Destiny [PS3,X360,PS4,XO]

[Rangers]

Anybody else strictly scout rifles now for PVP?

I kind of feel like my crucible "success", the one thing I've always been best at, is winning a mid range one on one primary v primary engagement. I feel like I win like 80% of those. And I always feel like I have a better primary than almost anybody else.

Anyways, with Dis 43 or Mida, I feel like the advantage is less. It was peak with Nerwin's, I absolutely destroyed fools with that thing. The delta between some poor noob's primary and Nerwin's was very high. Anyways the scouts are good, but you are at a disadvantage at closer ranges to hand cannons/AR's/Pulses.

And I get killed with every possible gun and class of gun, truly the crucible primaries are more balanced than ever. I still see a lot of pulses even.

 

[shredenvain]

Anybody else strictly scout rifles now for PVP?

I kind of feel like my crucible "success", the one thing I've always been best at, is winning a mid range one on one primary v primary engagement. I feel like I win like 80% of those. And I always feel like I have a better primary than almost anybody else.

Anyways, with Dis 43 or Mida, I feel like the advantage is less. It was peak with Nerwin's, I absolutely destroyed fools with that thing. The delta between some poor noob's primary and Nerwin's was very high. Anyways the scouts are good, but you are at a disadvantage at closer ranges to hand cannons/AR's/Pulses.

And I get killed with every possible gun and class of gun, truly the crucible primaries are more balanced than ever. I still see a lot of pulses even.

I agree that PvP is pretty balanced.
I have been using The First Curse ever since the last Exotic update. Its nice to be able to go in to a match and use a hand cannon successfuly.

I have also been using Mida and Tlaloc on my warlock. The Hawksaw is still very effective with the right roll (Range Perks) as well as Bad JuJu. I think they were a little harsh with the Nerf to slow ROF high impact pulse rifles. The Lyudmila and Spare Change just can't compete with the low impact high ROF pulse rifles.

 

[NRP]

Thinking about picking up the latest expansion (TK I think). Trouble is, I haven't played Destiny since the Dark Below and it sounds like everything has changed. Would I basically need to start over?

 

[Rangers]

Like any MMORPG expansion it's designed where you can still be at endgame fairly quickly. It has a character boost that takes one of your characters to level 25 right away. The key level is 40, and it doesn't take long to go from 25>40. Getting to endgame 280-290 light (the important part) also isn't hard. I'd say a week or two.

 

[djskribbles]

I also agree that PVP is pretty balanced now. Each primary weapon type has strong options where it depends on your play-style/preference/weapon load out. In ToO, MIDA and The Last Word were by far used the most, but neither of them felt OP.
As for special, shotguns were nerfed pretty good, but they are are still strong if you're good with them. I think fusion rifles perhaps need a bit of buffing, but other than that, pretty balanced.
They also did a good job on nerfing horseshoes on rocket launchers as they're not nearly as OP anymore.

For primary, I have been using the Doctrine of Passing/1000 yard combo pretty much all the time. I've experimented with other primaries but I find doctrine the best combo for a sniper. There are quite a few primaries I still want to try though, like Monte Carlo and TLW. If I ever do decide to run shotgun, I would probably use a MIDA to pair with. But I've been running a sniper for the past few months now so I no longer feel comfortable running a shotgun anymore as it requires a different play-style, at least for me.

I need to start playing more crucible though as I feel my skills have started to fade. I don't play nearly as much PVP as I used to because the PVE content is actually pretty good in TTK (IMO). Plus I've spent less time playing in general. 99% of the time I play PVP it's ToO, and now my group and I struggle more to reach the lighthouse where we reached it 3x every week pretty easily before.
The only part of my game that has been improving is my sniping as I have been using a sniper exclusively as I said above.

@NRP, no need to start over. The early Taken King missions are low level, and the loot you get from the missions/quests should get you on your feet. You don't even need to play House of Wolves AFAIK, you can jump right into TTK.

Your character level is increased from any XP you get, and light level is an average of attack/defense ratings from your weapons, armor, ghost shell and artifact.
The way the loot system works is you're more likely to get a weapon/armor piece with a higher attack/defense rating than what you have equipped, so earlier on, try to have your highest level gear equipped when decrypting engrams etc.
There's also a new system for ascending armor/weapons to higher levels called infusing. Blue/rare level gear/weapons can now actually be higher level than legendary or even exotic stuff, but you can infuse legendaries/exotics with any purple/blue/exotic provided that you have the required materials and legendary marks. It's a bit complicated at first, but I'm sure there's plenty of detailed guides online.

 

[DrJay24]

Anybody else strictly scout rifles now for PVP?

No, I find it incredibly hard to kill up close. I'm more of a AR or HC guy. What really bothers me about PvP is the sheep. They are told x weapon is best, so they all use it. I really enjoy killing all the Mida/1KS fools with weapons they have never heard of.I did find games where I stuck to my Havoc Pigeon I did well. I wish I could see there face when they get killed by a sidearm, no one uses them. But like Bungie had said, lots of good weapons go unused while everyone (baaaaa) use the same weapons because they "heard" it was good. LOL.

Still to many people running around and sliding with the shotgun, that gets old fast. When the teams are balance I can get int the top 2-3, but sometimes the other team dominates and I end up with a 0.3 k/D. I assume these are elitist assclowns in fire teams? They really should get rid of fire teams for everything except trials.

 

[Rangers]

I've been trying to snipe for a while but I think I've reached a realization, it alters my playstyle a lot because I become so passive. I tend to have low kill games, while still usually good KDR. I also tend to try to "force" the sniper a lot. Most of the maps TBH just aren't good sniper maps.

Going back to shotgun a bit, takes adjusting, but probably is a better fit for me. I dunno. I wish there was another option. Maybe even I should try Fusion.

I see shotgun's now as a one hit melee. Really thats pretty powerful itself.

Hunter backstab is noice.

Further, honestly my Dis 43 is just too good. There's kind of not that many times a sniper is better TBH. Even one on one with another sniper, I think strafe and Dis might be better to take him out, get him flinching.

My last ten in IB, pretty good run by my standards. And some of the games I was going for special or heavy kill bounties rather than play to my top potential.

I started running ATS8/tarantella as my exotic, I think it's good, more nades and super.

 

[djskribbles]

Obviously you have to keep your distance more when sniping, but you can still play fairly aggressive with a sniper. It's basically skill based though - the better you are at sniping, the more aggressive you can play. Sniping requires more skill and takes a lot of practice to become good at, but it's very rewarding IMO.

 

[Rangers]

318 get...barely...due to 320 boots from Golgy challenge.

 

[Nisaaru]

I really question this so called balance argument because the maps aren't "balanced" which makes your success more a function of the current map environment you are in and your weapon choice.

If they really want "balanced" play they should enforce the same weapons on everybody for a certain map.

For instance I play a mix of floating, trying to capture a point when it's opportune and zone protection and for each situation I would need a different weapon to be competitive now. While before I could mostly be competitive with my Nirwen or other PRs. You had a chance even in close encounters *if* you hit which is far from guranteed.

You could compete with Scouts but now if I run into one of them I'm toast. I'm toast if I run into an AR on short distance or even mid if they are Zhalo(confusing) or Monte Carlo if they notice me first. I'm toast against fast HCs in close encounters, obviously.

So I switch between Nirwen and a ARs in certain maps and hope for the best. The consequence is if you really play rational to just stay in an area where your weapon is effective and forget about objectives, flow and actual fun. But I want to be effective with my weapon choice on a map throughout because that makes the game competitive imho.

The same fundamental issue was always there with your choice of Specials but the Primary situation now only amplifies this.

I'm still experimenting about the right weapon combination....

It starts with the right heavy choice which limits all the rest for me. Here for most maps I use Truth because of the 4 rockets. Only way to guarantee some usage from your heavy ammo these days imho. The 2 rocket penalty is debilitating. Any other weapon would make it more rational to not even risk to get Heavy at all. Though I have a Smolder with perfect PvP perks which is afaik the only other RL with 4 rockets, the stats of that weapon doesn't make it attractive to me.

So I can't really use Mida/Zhalo/MonteCarlo/Suros/Tlaloc.

Now I switch between Nirwen and an Antipodal Hindights with (77,28,32,63-90,62) and Third Eye which is really ok on closer maps like Exodus Blue. I've experimented with a Dealbreaker(64 range + Focus) and Zarinae-D with/without Focus Fire and high Balance but had no real consistent results.

 

[Rangers]

Just looked at twitch and Destiny has around half the viewers of Blops 3 at the moment I looked. Incredibly, it might not be terribly long before Destiny surpasses that one too, like it has dozens of much newer games that came along (Remember Rocket League? Bloodborne? Witcher 3? Battlefront?). Granted, twitch hardly directly correlates to game popularity/sales, but it's one measure.

There's a lot of talk Destiny is dead I'd say the better question is how it stays so remarkably popular.

 

[iroboto]

Just looked at twitch and Destiny has around half the viewers of Blops 3 at the moment I looked. Incredibly, it might not be terribly long before Destiny surpasses that one too, like it has dozens of much newer games that came along (Remember Rocket League? Bloodborne? Witcher 3? Battlefront?). Granted, twitch hardly directly correlates to game popularity/sales, but it's one measure.

There's a lot of talk Destiny is dead I'd say the better question is how it stays so remarkably popular.

For a console exclusive only it has the highest viewership by far for any game. There are no esport events etc. People just love watching other people play destiny.

 

[Rangers]

Hmm, got a 316 Weyloran's March from my 1st Characters rk 5 IB package (and my 5 millionth 310 Ghost, why is Destiny loot so skewed towards the low end?). Anyways, didn't know what it is, checked it out...it has a 70 base aim assist I believe...mine also dropped with hidden hand...and I researched the scopes, the good one it came with is called Tacsys SLS15 or something...adds even more AA...thing should be close to 100 AA...looks like I may have a new main sniper...

Lower impact than 1kys so it cant revive snipe, but I dont do anything (trials) that requires that anyway. If I like the feel, look of the scope etc I may have a new main sniper (haven't used it yet).

Edit: also has 5 rounds and rolled with casket mag for 6. I think it's my new main sniper. Does 251 to the head.

 

[DrJay24]

Time to kill for it for body shots is the fastest of the snipers since it fires much faster. I've been using one since the IB before this. This time I got a 312 machine gun, which is nice. I can get to 309 light, which isn't bad considering I don't raid. I really hate PvP, so I employed my nine year old son for the grind, he gets top score whenever the teams are fair. He was even getting top score with his alt, at 250 light! I can't compete with young hand eye coordination

 

[Billy Idol]

Meh, psn was down again the whole evening....no online gaming

 

[djskribbles]

Hmm, got a 316 Weyloran's March from my 1st Characters rk 5 IB package (and my 5 millionth 310 Ghost, why is Destiny loot so skewed towards the low end?). Anyways, didn't know what it is, checked it out...it has a 70 base aim assist I believe...mine also dropped with hidden hand...and I researched the scopes, the good one it came with is called Tacsys SLS15 or something...adds even more AA...thing should be close to 100 AA...looks like I may have a new main sniper...

Lower impact than 1kys so it cant revive snipe, but I dont do anything (trials) that requires that anyway. If I like the feel, look of the scope etc I may have a new main sniper (haven't used it yet).

Edit: also has 5 rounds and rolled with casket mag for 6. I think it's my new main sniper. Does 251 to the head.

I got a Weyloran's March as well, and at first I thought it might be my go-to for when I don't need to res. snipe thanks to the high base aim assist, but the perks on mine lower the range more than I'd like, and Range is almost just as important as AA IMO because Range affects both AA and accuracy (plus damage fall off, but that was tweaked and extended in the recent patch). 2 weeks ago I got what I would consider a near perfect 1KYS with hidden hand and shortgaze, but the range is considerably lower than my other 1KYS with Rifled Barrel and I definitely notice that it's a bit more difficult to get headshots at distance.

The faster rate of fire is nice to get a follow up shot, but ~70% of my snipes are headshots anyway. I find it just as easy to follow up a body shot with my primary, unless the stability on the sniper is really high. I'll definitely give it a shot though.

As for scopes, personally I prefer short and snappy zooms because I do a lot of mid-range sniping as well. Shortgaze is generally preferred for its considerable amount of AA and short and snappy 4.5x zoom.

 

[Rangers]

Yeah, everybody agree short range scopes are best. I was just assuming the Tacsys is at least decent in that area since what I could glean from reddit it's highly regarded. In play I cant tell zoom level (heck I thought stillpiercer had a high zoom til I found out it's one of the lowest in the game), it seems ok.

I know that they increased range on snipers again last update, so I was pretty much just assuming it was no longer something to care about at all on a sniper.

All considered I'm probably better off with my 1kys as well. I did get a decent two tap with the March. 1KYS should be like a 71 AA (56+15) with shortgaze anyway. I'll play around with March some more.

Saw on reddit over 1 million PVP players were tracked a recent day. Game still very popular I'd say. My real life friend who plays recently stopped though, says it got boring, that's kind of depressing. I still like it a lot.

I will say the new endgame, much as I love it, may kind of push people away. You really end up with just hard raid and crucible to do, and hard raid is really difficult because of the punishing no revive mechanic (for most people) because it means if you screw up you are blamed, so they may be inclined to "give up" imo.

I kind of think they should make max light attainable by some outside the raid method...like lets say 320 gear drop from nightfall. Raid is just really stressful. You could argue they do with 320 gear dropping from some events, but it's still few and far between and would be basically impossible to hit 320 with. For example SRL only dropped helmets and class items, and I'm not sure what the rules for IB are but 310+ stuff is still very rare.

Also, if you are over 300, 300 gear should not drop from nightfall. If I get a 300+ weapon from NF it's still probably useful as infusion fodder to me, but the other day I got a 297 ghost, at my level that is truly utterly useless. I have probably 6-8 ghosts over 300 light including several 310 plus (hell I've sharded many a 310 ghost shell). It's literally an insta-shard and that's disappointing.

 

[DrJay24]

What's with exotic engram decoding to 290 at 300+ light? Either make a new random range (290-320) or just make them all 310. Who needs a 290 item at 300+ light?

 

[Rangers]

I also saw this on reddit, it's a REALLY interesting technical-ish look on how Destiny's servers/multiplayer systems work, really interesting stuff and if you play a lot of Destiny you will learn some things. When they talk about public bubbles with intersecting paths and stuff it's like "aha!". Basically that's why in strikes you'll see random guardians running across your path at the beginning, but most of the strike is still private bubbles.

http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1022247/Shared-World-Shooter-Destiny-s

Basically they had to make a always-multiplayer (even when solo) always co-op-able, etc etc, game, it's more difficult than it sounds. It's also interesting how they understood certain concepts (people will care a lot more about the number over their head if others can see it, even random people passing that have no connection to the player). Also maybe it's just me hoping, but it sounds like Destiny 2 could be a major leap in the way things are done, like perhaps the bubbles concept could be done away with entirely. They were really blazing new trails with Destiny 1 networking and just trying to make it work, sounds like Destiny 2 could remove some restrictions.

 

[djskribbles]

What's with exotic engram decoding to 290 at 300+ light? Either make a new random range (290-320) or just make them all 310. Who needs a 290 item at 300+ light?

Once you hit 310 (or maybe 311?) light, all exotics are 310. Being 318-319 on my characters, I wish they would start dropping at 320. I guess they expect us to infuse our exotics up.

Just a heads up, if you get a sniper with Smallbore (the perk that reduces the magazine size and slows down reload speed but increases range and stability) don't discard it thinking that 3 bullets would suck, because smallbore doesn't actually reduce the magazine size on snipers - at least ones with a 4 bullet magazine. I think this is because smallbore is supposed to reduce it by 10%, so it just rounds the magazine back up to 4. I got a 1KYS with smallbore and my magazine is still 4 with Smallbore.