destiny Archives - Page 25 of 60 - Tales of the Aggronaut

Iron Banner Issues

October 16, 2017 by Belghast

This past week for me at least has been all about the Iron Banner 2.0 event happening in Destiny 2. If Destiny Tracker is to be believed, I have played fifty Iron Banner matches over the last four days. That was enough to turn in 24 Iron Banner packages so far… aka the equivalent of 480 tokens. At this point I managed to pull a complete set of gear for my Titan and have collected all but one of the weapons available. The Hand Cannon is eluding me but I still have faith that I might manage to get it when I run through my daily milestones for Iron Banner today. To say I have a high tolerance for grinding is an understatement, and the more impressive stat is that every single bit of this has been solo. I will get into more about that later but suffice to say I feel like I experienced everything that is to be seen in the new Iron Banner. This month the game mode of choice was Control… which used to be my favorite mode for Iron Banner but in the 4 player crucible I seem to now favor Supremacy.

What Changed?

Traditionally the Crucible is an event that does some level synchronization to make sure every player is on a level field. Iron Banner however in Destiny 1 was one of the un-synced events that took into consideration what your gear level was. In truth however this didn’t really play a heavy role other than maybe dealing a few extra points of damage to someone significantly under your gear level. The entire event functioned based on the Iron Banner reputation that would reset to zero before the start of a new event. The ultimate goal was to level from 1 to rank 5, which then allowed you to purchase gear that was available from Lord Saladin. This generally consisted of two armor slots and two weapons, and then the same items were available as rewards at the end of matches. In my experience one in five to ten matches rewarded gear at the end.

Now Iron Banner is governed by a token based system much as is the case with all factions in Destiny 2. Additionally it relies on the same level synchronization that occurs in the Crucible so no more gear level advantages. Previously the only way to gain progress was to either complete a bounty or win the match. This meant if you had some really bad luck you could have a long streak of loses where you did not move your reputation forward at all. This time around you get 2 tokens for a loss and 5 tokens for a win, and it takes 20 tokens in total to get a package. The packages themselves contain 1 Iron Banner specific item, and on item from a long list of other miscellaneous weapons and armor. I should have taken much better care in opening my packages and tracked the items I got in each, but I will just say there were a significant number of duplicates.

The Problems

The issue with Iron Banner is a very nuanced one, that requires you to understand some of the base states of the game to understand how we got here. In Destiny 1 there was a constant refrain from players lashing out against skill based match making, and complaining about the number of “red bar” players with poor connections that they kept encountering. With Destiny 2 it feels like they stepped away from a lot of the intelligence that attempted to make decent matches for players. One of these is that the game no longer attempts to match teams of players against other teams, which is where the issue happens. Most of the weekend I spent time matched against partial or complete teams of players, and as a result had to fight a very uphill battle to get my wins.

The games seemed to be really hit or miss, I could go from being steamrolled one moment to being the odd man out on a team of three players that queued and in turn rolling over another team. In the rare instance when I got matched with a bunch of other random players… I did good. Like for example the above screenshot is one I think I will never be able to duplicate where I somehow ended up with a 6.4 efficiency rating…. which is their version of Kda. This is an issue because it ends up giving players a very uneven feeling experience, to go from ruling the world to succumbing to it… within the course of a single matching. The folks that managed to gather up a team, and were on voice chat however seemed to completely decimate all comers.

Problems With The Grind

Iron Banner was one of those events that I looked forward to each month, not necessarily because I loved the PVP but because it was an opportunity to move up in the world. What I mean by that is that in Destiny 1 there were a limited number of events that you could participate that scaled all the way to the level cap, Iron Banner was one of them. As a result I spent my weekends grinding away at Iron Banner incrementally improving my light level so that I could hang with the big dogs… but keep my relatively solitary play style. With Destiny 2 this concept is toast. Gear drops at the same item level that any other Legendary drop does, which means there is no real way to advance your power level through Iron Banner drops. Sure there is the random chance of getting an exotic to drop, but that is a once a night sort of event and even then you need some serious luck to get anything that will move the bar forward.

Now the meaningful grind is about the collection of available loot, but I fear this is going to be a very short lived process. I said earlier in the post that I have collected all but one weapon at this point, and a full set of gear for my titan. Additionally I have a few items for my hunter now, so currently there are ten items that I have not seen. Given that it is highly unlikely that we see an influx of new items before the next Iron Banner, then it means that my drive to keep participating is going to be less each time as I whittle down that list of needed items. Now were I able to keep using Iron Banner as a means to incrementally increase my power level, then more than likely I would continue to participate and even look forward to the event.

The Future

I’ve tried to remain largely positive about Destiny 2 because in a few weeks we will be starting the process all over again with the launch of the PC version. There are however issues here and there that sort of stick out as annoyances. The core problem with Destiny 2 is that more than anything it is a direct sequel to Destiny 1. What I mean by that is in some ways it feels like we took a step backwards to a world where everything that happened in Taken King and Rise of Iron never existed. It makes me wonder if this project was launched before the release of Taken King, and they simply never applied the good parts of years two and three before launch. I was a die-hard Destiny 1 player, and I watched that game improve in so many ways over the three years since release. Similarly I have all the faith in the world that a lot of these rough spots will get ironed out as we move forward. Destiny 2 is a much better starting point than Destiny 1 ever could have been, but much like I feel sometimes with World of Warcraft… I get a little wistful when I think about what could have been had we taken all of the good from TTK and ROI into the new game.

Xur Week Five: 10/13/17

October 13, 2017 by Belghast

This week is an interesting week namely because it answers a question I had rolling around in the back of my head. Since this is the first week Xur is returning to a planet that he had already been to… I had wondered if he would always appear in the same place on each planet. While we may not be absolutely certain… he did in fact appear up in the tree in the Watcher’s Grave area once again. I am curious to see when he goes to Titan next week… if they do follow the pattern if he also still appears in the little building that he did last time. I feel like this is going to be one of those weeks where you are either highly disappointed or really excited based on a handful of variables. So without further delay, lets rip that wrapping off and see what Xur brought us.

Every so often in Destiny 1 they had an exotic that equipped in the wrong slot… No Land Beyond the primary slot sniper or Universal Remote the primary slot shotgun are prime examples. This weeks bounty is the Fighting Lion… an energy slot grenade launcher that has a significant number of negatives that I feel have been placed on it in order to let it sit in a slot that is easier to get ammo for. The exotic perk is Delayed Gratification that allows you to do a timed explosion sort of thing where so long as you are holding down the trigger it will bounce the grenade around… then when you let up off the trigger it will explode. This continues to go into the generally fiddly and unreliable nature of grenade launchers as a whole that I went into a whole diatribe about yesterday. The most interesting perk is Thin the Herd which causes direct hits with the grenade to do significantly more damage to enemy shields… and then rapid kills to enemies damaged in this fashion cause the weapon to reload. Given that this is a single shot weapon… I feel like this is actually the perk we should be caring about. In function I think this weapon is designed to be a shield stripper and for you to swap over to it… hit an enemy decimating its shield in a single hit and then swap back to your kinetic to kill it quickly so that the weapon reloads and is ready for the next encounter. I mean this is a cool mechanic, but it also means you are losing one entire weapon slot to effectively a gimmick. I rely way too much on both my kinetic and energy weapons for moment to moment game play and cannot really afford to have a one hit wonder taking up one of those slots. Your mileage may vary of course and it is probably still worth a pick up if you have not yet unlocked this item in your collection.

Peacekeepers are an item that I would have purchased… were it not for the fact that I literally just got a pair from an engram last night. The perk on these is interesting in that it effectively gives Sub-Machineguns a stronger version of the cocoon perk. Effectively Mecha Holster does two things… firstly it causes submacs to reload when you stow them and secondly it causes submacs to swap instantly. I feel like this is screaming for a build where you are running two different archetypes of submachinegun in both your kinetic and energy slots. Were I doing this build I would go with a highly stable 600 rpm weapon like the Antiope-D or the Adjudicator in my kinetic slot, and rock something like the Royal Dispensation II in my energy slot. This is more than likely a PVP build sort of thing given that submacs akimbo is probably not the best idea for PVE engagements because you lose a lot of utility. This is a cool item that is inspired by the way Robocop drew his weapon, but it just isn’t good enough to probably get me to stop using the exotics I already have in rotation. Once again this is another if you don’t already have it, buy it to unlock in your collection sort of setup.

This week we have yet another repeat in the form of the Wings of Sacred Dawn… that actually last appeared in Xur’s inventory on week one when we were back here on Nessus. This still is one of the most ornate chest pieces that I have seen in the game and I know a lot of players seem to rock this almost for looks alone. I am still not really a fan of the Dawnblade sub class nor am I really a fan of the whole hover in air while hurling blades at your enemy that the Exotic perk gives you. If you like hanging mid air and performing attacks though then this might be the ideal weapon for you… for me that just seems to make you a giant target and I absolutely love when a warlock is using this in the crucible for that reason. It is worth the pick up for the unlock and maybe there will be a situation where this sort of gameplay is really needed in the future.

Now I present the diamond in the rough… Knucklehead Radar. There has been this trend in Destiny 2 of bringing underutilized exotics from Destiny 1 into the game, but this one sort of breaks that pattern. Knucklehead Radar has always been useful because it grants an insanely good exotic perk in the form of Upgraded Sensor Pack. What this effectively does is grant you radar 100% of the time regardless if you are aiming down the sight of your kinetic, energy or heavy weapon. The shine off of this item tarnished a bit during year three, when they introduced the Memory of Gheleon artifact… that effectively did this same thing. However for now… this is the only exotic that I use on my Hunter and if you do not already have this in your arsenal you should do whatever it takes to buy this item this week. Sure there are items that are functionally better in different situations…. but I like the fact that this is legitimately always going to be useful regardless of what sub class you are using or what situation you are in be it PVE or PVP. One of my favorite Destiny 1 items… and still one of my favorite Destiny 2 items… I just wish there was an equivalent for Titans.

Another thing I have started trying to do on my Friday morning post is show of what Xur is selling in Destiny 1, since no one seems to still be doing this thing. This week he can be located on the Reef, and apparently talked to his Destiny 2 counterpart as he is also offering the Knucklehead Radar. I am not going to talk a lot about his offerings but instead just list them out for any players who are still trying to complete exotic sets from the first game.

Legacy Heavy Weapon Engram – 31 Strange Coins
Helm of Inmost Light – Titan Helm – 13 Strange Coins
Knucklehead Radar – Hunter Helm – 13 Strange Coins
Nothing Manacles – Warlock Gauntlets – 13 Strange Coins
Hereafter – Sniper Rifle – 17 Strange Coins
Last Word and Sequel Ornament – Hand Cannon – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust
Truth and Prototype Ornament – Rocket Launcher – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust

Beyond the Light

October 10, 2017 by Belghast

For the last few weeks I have been making contact with a lot of players in preparation for the launch of Destiny 2 on the PC platform. One of the patterns that I have noticed is that while there will be a ton of us playing, there are a significant number of different clans in the works. Even among my own guild-mates it has been decided to go with a Greysky Armada clan rather than joining another, so I will end up splitting time between that on the PC and Tequila Mockingbird on the PS4. Basically the common theme that I kept seeing was that we were going to be a pretty fragmented bunch going forward. Ages ago I created the Beyond the Light discord, and then never really did anything with it. The theory behind it was to have a clan agnostic place for folks to come together and get help doing stuff in Destiny. Since the early marketing material for Destiny 2 talked about us losing our connection with the light… it seemed like a really fitting name. The idea is to create a sort of hub for our little corner of the gaming verse, and facilitate cross clan activities. The channel names themselves are pretty general purpose and I decided to follow a pattern of the various weapon foundries for voice channels. The idea being that anyone can use any channel for any purpose that is needed at the moment.

The reason why I chose a discord rather than a slack or even a new Blizzard Social area… is the fact that Destiny 2 PC based voice chat is horrible. I am not sure how many of you actually tried using this during the PC beta, but it was horrific. Currently we only have about fourteen members, but I figure the discord will grow as we get closer and closer to the PC launch. There are break out channels for the various classes and we’ve already gotten into some discussions on Warlocks and Titans thus far. I’ve largely treated the PS4 launch as a sort of extended paid beta process for the eventual PC launch, and I have attempted to gather up as much information as I could along the way. If nothing else it should be a good place to find people to go do heroic public quests with and maybe even eventually pick up raids. There are already Destiny themed discords out there, but honestly they felt huge and impersonal… or in the case of the one associated with the reddit… fairly toxic at times. I wanted to create a happy place to hang and enjoy this game with all of the people who may or may not share the same banner as me. Effectively everyone is welcome pending they behave themselves. There isn’t a lot of formal structure right now but I figure that will come with time.

The other big news of the week is that Iron Banner is back and its reset day! Like every other activity this one is going to be based on a token system, and I have to say I really like this. There are a lot of complaints from players who like seeing weapons drop, and technically they still do in modes like the Crucible. However I would far rather have a predictable path to get rewards that I can work my way towards than to rely entirely on luck. The other aspect of this that I absolutely love is the fact that tokens go into the shared account inventory, meaning you can grind out the rewards on one character and then swap over to another character to consume them. I personally plan on holding all of my Iron Banner tokens until I have completed the powerful rewards milestones for the week so that I can potentially get items at a higher light level than where I am currently standing. Right now I see a handful of weapons that look really interesting, including an Iron Banner themed version of my beloved Origin Story. Additionally I think the gear set this time is amazing for Titans at least, so I hope to gather up most of a set there as well. This evening my goal is to eat some Tikka Masala that I have going in the crock pot… and play a bunch of Iron Banner. Side note you should be able to double dip the Call to Arms weekly milestone while doing Iron Banner so if you have not unlocked that… I highly suggest you do Lord Shaxx’s two early crucible milestones so you can start working towards yet another luminous engram.

Xur Week Four: 10/6/17

October 6, 2017 by Belghast

Happy Xursday! Since this seems to be a fairly popular feature I will be doing a run down of what Xur has this week. Since the Flashpoint is in the European Dead Zone he is found over in the winding cove area. For characters who have yet to hit 20… you can get there by just going west out of town and winding along the coastline… but in truth I would warn against doing this because his items degrade in power based on your level. This time Xur is a little tricky given that the previous three weeks he has been in some sort of a sheltered area, and this time he is up on top of a cliff that you are going to have to do a bit of wall jumping to get to. Another thing to watch out for… the area he is in is patrolled by a group of dregs on pikes. Additionally there may or may not be a public event active at the drop zone in the winding cove area. Essentially this is probably the most dangerous area Xur has been so far, just be careful if you AFK because Vandals could in fact hit me with their wire rifles from where he is located.

First off he is offering the Vigilance Wing, a weapon I am extremely excited to see because I have yet to get one from an engram. This is an odd Osiris themed weapon that you occasionally see in your “killed by” notes in the crucible and now that I see the perks I understand why. The exotic perk for this weapon is Harsh Truths which does several things. Firstly it fires a five round burst which is a bit unique because most pulse rifles fire three round bursts, and hakke weapons are the outlier with four round bursts. A five round burst for reference means a single precision burst kills a second tier mob like a Vandal. The second part of the perk is that when a nearby ally is killed you gain health regeneration and increased movement speed… something that happens constantly in the crucible. Seeing as I just literally got this weapon today I have yet to take it into the crucible so I am uncertain how much difference this makes. I did however run around the EDZ and complete a public event to get a feel for it and my opinions are a bit mixed. Statwise it is probably most similar to the Lincoln Green, with a very odd 530 rounds per minute rate of fire and surprisingly high 33 impact for that rpm. Traditionally the high rate of fire weapons have an extremely poor range but this one has 68 and a medium range sight to go with it making it fairly decent in longer range engagements. The other side of the coin though is the unique sun themed sight means it is extremely annoying for close range fights. The last stand perk plays well with harsh truths in that it gives the weapon improved performance if you are the last member of a fire team. It seems like it is well worth the legendary shards if for no reason other than to get the unlock and a good Kinetic pulse rifle is a bit of a rare item to find.

The Insurmountable Skullfort is another of a list of items that has returned from Destiny 1. Its bizarre because almost all of them were considered second tier items, which makes me wonder if the devs were simply unhappy with the amount of play time that they got and carried them over to potentially give them some new life. Transfusion Matrix causes kills with arc melee abilities to trigger health regeneration and restore melee energy. What this means in play is that there is a really interesting build you can do with a Striker Titan where you have near 100% up-time of the insanely powerful arc shoulder charge ability. This is literally the only reason to use this exotic and is probably well worth the pick up so that you have it in case you ever want to try that build out. Personally since I love my Auto Rifles… I am likely to almost always use the Actium War Rig because it benefits whatever spec I might be in at that time and doesn’t hamper me from switching freely.

Nezarec’s Sin is another really limited use case item because its exotic perk does one thing. Abyssal Extractors causes void damage kills to increase your ability energy recharge rate. I feel like the primary use case for this item is going to be in the crucible and specifically in control or similar modes where you are wanting to stand your ground or camp out a location. This is of course a useful for Void warlocks, but also is triggered by void weapon damage. This means you could in theory build a specific layout with a void energy and a void heavy and be constantly dropping your healing puddle on the ground. I ran this item for a bit of a time and the ability recharge rate increase is significant. Overall however I tend to prefer Eye of Another World that highlights priority targets and has a flat increase to the recharge rate of melee, grenade and your ability. The helm however is well worth a pick up in case you really need to be the one providing an on demand puddle.

And we have our very first repeat item of Xur in Destiny 2. Foetracer helm was offered in week two and my feelings are probably much the same. The exotic perk is Relentless Tracker which causes any mob you scope in on to acquire an X target that you can see through obstacles. Additionally marked targets like this take additional damage when they get to low health range. This is a generally useful item and I am sure there are specific cases where it is extremely solid especially for low health target damage. Personally I am a huge fan of Knucklehead Radar because I like having my radar up while I aim down sight regardless of the weapon I am using. The Foetracer however is probably a much better damage option because at least it does something to increase your output. I didn’t pick these up in week two, but I did this week largely to get a collection unlock. Probably a solid item if you are needing a reasonable exotic to use.

All in all I feel like this was a pretty solid week for Xur. I’ve been wanting to play with the Vigilance Wing as it is an exotic that I had never seen from an engram, so I am super happy about him offering that. The two weapons you can get from an engram that I am still missing is the Sweet Business Gatling gun auto rifle, and The Prospector grenade launcher. As far as armor pieces go… there are still a sizeable number of unlocks on each character that I will hopefully see Xur offering in coming weeks. I am mildly annoyed that on week four we are already getting duplicates, which reminds me all too much of the number of times we have seen weapons like the Hawkmoon or Last Word being sold. What are your thoughts? Are you impressed with what Xur has been offering or are they all old news to you by the time you can get your hand on them? I am interested in your thoughts. One last thing… I decided to start including Destiny 1 Xur in these posts because I feel sorta bad about that incarnation stuck in a game that people aren’t hyped about anymore.

In Destiny 1 Xur is located in the Vanguard area of the Tower. I am not going to go into a lot of detail on this, but the major items he has to offer…

Suros Regime Auto Rifle – 23 Strange Coins
ACD/0 Feedback Fence Titan Arms – 13 Strange Coins
Celestial Nighthawk Hunter Helm – 13 Strange Coins
The Stag Warlock Helm – 13 Strange Coins
Legacy Primary Weapon Engram – 31 Strange Coins
Monte Carlo Weapon Bundle with Superspy Ornament – 30 Strange Coins and 25 Silver Dust
Zhalo Supercell with Not A Toy Ornament – 30 Strange Coins and 25 Silver Dust