melmer

Destiny

Recommended Posts

I finished all the demo content (although didn't do any crucible stuff).

 

Why are there so many level 34 people running around in the story mission areas? Grinding rep/faction/whatever it's called?

 

My biggest complaint for the story stuff I've done was running through the same areas for basically all the missions. That seemed kind of lame. I realize that the end-game stuff is basically doing the same things over and over, but it's just more disappointing when it's ostensibly a New Mission.

 

Also I made a Titan because I always liked being a tank in WoW. But I don't know like... what the class diversity is actually like? What am I getting into as a Titan? (I realize I can just start over and make a new character at any point, so it's not a huge deal if Titan ends up not too interesting.)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

High-level players can always get something from the story areas, most of which are public areas that can be starting points for strikes and other activities. You were probably in the Cosmodrome and on the Moon, where there are regular enemy spawns that can get people some useful endgame stuff.

 

Most activities cover the same ground over and over again, with a new room or two sprinkled around. Strikes and raids get off the beaten path, but if you play up to the level cap, you'll become very familiar with those, too (though now it's possible to hit the level cap without ever doing a raid). That's why some people get excited (and then bent out of shape) when new expansions come out. The Taken King is reportedly going to add another patrol area (on the level of the Cosmodrome, Moon, Venus, etc.).

 

If you stick with a Titan, the first skills you'll have access to will be best for close-quarters combat. Once you hit level 15 you'll unlock the other subclass, which is more of a defensive/support thing. Every class has its finer points, which other people can speak to better than I can, but in my opinion, Warlocks are the most unlike other console games' offerings. One Warlock subclass gives you a ranged super, the other allows you to spam the other cooldown skills (grenade and melee) and revive yourself after dying.

 

Each subclass has an elemental association, which makes them more useful against enemies shielded by the same element, and in high-level strike situations when certain modifiers are active. Until The Taken King comes out, each class covers only two of the three elemental types, so there's not really a "right" choice to be made there.

 

Every class is equally able to solo the story stuff. PvP class selection seems to be matter of personal preference, but if you like precision over AoE stuff, you might prefer a Hunter. Fireteam composition seems to matter the most in raid situations.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I finished all the demo content (although didn't do any crucible stuff).

 

Why are there so many level 34 people running around in the story mission areas? Grinding rep/faction/whatever it's called?

 

My biggest complaint for the story stuff I've done was running through the same areas for basically all the missions. That seemed kind of lame. I realize that the end-game stuff is basically doing the same things over and over, but it's just more disappointing when it's ostensibly a New Mission.

 

Also I made a Titan because I always liked being a tank in WoW. But I don't know like... what the class diversity is actually like? What am I getting into as a Titan? (I realize I can just start over and make a new character at any point, so it's not a huge deal if Titan ends up not too interesting.)

 

Every mission starts in a public area and then goes into an instanced area, so you'll see high level players on their way to do high level stuff. There are also bounties and public events to do in patrol areas, so you'll see people doing those.

 

The class variety comes down to what abilities they have. Each class uses the same weapons, but they have different armour and subclasses. When you level up a Titan enough, you unlock the Defender subclass that lets you put down a bubble shield that can either give bonus health or bonus damage. That's a really useful ability for raids so that's the class to play if you want to keep people alive. Hunters have a stealth subclass that lets them turn invisible, and Warlocks have a self-rez so you could think of them as "rogues" and "healers", but they're archetypes rather than roles. The classes all have different types of jumping and grenades as well, which are the most obvious differences. You have three character slots so you can always try out another class if there's something you want to see.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So, uh, no hot takes on the weapons rebalancing yet? I'm glad that they seem to be taking another look at auto rifles (from what I can gather)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

They rebalanced weapons? I knew they were planing it but I didn't know it'd happened.

 

EDIT: Here's a Reddit (I know, Reddit is the worst, but it's all I could found and the Destiny Subreddit is mostly OK from what I've seen) that seems to list most of the changes; LINK

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't think they say when the rebalancing patch will hit. Go ahead and read their update on it if you're interested. It's pretty interesting and there's a ton of changes coming. AR buffs, HC nerfs, and a bunch of weapon specific tweaks. It sounds promising to me, but it always takes time for the real impact of these changes to emerge once they're released. One thing that seems clear from it is they don't intend to make year one weapons obsolete when Taken King comes out, which some people had been speculating might happen.

 

https://www.bungie.net/7_Destiny-Weapon-Tuning-20/en/News/News?aid=13147

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Weekly Update

 

Weapon Tuning Blog Post

 

It's hard to judge exactly how the changes will feel ingame, but they've made some pretty bold changes. Gjallarhorn, Icebreaker and Black Hammer all being nerfed are going to have a huge effect on how people do current raids. I'm glad they're doing it though, because cheesing through encounters was never particularly fun and it's good to force people to play better. The PvP changes are going to make weapons like Thorn and The Last Word less important, and hopefully there'll be a better spread of primary weapon types instead of just hand cannons. I'm really happy about all of these changes.

 

Also I run that Lord Shaxx twitter account that got quoted in the weekly update, and when I opened the page I made a noise that's normally only heard from One Direction fans.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

They said that the patch is coming in the 2.0.0 update, which is (as far as I know/remember) coming out just prior to The Taken King.

 

Highlights -

  • PvE balance changes as Vasari mentioned, nerfing Gjally, Black Hammer, Ice Breaker.
    • Gjally seems like it'll be a minor change, it'll still be clearly the best RL but by a less significant margin and you'll see a lot less totally burning down of bosses with it.
    • Ice Breaker is the second most significant, as it'll basically restore ammo at almost the exact same rate as you'd get with special weapon synths. I imagine what this will mean in practicality is that you'll want to roll a good Templar/Bridge-specific long-range scout rifle to switch back and forth with IB.
    • Black Hammer is apparently getting annihilated. Considering I don't have one, I haven't looked at what changes they've made in detail.
  • Hand Cannons in general are being nerfed to actually work as intended, in close-to-mid-range battles. Lots of damage dropoff at range plus the shots will be harder to land. Smaller magazines.
  • Scout Rifles will be slightly better to firmly fit in the long-range use case
  • Assault Rifles will be significantly buffed, working in a larger variety of range areas. Buffs seem to be focused more on high ROF ARs.
  • Pulse Rifles are being changed oddly, apparently they'll take armor into account specifically. Additionally, two round burst kills will require all bullets to be precision. Mid-impact PRs like Allfate will be affected negatively, high ROF/low impact PRs like the Conduit will be positively affected.
  • Exotics HCs will be nerfed fairly significantly, including Thorn's range being destroyed and damage stacking being reduced as well as The Last Word's ADS accuracy being reduced. TLW will actually be the hipfire, sniper-complementary/shotgun-counter weapon it's supposed to be. Hawkmoon seems largely unaffected, except by the general HC nerfs.
  • Hard Light is going to be way better as the ricochets will not be prone to damage falloff and ARs will be buffed in general.
  • Shotguns will be worse at range (shot package and rangefinder nerfed, specifically) and Fusion Rifles will be better in close-range.
  • Final Round is nerfed on Sniper Rifles, requires precision kills. HOORAY

My takeaways -

  • Finish leveling Hard Light, work on rolling a good high ROF AR like First Rule DHYB or Low Down P-XIV. Going to aim for high stability and high-caliber rounds.
  • Will not ascend my 55A-Allfate due to upcoming nerf, will work on rolling a good Conduit with similar build to aforementioned high ROF AR.
  • Will work on a mid-impact HC with a good magazine, avoid mini-hawkmoon builds as magazine nerfs will make them non-viable. Probably will run Fulcrum or Red Hand with range/stability.
  • Work on rolling a good Fusion Rifle or two, seems like current wisdom for rolling a Give/Take, Splitshifter or Perun's Fire will be good. Deprioritize charge rate as it seems they're intending for it to still need leading targets and good positioning.
  • I WANT A NO LAND BEYOND

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The thing with Black Hammer was that it was basically an ultra Ice Breaker vs bosses. The perk was that landing three precision shots refilled the magazine. When you are up against a mostly stationary boss, this translates to infinite sniper ammo with no reloading required. Now you still get the no reloads benefit, but the refilled magazine bullets come from your ammo store. Probably still a useful weapon vs bosses but not amazing like it was (I wish I had one).

 

What I really want to get my hands on is a Necrochasm. Thrall explosion on every precision kill? Time to start hitting HM Crota every week...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ah, that sounds lame. I mean, it'll still be good due to the auto-reload and high impact but it won't be something in the Gjally/IB echelon of must-haves anymore.

 

I know some people who have run CEHM 40+ and haven't gotten a Crux, not looking forward to trying to farm that. I have been running VOG 3x and Crota 3x the past couple weeks trying to finish my collection of raid stuff but it's slow going. I still need Black Hammer, Swordbreaker, Hunger of Crota, Vision of Confluence, Praedyth's Timepiece, and Hezen Vengeance. It's kind of a drag trying to farm this stuff as I've just been getting my third and fourth Vex, PR, Fang, etc.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah I'm well aware of Crota's stinginess and I don't have it in me to aggressively farm so I'm not going to go nuts trying to get the thing, but it's definitely an incentive to run HM Crota. I've had pretty good luck with the VoG drops at least. The only thing I'm missing from it is the Praetorian Foil, which I don't really care much about getting so I just run it for fun at this point, at least until I get an alt leveled and want some Heavy Ammo boots.

 

I wonder how the Crota AR will be post-buff. The perk to blind wizards sounds cool and I'd love for it to be useful in the Hive PoE levels.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm pretty pleased with all the weapon changes. It seems like they touched on just about every major contentious weapon and buffed/nerfed exactly what needed to be buffed/nerfed. Somehow I'm sure people will still scream and yell about how these changes are going to ruin Destiny though. And it will probably be fascinating.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The Black Hammer changes make sense, and they've increased the reserve ammo to compensate. If you land precision hits you can get up to 21 shots off without reloading, which is more than enough.

 

There is so much crying going on about the Gjallarhorn/Icebreaker nerfs. I've always felt that both those weapons trivialised challenges in Destiny and I'm really, really glad they're being tuned. Gjallarhorn will still do more damage than other rocket launchers and Icebreaker will still regenerate ammo, but now they won't be such crutches that they can bypass encounter mechanics.

 

By the way, if you're a Hunter you should check out Xur this weekend. He's selling Celestial Nighthawk, which is a helmet that gives your golden gun a single shot that does 6x damage and overpenetrates. It's useless in PvP but in PvE you can have alot of fun with it.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I bought Nighthawk ASAP and am really excited about the changes. I run Thorn and TLW a whole bunch right now, and I'm perfectly happy to have to start experimenting with other guns now that the incentive is there.

 

The idea that Bungie throws out about "Gjallarhorn is a gate" has been met with skepticism, but I think it's valid in a lot of ways; I'm always concerned about running raids/strikes based on whether or not I have the "right gear" as is, so the idea that other guns that are maybe more attainable will be just as valid is welcome news.

 

(also, that Misha Mansoor cover of Sepiks Prime's theme in the Weekly Update is bomb as all get out, time to jam some Periphery on the way home)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

There's also Lady Desiree, who does a bunch of piano music on youtube. She did a piano cover of the Sepik's Prime theme.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So is there any real interest in the Crota run set to start in about two hours? If not I can move family movie night to today and be free tomorrow night. Either is fine but it would be nice to know ahead of time. As it is we're 3 people short so I thought I'd check.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'm up for it. I was waiting to see how awake I felt before signing since it's pretty late here. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

How did the Crota raid end up going? I really wish I didn't work 12-hour days on Saturdays... Should be on in about an hour if anyone cares to join me.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Crota went well! We got the whole thing done in 2 hours. That was the first time I've done the bridge legit and survived until the end. We spent maybe about 45 minutes on Crota himself but we ended up getting him with just two swords. No Cruxes dropped :(

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Uh, I totally got a Crux. But it was like 3am for you, so I'd understand you tuning out a bit at the end there.

 

I saved off a video of our successful attempt, plus the weird glitches where the crystal didn't load in and where the Gatekeeper decided to rush us, mainly because I kinda like messing with the Sharefactory app. So feel free to watch if you wanna see some pro swordbearer moves (except the part where I'm killed). Sadly I don't have it set to save voice chat so you can't hear what JonCole sounds like after a few margaritas or me squealing when the Crux dropped.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Man. I look so cool!

 

Oh and everyone else too. :P

 

On a more serious note if anyone wants to do a 34 POE or VOG hit me up.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Uh, I totally got a Crux. But it was like 3am for you, so I'd understand you tuning out a bit at the end there.

 

Oh, congrats! Yeah, I'm surprised I managed to stay coherent that long. I completely forgot about the overly eager Gatekeeper and the disappearing crystal, too.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'd like to thank JonCole for leading me through a really fun and quick POE 34 and a really just kind of sad Trials run. I just completely lost it on that last match. Which is a shame as we really should have had that match based on their gear.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now