Destiny [PS3,X360,PS4,XO]

[NRP]

Anyone else having intermittent problems connecting to Destiny's servers? I've been having issues since the latest patch. I even got kicked out of a daily heroic mission right before the end (I was fucking pissed because doing these solo is hard as hell).

Also, I'm Vanguard Rank limited. What's the quickest and easiest way to farm Vanguard Rep (rep gives you rank, right?)?

 

[orangpelupa]

yups, the latest patch making the connection worse. Heck, we even got whole team booted to orbit lol

farming vanguard rank is quick by doing the vanguard playlist and public events (see the timer website).

@renegade
im sorry too, it was already late night >_<

 

[djskribbles]

Bounties as well. You get 50/100 vanguard rep per bounty IIRC. Also a good way to level up your weapons and XP.
Patrols while doing bounties also helps.

Cheesed the hard raid and only got 6 energy and a legendary sparrow.
The sparrow is pretty sweet though.

 

[orangpelupa]

btw you also can cheesup the templar battle (push him to cliff).
also sunsinger can revive unlimited times.

man, there's so many glitches in this game and bungie only focusing in "nerf". But i like their decision, i like glitches
it feels really awesome when i "outsmart" or "tricks" the game logic / system / design, especially when found the trick myself.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I keep getting Ascendent Energy when what I want is Ascendent Shards. How do I get those?....what do I with the energy?

 

[Nisaaru]

Ascendent Energy to upgrade weapons.
Ascendent Shards to upgrade armor.

You get both from dismantling legendary/exotic stuff, random loot, public event or whatever bonuses the game pulls out of its hat.

 

[djskribbles]

I keep getting Ascendent Energy when what I want is Ascendent Shards. How do I get those?....what do I with the energy?

Shards are used to upgrade armor, energy is used to upgrade legendary/exotic weapons.

Events/missions that reward ascendant material will give out either energy or shards randomly. The best ways to get ascendant material are from the following ways:
-Daily heroic story mission at level 24 (or 26?) and above. This is guaranteed ascendant material. 1 at level 24/26, and 2 at level 28.
-Dismantling legendary+ gear (energy for weapons, shards for armor).
-Getting gold in public events. This isn't guaranteed ascendant material, but you often do.
-Often times you get them in the raid (grrr)

You also get them randomly as rewards in higher level strike missions, blue+ engrams or even (rarely) in loot chests.

 

[Rangers]

Rangers, the damage calculation doesn't work that way.

Essentially if you're one level down on the enemy, you receive a 1/3 damage penalty.
Two levels down, it's ~50% damage penalty. Three levels down I think it's 2/3 damage penalty.

This is the main reason for hitting LV30 for the LV30 raid and hitting LV28 for the LV26 raid. (Gatekeeper is LV27, Atheon is LV28)
If you're LV29, you deal 1/3 less damage (and take about 1/3 more damage) throughout the entire LV30 raid.
This is a penalty that almost no weapon upgrade/skill can match.
Maybe you can deal more with a Vex Mythoclast in LV29 over a LV30 character with shitty weapons, but you also have to take into account defense.

You get no benefits for being any level above the enemy, it would just be your weapon's attack rating that's allowing you to hit for more damage.
Granted, lower level enemies have less health than higher level ones so you still get to kill Lv 5s faster than Lv 20s.

The weapon attack rating seem to be linear, but with a catch.
I have several Vision of Confluence from the raid.
So I ran through a test, all guns have same skills.

The 300 damage gun currently crits LV 20+ red mobs for 890, normal hits are 297.
The 267 damage gun currently crits LV 20+ red mobs for 756, normal hits are 252.
The 257 damage gun currently crits LV 20+ red mobs for 715, normal hits are 239.

Using these data points, it appears that the damage is approximately
[(weapon attack) - 80 ] * impact = damage
In the case of Vision of Confluence, this number is approximately 1.35.

[300-80] * 1.35 = 297
[267-80] * 1.35 = 252.45
[257-80] * 1.35 = 238.95

Headshot Multiplier is 3

I also have two Ice breakers that's rated at 260 and 300.

300 hits for 6420 and 1284
260 hits for 5241 and 1049

Headshot multiplier is ~5

For Icebreaker, this impact number is about 5.83

[300-80] * 5.83 = 1282.6
[260-80] * 5.83 = 1049.4

There is probably some minor rounding issues and the 80 number may be a bit off, but it's in the ballpark.
Assumption is LV20+, as the damage formula obviously breaks down for lower levels.

The takeaway is that fully upgraded exotics hit for ~22.2% more than new ones (260=>300, 40 damage increase over 180).
Fully upgraded Legendary weapons hit for ~31% more than new ones (248=>300, 52 damage increase over 168).

The other day I shot an enemy, upgraded my weapon damage in between, then shot him again, there was no increase in damage this time. So, mileage varies I guess and I dont know all the variables.

The takeaway is that fully upgraded exotics hit for ~22.2% more than new ones (260=>300, 40 damage increase over 180).

Pretty much exactly the number I had already surmised in my post...

4 damage upgrades per gun? at 5-6% per up, it's 20-24% more damage fully maxed versus not.

Rangers, the damage calculation doesn't work that way

What way?

 

[Xalion]

The other day I shot an enemy, upgraded my weapon damage in between, then shot him again, there was no increase in damage this time. So, mileage varies I guess and I dont know all the variables.

I am pretty sure that Stranger's formula is incorrect when it assumes the attack power is the base calculation for damage. I believe that each class of weapon has a base damage, which is then added or multiplied by the impact score. Attack power is related to defense. It is probably subtracted from defense (or defense is subtracted from it) and then the resulting percentage applied as damage reduction.

Originally in the beta, people thought it was related to level, but with more levels available to test now that isn't feasible. Instead, I think the prevailing theory now is that attack power subtracts from enemy defense up to the point where it hits 0, then stops. So there is a point for certain enemies beyond which you will get no benefit from increasing the attack power of a gun. Against high level enemies you never reach that point, so you essentially get linear reduction with increased damage.

One way to test this is on low level enemies. If you take out a couple of Icebreakers against the level 2 enemies in the Cosmodrome you can see this fairly easily. Both Icebreakers will hit for the same amount regardless of their attack power. Note that this isn't capped by max life. The gun will hit for far more damage than the enemies have life (you can test this too by shooting them with a hand cannon or rocket launcher, the hand cannon will kill them with far less damage, while the rocket launcher will kill them with far more). However this test does have it's detractors because damage also deems to be scaled down by level. You will do more damage to a level 4 with Icebreaker than to a level 2.

You could probably work out the exact relationship if you wanted too, but I don't think it matters that much. For all content that matters, higher attack means more damage. Depending on the mob, it can be significantly more or just a bit more. But it is still more, so generally worth the cost.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Shards are used to upgrade armor, energy is used to upgrade legendary/exotic weapons.

Events/missions that reward ascendant material will give out either energy or shards randomly. The best ways to get ascendant material are from the following ways:
-Daily heroic story mission at level 24 (or 26?) and above. This is guaranteed ascendant material. 1 at level 24/26, and 2 at level 28.
-Dismantling legendary+ gear (energy for weapons, shards for armor).
-Getting gold in public events. This isn't guaranteed ascendant material, but you often do.
-Often times you get them in the raid (grrr)

You also get them randomly as rewards in higher level strike missions, blue+ engrams or even (rarely) in loot chests.

Thanx...

Now. I realise why I did not know the function of the energy : I have no legendary weapons ! I am level 27+ and the game still hasn't showered even one legendary weapon on me ! I am using all blues.
I have enough legendary armours, thanx to queens Wrath and vanguard armoury, but no weapons! Now I realise why everybody else always does better than me during high level strikes !

 

[RenegadeRocks]

I have realised another sad truth: my Warlock looks like a peasant compared to other similar levelled players ! Looks like I am playing it wrong !

 

[Strange]

The other day I shot an enemy, upgraded my weapon damage in between, then shot him again, there was no increase in damage this time. So, mileage varies I guess and I dont know all the variables.

Details please? I did my test on Level 28 Thralls.

Pretty much exactly the number I had already surmised in my post...

You surely noticed that Legendaries get more damage boost than exotics, which is 31%, way higher than what you thought.

What way?

Results of my weapons testing, with Athens Epilogue before and after an upgrade of attack from 257 to 267:

The acolytes in Steppes cave, which were higher level than I had assumed/wanted, 18, indeed showed a difference, it went from 49 damage to 52. The level 28 ascendent acolytes in the nightfall strike, also showed a difference, going from 147 to 155 damage.

So, at least it's not a divide by ten thing as I had heard postulated, with no effect on lower level enemies. Basically meaning a upgrade from 257 to 267 would have allowed it to have max impact on enemies up to 26.7 level, instead of 25.7 prior. It had an increased damage on level 18 enemies. 3/49=6.1%, 8/147=5.4% on level 28's, so damage actually increased more at the lower levels, although I suspect it is due to rounding, as 2 or 4 damage at the level 18 enemy would have produced a much different percentage.

This way.

There's no such thing as having max impact on enemies up to 26.7 or 25.7 level.

If you are at least at the same level as the enemy you deal as much damage as possible allowed by the weapon. A level 28 will do the same damage to level 28 mobs as a level 30 character. A Level 27 character will deal 1/3 less than the other two characters given they wield the same weapons with the same skills/perks.

I am pretty sure that Stranger's formula is incorrect when it assumes the attack power is the base calculation for damage. I believe that each class of weapon has a base damage, which is then added or multiplied by the impact score. Attack power is related to defense. It is probably subtracted from defense (or defense is subtracted from it) and then the resulting percentage applied as damage reduction.

From bungie's own words:

In addition, we intend to raise Mythoclast's attack value above and beyond the other exotics. Attack value dictates how much damage players deal to combatants and Mythoclast attack value being raised will make it more effective in PVE.

It's not related to defense. If you're wielding a fixed weapon you will find that there are certain numbers that you always hit for, these numbers are fixed across pretty much all mobs. The same "tier" of mobs from different species are hit with similar values. Mobs also have different precision shot multipliers, (especially apparent on Majors/Ultras) so that's also something you should take note of.

For example, If I use my 300 VoC in Raid

At the Gatekeeper there are 3 different precision shot values: 890 on reds, 809 on yellows, and 405 on the Gatekeeper. It's pretty clear that 890 is 100% damage, 809 is 90% damage, and 405 is 45% damage. I'm pretty sure these percentages are the same for any legendary weapon.
My pre-patch Vision of Confluence that was at 267 or so damage critted yellows for 512 and the Gatekeeper for 256 if my memory serves me right. (numbers are easy to remember since they magically are at those values)

Originally in the beta, people thought it was related to level, but with more levels available to test now that isn't feasible. Instead, I think the prevailing theory now is that attack power subtracts from enemy defense up to the point where it hits 0, then stops. So there is a point for certain enemies beyond which you will get no benefit from increasing the attack power of a gun. Against high level enemies you never reach that point, so you essentially get linear reduction with increased damage.

One way to test this is on low level enemies. If you take out a couple of Icebreakers against the level 2 enemies in the Cosmodrome you can see this fairly easily. Both Icebreakers will hit for the same amount regardless of their attack power. Note that this isn't capped by max life. The gun will hit for far more damage than the enemies have life (you can test this too by shooting them with a hand cannon or rocket launcher, the hand cannon will kill them with far less damage, while the rocket launcher will kill them with far more). However this test does have it's detractors because damage also deems to be scaled down by level. You will do more damage to a level 4 with Icebreaker than to a level 2.

You could probably work out the exact relationship if you wanted too, but I don't think it matters that much. For all content that matters, higher attack means more damage. Depending on the mob, it can be significantly more or just a bit more. But it is still more, so generally worth the cost.

You guys are also missing the what I've said: "Assumption is LV20+"

Don't do your tests on low level enemies.
Weapons deal less damage to LV1s than to LV20+ mobs, so don't do any of your tests on mobs below LV20.
Anything below 20 is scaled to a formula that I'm too lazy to figure out. Nobody really cares about how much you hit low level mobs for anyway

 

[RenegadeRocks]

A straight question to all these number crunching all knowing members here:
I am level 27.5 with pea shooters:
HOW DO I GET LEGENDARY WEAPONS?

 

[Rangers]

Details please? I did my test on Level 28 Thralls.

I dont remember precisely, except that it was on a Cabal. Probably ~level 18 I think probably a legionary or whatever, he wasn't shielded or powerful.

And if you're going to explain it away by "disregard everything under 20" some of my previous testing that showed a difference correlating to attack rating, was also done on level 18's.

This way.

That way was just what I had read as a theory a long time ago, probably in beta. My post already made it clear my "testing" had disproved that notion to myself. But I wasn't looking super deep into any of it. I am sure redditors have done much more testing that i could look at if I wanted to expend some effort. I was just playing around really.

If you are at least at the same level as the enemy you deal as much damage as possible allowed by the weapon. A level 28 will do the same damage to level 28 mobs as a level 30 character. A Level 27 character will deal 1/3 less than the other two characters given they wield the same weapons with the same skills/perks.

I know the level scaling stuff.

From bungie's own words:

In addition, we intend to raise Mythoclast's attack value above and beyond the other exotics. Attack value dictates how much damage players deal to combatants and Mythoclast attack value being raised will make it more effective in PVE.

This isn't strictly specific though, either the armor thing or the other way in essence will lead to the same result, more damage from a higher attack value. I agree it reads more easily as attack=damage, but it isn't 100% conclusive imo.

You guys are also missing the what I've said: "Assumption is LV20+"

Don't do your tests on low level enemies.
Weapons deal less damage to LV1s than to LV20+ mobs, so don't do any of your tests on mobs below LV20.
Anything below 20 is scaled to a formula that I'm too lazy to figure out. Nobody really cares about how much you hit low level mobs for anyway

This does sound more likely if a wide variety of enemies take the exact same damage, as you'd assume they would have different armor values.

Then again just thinking, it seems to me like say my Athens Epilogue hits for a wide variety of values across different enemies. Suggesting they do have different armor and it could be related to an armor value.

 

[iroboto]

Strange: from what I've read players believe weapon attack rating has to also deal with whether you can deal maximum damage of your weapon.

300 attack rating scores 100% weapon damage vs a level 30 mob. So 240+ range would deal only max damage to level 24 and below.

Attack ratings have no bearing in crucible: Impact is the only stat that can modify your base weapon damage respective to other classes.

The reason you got the results you got was because the mobs were higher level than your attack rating so you saw a decrease.

 

[orangpelupa]

A straight question to all these number crunching all knowing members here:
I am level 27.5 with pea shooters:
HOW DO I GET LEGENDARY WEAPONS?

buy it from shops. Its price is around 140 marks.

 

[Nisaaru]

A straight question to all these number crunching all knowing members here:
I am level 27.5 with pea shooters:
HOW DO I GET LEGENDARY WEAPONS?

Level up Reps and Cryptarch. Each time you get some bonus and the higher Cryptarch is the more likely it seems you get lucky. The farming these days, at least the ones you can do single handed, it's extremely rare to get a legendary engram. If you get none through that just buy one. What would you do with Repmarks otherwise.

I tried the "new" Mars location twice but you need more than 1 to fully exploit it and the people who visit there don't seem to have gotten the memo yet.

 

[Rangers]

Strange: from what I've read players believe weapon attack rating has to also deal with whether you can deal maximum damage of your weapon.

300 attack rating scores 100% weapon damage vs a level 30 mob. So 240+ range would deal only max damage to level 24 and below.

Attack ratings have no bearing in crucible: Impact is the only stat that can modify your base weapon damage respective to other classes.

The reason you got the results you got was because the mobs were higher level than your attack rating so you saw a decrease.

Nah, this was what my test kind of debunked. But it was the theory I was talking about that i had vaguely in my head before.

Because on a level 18 "mob" the damage went up with the attack rating 257>267, in at least one test...

257 should have already had full impact against a level 18 by that theory.

 

[iroboto]

Nah, this was what my test kind of debunked. But it was the theory I was talking about that i had vaguely in my head before.



Because on a level 18 "mob" the damage went up with the attack rating 257>267, in at least one test...



257 should have already had full impact against a level 18 by that theory.

Damn. This is ultra confusing then. Are you sure range wasn't a factor? If attack ratings are flatlined in crucible I guess this is why the impact stat still makes a difference. In PVE I do wonder how the attack rating does it'd but I suppose you are right. You would not be dealing more damage against a lower level mob by increasing attack power upgrades. So the theory is incorrect by default.

 

[Rangers]

Well I didn't think to control for range, but it was those guys in the hole under the shed when you first start patrol cosmodrome, the three hive that can be used for the hive majors bounty. IIRC it was similar range, being in a room the range wasn't super long or short and I did kind of get a mid distance both times if I recall.