Destiny

[TheMightyEthan]

Yeah, I thought I'd done it back when you first requested to join, and now it's still showing the request in my messages but isn't giving the option to approve.  Try requesting to join again, and then post in here when you do.

[deanb]

Done.

[TheMightyEthan]

Okay, I approved it, so if it doesn't work this time it's not my fault.

 

*Edit - I also just promoted Dean and Hot Heart to Admin since they play the game more than I do anyway.

Edited January 4, 2016 by TheMightyEthan

[deanb]

So this whole "making better legendary gear" stuff...

[Thursday Next]

"Infusing"? Or "Twist Fate" type re-rolls?

[Eleven]

Infusion can be done on both Legendary or Exotic items. By that I mean you can infuse purple or yellow items (they'll have the infusion attribute in the weapon stats), using another blue, purple, or yellow item. This made blues matter more than before, as getting a 300 attack blue weapon is now useful. You can use the blue item itself, or infuse it to your favorite 290 purple, to increase your purple's attack rating from 290 to 298. This is how you level up your favorite weapons.

 

Here's a pretty cool infusion calculator.

http://mattaltepeter.com/destiny/

 

I usually infuse a purple item with another item that is at least 6 points higher, because that will give you the full six points. For example, infusing a 290 with a 296, you will end up with a 296. If you infuse a 290 with a 297, you only get a 296 because you don't get 100% of the 2nd item, but it has a small buffer where you do get the full points. This is around 6 points when you're infusing a purple item, and around 4 points when infusing a yellow item, but use the calculator anyway.

 

So if your favorite purple item is 290, and you have a blue with 296 rating and another blue with 300 rating, you should infuse in 2 steps. Infuse the 290 with 296 to get a 296, then infuse to 300. Your favorite purple item is now 300.

 

You can also go 290 -> 294 -> 300. But use the calculator, you may end up with a 299.

 

If you go 290 -> 293, then infuse the 300 to the 293, you only end up with a 299.

[deanb]

Infusion. Cool to know it can use blue gear. Looks like I've got bits to sort out. Got a sweet Exotic that's a bit low in light but some Blue items that are bit stronger.

[Hot Heart]

You're at the stage where you can begin to look at optimisation/min-maxing.

 

Obviously, you don't have the gluttony of stuff that longtime players will have, but you'll have an idea of what classes and loadouts you like best for certain activities. As a general guide, for most TTK content, you'll want a strong sniper and heavy machinegun.

 

If you don't have the Black Spindle (which was that daily heroic story "secret" to which Ethan never responded) then the 1,000 Yard Stare being sold by the vanguard quartermaster robot (in the hangar, off to the right as soon as you land in the tower) is a good shout. As for machinegun, I tend to favour the high impact/slow rate of fire models just because they're also more stable over long distances. I've never bought one, but I have managed to get decryptions of Ruin Wake, which is the crucible machinegun being sold by the quartermaster robot down the stairs and off to the left just before the "Hall of Guardians" where Mal, Zoe and Lt. Daniels hang out.

 

With legendary gear, then you're just looking at stuff like which gloves increase your reload speed for your favoured weapon (usually a primary), which helmet has stuff that helps you earn super energy faster and which boots let you carry more ammo for your favoured heavy weapon. On top of that, you might then favour certain stat builds (intellect, discipline, strength) based on which abilities you rely on the most (super, grenade, melee). Keep in mind that these stat values will also increase with that armour's light level.

 

Into that mix, you've probably seen exotics, of which you can only equip one weapon and one armour piece at a time. If you've got some strange coins, it might be worth visiting Xur (around from Friday reset until Sunday reset) to either look at the exotics he sells or grab things called "Three of Coin". The exotics he sells are only 280, but if you really want something he's got there's infusion... which is probably a fucking pain if you're new and don't have a surfeit of strange coins or exotic shards.

 

Now you've actually got gear to get you above 300 light, it might be worth getting some "Three of Coins". They're cheaper than straight up buying an exotic, but you are at the mercy of RNGsus. Firstly, you activate one like other consumables and a little IX should appear on your character screen. This "buff" then stays active (even if you log out) until you kill an ultra (yellow health bar enemies with names... but without shields, i.e. not the psion flayers from that nightfall). Then it gives you a chance for an exotic engram to drop from them. I'd say, personally, the odds seem about 1/5 so in paying 7 strange coins for 5 of them, you "should" wind up with one exotic. Whether it's a weapon or armour piece, you have no control.

 

Take that to the cryptarch and make sure you have stuff equipped to get you above 300 light. This is because decrypting an exotic while you're below 300 light will mean it can only drop with a 290 value, whereas if you are above 300 light, there is a chance it will decrypt into a 310 instead of 290.

 

This guy goes over Xur's location and inventory every week, making his own assessments and recommendations.

 

He also just did a breakdown of what's available to Warlocks and his rating for each in PvE and PvP

[Strangelove]

Finally got the flawless raider trophy. It wasn't too bad since we had a guy who managed to do entire parts by himself while the rest of us just stood around waiting.

[Thursday Next]

Worth noting with decrypting that the RNG is affected by the light level of your equipped gear. So even if you never wear it in combat you should:

 

1. Equip your highest level gear.

2. Decode an engram.

3. If the item is higher level, equip it, if not don't.

4. Repeat.

 

I was an idiot when I started playing and would decrypt about 10 engrams all at once probably costing me a huge amount in potential light levels.

[deanb]

Yeah I've been following Hot Hearts advice in that regard.

 

btw if anyone is up for doing a raid give a yell. Not done one, would be cool to do with folks n a mic.

[Thursday Next]

Domestic issues notwithstanding, I'd like a crack at Crota's End or VoG.

[Strangelove]

Being so overpowered after this last expansion, I wonder how unimpressive the old raids would be to people who have never done them before.

VoG was fantastic when it was the end game, but now you can slaughter everything easily and the loot for it is outdated shit. I'm pretty sure that would put a damper on the whole thing. Which is kind of sad because to me it's the best thing in the whole game. I really like VoG, but there's no reason to do it now. Hmm.

[deanb]

I imagine I'd be fine at least. I just enjoy playing it. Here's HotHearts response from other week:

 

See, everyone gets caught up in "meta" talk and "nerf this pls" and you're just "whatever". You Stormcaller?

 

which I guess is fairly accurate.

 

Oh yeah started doing the Rumble (or whatever the mode is with quick recharges n like a billion points) and oh my god wish I did it earlier cos it's super easy to complete quests and bounties in it.

 

Also did a new Crucible map role out a week or so ago? Sort of Vex based with a couple portals to transport to another island away from main area. Very good for ambushes n such.

[Thursday Next]

I'm with Dean on this. I want to see / do the Raid, I'm not fussed about loot whoring. Besides, there's got to be a decent chance of purples or yellows dropping no? *shrug*

[deanb]

I imagine while you get high change of purple n yellows, they'll be lvl 20 stuff on older raids compared to the TTK stuff being lvl 40

[TheMightyEthan]

IIRC random mobs can drop engrams that can turn into any level gear, but the built-in drops from the bosses are fixed at year-one.

[CorgiShinobi]

I'm back to giving Destiny a break while I play other games. This time it's because, well, everything tripleWRECK has to say in his most recent video. I'm not a follower of the streamer, but someone on the subreddit linked to it and I couldn't agree more.

 

 

Now another YouTuber called "My name is Byf" (another respected commentator on Destiny) only had one disagreement on this video: DLC would be nice too. I agree with that because while half my time has been spent in PvP, that's partly because the PvE segment doesn't offer much else. PvP tends to be a more varied and exciting component to Destiny, hence why I'm found there more often. Also, I like to think I'm pretty good at it.

 

https://www.bungie.net/en/Legend/Stats/2/4611686018434273433/2305843009217421987

 

Between my Hunter and Warlock, my K/D is 1.25 and you'll see I have over 12 days worth of time in that mode alone. On my Hunter, I have 1900 matches and there's probably around 200 on the Warlock.

 

The Skill Based Match Making, it has ruined any kind of enjoyment I derived from any Crucible match type. The horrible lag and glitches. Literally landing a melee twice on someone with 5 HP left only for them to turn around, stare at you, then fire their shotgun.

 

Oh, and the random deaths when you're just wanting to do some Heroic Strikes. This happened to me a few days ago.

 

 

I'm not here to dissuade anyone currently playing to stop right now, just I've hit my limit. Granted, this is the longest I've ever played any one game. Heck, I may jump back on to see what they have in store for Valentine's Day, but for now I'll play something else like Life is Strange... when it arrives.

[danielpholt]

Lack of new content in PvE is why I've totally dropped off the Destiny map too. I know its only been a few short months since TTK, and I've put upwards of 60 hrs into the game but I've got to the point now where everything I had any interest in doing has ceased to be fun on the 20th go-round.

 

Perhaps this is less a problem with the game and more with what I expect out of it, but it's still disappointing for a game that we figured would be brimming with new content on a regular basis.

 

Look at the new event things they're doing. SRL was fun, but it certainly wasn't enough to keep me diving bank info Destiny and the Halloween thing fell totally flat for many.

 

I wonder if Bungie and Activision have decided that they're okay with fans playing for a month and then leaving the game behind until the next major release?

[deanb]

Yeah I've kinda massively scaled down my Destiny play time, though partly a mix of other games to play and not wanting to super burn out. Did enjoy SRL. But yeah kinda feel atm progress is the very slow gain of light level and not much else to it, patrolling the Cosmodrome gets pretty samey over n over. I've a few story missions to do, though I'm kinda sucking at them (especially given one you've got to take on a bunch of taken and you die once you've got to restart the whole thing all over since it's not a strike with match making).

 

From what I'm to understand they'll be doing Iron Banner/SRL/this valentines day stuff instead of proper expansions/DLC like Taken King n such which kind of sucks. Probably got Destiny 2 on the go which is probably why, though given it's a MMO kind of thing I'm confused on the current model cos it does make more sense to do it all expansion style such as ...well nearly all other MMOs (I guess Guild Wars n FFXI did get sequels many years down the line, though both have expansions too). The PvP maps imply there's other planets to go exploring, and plenty of lore to dive into. Can't quite do that with PvP leagues.

[danielpholt]

Another, slightly less serious problem I end up walking into (granted, this comes hand-in-hand with the style of game it is) is that after I grind and grind for that super-weapon that I've wanted for 10 months; eventually it'll be totally redundant and be replaced by a Yr 3 Common.

[Hot Heart]

I think they would probably prefer to do smaller expansion-style releases, but they have a contract with Activision for a big release every couple of years or something (hooray for creative freedom!)

 

Currently, all I've been doing is joining my regular group for the Raid (+Challenge) each week. And even that's getting tedious when RNG fucks you over.

 

There are all sorts of things I "could" do like try and get exotic swords and other such exotic weapons, but they're all completely unnecessary or rubbish, so I'd only be doing it for collecting's sake.

 

At the moment, I've just thrown myself back into The Witcher 3 but I'll always be around if people want help getting Black Spindle or, against all odds, we manage to find a time and group big enough to go through the raids.

[Hot Heart]

So, I had my doubts about this Iron Banner, but it's actually been pretty fun. It also seems like the "meta" for PvP is the most diverse it's been for a while. I've been killed by all sorts of weapons (although, a lot of 1000-Yard Stares...) and I'm switching up my loadout (critically, I have gone from Stormcaller back to Ram-wearing Voidwalker).

 

I'm absolutely wrecking with MIDA (switching to Tlaloc when I have my super) on bigger maps and SUROS Regime (at my cousin's suggestion) on the smaller maps. I guess it's a mixture of gametype and player base currently, but I'm getting K/D ratios between 2.00-4.00 on a regular basis. Even when I'm losing, I'm managing a 1.0. It's insane. I guess I never really tried scouts much in Crucible, but I was "raised" on Vision of Confluence and Fang of Ir Yut as well as past Halo games, so why it never occurred to me... I'm not even struggling to get special kills now (switched from shotgun to sniper this time).

 

I've got to share some pretty funny videos. One where I just happen to pull out my sniper just as two guys run for some heavy ammo and stand right next to each other so I get a twofer. Another where a stormcaller wipes out everyone in front and I have just enough time to pull out my sniper to make this one shot count as he bears down on me...

 

That said, I think matchmaking really can't cope with a game like Rift. I've never seen so many one-sided matches. I love close games but too often it is utter domination (get two or three of you coordinating in Rift and you should own).

[Hot Heart]

So, this is my best performance ever. I'm not brilliant because sometimes my decision-making is whack, but I did manage to get the Phantom medal as well (7 kills without taking any damage. I actually managed 8). There's probably a heap of luck in there too.

 

 

Ethan and Dan were criticising my "team/mode play" based on the end screen (which shows 0 captures for either team, and 0 carries by myself). Thing is, it's the usual thing where achievements or whatever fuck over proper playstyles. In this case, Iron Banner has that weekly bounty where one part involves coming first in a match. The only way to guarantee that is to be grabbing the spark as much as possible. So when you see that there's someone who's grabbed it 4 times, you know exactly what they're doing.

 

Either way, yeah, it was tight contest, with some really well-matched teams, and people were trying to grab the spark prematurely before clearing out enemies. Plus, our team went the same route every. fucking. time.

 

Also, I didn't believe my cousin when he swore how good SUROS Regime is (again) so I decided to try it on a fairly open map where MIDA probably would be better (I think I did turn out a better game using it some other time). I used Tlaloc for some, but there's no denying it is, once again, legit.

 

(The bit just after 6:45 is my favourite. They lined up for me!)

 

I think the stun is really good, plus you've got the "spinning up" perk which can really just pip it for you if you're pre-firing and that chance of health regen.

[TheMightyEthan]

Ethan and Dan were criticising my "team/mode play" based on the end screen (which shows 0 captures for either team, and 0 carries by myself).

I was just giving you a hard time.