[QuickTidal]

So after grinding pretty much all weekend (including Friday which I had off), I'm Iron Banner lvl 3 (and change) and for it got a completely maxed out ILL WILL hand cannon, and was finally able to buy a Legendary Sleeves dealie form the IB vendor, and I was then able to swap my Exotic to my new headgear and the whole thins upped my defense by about 80....so all in all a good weekend. But man is IB SO much more of a goddamn grind than normal crucible.

[Silencer]

Thorn is a fantastic bounty, but it is a hard one for sure. Once you break the level 28-ish barrier with a friend or two, the final piece becomes infinitely easier, but the "level 26" claim on the mission is ALL LIES. XD

I've done it twice now - once to help a friend get it, and once for myself. The first time we tried it was literally impossible with 3 lvl 26's, once we got up to level 28 we were able to work our way through it relying on Ice Breaker and the room outside Phogoth's chamber to spam it, but it was still a solid 30-60 minute endeavour just for the final part of that Strike, never mind the preceding stuff in the quest chain. :S

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 07 July 2015 - 03:27 AM, said:

Man I whipped some Guardian Ass on the IB match I went in today. I got Iron Wrath and Heavy Metal in same round. Metal is by far the hardest to get done for me. 3 heavy kill sprees is my personal nightmare to try. Since I'm lvl 5 in just going to try and hang on to the bounties for the month so I can get a head start next event. 1 month is a long time only working on 8 free slots though. I showed my ex wife how glorious Thorn is in IB today and she was jealous then she gets back home and gets the bounty to get it lol. I told her GL cause to me it's the hardest to get. I ll never try it a 2nd time.

Did you make it to 4 today Scott or are you done with this event?

Not done yet, I'm at about 3.5 for IB.....and Thorn pisses me off largely because it seems like EVERYONE ELSE HAS IT BUT ME! LOL I can see the nose of it when people kill me with it, and even my maxed out Ill Will hand cannon (which has like an 95% full impact bar stat) doesn't do what Thorn does.

[Wolfdrop]

Hit my first IB rank 5 the other day! Grabbed Jolders Hammer, can't wait to try with Ruin Wings on my titan.

[QuickTidal]

So, IB is over again right? Which means I can't get up anymore, or reforge IB weapons. Which kinda sucks.


I didn't get enough chances to play it when you have to grind so damned hard to get anywhere (lvl 3 was the only really worthy tier to hit, with 4 being even better....1 and 2 provides you with next to nothing....a banner for your character, but otherwise nada). So I grind-ed those control matches (which everyone plays like Clash instead of Control...seriously, no one solo was even really playing it the way it should be played...grab two flags and hold them...but there are always idiots running for the third, and I want to connect my mic so bad and shout at them for it) for what...at least 4 days for many hours and all I had to show for it was lvl 3.5?

I dunno man. It was kind of a shitshow. Going to go to the regular weapons guy and reforge my Ill Will to get the best stats (something I was unaware I could even DO!)

Also, where the hell do I get Thorn?

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 07 July 2015 - 10:44 PM, said:

Did you buy the Etheric Light for IB rank 3? I'm looking at your gear and it's only light 36 for your IB arms.

Speaking of EL I may have just done a dumb thing lol I used 1 of my 3 xtra to max out my fav 1st gen New Monarchy sniper Prudance II. It was the gun that introduced me to both how fun snipers could have and Firefly. Dark shit all over lvling up old guns but it instead of dismantling this gun I've managed the hang on to it in my 9 slots all this time and I told myself that it would be my 1st weapon to upgrade so I did. EL is so rare though ATM I may have messed up bringing this thing to 365.

I did buy and use etheric light on my Ill Will hand cannon...which I now realIe was stu-pid. Sigh.

[Khellendros]

QuickTidal, on 07 July 2015 - 05:13 PM, said:

So, IB is over again right? Which means I can't get up anymore, or reforge IB weapons. Which kinda sucks.


I didn't get enough chances to play it when you have to grind so damned hard to get anywhere (lvl 3 was the only really worthy tier to hit, with 4 being even better....1 and 2 provides you with next to nothing....a banner for your character, but otherwise nada). So I grind-ed those control matches (which everyone plays like Clash instead of Control...seriously, no one solo was even really playing it the way it should be played...grab two flags and hold them...but there are always idiots running for the third, and I want to connect my mic so bad and shout at them for it) for what...at least 4 days for many hours and all I had to show for it was lvl 3.5?

I dunno man. It was kind of a shitshow. Going to go to the regular weapons guy and reforge my Ill Will to get the best stats (something I was unaware I could even DO!)

Also, where the hell do I get Thorn?

Re...forge??


I didn't even get to rank 2 in IB, but then I did leave the country for a few days so had no chance to play. Doing the Strikes is annoying me - not only do I get thrown into a game already under way roughly every 1 in 3 games, but everyone else just rushes through straight to the end boss. It really shows how it's basically become a chore for these players, trying to get it over with as quick as possible, while I'm still lollygagging around enjoying the scenery. I'm sure that won't last long, but I also don't know if I'd keep playing when that sets in.

[QuickTidal]

Khellendros, on 08 July 2015 - 04:03 PM, said:

Re...forge??

Yeah, you can do this with the regular weapons-smith on the tower too (though only with weapons with a II on their icon....if you go to the smith he will have the weapons you can reforge in a list). Basically, for a mote of light, some weapons parts, and glimmer you can re-roll the stats on the weapon to get different (better) perks/upgrades for that weapon. It will reset any upgrading you've done already, but you might get a really lucky roll and get a bunch of perks to make your gun even better. Google "reforge" and your weapon and see what people think is the best roll arrangement to shoot for. But be aware it's a craps shoot and might take a lot of the needed elements (1 mote of light, 3 weapons parts, some glimmer) to roll to what you want. I went through about 20 motes of light and umpteen weapons parts to try to get my Ill Will Hand Cannnon to have Luck in the Chamber, Final Round, and Flared Magwell(or speed reload) which would make it nigh unstoppable...and I still didn't get it before I ran out of shit....so I gotta wait till I build back up some motes before I can have at it again.

Khellendros, on 08 July 2015 - 04:03 PM, said:

I didn't even get to rank 2 in IB, but then I did leave the country for a few days so had no chance to play. Doing the Strikes is annoying me - not only do I get thrown into a game already under way roughly every 1 in 3 games, but everyone else just rushes through straight to the end boss. It really shows how it's basically become a chore for these players, trying to get it over with as quick as possible, while I'm still lollygagging around enjoying the scenery. I'm sure that won't last long, but I also don't know if I'd keep playing when that sets in.

Yeah, Strikes at this point for almost everyone are about the endgame. No one stops to fight anything they don't have to, and will head directly for the boss. It's irritating to me because of the amount of exp you can gain on the way is useful...but if you fall behind people get irritated and drop out. That's my biggest beef is when that happens. BK and I did a strike where the third guy APPEARED (I don't think he did) to drop out during the boss fight which basically fucks the other two players into either fighting tooth and nail to win...or just dying repeatedly on a boss meant for 3 people. That happens to me more often than not on Strikes. Someone almost always drops out. The only time I don't see it happen is when the other two players are under lvl 20...in which case they want to stay in for the long haul to grind up.

But yeah, it's not a great system....especially when the servers chuck you in asd a replacement to a dropout in a strike already underway.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 08 July 2015 - 06:50 PM, said:

Does reforge something that you used EL on keep it 365 or does it go down to 331?

Reforging drops ALL perks down to nothing. It's basically rebooting the weapon with new perks entirely. so yeah you'd lose EL...which I accidentally totally did with my Ill Will (as I'd forgotten I'd used my EL on it when I went to reforge!) Arg!

[Khellendros]

QuickTidal, on 08 July 2015 - 04:26 PM, said:

Khellendros, on 08 July 2015 - 04:03 PM, said:

Re...forge??

Yeah, you can do this with the regular weapons-smith on the tower too (though only with weapons with a II on their icon....if you go to the smith he will have the weapons you can reforge in a list). Basically, for a mote of light, some weapons parts, and glimmer you can re-roll the stats on the weapon to get different (better) perks/upgrades for that weapon. It will reset any upgrading you've done already, but you might get a really lucky roll and get a bunch of perks to make your gun even better. Google "reforge" and your weapon and see what people think is the best roll arrangement to shoot for. But be aware it's a craps shoot and might take a lot of the needed elements (1 mote of light, 3 weapons parts, some glimmer) to roll to what you want. I went through about 20 motes of light and umpteen weapons parts to try to get my Ill Will Hand Cannnon to have Luck in the Chamber, Final Round, and Flared Magwell(or speed reload) which would make it nigh unstoppable...and I still didn't get it before I ran out of shit....so I gotta wait till I build back up some motes before I can have at it again.

Khellendros, on 08 July 2015 - 04:03 PM, said:

I didn't even get to rank 2 in IB, but then I did leave the country for a few days so had no chance to play. Doing the Strikes is annoying me - not only do I get thrown into a game already under way roughly every 1 in 3 games, but everyone else just rushes through straight to the end boss. It really shows how it's basically become a chore for these players, trying to get it over with as quick as possible, while I'm still lollygagging around enjoying the scenery. I'm sure that won't last long, but I also don't know if I'd keep playing when that sets in.

Yeah, Strikes at this point for almost everyone are about the endgame. No one stops to fight anything they don't have to, and will head directly for the boss. It's irritating to me because of the amount of exp you can gain on the way is useful...but if you fall behind people get irritated and drop out. That's my biggest beef is when that happens. BK and I did a strike where the third guy APPEARED (I don't think he did) to drop out during the boss fight which basically fucks the other two players into either fighting tooth and nail to win...or just dying repeatedly on a boss meant for 3 people. That happens to me more often than not on Strikes. Someone almost always drops out. The only time I don't see it happen is when the other two players are under lvl 20...in which case they want to stay in for the long haul to grind up.

But yeah, it's not a great system....especially when the servers chuck you in asd a replacement to a dropout in a strike already underway.

Thanks for the explanation. Further digging shows it's only for IB and HoW weapons, so no wonder I haven't come across it. Sounds like the most useful thing to spend Motes of Light on so far though.

And yeah, I just did a Strike in which all of us happened to be under level 25 - and that was the most enjoyable one by far. I also tried the 3v3 with revives Crucible mode (the name escapes me now) for the first time, and I think it's now my favourite. Feels like actual team play, unlike Control, where most seem to sprint around heedlessly.

[Silencer]

Skirmish is way fun though. Being able to revive makes the rest of the multiplayer choices they made make sense, where it doesn't so much in the other multiplayer matches. XD

But yeah especially if you're not doing the Nightfall or Weekly strikes, people are just interested in speed running. Because they've played it over a hundred times (probably on a harder difficulty) and are just there for the loot or a bounty.
Strikes are not good end game content, in short, because there isn't enough of them to keep it fresh and it's not hard enough for top level players so they are able to speed run. XD

[Silencer]

Also, for those who haven't heard, Bungie day was yesterday and if you guys want recognition for being a year one player.. We got some work to do!

(Just check the latest post on Bnet or the Destiny app...)

[Silencer]

Yeah.

[Khellendros]

I finally got my first pieces of legendary gear the other day, a helmet and gauntlets. Boosted me from 25 to 28 straight away. I've also begun moving from bottom of Crucible tables to comfortably lower mid-table lol. Still lagging behind in some areas - for instance, I still use an uncommon shotgun, haven't found anything better.

How do you get lots of Glimmer though?! I'm basically running out, only got like 1000 left and only seem to collect a very measly amount (maybe 100 or so) every strike or mission. Do I have to use those 'get more glimmer for ten minutes' modifiers or can it be farmed easily without in some way I haven't realised?

[Silencer]

Use the modifiers. The more powerful enemies (yellow health/name) Also give you more glimmer.
Break stuff down. Ranking up faction rep like the Vanguard also gives you some glimmer.

Don't buy any weapons with glimmer. Better things will drop anyway.

That's pretty much it.

Also, by the time you've played your tenth strike in a row, with the consumables on each time, you'll have plenty of glimmer.

I've just gone from 3k glimmer to 12k in about 2-3 hours, nothing special, just strikes and missions with the ether seeds/black wax idols running, and of course playing with a heroic modifier on when possible (turn the difficulty up to your level or just below it whenever possible. Once you're comfortably in the upper twenties anything around level 22 will take you five to ten minutes but will have a lot of yellow bar opponents for more glimmer).

[Khellendros]

Silencer, on 13 July 2015 - 10:41 AM, said:

Use the modifiers. The more powerful enemies (yellow health/name) Also give you more glimmer.
Break stuff down. Ranking up faction rep like the Vanguard also gives you some glimmer.

Don't buy any weapons with glimmer. Better things will drop anyway.

That's pretty much it.

Also, by the time you've played your tenth strike in a row, with the consumables on each time, you'll have plenty of glimmer.

I've just gone from 3k glimmer to 12k in about 2-3 hours, nothing special, just strikes and missions with the ether seeds/black wax idols running, and of course playing with a heroic modifier on when possible (turn the difficulty up to your level or just below it whenever possible. Once you're comfortably in the upper twenties anything around level 22 will take you five to ten minutes but will have a lot of yellow bar opponents for more glimmer).

Ah, that would be it then - I tend to do like 1-2 strikes a day and haven't used any of my consumables

I haven't bought anything at all as yet. My glimmer just goes on upgrading weaker weapons/armour so as to dismantle them for more parts. The only things I want to buy later on are the faction items so I can start levelling my ranks up with those - but only after I get to Crucible rank 3 (only just reached 1 so a way to go).

This post has been edited by Khellendros: 13 July 2015 - 12:09 PM

[Silencer]

Ah, then extra advice: Don't upgrade anything that isn't legendary or necessary to get more light levels. It's just not worth it. XD

[QuickTidal]

Silencer, on 13 July 2015 - 12:15 PM, said:

Ah, then extra advice: Don't upgrade anything that isn't legendary or necessary to get more light levels. It's just not worth it. XD

This.

And just grind away at strikes and crucible and such and you won't even have to pay attention to the Glimmer levels as they will max out weekly. Mine usually do.




As for me, I've noticed that I've gotten considerably better at Crucible matches now. I usually rank between dead middle, all the way up to the top spot depending on the board and if I'm up against a team or not. The Ill Will Hand Canon with final Round, sureshot IS...is a dab hand at the two shot kill as long as I calmly focus and take my time (which is difficult if the other guy is nervewrackingly pumping me full of rounds...I usually have to trust my defense and hope I'll last) and the range on it is FAR better than a hand cannon has any right to be. My secondary weapon is my Legendary Fusion rifle now (the Shotgun I have is great, but needs me to be too close quarters and my secondary weapon needs to be something with decent range and accuracy. I think just grinding through Crucible match after Crucible match has taught me a few things (where to duck behind, the run of the maps, whether or not I'm close to heavy ammo when it comes avail [though it should be noted I'm a FAR bigger fan of standing in the distance and picking off the other side as they scramble for it] and a few other tricks) and as a result I've simply gotten better. It also helps to have a decent team around me...which I usually do. Though I DID have one Control match where (like in Iron Banner) people dropped of my side and I was left with 3 (including me) against a full six. It was unfair as hell...but a part of me enjoyed running around taking out as many of them as I could even though we were way behind and outgunned.

I think my fave board is Ishtar's Sink on Venus...simply because A and C control flags are in out of the way, easily defended places...but then B flag is just a clusterfuck of explosions and bullets and a cacophony of nastiness that never stays on anyone's side for long...and I can't lie, it's DAMNED fun as a board.

[QuickTidal]

Briar King, on 14 July 2015 - 12:56 AM, said:

You sure it doesn't say Jedi-solo on the other end of that sniper rifle?

Lol, pretty sure. It was like constant, and he had two guys running interference for him while he sat back and took pot shots through his scope. I was like "come on ppl! Take him out, he's destroying us!"

But nada.

In the end I left the grouping and went to space. It was too frustrating to deal with.

[Khellendros]

Got my first legendary weapon after a strike last night - sniper rifle The Chosen. Too bad the sniper rifle appears to be my worst weapon in Destiny In PvP anyway. A lot of the maps just feel too small for sniping for me (narrow and restricted field of view). Seems to reward the instant draw and fire, rather than the prolonged camping which is my preferred way of sniping