Right now my low key chill game has been Destiny 2 as I slowly and methodically work my way through the various opportunities for light levels each week. I’m enjoying the new seasonal hunts quite a bit even though the formula itself is rather repetitive. You essentially “do some things” in order to gain a charge for your lure and then fill out the 3 slots on the lure to determine who you are going after. Finally you plunk that puppy down in the Tangled Shore, fight a mini boss, and chase glowing green goo until you reach the lair of the boss you are going to fight. Lastly you damage specific majors in the encounter in order to drop the invulnerability shield on the boss allowing you to burn it down and get your loot.
What do you get for a reward? Well largely a series of weapons of which for me at least there seems to be one available at any given time. The loot acquisition is so much slower than some of the other seasonal events, and I think that in part is what has made it feel like we just aren’t getting as much useable drops. Corsair’s Wrath is a perfectly cromulent linear fusion rifle, but as far as heavy weapons go… it is not my favorite archetype to use. I greatly prefer a Rocket Launcher, Machinegun, Grenade Launcher or a Sword. I mean I will hold onto this for the times when I get bounties that require one.
This however is what I was wanting to get my hands on. Wave Frame grenade launchers are special in that they fire out a wave of elemental energy after the detonation. As a result you often times don’t even care about the detonation but are instead using them for wave clear. The Season of Dawn had some of my absolute favorite weapons to be introduced into Destiny 2 and one of them was a wave frame grenade launcher called Martyr’s Retribution. In practice it was essentially an on demand Titan Thermite Grenade, and it was amazing… and also sadly sunsetting after this season. Deafening Whisper steps in to take its place and instead of a wave of Solar damage it deals a wave of Void Damage. Hoping to get a good roll on this that I can hold onto for awhile.
Another interesting weapon that I managed to pick up is the Coriolis Force, and it too is a special type of weapon we have not really seen before. Usually fusion rifles have a vertical spread as you fire them as a sort of energy shotgun. Coriolis Force instead has a horizontal spread pattern allowing you to spray an oncoming wave of mobs with charged energy particles. The “One For All” perk works with this nature and if you hit three different targets with one spread, it gives you a damage boost. I am sure one could build around this in some interesting ways.
I’ve also reached a point of peace with the Behemoth Stasis class for Titans, as I finally got a grenade that I actually like using. Coldsnap Grenade freezes whatever it hits and then spreads ice out freezing whatever it touches. This seems to be more predictable than the other two options which are effectively a freezing fog bubble or an ice wall. Last night I spent a lot of time playing Striker for the vanguard weeklies and it felt odd NOT being Stasis, and it seems like some of the new content was designed expecting guardians to be using that spec. The new Disgraced strike, which is essentially a rebrand of the Omnigul strike… was sheer madness without the crowd control that Stasis provided especially with waves of thralls and the fact that we had the affix that increased melee damage.
The real news however is that this weekend the Deep Stone Crypt raid race starts on Saturday at 10 am PST or 12 my time. This is one of the few “esports” activities that I actually care about and I had a great time watching last year as folks raced through the Garden of Salvation raid. I am not sure who is going to be commentating the race this time around, but last year a team effectively came from out of nowhere to get the win so it isn’t like one of the big name teams is absolutely going to take the prize. What is going to be interesting is that for the first time I am going to have a clan that is actually participating. What is even cooler is that my friend Warenwolf that I have known since Vanilla WoW is on the roster. Right now the team is comprised of:
I am not sure if there are going to be multiple streams going or not, but I do know that CajunGeek plans on streaming Tequila Mockingbirds attempts. At a minimum I think they want to make sure they get the day one clear. Initially Deep Stone Crypt is going to be open in what they call Contest Mode where artifact power is disabled and your light level is capped at 1230. While there are absolutely players in the game sitting at the 1260 cap… this attempts to even the playing field so that builds and group composition matter more than who ground the hardest. Seeing that I am sitting at 1225 and have been pretty casually playing this seems like a completely doable number for everyone to hit that was super serious about making this raid race.
Right now I plan on trying to keep the TQMB stream up while also watching any official coverage from Bungie. I am sure I will be tweeting out links and such tomorrow as it is going down.
I will be here at work, so this may be a great thing to put on the tv while we work!