Mechanations

Waypoint clan thread. Most recent post was almost a month ago. There were at least five Waypoint clans back in October. I'm not sure about the state of any of them these days, but I know FATT and PALS aren't generating many clan engrams. Which one you want to join will depend somewhat on what platform you're playing on and more on which have capacity. It would probably be possible to do sort of a Sad Voltron and make one active clan out of the five mostly dead ones, but I don't know if anyone's thinking in that direction. FWIW, the Waypoint Discord Destiny channel just recently got rolled into the general shooter channel. If you're in that Discord, there are still ways to scrape together a group, but interest will likely pick up more when the next expansion is released.

rtings does Wirecutter-like recs for several different TV use cases (movies, sports, HDR gaming, etc.) and other axes. Might be helpful for people shopping for new TVs.

Sorta depends on how much you know going in. It's challenging in that it requires more coordination than any other PvE stuff in the game, and is more about execution than how good you can shoot. Once you know what to do, it's not particularly difficult. D1 had hard-mode raids, and D2 is doing a similar thing with "prestige"-level stuff. Same encounters, but with tweaks that make them more difficult. Probably also stricter limits on dying and reviving. I don't know if time spent is a good measurement of how challenging a thing is, but here are some numbers I know: I once spent four hours on one encounter in the Leviathan raid; yesterday we finished the whole thing in less than that. And the first group to finish the prestige raid did it even less time than that.

Clans can help with organizing activities, but their only real in-game value is getting you loot when other people complete certain activities. If you want to raid with Thumbs, you can post here or in the Destiny channel on Slack. No particular clan affiliation required.

I'm in. My hunter is right at 265. Either day would work for me, though the sooner we settle on something the better.

The AI/Ghost banter in Inverted Spire is weird, at least. I hope it'll be less grating when we have more context around it. Taken King seemed like where D1 really started down that "we can be funny AND super serious" path, and I wonder if the high regard people generally have for TTK has encouraged Bungie to maintain that tone. That half-and-half trailer a few months ago was clumsy, though, and I don't know if that line is one they can walk for a whole game. I sorta liked the tone of Vanilla Destiny, with its unimagined planes and blessings of the ancients. There was a self-serious attempt at world-building there that worked for me. But that stuff gets stale in a game structured like Destiny, so I understand why they went more toward wackiness with Hotline Bling dances and Nolan North ghosts and Cayde quips. Curious to see where D2 falls on that spectrum.

I'm sticking with PS4 because that's where most of my Destiny-playing friends are. But I've switched/added platforms before in search of people to play with, so I'm open to doing it again (even though starting over sucks real bad). Regarding the beta: I had questions about it that I didn't get answers to until I played it a little last night. In case other people have similar questions... (no spoilers) The beta forces you into the opening story mission on launch. You pick your class, but you can't play around with the character creator or anything. You play that story mission solo, in that you can't invite other people to your game or join anyone else's. There might be a way to replay that story mission after you finish it, but it wasn't obvious from my couple minutes of poking around.

Back from the dead like a Fallen machine god. Right? Remember that one? I'm in. Can't do Tuesday and am scheduled to run stuff with a couple people Wednesday, but otherwise I should be on every night (ET) during the beta. If I'm on and you need someone to round out a fireteam, send me an invitation.

More Destiny 2 details announced today. Preorders are up, and they include access to a beta. Sounds like there will still be some PS4-exclusive stuff. I switched from Xbox One to PS4 in the middle of Destiny 1 because I knew more people playing regularly on PS4. I'm curious how many Thumbs Destiny players will jump to PC this time around.

I would like to hop on for a bit at least to check out the AoT record book, and if anyone is dying to run the updated raids, I'd be interested. But I've got a nice Saterienne Rapier, and Breath of the Wild, and an impending move, so my motivation to jump back into Destiny is fairly low.

Yeah, that should work for me, too. Edit: Well, maybe not. That's Super Bowl Sunday, and my household will be hosting a thing. I'll need to help get ready for that.

I've got a fourth person who's interested in joining us. So we're still looking to fill two slots. I can post something to the Crota Today PSN community board this evening, though I don't know how much attention that thing gets.

I'm fairly flexible, though I should block off a couple hours in the evening* for making and eating dinner. We've aimed for noon* or so before, so that it's not too late or early for anyone. If no one from the UK or Europe joins up, that might simplify things a bit. *Eastern Time

Yeah, I can probably swing a raid. An old one would be fine with me.

Sunday would work best for me, too.

Alright, with my friend, we'll have three for the Nightfall tonight. J.C. and Vulpes, if Sunday works for both of you, I'd be happy to take a couple more runs at it or anything else.

How about later Saturday? Maybe 9 ET (7 MT, 6 PT)?

Anyone interested in making a run (or three) at the Nightfall this week? My friend and I tried to two-person it last night, and though we finished it, we blew way past the time limit. Ice Breaker demands better. We usually play after 9 p.m. ET during the week. The weekend is an option, too.

Sure thing. What's your PSN ID?

Also, the consumables won't give you any progress toward your other two subclasses. Playing through all the older stuff will. People new to the game should know that there's an Idle Thumbs Destiny clan called Crota Today and a PS4 community with the same name. I think you can self-join the clan, and I'm happy to add people to the PS4 community. Both are pretty good ways to see if any Thumbs types are on and playing. You'll eventually hit something you can't or would rather not solo.

Yeah, I underestimated the number of things I'd need to get done today that don't involve Destiny. I'll be on later, but most likely not at the time we'd planned.

10 a.m. PT/11 MT/1 p.m. ET works for me.

I could do Sunday. I'd love to run the Nightfall, but I'd fine just doing lesser strikes and races.

J.C. messaged me the other day looking for someone to help with the last step of the Outbreak Prime quest. I had the time and the inclination, but not the required quest status (same step or completed). Last night, a friend of mine was looking for a sixth for his group's WotM HM run, and asked if I was interested. I said sure, but that I'd only done most of WotM NM once, and had never done HM. He very diplomatically withdrew his invitation. All my characters can hit 390 (my Titan 391), but my lack of experience with the raid is keeping me from doing stuff I'd like to do. Is there any interest here in doing WotM again, either normal or hard mode?

I'm not available Sunday until the afternoon (ET), probably around 3. Someone else can take my slot if you all don't want to start that late. I'm ~367 with all three of my characters now, and I have a bunch of stuff stashed in the vault waiting for the WotM HM update later today. Will be interesting to see how much higher we all can get by the weekend.