[Destiny] Bubbles on B, Flaming Warlocks, and Invisible, Interpretive Dance.

GMaster7 · June 2015

We called it the Traveler, and its arrival changed us forever. Great cities were built on Mars and Venus; Mercury became a garden world. Human lifespan tripled. It was a time of miracles. We stared out at the galaxy and knew that it was our Destiny to walk in the light of other stars.

But the Traveler had an enemy. A Darkness - which had hunted it for eons, across the black gulfs of space, centuries after our Golden Age began. This Darkness... found us. And that was the end of everything.

That is, until Peter Dinklage found you, Guardian!

Destiny: Penny Arcade G&T Saves the Universe and Everything in It is an online multiplayer action role-playing sci-fi-fantasy *deep breath* first-person shooter for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360 and the first title in a proposed 10-year, zillion-dollar franchise from Bungie and Activision. It’s MMO-like – think gear, skill trees, leveling up, and party play – with an emphasis on exploration and discovery.

The game is set in our own solar system, 700 years in the future, following a prosperous period of exploration and colonization ushered in by the arrival of the “Traveler,” a mysterious celestial body (pictured above). The Golden Age came to an abrupt end as a result of a momentous event called “the Collapse,” a calamity that wiped out human colonies everywhere, and as our story begins, humanity has retreated to the Last City on Earth, our shared home and the launching point for our journey back to the stars.

The Traveler watches over the Last City, and it is recruiting heroes from Earth to help protect our doomed planet, but the Darkness that hunts it is descending upon us. We must fight back against that Darkness, Guardians. We must suit up and set out - to the Moon and the planets beyond. We are humanity’s last hope.

Expansion II: House of Wolves

Heed the Queen's call, Guardians. Her Majesty, impressed by our efforts but ever-guarded, recently in hiding and lately hesitant to dispatch even a sole representative to the Tower, has summoned us to her mysterious realm. She seeks our cooperation to exact revenge on the Fallen - that brutal, radical race that has desecrated our home planet and now patrols its caverns and rusted outposts. In return, she promises untold riches and armaments with power beyond our comprehension.

Join your fellow Arcadians in the Reef. We will explore a new frontier, challenge our brethren in competitive Trials for glory and fine rewards, hunt the Queen's enemies, and ultimately, step into the Prison of Elders to face off against an unrelenting barrage of every manner of threat we have encountered in our journey and foes yet unseen. The Queen has opened the Reef to us, Guardians. Let the hunt begin.

Expansion I: The Dark Below

Guardians: over the past several months, we have taken the first steps in our quest to defend the Last City and reclaim the skies. We've wrestled the wasteland of Old Russia from our foes. We've taken back the surface of the Moon and slain an unchained beast in the darkness of our planet's cratered, barren neighbor. We've taken up arms against warmongering behemoths and beaten them back. We've fought timeless machines, weaving in and out of time and emerging from the toughest challenge we've faced with our arms full of loot and our hearts full of pride. But this was only the beginning.

At home, we've stabilized the war effort. We move freely through the Tower, spending our accrued wealth and devising strategies for future encounters. We revisit the scenes of our former glories. We spar with our fellow guardians and raise our flag as a clan, night after night. We rose above the competition in the Iron Banner. We proved our might to the Queen. Today, we take the next step forward. Today, we continue our journey.

In the darkest depths of the Moon, the Hive stir, summoning a threat greater than any we have seen. Crota, the Hive god and son of Oryx, is gathering his strength to emerge from the shadows and invade our homeworld. We must descend into the Hellmouth and destroy this creature. We must put a stop to the Hive's ambitions and put our own into action. Together, we must brave the Dark Below.

Join Pax Arcadia! Our clan is on both systems!

We've assembled a Bungie.net group - and within that group, a PlayStation clan and an Xbox clan - so that PA G&Ters can play together. We're Pax Arcadia, and we're currently making our way through endgame content and crushing the Crucible in six-man fireteams on a nightly basis!

Edit (July2015): We have room in the PA clan on both PS4 and Xbox One. Follow the instructions below!

To join:
1. Send @GMaster7 (on the PS side) or @ObiFett (on the Xbox side) - or preferably, both - a PM, letting us know that you're applying.
2. Hit up the Bungie.net group for Pax Arcadia (right here, at this link) and apply for membership. If necessary, you can hit up the group for Pax Arcadia II (right here), either instead or in addition, and apply for membership.
3. Add yourself to the Pax Arcadia Mega-Roster that we've created to keep track of membership. Use the tabs at the bottom to select your console, and put yourself at the bottom of your tab's list. We'll bump you up to your proper alphabetical placement once you're in the group.
4. When we get your PM and see that you're on the spreadsheet, we'll accept you to the group(s). Then, you have to separately join your system's clan, if there's space - so click "Set as PlayStation Clan" in your group's banner if you're on PS3/PS4 or "Set as Xbox Clan" in Pax Arcadia's banner if you're on 360/XB1 to officially request admission to the clan. (Note: This only works after you've played the game on your system for the first time.) We'll accept you asap.
5. Friend some PAers, hop online, and take to the skies in the name of Pax Arcadia!

Find teammates with The100.io!

If you're looking for teammates for any activity, check out PA's console-specific groups on The100.io, right here:
•Pax Arcadia - Xbox One: https://www.the100.io/groups/1397
•Pax Arcadia - Xbox 360: https://www.the100.io/groups/1398
•Pax Arcadia - PS4: https://www.the100.io/groups/1226

PA Control Tips!

Spoiler'd for size, but this guide is very useful, especially for new recruits and reluctant PvPers:

If you're playing Control with PA, you're going to want to hunker down and prioritize holding the following points on the following vanilla maps:

Shores of Time: B and C
Blind Watch: B and C
Rusted Lands: A and B
Firebase Delphi: A and B
Twilight Gap: A and B

Capture and defend these points and avoid the third point on each map. Don't try to be a hero and go for that third point, even if you're up by a large margin - this will only flip the spawns and put your enemy in a more advantageous position. Alternatively, if your team is running into a meat grinder at the two better points and the third point is sitting there untouched for a prolonged period of time, you might consider taking it just to keep yourselves in the game. But Blind Watch A and Firebase Delphi C are usually off-limits completely, because they're that toxic - other than an optional cap in the first few seconds of the match.

There don't seem to be any must-avoid points on The Cauldron, Pantheon, or Skyshock. I mean, Skyshock itself is generally must-avoid.

Here are some additional tips, from @Trojan35:

Control is still Deathmatch. Control is NOT an objective gametype, it's a slayer gametype with some score modifiers. K+A vs D spread should still be your primary focus. For example, let's say you lead your team in points and deaths, with 20 kills and 20 deaths. You are actually a significant drag on your team despite leading in points and having a 1.0 K/D. Why, you ask? It's because the other team gets +50 bonus points for killing you every time you die since you're leading your team in scoring. So, assuming no other modifiers, you scored 2000 points in kills but gave the other team 3000, for a -1000 drag to your team. Sadly, the individual scoring does not highlight this at all and encourages this type of behavior. Don't judge yourself entirely on your score, but your net benefit to your team.
Spawn point is a critical objective. I just said the control points are a distant second to K/D spread, but they're still important. Their biggest benefit is forcing enemy spawns to the "bad" side of the map. Once you hold the two "good" objectives, never cap the third. Controlling the correct side of the map allows you a distinct advantage in all 1v1 and teamfights, as well as better control of heavy spawns. Teams will often zerg into the killing lanes and give you tons of free kills. Oh, you also get bonus points for having 2 objectives. Capping the 3rd is exactly what the enemy needs to flip the map. I've seen +6k point leads turn into losses with 1 bad cap and a map flip. Don't do it.

If you forget the above list of priority points, remember that B is always good. If you're on the "bad" side, don't rush in head first trying to desperately grab B as you'll just dig yourself a bigger hole. Your goal is to flip the map while losing as few points in the process as possible. Wait for heavy/super spawns and then try to flip the map by grabbing the far-capture point. Just being alive and on the good side of the map will force enemy spawns closer to the middle and yours towards the good side, which is the start to flipping the map.
Stick together but don't bunch up. It's easier to win fights 3v1 than 1v3. Further, capturing an objective together gives +100 points for each team member in the circle. 1-man cap kinda stinks at only 100 points, but a 4-man cap can be huge. Stick together and you'll get more points and more wins. That said, never bunch up because an enemy super is going to ruin your day and get a massive point total (~4 kills, bonus points for multi-kill and super-kills, and likely on his way to kill streak bonus points). This is why a 6-man cap is high risk high reward.

If you never let the team kill more than 1-2 with their supers, odds are you're going to do very well. If you let them consistently get 3-4 kill supers off you're going to have a bad time. Tactical retreats are very useful vs Golden Gun, Radiance, and Bubble.
The game swings on Heavies and Supers. Use your supers strategically. Always get 2+ kills with your super. I always laugh when I get the drop on someone and they panic-super me for a 1:1 trade. Better to die and use the super right to get multiple kills, generate orbs, and hopefully a kill streak bonus or heavy ammo steal. The first heavy ammo spawn usually coincides with supers charging, so if you have heavy be careful for supers that may ruin your day. Conversely, use your super on enemies as they collect their heavy ammo spawn to steal it.
Find the right loadout. If you want to get into the details, here's a great spreadsheet showing the fastest TTK weapons assuming perfect accuracy. Think about how you want to play the map you're currently on. Lots of corners? Try Shotguns. Lots of hallways like Firebase Delphi? Try Fusion Rifles. Lots of distance at C on Shores of Time? Try Snipers.

For most primaries, Low ROF, High Impact is the best choice and then use modifiers to improve stability and range. Preferred weapons are Suros, Vex, and Vanquisher for the Auto-rifle category, TLW, Thorn, and a distant second Timur's Lash for handcannons. Pulse, Scout, Universal Remote, and NLB still just aren't very good in most situations. Maybe that will change with upcoming patches. If it's not IB and you're playing Crucible, Attack stat doesn't matter so any blue with a similar ROF/Impact to the above guns will work, especially if they have a good perk.

For specials there is variety. Snipers all are 2-shots or 1 headshot, so high RoF is preferable with a good scope and good stability (Praedyth's Revenge and Prudence). Fusion rifles people generally prefer fast charge, and Plan C's quick charge on weapon switch is pretty impressive. For Shotguns you generally want to maximize range.

If a heavy ammo spawn is coming, make sure you have the proper Heavy equipped. For rocket launchers, look for tracking perks. I prefer Truth as it's the best long range PvP rocket launcher in the game with its aggressive tracking and multi-rocket tube, but there's tons of good machine guns as well. For machine guns, look for high impact high stability to get headshot kills.

Armor has a lot more variety and specific to each class, but be on the lookout for a few of these universally good perks: Melee attack speed, Heavy Ammo, and Revive Speed (for Skirmish/Salvage), and anything that increases super charge rate. For statistics, it depends on your playstyle. Intellect is always good for more supers, but shotgun/melee shield characters like sunsinger and defender titans may like strength. Discipline is generally prioritized either 2nd (non-melee characters) or 3rd.
Use your entire arsenal. Did I mention bonus points? You get bonus points for killing people with non-primaries such as grenades, heavy, super, etc. You also get bonus points for being awesome with assists, assist streaks, kill streaks, headshots, etc. Ultimately, variety of kill type is still secondary to actually killing people and will just come naturally as you get yourself the proper loadout and maximize everything at your disposal. For example, a Thorn + Axion Bolt combo can be very effective vs teams that are using cover and grouping. Beyond the points, many armor pieces give bonus super/melee/grenade energy for killing with melee/grenades. So the more you effectively use your special abilities, the faster they'll recharge and the more you can use them, all while earning bonus points.
Consider your team's skill level for matchmaking. Just remember that Destiny does skill-based matching just like other games. If you team up with great players, odds are you'll be matched against skilled teams. Don't stress; just do your best and have fun with your buds. But if you're desperately trying to complete that Thorn bounty, consider teaming up with the worst PvPers you know. You'll get matched against weaker opponents and hopefully have a pretty good K/D ratio.

The Taken King is coming!

Spoiler'd: three amazing videos of new subclass gameplay that will get you super-hyped for this fall's expansion, The Taken King. Absolutely worth a watch. I thought I was excited for TTK before, but this gameplay brought it to a new level.

Nightstalker:

https://youtu.be/Et8T9ZYN-Y8

Sunbreaker:

https://youtu.be/sarwd26Ab38

Stormcaller:

https://youtu.be/EConkLU3Kgw

Life After Level 20

Here's a guide - either created or copied by @awsimo - to what to do once you hit level 20.

What To Do Now That You're 20+
1. Your priority now is replacing all of your blue gear with purple (Legendary) and gold (Exotic). You can only have one Exotic weapon and one Exotic piece of armor equipped at a time, so choose wisely. Prioritize armor over weapons, to increase your level first. You'll do more damage at a higher level.
2. Complete Bounties to earn Vanguard/Crucible reputation. Do Strike Playlists to earn Marks, highest level playlist you're able. (Or do the Crucible .) When you have enough of both, buy armor from the Tower vendors.
3. Do the Daily Heroic Story Mission, at the highest level you're able. It will earn you XP, Marks, and rep, as well as blue engrams.
4. Once you're a high enough level to do the Weekly Heroic Strike, start running it to accrue Strange Coins. When you have enough Coins, you'll be able to buy Exotic armor (and weapons) from Xûr, Agent of the Nine.
5. Do The Dark Below story missions for Eris Morn (who's located in the Tower) when you're able, and she'll give you a very good Fusion Rifle. She'll also give you a series of Bounties that will ultimately give you a set of Legendary gauntlets. They're only +33 Light, so they're worse than what you can buy from the Tower vendors. But you can probably knock these Bounties out in a solid evening of playing, and the gauntlets will hold you until you can get something better.
6. Start working on the story missions and bounties for Petra Venj (House of Wolves content) as soon as you are able. (Finishing the first mission nets you a totally rad Special Weapon.)
7. Once you reach 26-28, start running the Normal Vault of Glass Raid. VoG has some fantastic loot and it's a lot of fun.
8. Once you reach 30, start running the Normal Crota's End Raid and the Hard Vault of Glass Raid. Hard VoG drops both Normal and Hard loot, so there is no need to run both.
9. Once you're at 31-32, start running the Level 32 Prison of Elders Arena. You'll get an Armor Core out of it that you can use to buy max Light (+42) armor from Variks, the Loyal (who's located in the Reef).
10. Also at 31-32, start running the weekly Nightfall Strike. This is a level 32 Strike with a bunch of skulls turned on. The Nightfall has a very high drop rate for Legendaries and Exotics, and it also gives you a week-long buff called Radiant Light that boosts XP and reputation gains by 25%. (This should be the first thing you do each week, after the Tuesday reset, so that every other activity benefits from the buff.)
11. Once you're at 32-33, start running the Hard Crota's End Raid. Ideally, run Normal CE first then Hard CE after, since unlike VoG, Normal weapons don't drop on Hard. That is, until you get the CE weapons that you want/need.
12. Once you're at 33-34, start running the Level 34 Prison of Elders Arena. You'll get a Weapon Core out of it, and more importantly, an Etheric Light that you can use to upgrade your favorite Legendary armor piece to +42 Light, or favorite Legendary weapon to 365 Attack. (I recommend prioritizing the elemental primaries you'll get from the Raids.)
13. Once you're at 34, start running the Level 35 Prison of Elders Arena.

Queen's Wrath Ether Chests

With House of Wolves, Bungie has added some new mechanics to Patrol. As you hang out in the open world (or sit and wait patiently), you will encounter dropships full of Fallen and bosses tied to bounties you get from Petra in the Reef. When you take down one of these bosses, a chest with a special yellow glow will spawn somewhere nearby, and you'll have to track it down to have a chance at its unique rewards (including loot keys for the big chest at the end of the Prison of Elders!). Here are some links with chest locations:

http://www.inquisitr.com/2093754/destiny-where-to-find-pack-of-wolves-chests-for-queens-wrath-bounties/

http://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/36349w/guide_ether_chests_locations_found/

Keeping Track of Things

Destiny Item Manager: Use this Chrome extension to move items between characters and keep track of your gear and inventory! Has more functionality than Bungie.net and is super useful: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/destiny-item-manager/apghicjnekejhfancbkahkhdckhdagna?hl=en

Check your reputation, marks, and progress toward the weekly cap here: http://www.destinyrep.com

Track your stats - everything you might ever want to know - here: http://www.destinytracker.com

Find Public Events with this nifty tracker, which also has maps for Queen's Chest locations: http://destinypublicevents.com

If you can't seem to find a group in the thread, you can try: http://www.destinylfg.net

The Dressing Room

Play dress-up with the Shader Previewer: http://db.destinytracker.com/character

Pimp yourself out with these codes for emblems, shaders, and grimoire cards:

Redeem here: http://www.bungie.net/en/User/coderedemption

YKA-RJG-MH9 (Grimoire: Warlock)
3DA-P4X-F6A (Grimoire: Titan)
MVD-4N3-NKH (Grimoire: Hunter)
TCN-HCD-TGY (Grimoire: Rixis)
HDX-ALM-V4K (Grimoire: Old Russia)
473-MXR-3X9 (Grimoire: Hive)
JMR-LFN-4A3 (Grimoire: Moon)
HC3-H44-DKC (Grimoire: Gjallorhorn)
69P-KRM-JJA (Grimoire: Duke MK.44)
69P-VCH-337 (Grimoire: The Tower)
69R-CKD-X7L (Grimoire: Ogre)
69R-DDD-FCP (Grimoire: Valley of the Kings, Mars)
69R-F99-AXG (Grimoire: The Fallen)
69R-VL7-J6A (Grimoire: Red Death)
69X-DJN-74V (Grimoire: The Cabal)
6A7-7NP-3X7 (Grimoire: The Devastated Coast)
6A9-DTG-YGN (Grimoire: Vex Minotaur)
7F9-767-F74 (Emblem: Sign of the Finite)
FJ9-LAM-67F (Emblem: Binding Focus)
JD7-4CM-HJG (Emblem: Illusion of Light)
JDT-NLC-JKM (Emblem: Ab Aeterno)
JNX-DMH-XLA (Emblem: Field of Light)
7CP-94V-LFP (Emblem: Lone Focus, Jagged Edge)
X4C-FGX-MX3 (Emblem: Note of Conquest)
X9F-GMA-H6D (Emblem: The Unimagined Plane)
N3L-XN6-PXF (Emblem: The Reflective Proof)
A7L-FYC-44X (Emblem: Flames of Forgotten Truth)
7MM-VPD-MHP (Shader: Double Banshee)
RXC-9XJ-4MH (Shader: Oracle 99)

And finally: FULLY CHOREOGRAPHED GUARDIAN DANCE PARTY!

https://youtu.be/goyTGRS7Gxw

DevoutlyApathetic · June 2015

Oh sure, that last thread was only 99 pages and GMaster probably wants us to pay double the price for this one now.

IDDQD · June 2015

Mmm Fresh Thread Smell...

Custom Special · June 2015

Any X1 players want to help my run 28 and 32 PoE with my Warlock on Saturday, around 2:30pm best coast? I haven't put him through any Prison yet and want to see what exotic I get and grab an armor core for another LL42 option (otherwise I only have exotic chests).

Erevar · June 2015

ToO this week is Black Shield (I've never played on this map).

Spoiler for call-outs image:

Comment from reddit't Pvp-centric thread:

fuck inside. stay outside. Capture point is likely out there anyway. inside = death.

I'll edit the link for the call-out map if I see a better one posted (it's hard to read the blue numbers).

Edit: For anyone who wants to try their hand at editing the map, Bungie posted this on Twitter.

Edit2: Alternate call-outs map:

CptHamilton · June 2015

I don't think I've ever gotten sniper'd on Black Shield. Is that spot actually good?

metaghost · June 2015

Peregrine Greaves are neat, though I'm not sure how often I'll actually use them. I kinda suck at Shoulder Charging, frequently pulling the trigger too soon and getting shotgunned in the face.

TravelingMatt · June 2015

It is pretty good if you think people are going to be interested in getting outside heavy.

Muffinatron · June 2015

CptHamilton wrote: »

I don't think I've ever gotten sniper'd on Black Shield. Is that spot actually good?

I don't snipe there, but I have sniped some fools on that map.

From my experience when elimination was on the crucible rotation:
people from B spawn tend to come through the building and get stuck around the A door area, we moved down to next to the donut then picked them off when they came to poke at us.
Thorn is still king on this map because people will be ducking in and out of cover a lot.
Be wary of people sniping out of A spawn down the outside of the A door area towards the left of donut area on that map. It's easy to counter snipe them, but I imagine someone using a final round sniper would be an incredible pain in the ass.

Also, if you're going to go inside from B spawn, don't jump over onto the platform, they'll kill you easily. Stay at the bottom and flank around to the left to see through the door on the A side. Nobody seems to see it coming, and I used it to get many wrecking balls that week.

El Mucho · June 2015

How is the red death in pve situations?

I haven't really used pulse rifles, I prefer the hand cannons/scout rifles usually. The regen ability on red death seems like it could have utility in some pve encounters.

Chanus · June 2015

I'm not a big fan of pulse rifles in general but red death is a pretty good one

Erevar · June 2015

El Mucho wrote: »

How is the red death in pve situations?

I haven't really used pulse rifles, I prefer the hand cannons/scout rifles usually. The regen ability on red death seems like it could have utility in some pve encounters.

Some people swear by it for HM Crota, but I always preferred to have a helm with "health regen on orb pickup" instead.

Red Death is a top-tier weapon for PvP; especially if you don't much care for the other S-tier primaries (e.g. Thorn, The Last Word).

EvilMonkey · June 2015

El Mucho wrote: »

How is the red death in pve situations?

I haven't really used pulse rifles, I prefer the hand cannons/scout rifles usually. The regen ability on red death seems like it could have utility in some pve encounters.

It suffers the same problem that the vast majority of primaries suffer in PvE. It's not VoC or Fatebringer.

It's a good choice for HM Crota assuming you don't have a Ballerhorn.

Al_wat · June 2015

Yeah aside from the lack of an element, Red Death is one of the best primaries. It does solid damage and the healing is super useful.

Unfortunately... the lack of an element is a serious drawback.

Nocren · June 2015

Custom Special wrote: »

Any X1 players want to help my run 28 and 32 PoE with my Warlock on Saturday, around 2:30pm best coast? I haven't put him through any Prison yet and want to see what exotic I get and grab an armor core for another LL42 option (otherwise I only have exotic chests).

I'll join you. Send an invite to Nocren v2

El Mucho · June 2015

I do love The Last Word for pvp and I don't have Fate Bringer, ballerhorn or VoC. I think I'll grab it and see how it fairs. Not like 23 strange coins is hard to get.

Does it work to regen sheilds in PoE when the exposure modifier is on?

Al_wat · June 2015

El Mucho wrote: »

I do love The Last Word for pvp and I don't have Fate Bringer, ballerhorn or VoC. I think I'll grab it and see how it fairs. Not like 23 strange coins is hard to get.

Does it work to regen sheilds in PoE when the exposure modifier is on?

no

Custom Special · June 2015

Nocren wrote: »

Custom Special wrote: »

Any X1 players want to help my run 28 and 32 PoE with my Warlock on Saturday, around 2:30pm best coast? I haven't put him through any Prison yet and want to see what exotic I get and grab an armor core for another LL42 option (otherwise I only have exotic chests).

I'll join you. Send an invite to Nocren v2

Cool. Added you to my friends and put up a 100 event for it, shouldn't be hard to get one more.

DevoutlyApathetic · June 2015

"We're not talking about that..."

Despite my snide tag line there are some interesting bits in that interview. Though note, that is exactly how you handle those kind of press inquiries though he should have varied up the language a little bit so it wasn't so obvious.

jefe414 · June 2015

Erevar wrote: »

El Mucho wrote: »

How is the red death in pve situations?

I haven't really used pulse rifles, I prefer the hand cannons/scout rifles usually. The regen ability on red death seems like it could have utility in some pve encounters.

Some people swear by it for HM Crota, but I always preferred to have a helm with "health regen on orb pickup" instead.

Red Death is a top-tier weapon for PvP; especially if you don't much care for the other S-tier primaries (e.g. Thorn, The Last Word).

PFFT, I never have a health regen problem in HM Crota. I prefer my deaths to be like most things in life: Quick and avoidable.

Wassermelone · June 2015

Today was a good day for exotics

Got Peregrines, Celestial Nighthawk, The Ram, Eternal Warrior, and Lord of Wolves (which is totally badass)

CptHamilton · June 2015

So I've seen a number of people running around with this multi-colored sparrow. I've never seen one standing still but it appears to be blue with red streaks or, for all I know, flames on the front. What is that?

Crippl3 · June 2015

You got it for owning the Expansion Pass before The Dark Below came out, the EV-30 Tumbler. Instead of airbrakes or a super-boost, holding the right trigger/R2 lets you do rolls and flips, and using the emote buttons while holding it lets you do things like letting go of the handlebars and other trick poses.

Forever Zefiro · June 2015

It's the only Sparrow I use when I'm chugging an energizing Red BullTM

Sick nasty tricks

Arteen · June 2015

DevoutlyApathetic wrote: »

"We're not talking about that..."

Despite my snide tag line there are some interesting bits in that interview. Though note, that is exactly how you handle those kind of press inquiries though he should have varied up the language a little bit so it wasn't so obvious.

This is worlds away from that Eurogamer interview. One of the more interesting responses in that interview:

Smith: We’re not discussing anything about potential iterations to the checkpointing system. We’re thinking about all that stuff. We want as many players to be able to engage with the Destiny endgame as possible. I think that some of the things you pointed out earlier about the economy simplifications we’ve made are a broad stroke in that direction. We want to continue to make the game more friendly for all players. What we want is to compress the delta between a fresh player and here so that more people can play together. The game’s about playing with other people. You need to embrace that as much as you can.

I'm curious how they plan to do this. In the base there is a frustratingly long gap between the end of the campaign and the next bit of new content, Vault of Glass. And every expansion places things like the weekly strikes and nightfalls and Iron Banner events further out of reach of the non-light level cap.

I've got a friend I'd love to play Destiny with, but he refuses to grind for hours and hours to hit the minimum level cap for the raid, and I can't blame him. That grind sucks.

Smith: The thing that—it’s like breaking into jail, in a bunch of ways. If we continue to make all the content super-relevant in the moment to all players, what we’ve done is created a wide swath of stuff for you to do, but we’ve also now potentially psychologically encumbered players so they feel paralyzed. With stuff like the Crota’s End and Vault of Glass, we would love to find a way to bring those into the fold in a temporary fashion. But that falls underneath the we’re not talking about it yet… The focus this fall for raiding, we want people to focus on the new raid. We want you to get in there and have a great time.

This does not leave me optimistic.

Chanus · June 2015

haha jackass

just ran all three queen bounties on venus

and then realized i hadn't actually picked up the bounties

Mike Danger · June 2015

Crippl3 wrote: »

You got it for owning the Expansion Pass before The Dark Below came out, the EV-30 Tumbler. Instead of airbrakes or a super-boost, holding the right trigger/R2 lets you do rolls and flips, and using the emote buttons while holding it lets you do things like letting go of the handlebars and other trick poses.

I just want to say I'm really happy how people are hitting Witness Me! on this

3cl1ps3 · June 2015

Arteen wrote: »

DevoutlyApathetic wrote: »

"We're not talking about that..."

Despite my snide tag line there are some interesting bits in that interview. Though note, that is exactly how you handle those kind of press inquiries though he should have varied up the language a little bit so it wasn't so obvious.

This is worlds away from that Eurogamer interview. One of the more interesting responses in that interview:

Smith: We’re not discussing anything about potential iterations to the checkpointing system. We’re thinking about all that stuff. We want as many players to be able to engage with the Destiny endgame as possible. I think that some of the things you pointed out earlier about the economy simplifications we’ve made are a broad stroke in that direction. We want to continue to make the game more friendly for all players. What we want is to compress the delta between a fresh player and here so that more people can play together. The game’s about playing with other people. You need to embrace that as much as you can.

I'm curious how they plan to do this. In the base there is a frustratingly long gap between the end of the campaign and the next bit of new content, Vault of Glass. And every expansion places things like the weekly strikes and nightfalls and Iron Banner events further out of reach of the non-light level cap.

I've got a friend I'd love to play Destiny with, but he refuses to grind for hours and hours to hit the minimum level cap for the raid, and I can't blame him. That grind sucks.

Smith: The thing that—it’s like breaking into jail, in a bunch of ways. If we continue to make all the content super-relevant in the moment to all players, what we’ve done is created a wide swath of stuff for you to do, but we’ve also now potentially psychologically encumbered players so they feel paralyzed. With stuff like the Crota’s End and Vault of Glass, we would love to find a way to bring those into the fold in a temporary fashion. But that falls underneath the we’re not talking about it yet… The focus this fall for raiding, we want people to focus on the new raid. We want you to get in there and have a great time.

This does not leave me optimistic.

As a totally new player, it didn't seem that bad - I hit 20 in a couple days and 2 days of only a couple hours playing a day I was 26 (I hit 31 with two legendary weapons last night and the character is like, a week old).

Tabin · June 2015

I might note I did not get my EV-30 Tumbler and I even bought the collectors edition way back in July of last year. I was unable to play until recently and i guess that disqualified me from getting the Tumbler

Muffinatron · June 2015

@Croaker I haven't been able to get on this evening, so I'm happy to start from fresh with you and @Dajoran tomorrow evening if you're both free then?

Need the dream team.

metaghost · June 2015

Tabin wrote: »

I might note I did not get my EV-30 Tumbler and I even bought the collectors edition way back in July of last year. I was unable to play until recently and i guess that disqualified me from getting the Tumbler

Are you sure it isn't just hanging out in the special deliveries mailbox?

Because I didn't start playing until post-Dark Below, and I had no idea that the special deliveries lady was even someone that could be talked to, and she never had an icon saying she had anything in stock. But then one day I talked to her, and lo and behold.

Trojan35 · June 2015

Kudos to Smith for recognizing his terrible interview, and getting right back in the saddle and doing a much, much, much better job.

Kudos to Bungie to sticking with their employee and training him to be better, rather than pointing the blame finger at him and firing him, or ignoring the situation and giving a middle finger to the community. He obviously had a *lot* of training this time around. Also, really smart to send the PR guy in with him. Give him some backup.

With stuff like the Crota’s End and Vault of Glass, we would love to find a way to bring those into the fold in a temporary fashion.

I saw others are unhappy with this comment, but I think it's awesome. I don't want to raid VoG or Crota every week going forward, but it would be pretty cool if I did one of those every two weeks as something like a nightfall but on an iron banner cadence. It'd have just the right amount of variety and nostalgia, but it needs to be more rewarding than PoE is.

squall99x · June 2015

Just got back in town from a week away. Anyone on or wants to log on to do the Nightfall real quick? I only need one as my other characters aren't high enough again yet. PSN is same as board name if anyone is interested!

jefe414 · June 2015

Maybe they add a superhard level 34+ mode to the raids. Make some different changes (like different routes). The VoG sure looks like it has the space to do so.

Arteen · June 2015

A ridiculous amount of engrams later, I finally get the celestial nighthawk! Now I just need the new hunter boots and I'll have all the exotics.

I also have a stack of 49 exotic shards.

Dajoran · June 2015

Muffinatron wrote: »

@Croaker I haven't been able to get on this evening, so I'm happy to start from fresh with you and @Dajoran tomorrow evening if you're both free then?

Need the dream team.

https://youtu.be/J6pAxF2br_U

DouglasDanger · June 2015

I'm giving serious thought to deleting my Exo hunter, Miguel, and pretending he's still out there, and making a new hunter. I want to make a warlock too, and rock all three races with my Exo titan.

I could go from 20 to 32 instantly, thanks to my armor.

GMaster7 · June 2015

I don't know if this has been said, but on the subject of making old raids new again, I would absolutely love a 34 VoG that's full of Taken enemies!

Witness me, brothers!

tastydonuts · June 2015

DouglasDanger wrote: »

I'm giving serious thought to deleting my Exo hunter, Miguel, and pretending he's still out there, and making a new hunter. I want to make a warlock too, and rock all three races with my Exo titan.

I could go from 20 to 32 instantly, thanks to my armor.

In order for that to truly work you'd have to delete your hunter with his gear on. Unless he abandoned his gear before he ran off into the wasteland to die poorly equipped for whatever came his way.

STEP UP YOUR ROLEPLAY, SON.

Trojan35 · June 2015

tastydonuts wrote: »

DouglasDanger wrote: »

I'm giving serious thought to deleting my Exo hunter, Miguel, and pretending he's still out there, and making a new hunter. I want to make a warlock too, and rock all three races with my Exo titan.

I could go from 20 to 32 instantly, thanks to my armor.

In order for that to truly work you'd have to delete your hunter with his gear on. Unless he abandoned his gear before he ran off into the wasteland to die poorly equipped for whatever came his way.

STEP UP YOUR ROLEPLAY, SON.

It was part of his rite of passage. The Speaker sent Miguel naked to defeat Randal the Vandal with only his fists.

But the guardian did not return.

DouglasDanger · June 2015

I don't know, the grind to twenty takes a while.

Miguel gave his stuff to ??? And went on a special assignment as a FWC agent, wearing rust burner stuff

And I'm wanting to make a warlock...

Should the hunter be human, and the warlock Awoken? Or the opposite?

It would make sense for an awoken hunter to die outside the wall. And wizards are weird, so anything would work for that.

Penny Arcade

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