Destiny 2 *Official* CAG Thread - Farmhands Wanted

Yeah, I've been AFK from Destiny for a little while now.  I don't know, just not feeling it any more.  After 4 years of grinding away, I guess it's time to take a break.  Even with the new stuff, it just bums me out because now I'm even farther behind everyone who has more time to play than I do.  I don't like the feeling of always chasing and doing the same routine week after week to level up. 

That being said, the Black Armory content looks cool.  I'm especially curious about that raid, that can be very interesting with the use of sparrows.

 
Yeah, I've been AFK from Destiny for a little while now. I don't know, just not feeling it any more. After 4 years of grinding away, I guess it's time to take a break. Even with the new stuff, it just bums me out because now I'm even farther behind everyone who has more time to play than I do. I don't like the feeling of always chasing and doing the same routine week after week to level up.

That being said, the Black Armory content looks cool. I'm especially curious about that raid, that can be very interesting with the use of sparrows.
The future is full of darkness. Come to the Wild West. We have hats and ponies.

 
Alright, with Forsaken $25 at Amazon right now, convince me I should hop back in!
That's a dang good price. There are so many things to do, and now with the Forge business there is even more ENDGAME stuff to do. I play daily and would be willing to help you get up to speed. All you would have to do is click that link I supplied several posts earlier. ;)

 
OK, so I ordered it at Best Buy and price matched via chat to Amazon.  I paid $37.99 because I still have GCU and I used a $10 RZ cert.   I knew I had a chance of the refund from the price match being wacky - would it inlcude my GCU or not?  Would it just be totally random?

So, without GCU of course this should be $24.99, or $14.99 with my RZ cert.  If GCU is applied to the $24.99, then my total after RZ cert should be $9.99.

It appears the rep simply discounted from Best Buy's $59.99 and gave me $35 back (to make it $24.99).  So the end result is I paid $12.99 for it, with $10 of that being my RZ cert - so only $2.99 net on my credit card.  I can live with that ;).  In preparation last night I fired up my Xbox for the first time in a while (4GB system update) and then Destiny 2 (15GB update).  Should be good to go late tonight.  I should add they also shipped it overnight for free so I already have the disc.

In summary, because of Best Buy rep's price match screwup, I ended up getting Destiny 2 Forsaken Legendary Edition for $12.99 instead of $24.99.

 
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Definitely worth it - the new areas have a good deal of stuff to do outside of the story missions and Gambit is fun if you're on a team that isn't completely incompetent. Haven't even tried the new raid yet.

 
Played last night.  I am SO lost.  I have no idea how anything works any more... Chnandler helped me a bit - at least till I have to give up the TV for Smash Bros.

 
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For what it's worth, it's a fun collectible for $10. I have it next to my Cayde 6 statue and it looks like a dead ghost from D1. I haven't even tried to hook it up to my alexa or anything.

 
Having fun wearing blue gear again.  It's too expensive to keep infusing stuff so I'm just using whatever scraps I find.

 
Having fun wearing blue gear again. It's too expensive to keep infusing stuff so I'm just using whatever scraps I find.
I liken having to use a blue because it's got the highest PL to using an exotic gun to complete its MW. It can give you new appreciation for things you wouldn't otherwise try!

I appreciate Merciless a little more (still not the besto) and I'm learning to appreciate Wardcliff Coil but I've ever killed myself so much with any other gun...

 
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I liken having to use a blue because it's got the highest PL to using an exotic gun to complete its MW. It can give you new appreciation for things you wouldn't otherwise try!

I appreciate Merciless a little more (still not the besto) and I'm learning to appreciate Wardcliff Coil but I've ever killed myself so much with any other gun...
Yeah I should have added that I'm also just using whatever guns I happen to find that are the highest light. So that's been interesting too.

A question: are weekly resets a thing of the past now? At least in terms of it being Tuesday AM at 1 or 2 am I mean? It seems like now everything is a week from when you grab the bounty, so you can make your "reset" be whenever you want it to be. Or are there still things (besides Xur) which are on a fixed calendar-week schedule too?

 
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Yeah I should have added that I'm also just using whatever guns I happen to find that are the highest light. So that's been interesting too.

A question: are weekly resets a thing of the past now? At least in terms of it being Tuesday AM at 1 or 2 am I mean? It seems like now everything is a week from when you grab the bounty, so you can make your "reset" be whenever you want it to be. Or are there still things (besides Xur) which are on a fixed calendar-week schedule too?
Tuesday at 12:00 pm (noon) EST is the weekly reset

 
Yeah I should have added that I'm also just using whatever guns I happen to find that are the highest light. So that's been interesting too.

A question: are weekly resets a thing of the past now? At least in terms of it being Tuesday AM at 1 or 2 am I mean? It seems like now everything is a week from when you grab the bounty, so you can make your "reset" be whenever you want it to be. Or are there still things (besides Xur) which are on a fixed calendar-week schedule too?
Tuesday at 12:00 pm (noon) EST is the weekly reset
The Weekly Bounties reset at noon EST on Tuesday but expire 7 days after you get them. Also, if they carry into the next week, and if the next week's WB's are the same objective, you can't pick them up again.

Also, there is a thing that is available on the weekend kinda like Xur, but only from Friday reset to Monday reset. But I won't tell what it is, it's a secret. ;)

 
OK, well I'm not sure if I should look into that or figure it out on my own.  I saw nothing last weekend out of the ordinary.  But then the game is sort of overwhelming coming back into it.  It took me a few days to figure out the weekly activities are on the menu pages now (like when you go to strikes, crucible, etc).

Also spent quite a bit of time with Dawning last night.  Not too bad a result - already got the ghost shell, ship, and 2 armor pieces the first night.  I should have the sparrow tonight.

Chnandler - we need to get back to the referral quest.  I've been saving up Crucible and clan bounties to do.  Plus I need to do those last couple of baron missions.

There were bounties related to something that I have no idea what or where it is.  Dang it - can't seem to see my pursuits in the App.  But it was something like clearing level I and level II of something and it wasn't escalation protocol.

So... I have yet to get an exotic engram to drop.  However, I did get a Thunderlord directly from a drop (I think from a yellow enemy in Tangled Shore) which was pretty nice.  Do new versions of old exotics have more perks?  Like if I find a helmet is it gonna have better perks than one I pull from my Vault or the Collections?  It seems like my old exotics don't even have as nice a perks as new legendaries do.

However, I have been getting lots of Prime Engrams and those seem to be the best way to power up.  The "powerful gear" rewards have mostly been pretty disappointing.  It seems that even though I'm around 520, I get those at just 505 or so, whereas Prime Engrams will be 525-530.

 
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OK, well I'm not sure if I should look into that or figure it out on my own. I saw nothing last weekend out of the ordinary. But then the game is sort of overwhelming coming back into it. It took me a few days to figure out the weekly activities are on the menu pages now (like when you go to strikes, crucible, etc).
It's an exotic quest with a limited window. Probably not something to focus on at the moment, but it's a "learn to do it" rather than a "do really well in a mode you don't like" quest, so that's nice.

There were bounties related to something that I have no idea what or where it is. Dang it - can't seem to see my pursuits in the App. But it was something like clearing level I and level II of something and it wasn't escalation protocol.
It sounds like the Blind Well, but you shouldn't have those if still working on the Forsaken story (area is not available until you defeat all the barons and the finale afterwards). Sorry, not sure.

So... I have yet to get an exotic engram to drop. However, I did get a Thunderlord directly from a drop (I think from a yellow enemy in Tangled Shore) which was pretty nice. Do new versions of old exotics have more perks? Like if I find a helmet is it gonna have better perks than one I pull from my Vault or the Collections? It seems like my old exotics don't even have as nice a perks as new legendaries do.
Random exotics are fairly rare, and thankfully have been tuned to favor things you don't have. I think I get one every other week on average (not counting ones earned through quests). Xur helps, but I think he still isn't selling anything other than Year 1 items.

And yes, new versions of old exotic armor have more perks. If you have old ones sitting in the Vault, they will still have whatever power is unique to that Exotic, but will not have the extra perks like weapon stability or ammo scavenging. This only affects armor, though. Year 1 weapons will be the same as if you found one in an engram.

However, I have been getting lots of Prime Engrams and those seem to be the best way to power up. The "powerful gear" rewards have mostly been pretty disappointing. It seems that even though I'm around 520, I get those at just 505 or so, whereas Prime Engrams will be 525-530.
Prime Engrams are the biggest light jump for normal play, along with raids and some other endgame activities. But everything listed as powerful should be at or a point above your light level. It will be annoying sometimes and give you the same equipment slot that is bringing up the average from your last Prime Engram, so might be less useful.

But if you are getting 505 items while at light level 520, that sounds like a normal Legendary, not a Powerful drop.


I know I'm on the Atlantic side of the country, but if you see me playing and need some help, feel free to send an invite.
 
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And yes, new versions of old exotic armor have more perks. If you have old ones sitting in the Vault, they will still have whatever power is unique to that Exotic, but will not have the extra perks like weapon stability or ammo scavenging. This only affects armor, though. Year 1 weapons will be the same as if you found one in an engram.
This is actually not true. If you look in your collections for the Y1 exotic armors, you'll see that they all have set perks with no option to change them. Any exotic armors in your inventory will have these same unchangeable perks (and most likely an expired Y1 mod that gives you a mod component when you dismantle it).

The exotics armors that Xur sells, I think these also have set perks but they may be different from the set perks in your Collections. Supposedly the exotics you can get from his Fated Engrams have a full set of random perks, so I've toyed with the idea of buying an engram from Xur to see if I get something cool, and since I have a cookie to deliver to him tomorrow I may find out. :)

Prime Engrams are the biggest light jump for normal play, along with raids and some other endgame activities. But everything listed as powerful should be at or a point above your light level. It will be annoying sometimes and give you the same equipment slot that is bringing up the average from your last Prime Engram, so might be less useful.

But if you are getting 505 items while at light level 520, that sounds like a normal Legendary, not a Powerful drop.
Once you hit 520, some of your Powerful drops become not so powerful. I forget exactly which ones work well until 540, but the Crucible and Vanguard strikes and I think Heroic story missions lose potency at 520. I think the Nightfall drops are truly powerful until 580 and the Raid drops are until 600. Of course, this may have ALL changed since the Power cap was raised to 650.

Something that was brought to my attention either last week or the week before that is VERY interesting - apparently if you set the handicap of a Nightfall strike to 100+, it doesn't really apply the handicap. So with the multiplier that adds to your other modifications you can still have quite a healthy multiplier (for me - Heavyweight, whatever Singe, Attrition, and Momentum for a multiplier of 4.95x).

Chnandler - we need to get back to the referral quest. I've been saving up Crucible and clan bounties to do. Plus I need to do those last couple of baron missions.
Let's do it! You'll probably see me online. :)

 
It may not have been a powerful engram from an activity - but for sure I get crap stuff from the Clan engrams, and those used to be pretty good.  I know I got like a 505 for the Nightfall one yesterday when I was 520.  I'm talking about the ones you get when other people in the clan complete those specific things (Nightfall, Crucible, whatever).

It also seems a lot harder to earn your own personal clan engram.  It used to be automatic from just doing stuff and I always hit that really early in the week.  This time I'm only 40% through - because I guess it is only from pursuits now?  And I haven't been doing any Crucible ones.

I powered up an old Titan helm (the one with the big horns) so that I would have an exotic at a decent level.  But I guess that sucks compared to new stuff?  Well, I guess since I can't seem to get any new exotics that's OK for now.

Was there some way to get into the raid and get to a chest?  Didn't I read about that here at some point?

 
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It may not have been a powerful engram from an activity - but for sure I get crap stuff from the Clan engrams, and those used to be pretty good. I know I got like a 505 for the Nightfall one yesterday when I was 520. I'm talking about the ones you get when other people in the clan complete those specific things (Nightfall, Crucible, whatever).

It also seems a lot harder to earn your own personal clan engram. It used to be automatic from just doing stuff and I always hit that really early in the week. This time I'm only 40% through - because I guess it is only from pursuits now? And I haven't been doing any Crucible ones.

I powered up an old Titan helm (the one with the big horns) so that I would have an exotic at a decent level. But I guess that sucks compared to new stuff? Well, I guess since I can't seem to get any new exotics that's OK for now.

Was there some way to get into the raid and get to a chest? Didn't I read about that here at some point?
I thought that all the Clan activity engrams I've picked up were powerful (even if I didn't participate in the earning of the engram), but I'll have to pay attention next time.

You can only earn progress to the Clan XP engram buy picking up / completing / turning in Hawthorne's bounty. Lately she's been focusing on Crucible and Gambit related bounties. The bounties you can do solo are worth less than the bounties that have to be done with clanmates.

Some of the new stuff is only good at augmenting the new supers, but they are REALLY good at that. A few of the older exotics have seen boosts to their effectiveness, but as usual use what fits your playstyle.

At the beginning of the Last Wish raid you can navigate to a place that allows you to enter a code into a wall of images. Two of those codes take you to a part of the raid where you can work your way to a chest. Details here --> https://www.shacknews.com/article/107433/all-wishes-for-the-wall-of-wishes-in-the-last-wish-raid-in-destiny-2

 
This is actually not true. If you look in your collections for the Y1 exotic armors, you'll see that they all have set perks with no option to change them. Any exotic armors in your inventory will have these same unchangeable perks (and most likely an expired Y1 mod that gives you a mod component when you dismantle it).
I was thinking about existing armor sitting in the Vault inventory, because I have a distinct memory of my Actium not having any new perks. Maybe that was an early thing?

Didn't even think about generating one out of the collection.

Something that was brought to my attention either last week or the week before that is VERY interesting - apparently if you set the handicap of a Nightfall strike to 100+, it doesn't really apply the handicap. So with the multiplier that adds to your other modifications you can still have quite a healthy multiplier (for me - Heavyweight, whatever Singe, Attrition, and Momentum for a multiplier of 4.95x).
Yeah, I was watching someone on a YouTube video who maxed it out. I don't play Nightfalls often enough, but this glitch seems worth the time.

I powered up an old Titan helm (the one with the big horns) so that I would have an exotic at a decent level. But I guess that sucks compared to new stuff? Well, I guess since I can't seem to get any new exotics that's OK for now.
I wouldn't say anything you like using sucks. Your tastes will change as you play the newer subclasses, find new gear, or try things out to finish bounties. But I still regularly use older stuff like Vigilance Wing in Crucible, and I got a lot of use out of the Actium War Rig during the Halloween event.

You can only earn progress to the Clan XP engram buy picking up / completing / turning in Hawthorne's bounty. Lately she's been focusing on Crucible and Gambit related bounties. The bounties you can do solo are worth less than the bounties that have to be done with clanmates.

Some of the new stuff is only good at augmenting the new supers, but they are REALLY good at that. A few of the older exotics have seen boosts to their effectiveness, but as usual use what fits your playstyle.

At the beginning of the Last Wish raid you can navigate to a place that allows you to enter a code into a wall of images. Two of those codes take you to a part of the raid where you can work your way to a chest. Details here --> https://www.shacknews.com/article/107433/all-wishes-for-the-wall-of-wishes-in-the-last-wish-raid-in-destiny-2
Two things to note for io:

If you finish your personal clan engram for the week, you can still work on bounties for Hawthorne each day. If you finish them, just let them sit in your inventory and use them the following week for credit if your play time isn't as plentiful. (If you redeem them early, no big deal, you'll still get XP and glimmer.)

The Last Wish chests are not powerful drops. They will give you raid-specific equipment you cannot get anywhere else, but you won't experience a Light increase from them unless your equipment is super lopsided.
 
The Last Wish chests are not powerful drops. They will give you raid-specific equipment you cannot get anywhere else, but you won't experience a Light increase from them unless your equipment is super lopsided.
I always like getting raid gear. Will have to check it out.

Well, I am enjoying the game for the most part. I did get led to the Black Armory by a quest only to be prompted to buy the Season Pass. A little annoying... And for now I'm holding off on that because of my crucible experience last night. I thought Crucbile in year 1 Destiny 2 was in a really good place - they got rid of shotgunners and across-the-map sniping and it was a lot more fun and I did pretty well.

Last night I was getting popped in the head without even knowing where the hell people were - especially on new maps that I haven't learned yet. And if it wasn't that, I was getting destroyed by supers that seemed to last forever and go through and around walls. It was very frustrating. They also continue the practice of putting six solo people up against a full fireteam. We got annihilated on one Clash match where the other team roamed in a pack and we were all scattered. I'd inevitably be up against 3-4 by myself.

Then on on another match I got dropped in half way through a lopsided match which is even worse. I showed up just in time to get hammered by about 5 supers in a row.

If I'm not getting sniped or supered there seems to be some hand cannon that is one-shotting me from distance. I wish I remembered the name. If I try it again I'll try to remember it. I only did as much as I needed to do for my 5 match powerful engram. And in the end, it turned out to be lower than one I got already - what a waste of time.

Gambit, on the other hand, seems a little more interesting. I just have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to be doing other than banking motes.

I'm trying to work through some of the exotic quests but I can't find 2 of the 3 lost sectors needed on Tangled Shore. Will have to look that up. There seems to be one at the upper right of the map that I can't get to.

But I am seriously disappointed that they went back to the year 1 meta of shotgun/snipe. So not fun.

 
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io said:
I always like getting raid gear. Will have to check it out.
I plan on getting at least one of those raid chests tonight. If you're interested we can team up to do it.

io said:
Gambit, on the other hand, seems a little more interesting. I just have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to be doing other than banking motes.
When we were going in to that match I tried to give brief but useful tips and I couldn't squeeze everything into messaging:

  • The best bang for your buck when depositing motes is to send a Small Blocker (Taken Phalanx, 5-9motes). Try to plan a path that will give you this many motes on your way back to the bank. Of course you'll want to hit the check marks for the bounties the Drifter gives you by sending Medium/Large Blockers, but make sure you don't do this to the detriment of your team.
  • Keep an eye on the enemy's banked motes. If they are nearing 25/50/75 banked motes (the lines segmenting the bar), then get ready for an invader to come knocking. On every map they invade from one of three places. They won't invade from where the adds are actively spawning, so keep the other two spots in the corner of your eye. Unless you have lots of motes, then make removing the invader what you do until he is gone.
  • I haven't figured out the pattern of this yet, but if your team is already working on your Primeval and the other team is way behind, expect WAY more invades than the normal three.
  • If you are running with a bunch of randos and you are all fighting over motes, it might be best to assign yourself a more "central" role. Stick near the bank and clear up adds from a distance and be prepared to clean up any blockers. I recommend a longer distance gun for add clears (pulse or scout) and a pretty stout gun for blocker clears (shotgun or fusion rifle, IKELOS SG or Telesto if you have them). This role can be very important if everyone else on the team is off sucking up motes, plus you'll typically have first option to invade if you so desire.
  • If you haven't settled on a Power weapon, I recommend a trusty linear fusion rifle or a rocket launcher with cluster bombs and tracking (at least tracking). Unless the invader is scoping in on you immediately, those can end him pretty quickly.
io said:
I'm trying to work through some of the exotic quests but I can't find 2 of the 3 lost sectors needed on Tangled Shore. Will have to look that up. There seems to be one at the upper right of the map that I can't get to.
If you're talking about the Lost Sector in the Four Horn Gulch, the entrance is a cave that is below the lip of the higher ground. I'm not sure I can describe it any better, sorry!

io said:
But I am seriously disappointed that they went back to the year 1 meta of shotgun/snipe. So not fun.
So many shotguns...

I saw one video where a guy got a Seventh Column medal just from headshots with The Chaperone. When I was working on the Redrix quest I used a Retold Tale for the Rumble and Competetive matches, but it felt dirty being one of them. :)

 
I missed this post the other day - would still like to do the chest if possible, but I think my headset might be broken...

I don't mind the shotguns all that much as at least then they have to be up close to you.  It's the across the map sniping that I can't stand.

I do like that now that I've opened up more of the game, when reset came around, I had an overwhelming amount of stuff to do.  This is an improvement over years past when it was all just Nightfall/Heroic/Raid.

I did take out an invader with my RL last night.  That was satisfying as before that, yeah, most stayed way back and just sniped at us while we cleared adds.  Cowardly bastards ;).

Now I need to figure out this offering/blind well thing in Dreaming City.  If I present an offering, does it start a public event or something I'm going to have to deal with myself?

 
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Blind Well broadly works like Court of Oryx did, but you can see on your map if it's active rather than having to just show up and hope people are around. Except you don't know how many people are there until you arrive.

 
I missed this post the other day - would still like to do the chest if possible, but I think my headset might be broken...

I don't mind the shotguns all that much as at least then they have to be up close to you. It's the across the map sniping that I can't stand.

I do like that now that I've opened up more of the game, when reset came around, I had an overwhelming amount of stuff to do. This is an improvement over years past when it was all just Nightfall/Heroic/Raid.

I did take out an invader with my RL last night. That was satisfying as before that, yeah, most stayed way back and just sniped at us while we cleared adds. Cowardly bastards ;).

Now I need to figure out this offering/blind well thing in Dreaming City. If I present an offering, does it start a public event or something I'm going to have to deal with myself?
The problem with shotguns is that several of them have a long enough range to where they don't have to be in your face to use them. That's why they are so prevalent in Crucible now.

I should be on this weekend so we can go after at least one of those raid chests. The other chest requires jumping skills that I have yet to master.

Here is how the Blind Well works:

  • There are four difficulties of BW that can be started with the corresponding Consumable:
    Charge of Light - Tier I -- This gives you 10% completion towards Petra's weekly bounty and can most likely be solo'ed if your PL is high enough.
  • Charge of Light - Tier II -- This gives 20%. I think this level has a chance to drop a Seed of Light to unlock a new subclass for you.
  • Charge of Light - Tier III -- This gives 40%. This level has a chance to drop a Seed of Light.
  • Unstable Charge of Light - Heroic Tier III -- This gives 50%. This is triggered after completing a Tier III Blind Well. Also, the first chest you open gives you powerful gear. Just recently a Seed of Light was added to the loot pool.

[*]All of these Consumables can be obtained through purchases from Petra or an Ahamkara skull or as random drops in the Dreaming City.
[*]If you walk don't run from the opening area into the area where BW takes place, chances are you will be match-made into an existing instance. I start walking as soon as I get to the stairs (you might remember this "mechanic" from RoI's Archon's Forge business). If not, you can start your own and other people should join you.
[*]While you are charging the BW, you will occasionally see a glowing white enemy called "The Anathema." Kill that guy and a purple orb will drop that gives you the Harmony buff for 15 seconds. This super-charges all your ability regen rates, makes you immune from damage when outside the safe bubble, and allows you to damage The Servant for more Harmony orbs and a chunk of percentage towards charging the BW.
[*]The BW's bosses rotate weekly and each boss has a slightly different mechanic to them, but typically they all have damage immunity and you need to remove that before you can take them down.
[*]Once you complete the BW weekly bounty, you will receive an Offering to give to the Oracle. On week 3, full curse week (THIS WEEK), taking this Offering to the Oracle will allow you into Mara's throne room for a conversation with her and her chest is guaranteed to drop a Seed of Light.

Have you had a chance to play any of Forsaken's new strikes (Hollowed Lair, The Corrupted, or Warden of Nothing)? Two of those three are pretty fantastic.

 
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I did the Tier I myself last night and like 4 guys showed up.   Then they did the Tier III and triggered the Heroic.  I didn't really know what I was doing but it wasn't too bad.  Got a Seed of Light that I applied to the Sentinel class - which I never really used before.  But it seems like one of the new supers I am always being killed by in Crucible.

I bought a headset today at Fry's while I was looking for stuff for the kids ;).  I also got some discounted Xbox Live cards ($25 for $20) so I'm thinking about maybe considering getting the season pass.  What does the forge thing really give you?

Oh I should add that I have bounties that I have NO IDEA how to do.  When I "track" them it doesn't show me where to go.  One is for the Spider (finding an escapee from Prison of Elders - it is the big weekly one and it doesn't say which planet), and one is for Dreaming City.  I'll try to find them and post them here.  I could probably just look them up, but I was so busy with other stuff last night I didn't bother.

I'm not sure if I've done the new strikes yet.  I know some that I did were new from when I played before.

 
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Oh I should add that I have bounties that I have NO IDEA how to do. When I "track" them it doesn't show me where to go. One is for the Spider (finding an escapee from Prison of Elders - it is the big weekly one and it doesn't say which planet), and one is for Dreaming City. I'll try to find them and post them here. I could probably just look them up, but I was so busy with other stuff last night I didn't bother.
The weekly powerful bounty from Spider this week is on Titan. It will show up as the Adventure icon just outside the Lost Sector you need to enter to complete it.

In the future, you can look at the flavor text to figure out where to go. It will usually have a quote from the vendor/quest giver where you would find it.
 
I did the Tier I myself last night and like 4 guys showed up. Then they did the Tier III and triggered the Heroic. I didn't really know what I was doing but it wasn't too bad. Got a Seed of Light that I applied to the Sentinel class - which I never really used before. But it seems like one of the new supers I am always being killed by in Crucible.

I bought a headset today at Fry's while I was looking for stuff for the kids ;). I also got some discounted Xbox Live cards ($25 for $20) so I'm thinking about maybe considering getting the season pass. What does the forge thing really give you?

Oh I should add that I have bounties that I have NO IDEA how to do. When I "track" them it doesn't show me where to go. One is for the Spider (finding an escapee from Prison of Elders - it is the big weekly one and it doesn't say which planet), and one is for Dreaming City. I'll try to find them and post them here. I could probably just look them up, but I was so busy with other stuff last night I didn't bother.

I'm not sure if I've done the new strikes yet. I know some that I did were new from when I played before.
And once you do enough of BW, you should be able to turn in the bounty and get an Offering to give to the Oracle for another Seed of Light (if you need it, and if you haven't already done it).

The Black Armory DLC gives you access to the four forges. Currently only three are accessible, with the fourth coming in the new year. There are new weapons and armor to collect, as well as 5 new exotic weapons. The forge activities are fun and challenging, but the steps needed to unlock the forges have been described as tedious. Also there are some events that are being revealed in-game that I don't know if they are part of the Black Armory DLC or not but are quite interesting.

 
So the thing I wasn't sure about was the "Ascendent Challenge" and I actually have 2 bounties for it.  I found this week's and tried to go it like 5 times.  It is very frustrating because I can get through the battle part with the sword just fine.  But then you have to hop on black ledges in a black space and there's floating rocks pushing you around.  I've fallen there every time.  It didn't help that I didn't start the challenge till 4am this morning and had to give up at like 5:30 to go to bed.  Maybe I'll have better luck with it tonight.

 
Almost every Ascendant Challenge can be summarized as "You don't like jumping puzzles? How about if we put jumping puzzles in the dark? No? What if we have the only enemy that blends into the dark attack you while we move the platforms you have to jump on? That's better, right?"

Honestly, I have come to the conclusion that I either really like the gunplay/setting or have succumbed to the sunk cost fallacy. Because I really despise jumping puzzles in shooters, yet put up with this nonsense with Destiny.
 
Nothing better than doing those Ascendant challenges making a jump and getting launched off the platform by one of those taken launchers.
 
I'd be OK with it if the stupid jumping puzzle was at the beginning (and in this challenge there is also a minor jumping puzzle at the beginning but it is pretty easy).  But making it after a long slog of a fight is just cruel when you have to restart the whole thing when you get pushed off.

 
I'd be OK with it if the stupid jumping puzzle was at the beginning (and in this challenge there is also a minor jumping puzzle at the beginning but it is pretty easy). But making it after a long slog of a fight is just cruel when you have to restart the whole thing when you get pushed off.
For this particular challenge, pick one of the side platforms with the altar/casket in the center and bring at least one ranged weapon. Use the altar as cover and let everything come to you (or kill them at range if they hang back). Once the first round is dead, go grab the sword and run behind an altar. You can hit the Knights with the sword through the altar, just circle around to prevent them from attacking back.

And don't forget you can drop the sword for the last bit, so you can use a gun to clear out the final enemies before even making the first jump.
 
For this particular challenge, pick one of the side platforms with the altar/casket in the center and bring at least one ranged weapon. Use the altar as cover and let everything come to you (or kill them at range if they hang back). Once the first round is dead, go grab the sword and run behind an altar. You can hit the Knights with the sword through the altar, just circle around to prevent them from attacking back.

And don't forget you can drop the sword for the last bit, so you can use a gun to clear out the final enemies before even making the first jump.
I did it last night on my first try. I never had a problem with the Sword part - I always died on the platforms right at the end. I didn't even realize that was all there was to it. I expected to have to go through another portal and have more battles! Didn't know how close I was to the end. I just used my RL to take out the snipers at the end but they never gave me that much trouble. It was just the stupid platforms and floating rocks.

So then I tried to do the other Ascendant Challenge that I had, but apparently the portal only spawns for the one that is active that week? Then why the F does the bounty last 7 days from whenever you pick it up? It should expire at reset. I think I got it right before reset last week.

When I took the relic out of that first challenge and killed regular enemies with it I got the Black Talon exotic sword to drop! Not sure if that is a condition of getting it or if it was just a totally random drop, but that was cool to see. Other than the sniper rifle I got with Chnandler from the referral quest this is the first new exotic weapon I've gotten. I was actually able to use it against a few shotgunners in Crucible last night which was nice. It shoots projectiles which I'm sure they weren't expecting ;).

 
Utter BS in the game tonight. I loaded into a brand new Iron Banner match by myself against a full 6 and at least 3 were in a fire team by themselves. It eventually put in 2 other players but not before the other team realized what was going on and rushed me and kept spawn killing. After getting killed like 10 times I eventually turned the damn game off. That’s some grade A bullshit there and shame on the other team for exploiting it.
 
Utter BS in the game tonight. I loaded into a brand new Iron Banner match by myself against a full 6 and at least 3 were in a fire team by themselves. It eventually put in 2 other players but not before the other team realized what was going on and rushed me and kept spawn killing. After getting killed like 10 times I eventually turned the damn game off. That’s some grade A bullshit there and shame on the other team for exploiting it.
 
Oof. I've never had it that bad, but I've had a couple of times where it thinks it had a successful matchmaking attempt and the other players bail before the activity actually starts. Seems fairly frequent with forges, but I get it often in strikes, too.

I'm guessing the validation scripts are either too slow, or it just takes a little bit to actually populate in replacement players. Meanwhile, if a match is already on tilt, you're stuck dealing with a crappy situation that isn't going to get better.
 
Played a bunch of Iron Banner this week and didn't have those same problems.  And actually sniping/shotgunning was not as bad as it was for me last week either.  I actually did quite well.  I even finished off the entire Ace of Spades quest in one night when I thought it would take me weeks.

I think the key, other than being slightly higher level, was to finally have a bunch of gear that matched my weapon type.  I was using a Hand Cannon (Trust) and luckily all my higher powered gear had hand cannon perks, including an enhanced targeting one.  I think that made a huge difference.  I was popping people left and right when I could barely get anyone with it a week ago.

Also got more into Gambit and am slowly getting the hang of it.  The key thing there was knowing where to be (or not to be) when invaded.  Now I'm not getting across-the-map sniped nearly as much.

Got my Warlock up to 600 (after already doing so for my Titan).  I cashed in all my Essence of Dawning but I think I forgot to cash in all my Iron Banner tokens and I had like 100.  D'oh!

 
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I made 650 last Wednesday and haven’t played since. I had tons of dawning ingredients that I guess just went to waste. Just haven’t had the desire to play at all the BA stuff was ok but got boring very quick. Every of the weapons I unlocked from the forges all had crap rolls and I never even bothered to unlock the 3rd forge since the quest was so long.
 
I made 650 last Wednesday and haven’t played since. I had tons of dawning ingredients that I guess just went to waste. Just haven’t had the desire to play at all the BA stuff was ok but got boring very quick. Every of the weapons I unlocked from the forges all had crap rolls and I never even bothered to unlock the 3rd forge since the quest was so long.
I don't know what the forge weapons are but Chnandler tells me Hammerhead is one of them and I can say that I saw a lot of that in Crucible. Though, I suppose, to the game's credit, I'm not seeing one particular weapon, or even weapon type, dominating like it used to be (Vex, Suros, Thorn, Mida, Uriel's, etc). I'm loving Ace of Spades, but it doesn't seem like anyone else uses it.

Considering that the raids are out of the rotation for me now (no one to do them with - plus have even less desire than before to LFG), really all there is for me to do is hit 650. I still haven't even started up my Hunter. In fact, I don't think I even took my Hunter through the last expansion or two. It is giving me the option on the startup screen to power her up using some item. Oh there's also quite a few exotics I don't have yet since they seem to be much harder to get now.

I did the raid chest with Chnandler for the first time last week and got some armor. That was cool - hopefully we can keep doing that and I can put together the whole set.

 
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Got my Warlock and Titan to about 620 and just started in on my Hunter, who, it appears, I never even did Warmind or Curse of Osiris with.  I had the option to skip those campaigns and level her up to start Forsaken, which was much appreciated.  Wish I could just skip the Forsaken campaign as well, but whatever...

I do appreciate that the crawl to 650 is slow and measured, and yet with a lot of ways to do it.  I think they got the balance right, finally.  And now that I can't raid, I appreciate that the highest power gear is not locked behind that like it used to be in Destiny 1.

I enjoy hopping on for the daily tasks that give powerful rewards while also slowly working me towards the weekly goals (like last night's daily Gambit reward).  I'm also starting to enjoy Gambit more.  I still haven't gotten up the nerve to invade yet, but I make it my specialty to nuke anyone who invades (usually save my super for it).  Plus I just got the Two-Tailed Fox RL for my Gambit rank-up reward (another source of powerful gear that I wasn't even aware of till recently).  In the following match I took out an invader with that, which was very nice.

The only slight imbalance I can really point to is that perhaps there are too many rewards from PvP compared to PvE.  But I appreciate that since the extra incentive gets me to do Gambit/Crucible a bit more than I otherwise would - and I assume that's Bungie's intent here.  But it seems like there's almost always either a daily Gambit or regular Crucible reward, plus all the rewards you get from ranking both up, and then of course the weeklies as well.  Perhaps there should also be a Vanguard rank-up to counter that?  I dunno, but all in all the balance is pretty good regardless.

 
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