Destiny [PS3,X360,PS4,XO]

[Rangers]

I just want a goddamn Ice Breaker, then I'll shut my pie hole and be a happy little Guardian.

It's so easy for this game to make me happy, yet it fails again, and again, and . . . .

Ice Breakers seem pretty hard to get from a drop. I still just have the one that I bought all that time ago. I'd love one for my 2nd character.

I dunno I kinda like it, makes me feel smugly superior for buying it when I could (of course I had no idea it was so good at the time, just had the coins and needed a great sniper, it looked great, I nabbed it).

I dunno, I play the game a lot, and I feel like it pretty much drowns you in loot, with some time/effort. I am not sure what objectively can make a loot system better or worse.

Can you (or anybody) say what exactly and specifically, could be done to make the loot system better, without essentially making the game watered down and easy? Many have said Diablo 3's loot system is great, well, what is better about it? People seem to just say "well in Diablo you get lots of great loot". But that just makes me think, how is it great of there is so much of it? Then by definition it's common.

I know I have many, many, legendaries and exotics that I dont bother to explore/play with/level up, and more I have dismantled, because there isn't time. So to me, that's well, plenty of "loot". Same for raid gear, I had 5-7 of each. I would just compare stats and dismantle many since I had redundant items. IE, 7 raid helmets and only 3 characters.

It's annoying to get an exotic/legendary for the wrong class, as happened to me twice this week, but even that is a momentary annoyance.

I also think you're overselling the importance of even the mighty Ice Breaker and Gjallahorn, which imo are really the only two weapons that are head and shoulders above the rest (pre Dark Below, anyway, we'll see what changes). If I didn't have those two, the game would still be easily playable.

My complaints would be things like more vault space, and the disappearing ammo bug. Maybe an easy way to transfer gear between characters.

 

[Rangers]

Also, I suspect at a glance I'm going to exhaust the expansion content much quicker than the main game. Which of course stands to reason.

I mean I'm already essentially to 31. There's not much to do but master the new raid, get the 32 armor, and of course get weapons up to the new standards. I'm assuming the next expansion will hit in about 3 months, the same time we had with the base game.

I dunno I wouldn't mind feeling like I've finished the new content in like a month, and then cutting back on the game until the next expansion. Course, I know this game has a way of always sinking into you for tons of time. The nature of grindy games is you're never done. But I did feel towards the end I was essentially done with the base game, so I hope I can get to that point sooner with the expansion and maybe take a break.

So, base game=vex raid
Dark Below=Hive raid
House of Wolves=Fallen raid

So next expansion after wolves=Cabal raid??? Or Bungie decides Destiny is a failure (by internet sentiment) and moves on to Destiny 2 first??

I notice I spend less time in cabal territory than any other. I can tell by the respective glimmer buffs I have. Like 50+ blue polyphages, but only ~10 resupply codes. The polyphages means I spent a lot of time in Vault of Glass.

 

[NRP]

It's a shooter. I enjoy shooting powerful, useful weapons, not spit wads from mediocre weapons. That is were I derive enjoyment from the game, and it is also where the game disappoints me. I wasn't even lvl 20 when they sold they IB, so i couldn't get it even if I wanted to back then. They could at least offer a couple of exotics for sale at once, but they just seem to rotate useless shit through Xur for the last several weeks.

Look man, I get it. You run 3 characters and are dedicated to grinding. And you seem to be luckier than some of us. So I can see how you think those of us who don't raid as much and are less lucky are full of shit, but I'm telling you that you are wrong. I can't even tell you guys how many times I've seen people get shafted after a long, grueling raid. It feels totally fucking unfair, especially when you can only raid once per week.

 

[Strange]

It's a shooter. I enjoy shooting powerful, useful weapons, not spit wads from mediocre weapons. That is were I derive enjoyment from the game, and it is also where the game disappoints me. I wasn't even lvl 20 when they sold they IB, so i couldn't get it even if I wanted to back then. They could at least offer a couple of exotics for sale at once, but they just seem to rotate useless shit through Xur for the last several weeks.

Look man, I get it. You run 3 characters and are dedicated to grinding. And you seem to be luckier than some of us. So I can see how you think those of us who don't raid as much and are less lucky are full of shit, but I'm telling you that you are wrong. I can't even tell you guys how many times I've seen people get shafted after a long, grueling raid. It feels totally fucking unfair, especially when you can only raid once per week.

Nah, Ranger is hardly luckier than some of you. Real luckers get full raid gear on their first~second run. It took Ranger long enough to get there. I've even raided with somebody LV28 on hard that found all 4 raid gear on that character's first run.

I got to 30 on my 4~5th run or so. I recall it's the 3rd or 4th week since I started running duplicate characters on the third week.

Do run duplicate characters. It helps immensely that you can run multiple nightfalls/weeklys/raids and tear through RNG with brute force.

 

[-tkf-]

I'm not sure if the following has been posted here, but it might provide additional views to help you make up your mind -- http://dorkshelf.com/2014/12/10/thought-bubble-bad-dates-with-destiny/

He had a 2 months love affair with a FPS, that could either be considered incredible positive but the truth is that after the great affair he was disappointed, very typically for a short love affair

 

[Rangers]

It's a shooter. I enjoy shooting powerful, useful weapons, not spit wads from mediocre weapons. That is were I derive enjoyment from the game, and it is also where the game disappoints me. I wasn't even lvl 20 when they sold they IB, so i couldn't get it even if I wanted to back then. They could at least offer a couple of exotics for sale at once, but they just seem to rotate useless shit through Xur for the last several weeks.

Look man, I get it. You run 3 characters and are dedicated to grinding. And you seem to be luckier than some of us. So I can see how you think those of us who don't raid as much and are less lucky are full of shit, but I'm telling you that you are wrong. I can't even tell you guys how many times I've seen people get shafted after a long, grueling raid. It feels totally fucking unfair, especially when you can only raid once per week.

Well, if you think you're entitled to as much/as good loot as somebody who plays a lot more (assuming thats even the case) I dunno. Just enjoy the game at a slower pace?

It would suck not having a lot of time, which would probably lead to just playing with one character. You would just have to play the game at your own pace and realize you're not going to keep up with people who play a lot more. That might be hard for me to deal with, yeah. But most people probably wouldn't mind, I would think.

But the loot system complaints remain unspecific and vague and you haven't exactly changed that with your reply to help me understand. I have not played many RPG's in the past decade or so, so it's not like I know a lot of loot systems.

And I dont play the game THAT much (probably average 20-25 hours per week?), and am down to two characters.

 

[Nisaaru]

Today I finally had some loot success again and it showed clearly that the RNG isn't random at all but follows some rules.

I got 5 legendary items today. A Wizard Bond I already had anyway, a new Pulse Rifle(123 Syzygy) and 3 armors for the other 2 characters. From a chest, random blue engram, cryptarch and vanguard leveling. But now it gets interesting. All 3 armors(Helmet,Leg,Chest) were the only parts the other 2 characters still missed from the 33 set+exotic.

BTW, the Daily/30. How do you play that? I sort of "cheesed" it by sitting on one of these weird blocks where you rarely get hit. I really felt underpowered against them with a MIDA/291, Murmur/283 and Zombie Apocalypse/267. The weapon impact was also strangely fluctuating.

 

[Rangers]

I dunno, the daily 30 this week I just went on Destinylfg looking to run nightfall, a lot of groups want to do nightfall/weekly/daily in that order, so we did that. It makes sense and you can knock them out quickly.

This new strike is tough, doubly with Arc Burn. I do not know any cheese spots. I'm smart enough to know I need a group for not just nightfall, but also for sure weekly, and heck probably daily if you want to do it at 30 too. I figure that'll change in time as I get to 31 and then 32, better weapons, learn the new missions, etc, but for now...

Xur in 20 minutes. This will be the most interesting Xur in ages, with him offering replacement exotics and see what else he'll be selling. He better come with some helmets, and Tigers Breath would be nice too Are we gonna be able to swap out Icebreaker and Gjallohorn????

 

[Rangers]

Hah, #Huntermasterrace, hunters are back! This guy solos first section of raid...

I think he also said he soloed second part too. Pelupa will be in Heaven with so many new exploits.

Xur has Symbiote!!! Woo Hoo, insta bought 2.

He also has Ice Breaker trade in, but no Gjallhorn.

He's selling 331 Truth, I grabbed that for the time being. Though now I'm thinking it may have been silly as surely Gjallohorn trade in will be there next week. Oh well I had heard Truth is pretty good after it got buffed.

Of guns I have, he's also selling Last Word trade in and Suros trade in. I probably wont do last word as I dont see myself ever investing time in that gun due to it's 8 mag. Suros is a trickier case, I'll probably think it over for a while.

 

[orangpelupa]

finished the story missions (only 3 of them but only 2 is repeatable) in 30 minutes.
omg... it also got even worse. the fetch-quest become even more tedious and ridiculous. i hate you Eris Moon.

the nightfall also not cool at all. its really cramped.

now hoping for the raid to be great.

EDIT:
btw the story mission is also confusing. Basically it still tells nothing except that

Spoiler

Crota is coming to destroy earth.

 

[Rangers]

Did some more raid...got to the third section now, where we stalled. At least I've now seen 3/4 the raid. It doesn't appear as hard as I made it out, seems lots of people are already beating Crota.

Only got one loot drop, but it had the raid boots. So that's cool. Now with Symbiote, I am halfway to 32.

But technically I am not even 31 yet. Must level things...

My intellect is back down to a pathetic 17%. That's the consequence of the hunter exotic helms not having any intellect. At least discipline is the highest now, which is good, grenades are nice.

 

[orangpelupa]

what is the route for the 1st raid session of TDB? oi keep going on circles lol.

or i simply need to go "north"?

 

[Xalion]

Well, if you think you're entitled to as much/as good loot as somebody who plays a lot more (assuming thats even the case) I dunno. Just enjoy the game at a slower pace?

If it was just playing less time meant less loot, I wouldn't have much of a problem with Bungie's loot system. However, that isn't what tends to happen. Because the loot is purely random rather then weighted random - you do get streaks. I run with the same group of 5 guys consistently. With VoG, we figured out how to clear the raid in about 2 weeks. We cleared it every week thereafter. I hit 30 on week 4 or 5. Know when the next person on my team hit it? The week before the expansion. And that was with running multiple characters.

All of them got stuck on one piece that just wouldn't drop. One guy had 8 chests pieces and no gloves. Because we had 1 level 30, we didn't get to downing hard consistently until 3 weeks or so before the expansion. One bugged teleport could wipe a raid full of level 29 characters, so it made Atheon incredibly difficult. So it wasn't like people could just use an exotic instead of that one piece because helmets only dropped from Atheon. Granted, we didn't go full out cheese to get loot quickly on hard - we actually tried to play the game. But why should we be punished for that? It was an extremely frustrating situation. Then the week before the raid everyone but 1 person got all their drops and we went from having 1 level 30 to having 5. I can't tell you how much easier the hard raid was that week.

I guess the problem with the loot system is that RNG combined with level coming from gear is a bad idea. Especially where there is such a huge penalty to being below level. The glove drop for the person with 8 chests wasn't a .02% dps upgrade - it was a 25% dps upgrade and a 25% damage reduction upgrade because it brought him to level with the mobs. There was no way that time invested could get that upgrade. Instead, he had to randomly wait until one of his characters had the gloves drop. The fact that similar situations happened to 5 people on my raid team made it worse. Sure, we are a statistical anomaly. Understanding that didn't make me feel any better. It still sucked to feel like we were at the mercy of the RNG with absolutely nothing we could do about it.

If level is tied so strongly to gear, then there should be a way to achieve it that isn't completely tied to RNG. I can see having all weapons be purely RNG drops. Lets face it - while there is a huge difference between Gjallahorn and Truth - having Truth won't cripple you as badly as being level 29 vs. level 30 mobs. But there should be alternate methods to hit level caps - even if they are time consuming.

 

[Xalion]

what is the route for the 1st raid session of TDB? oi keep going on circles lol.

or i simply need to go "north"?

On all but one of the gates, you can always see the next light. So you just go towards the one that isn't behind you. For the one you can't see, the light is "up". It is on the path leading up around a rock - and you'll see it pretty quickly once you go around that rock. Have one person get to the light and immediately find the next light. Follow him. That way everyone else can turn around and shoot without worrying about getting turned around.

 

[orangpelupa]

thanks, done that and i reached the materializing bridge. then i slipped. SLIPPED! then a few miliseconds before the screen goes to scoreboard it says the bridge fully formed.

agh! a few secs more

 

[NRP]

I bought Truth because, well . . . you know me and weapons. I also bought the exotic helmet engram, and what do you know, I got an upgraded Apotheosis Veil! So I bought boots and gloves, and I should be close to 31 as soon as I level them up.

I also upgraded my Titan's Armamentarium chest armor, and I also bought the exotic helmet engram because, what else are you supposed to do with Motes of Light? I got the Saint-14 helmet. At least now it looks like buying an exotic armor engram gives you a piece for the character you purchased it with (rather than just a piece for a random character like before), which is a step in the right direction I guess.

 

[orangpelupa]

its still random. my friend exotic armor engram resulted in wrong class

 

[gb25]

At least now it looks like buying an exotic armor engram gives you a piece for the character you purchased it with (rather than just a piece for a random character like before), which is a step in the right direction I guess.

I bought two exotic engrams as a warlock. I got a warlock helmet and a titan helmet.

 

[Rangers]

I guess the problem with the loot system is that RNG combined with level coming from gear is a bad idea. Especially where there is such a huge penalty to being below level. The glove drop for the person with 8 chests wasn't a .02% dps upgrade - it was a 25% dps upgrade and a 25% damage reduction upgrade because it brought him to level with the mobs. There was no way that time invested could get that upgrade. Instead, he had to randomly wait until one of his characters had the gloves drop. The fact that similar situations happened to 5 people on my raid team made it worse. Sure, we are a statistical anomaly. Understanding that didn't make me feel any better. It still sucked to feel like we were at the mercy of the RNG with absolutely nothing we could do about it.

I am not sure it's bad or good. I'm not sure I'd love it if leveling was a simple grind, just reduced to time=XP=level. That might be a little boring to me.

Also, not to burst the narrative but Iron Banner 2.0 was going on a few weeks ago and it allowed you to get 30 boots and gloves with no RNG. Now, you can get 31 vendor gear with no RNG (astonishingly, this caused it's own bitching because "why spend all that time getting 30 if I can just buy a better level with each expansion???", was a thread I saw on reddit). Anything up to 29 was also achievable before without RNG.

I see your point about getting stuck without that one piece of gear, though.

Bungie can fix that by "knowing" what you already have, and dropping what you need, which supposedly they have taken steps toward in Crota's End. I kinda feel like that's dumbing down though :/

 

[Rangers]

There's a thread on reddit claiming there's a new best sniper, better than IB. It's from Crota End and it's called "Black Hammer". It's a legendary so doesn't take up exotic slot, has more impact and stability than IB, the magazine refills if you "rapidly hit 3 precision shots", does increased damage to hive majors or ultras...

I dont know if I believe it's better than IB just yet, as even on a boss rapidly hitting three precision shots wont be a doddle, but interesting, I want it.

3/12 ammo isn't great but, yeah. Weapon model looks cool though.

Also read a comment on reddit that fully leveling a refurbished exotic armor only took him an hour. Leveling a refurb is supposed to be faster than leveling a new exotic (Bungie's response to the whining about our lost time investment). So maybe I will refurb my Knucklehead Radar so I can level it faster than my new Symbiote, and get to 31 today...

I actually didn't know/had forgot you could refurb currently owned exotic armor. Because I wasn't wearing any at the time I went to Xur, and I just had kinda forgot or wasn't aware.

Also it's cheaper to buy new exotic if Xur has it, you save 7k glimmer, and it only costs net 6 coins since a shard costs 7. But I guess you wont get the fast leveling then.

Yep Bungie succeeded in making currencies useful again, I'm down to less than 9k glimmer, with a lot of upgrades to go. Say if I wanted to refurb Suros this week, I'd be virtually out of glimmer for upgrades! Same with marks, I've used a lot of marks to avoid resource grinding.

Except Motes...stupid me forgot to buy the helmet engram before I bought Symbiote. Oh well, somehow I feel like Bungie will suddenly make motes useful again oneday and I'll be glad I have them...