 

Weapons

 

There are four flavours of primary weapon: pulse rifle, scout rifle, auto rifle and handcannon. All are pretty good except maybe for handcannons now. Pulse rifles are an all-rounder, scout rifles are for longer range and auto rifles for closer. It all comes down to preference, but scout rifle always served me well for the main story stuff and all through Year One.

 

There are four different special/secondary weapons (I think?): sniper rifles, shotguns, fusion rifles, sidearms. These will carry elements, which is how you'll break through certain shields. Certain factions' higher level enemies have elemental shields. There'll be a little white bar above their red health bar, plus they'll be surrounded by a certain coloured aura. If it's blue then it's arc (electricity), if it's orange then it's solar (fire) and if it's purple then it's void (uh... void). Hit the shields with a weapon matching the element and you'll do double damage to it (I think). You can't score precision damage while a shield is up, so you don't have to worry about nailing headshots (unless you're confident you'll burst through the shield and then some).

 

Note: each subclass is also built around an element (you'll notice by the colour) so their abilities carry those as well, e.g. a Sunsinger's grenade and melee are solar, a Bladedancer's melee, grenade and super are all arc, etc.

 

Really, you'll probably just want a shotgun and a sniper rifle in each flavour. That way you're covered for short and long-range. Fusion rifles aren't bad, just not as useful as the others. Sidearms are fairly puny... but they can be pretty fun and sound nice and snappy.

 

Finally, heavy weapons will come in two types (until you get through the Taken King storyline): heavy machine gun and rocket launcher. I find heavy machine guns better in general (especially those that favour stability and impact over rate of fire) but rocket launchers are obviously very good. If you manage to get your hands on a Gjallahorn, worship it for the god weapon it is (until you get to TTK content and it becomes mostly obsolete). Heavy weapons also carry elements, so you could theoretically cover all bases by having your subclass for one element type, a special weapon for another and then your heavy for the third.

 

There are differences for each weapon type when it comes to rate of fire versus. high damage and all sorts of other perks etc. but not worth going over that yet, since that's real min-maxing, endgame optimisation focus. As a general guide though, you'll find weapons are sort of balanced around the rate-of-fire/stability/impact (damage) trio in a sort of "you can have it fast-firing, very stable and high damage... but you can only pick two" way. You'll learn what you like though.

 

 

Engrams

 

These are your loot drops and how you'll get better armour and weapons. Standard MMO progression they go from white > green > blue > purple > yellow (exotic).

 

However, Destiny's light level system is a bit funky, so you might find greens with higher values than blues, etc.

 

Those values won't matter too much while you're just progressing through the main story path (I think), because level will govern more, I think. A general tip though, is that if you have multiple engrams to take to the Cryptarch, do them one-by-one so if each time you get a higher value, equip that new one straight away to raise your light level which will then adjust the parameters for future decryptions, meaning they could then decrypt at a higher value. This should help your light level climb a bit quicker in the long-term.

 

 

The game has seen an overall in the "questification" so it should guide you through everything for the story (otherwise, level recommendations should).

 

A big tip is that, as soon as you are able to grab bounties, do it. There are 6 new ones each day and they'll reward you a bunch of extra experience and reputation for completing them, which is very useful early on. The bounty-giver is a robot who stands by a noticeboard behind the stairwell immediately ahead as you enter the Tower (but I imagine the game will guide you to him when it's time)

 

Your progression otherwise will be story missions while completing bounties (maybe some patrol mode just to clear up some extra kills or look for a public event) and then you'll move onto the strike playlists (quick 3-player matchmade missions) in order to really test yourself and hopefully get some better loot. After that, you can start looking into doing raids, nightfaills, heroic strikes, etc.

 

I'll be on a bit today and this evening if you're about.

Edited December 12, 2015 by Hot Heart

[deanb]

A lot of that still sounds like mumbo-jumbo but I figure I'll understand more once I start on. Currently just doing bit of housework, but plan to pop on later.

[deanb]

So are Patrols meant to be nigh impossible to complete? Got this "Energy Spike" thing to do and best I can tell it's a newish part of the game and rare to pop up in the patrols.

 

Currently Level 13, got a Strike thing to do if anyone would want to join, and my Light level is to quote DCR: "heh..uh-hehehe. sixty nine"