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Destiny Series Gather Guardians and prepare yourselves

#361 User is offline   Galactic Council 

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Posted 06 June 2019 - 11:26 PM

Destiny going free to play in September. That means vanilla D2, first two expansions, all PvP activities, strikes, plus being able to wander around all destinations (including post-Forsaken ones like Tangled Shore, Dreaming City, and the Moon from the newest expansion coming in September). Campaigns, raids, dungeons, exotic weapon quests, you’ll have to still pay for to add them to your game. All expansions/seasons will be standalone (so you will be able to buy and play season 10 content, for example, without needing season 9 content).

This free to play version will begin with the opening mission from Destiny 1, and then teleport you to the Tower, from where you’ll be able to access any destination/activity within the first couple of hours of play. Good if you want to jump into it straight away and, say, play with friends who’ve been playing D2 for a while, but also sounds like they’re ditching any pretence at a linear story which unlocks further progression. Mostly not a loss for D2, but finding a way into the Dreaming City was pretty great and it’d be a shame to lose that experience.

With the new big expansion, Shadowkeep, coming in September, they’re also leaning hard into RPG elements, specifically with making armour into whatever stats/perks you want it to have.

It also seems like Shadowkeep will revolve around fighting old enemies (think I saw Crota, Skolas, and Ghaul) who are now ‘Nightmares’.

This post has been edited by Galactic Council: 06 June 2019 - 11:29 PM

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#362 User is offline   Malankazooie 

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Posted 07 June 2019 - 12:40 AM

See, if you don't reward bad behavior, they'll try to win you back. If Shadowkeep tracks well in the reviews when it comes out this autumn I may actually purchase something from them. Then again, it's coming out right around Borderlands 3, so that is a big barrier to entry (for me anyway Posted Image). I could see picking it up a ways down the road after it releases however. It all depends on how the reviews track, I guess.
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#363 User is offline   Malankazooie 

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Posted 21 July 2019 - 12:03 AM

Completed the Curse of Osiris expansion (got both it and Warmind free). It was .... underwhelming. If I had paid full price for that I would be angry.

Next up is Warmind (again, got it for free Posted Image). So Guardians, what should I expect with Warmind? Any good? I think my experience will dictate whether I get Shadowkeep this September.

And may the glowing flatulence of Klizzrhxhipfliblegar ever be at your back.

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#364 User is offline   Khellendros 

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Posted 21 July 2019 - 09:01 AM

I thought the Warmind campaign was even worse than Osiris, but the after-campaign stuff was better, and Mars is a much better location than Mercury. In my opinion, though, without the Forsaken expansion, there’s no real reason to spend time with Destiny.
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#365 User is offline   Malankazooie 

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Posted 21 July 2019 - 01:49 PM

I'm hoping the trend will continue - release Shadowkeep, requiring dumbshits to purchase Forsaken in order to play it. Then only a short month later (if that), decide to bundle Foresaken for free with Shadowkeep. That's how I hope it goes down.Posted Image
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#366 User is offline   Khellendros 

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Posted 28 August 2019 - 11:50 AM

I just had to share this moment. I finally beat the Shattered Throne dungeon solo after months of trying. This is the final boss battle, which went exactly NOTHING like what I had planned. I can't believe the whole fight took less than two minutes when it felt like an eternity when I was doing it!

Some context:

The Shattered Throne is like a mini-raid, which is usually meant to be done by a team of three but can be completed solo, but it's super hard to do. The hardest part is a mid-level boss which took me about 500 tries to finally beat. I actually managed that a few months ago but then couldn't beat the final boss before I ran out of time. The Shattered Throne appears only every third week, so it's not always available, and that time I didn't manage to finish before the reset. This was only the second time I had managed to reach this final boss, and this was something like my 20th attempt at beating it in this session (luckily it checkpoints at the start of the fight if you die).

The Boss Fight:

The boss, the floating witch at the back, is invulnerable until you kill at least one of the giant knights with battleaxes and pick up the buff which they then drop. The more buffs you pick up, the more damage you can do to her, so it makes sense to kill all three first and then shoot her. Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. The buffs disappear after a few seconds if you don't pick them, so in order to get all three you need to kill all three knights in very quick succession to each other. At the same time, other enemies spawn in who can overwhelm you in seconds, because these ones continually make copies of themselves till they're killed. If the knights are still alive after a couple of minutes, then THEY become invulnerable until you destroy a crystal protected by the witch. If there's three of you, this is all relatively simple, but when there's only one...it's tricky to say the least. But wait - there's more! Let's say you manage to pick up the buff x3: well, it only lasts 45 seconds, and if you don't 'cleanse' yourself of the buff using the plinth in the middle of the room before the timer runs out, then you just automatically die.


THE PLAN:

After much experimentation and failure, I settled on a strategy. I was going to do this slowly and methodically, in two phases.

My loadout:
- Long Shadow sniper rifle to take out the boss without getting too close, with a boss spec mod inserted for extra damage to her. I also put on armour with sniper rifle targeting buffs on it, and other other mods for more damage to Taken enemies (which is what these ones are).
- Riskrunner submachine gun. For me, the best exotic weapon in Destiny 2, and perfect for this fight because of its special ability: if you get hit by Arc damage (which is what all the enemies in this fight use), the Riskrunner automatically reloads from reserves AND chains arc damage to any nearby targets when you're shooting one. So it makes really quick work of the ads which constantly copy themselves.
- Swarm of the Raven grenade launcher. This is the current most powerful weapon in the game, as Bungie kept buffing and buffing grenade launchers as no one would use them. My one has the Spike Grenades perk for extra damage on direct contact.
- Lunafaction Boots: These exotic boots autoreload your guns if you're standing in a healing or empowering rift. I chose to use an empowering rift for this encounter for extra damage. Well, I say I chose to use...that wasn't the plan originally.

So the actual plan was that, as a Void Warlock, I would use my Nova Bomb super ability at the start to *almost* kill the three knights. I would then take out the ads with Riskrunner, and after that, I would run and hide on top of a statue at the back where the enemies could not get me. I would switch to the Solar Dawnblade subclass, which has the Well of Radiance super. The Well of Radiance is basically both a healing and empowering rift at the same time, but with both healing and empowerment also buffed (you're pretty much invulnerable in a WoR and do a ton of damage). I would wait on the statue for a few minutes while my super recharged, and then I would get down, destroy the crystal, kill the three almost-dead knights quickly using my grenade launcher, pick up the buffs, activate Well of Radiance, and unload on the boss with the sniper rifle.

That didn't happen.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS:

Everything starts off fine, I Nova Bomb the three knights, and then I set about killing the ads with Riskrunner. Unfortunately, Riskrunner is just TOO good. The lightning arcs reach one of the knights and kill it straight away! You can actually see me pause for a split second in an 'oh shit' moment, and then I basically just say fuck it, throw caution to the wind, and set about trying to kill the other two knights as quickly as possible. As soon as I pick up the first buff, the timer starts ticking down, and I still have to kill the other two knights. I manage to do that, and then I open up my empowering rift and start shooting the boss as quickly as possible. By this point I actually only have 15 seconds left in which to do damage.

And then I start panicking. The screen starts going red because the buff is about to kill me, and I'm too frazzled to even look to see how much ammo I've got left. I think I've run out of sniper ammo (I actually had enought left to kill the boss!), and in desperation switch to the grenade launcher, which I don't even know if I have any ammo left for. Turned out, I had two grenades left, which was *just* enough to kill the boss. But here's the thing: I launch the final grenade just as the buff runs out and kills me! The boss and I die at the same time, but because the boss is dead, the game counts that as mission end and resurrects me! That is literally the closest finish that you can get!



This post has been edited by Khellendros: 28 August 2019 - 11:55 AM

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#367 User is offline   Malankazooie 

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Posted 29 September 2019 - 08:23 PM

Where my guardians at?! BIZZZNATCHES!

Any you schmucks gonna quit guarding your turds in the loo and actually do the work of a real guardian and play Shadowkeep when it drops on Tuesday? Waiting to see reviews of Shadowkeep myself, but might be time for me to jump back in. I've played Curse of Osiris and Warmind (for free), and am hoping they will bundle Forsaken with Shadowkeep. If it gets good reviews, imma thinkin' this champion of light just might have to dip my toes into it again.

Here's a 4 hour video to refresh your memory on everything.



. . . and may the oozing rectal prolapse of Korizthrakiven never cross your line of sight.
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#368 User is offline   Khellendros 

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Posted 01 October 2019 - 08:24 AM

Don’t be afraid to dial it down a bit, MK.

I still play D2, it’s my go-to switch-brain-off game, and I’ll be getting Shadowkeep. I don’t think Forsaken does come with it - you’ll be able to access the patrol spaces of Tangled Shore and the Dreaming City, but not do the campaign or other quests/missions/season pass content like the forges and the Menagerie. I’m guessing they will make Forsaken free eventually, but probably not for another year.

Shadowkeep looks very intriguing so far, the Moon was a great space in D1. A new dungeon is very exciting, as the Shattered Throne was for me the best piece of content they’ve ever done. Armour 2.0 is also a very good change, as finally you can wear the set you want and add to it the perks that you want, rather than always having to wear a complete mish-mash of different sets.

One thing I don’t like is the new ‘Battle Pass’ and the fact that they’re going to be leaning more heavily into microtransactions. Not that I’ve ever been tempted to buy before, but it’s always annoying when nice things are locked behind a paywall. The Battle Pass also segregates the community between those who’ve paid for the season pass and those who haven’t (but at least the first season comes with Shadowkeep purchase), and I don’t like the fact that it rewards you with weapons at points, including exotic ones - those should always be at the ends of quest lines, not unrelated playing time rewards.

This post has been edited by Khellendros: 01 October 2019 - 08:25 AM

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#369 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 01 October 2019 - 04:38 PM

I was going to impulse buy Shadowkeep but the PSN store has been under maintenance for hours now. Bungie must be pissed.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 01 October 2019 - 04:45 PM

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#370 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 01 October 2019 - 04:51 PM

Bought it. Turns out the release is actually in around 15 minutes. Huzzah.

Now to wait until the finishes updating. I really wish Sony would up their download speeds. Watching a few mb/s ticking away is agony, when you know you could download it in a tenth of the time.
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#371 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 01 October 2019 - 05:23 PM

Oh great. A "Destiny 2 is currently at capacity" message and waiting in a line.

Now this is the authentic MMO experience.
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#372 User is offline   Malankazooie 

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Posted 01 October 2019 - 06:32 PM

I haven't bought it (yet), but I have a large - 26 ½ GB - update queued up. I've kept my D2 install up to date with all the patches and updates, so I'm guessing this large update is all Shadowkeep related? And will allow me to still play when it goes live? Dunno. I hope there will be some new activities for those of us who haven't bought Shadowkeep yet.
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#373 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 01 October 2019 - 06:43 PM

Oh there's tons and tons of content if you haven't been keeping up. I haven't played since around December last year and my quest log is brimming.

I spent 15 minutes just running around the tower reacquainting myself with the place.

Running around on Earth now. I'd forgotten just how good the combat feels.

This post has been edited by Aptorian: 01 October 2019 - 06:45 PM

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#374 User is offline   Malankazooie 

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Posted 01 October 2019 - 07:05 PM

Yeah, the combat is buttery smooth. When I got into the Escalation Protocol activity for the first time on Mars, I had so much fun. Bungie are exceptionally good in that aspect. It's really noticeable after playing other FPS.
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#375 User is offline   Malankazooie 

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Posted 02 October 2019 - 06:36 AM

Have any you guys seen reviews for Shadowkeep? I usually can find video game reviews on Reddit where a thread will pull together all the links for reviews from different sources. I haven't been able to find one for Shadowkeep. I'm guessing it's because Shadowkeep isn't a new game but just an expansion? But I have found reviews for expansions to other titles before, so not sure what to do (I like to look over reviews to help in deciding to purchase or not).
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#376 User is offline   Khellendros 

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Posted 02 October 2019 - 11:30 AM

View PostMalankazooie, on 02 October 2019 - 06:36 AM, said:

Have any you guys seen reviews for Shadowkeep? I usually can find video game reviews on Reddit where a thread will pull together all the links for reviews from different sources. I haven't been able to find one for Shadowkeep. I'm guessing it's because Shadowkeep isn't a new game but just an expansion? But I have found reviews for expansions to other titles before, so not sure what to do (I like to look over reviews to help in deciding to purchase or not).


It was only released yesterday. Give it a few days while people explore everything. The other issue with that is that Bungie will be releasing more quests/activities over the days and weeks to come, so it’s difficult to assess as a whole, certainly early on.
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#377 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 02 October 2019 - 02:21 PM

I'm guessing no review code went out early. Typically the excuse/explanation is that the developer wants the reviewers to play it in a live/real environment when it's an MMO.

Doesn't really matter. It's more Destiny. It's awesome.
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#378 User is offline   Malankazooie 

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Posted 03 October 2019 - 06:32 AM

Well, I was hoping to see some reviews about the single-player campaign (story) tied to Shadowkeep. From what I gather, the story takes you back to the Moon. I really enjoyed the atmospheric feeling of the Moon from D1 and so I am interested to see where they go with it in Shadowkeep. I just would like to see some reviews that hit my ratings threshold mark that would give me reason to spend full price on it. Poorer reviews of the story and I will probably wait until it drops in price or becomes outright free (like CoO & Warmind).

All the other niceties, like new activities and gear and things to do are all par for the course in Destiny. Some I expect to be fun and spend time doing, others I expect I'll try out, not like them that much and ignore them going forward... pretty much the Destiny experience in a nutshell, I would say.
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#379 User is offline   Aptorian 

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Posted 04 October 2019 - 07:19 PM

Been focusing on the Black Armory stuff but also done a few new Campaign missions.

The moon with the big keeps feels really atmospheric and sinister but also mostly more of the same.

But I love levelling up, filling out quest markers, taking bounties, etc. The gameplay loop is just perfect to me. Bore bars, more Numbers to increase.
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#380 User is offline   Khellendros 

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Posted 05 October 2019 - 10:16 AM

View PostMalankazooie, on 03 October 2019 - 06:32 AM, said:

Well, I was hoping to see some reviews about the single-player campaign (story) tied to Shadowkeep. From what I gather, the story takes you back to the Moon. I really enjoyed the atmospheric feeling of the Moon from D1 and so I am interested to see where they go with it in Shadowkeep. I just would like to see some reviews that hit my ratings threshold mark that would give me reason to spend full price on it. Poorer reviews of the story and I will probably wait until it drops in price or becomes outright free (like CoO & Warmind).

All the other niceties, like new activities and gear and things to do are all par for the course in Destiny. Some I expect to be fun and spend time doing, others I expect I'll try out, not like them that much and ignore them going forward... pretty much the Destiny experience in a nutshell, I would say.


I’ve played through a fair bit of the story now. It’s very atmospheric, with some reveals which will make those interested in Destiny lore happy. However, I also have a feeling that the campaign is about to finish just as it feels like it’s getting going. I think there’s about 7 or 8 missions in all.

What I’m enjoying most is the challenge. For the first time in a long time I’m underleveled and it’s making me actually think about how I engage enemies in the Moon.
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