Destiny: FIN

[Kryptonian]

I got the IB hand cannon as a drop but it came with that accuracy when airborne and some improved stat (range maybe?) when revived. Woe is me.

[Nimmel]

What was in your package Nimmel?

310 Ghost and 317 booties both of which were big light upgrades, even if the stats were so so.

[Uncle Mike]

I left IB participation on my third guy (Warlock) a little too late (and hadn't been stocking up on daily bounties to help, nor had the class item) so I managed 2 rank 5 (Titan, then Hunter) and one rank 3. Still, the Warlock now has a great headstart for next time, with the three weeklies all halfway done.

In the end, I did OK. A couple of high Light Ghosts (one at 319), chest and arms for the Titan, Chest for the Hunter, enough Marks to buy the Hunter arms and both guns.

My Rank 5 package for the Hunter dropped a Nirwen's Mercy at 315 Light, with Headseeker, Army of One, and Lightweight/Braced Frame/Injection Mold - which feels like a decent drop. Although, I'd really gotten used to the vendor one with Outlaw, Third Eye, Braced Frame. Hmm.

As for Iron Banner overall, I've really enjoyed. I am not a PvP player, and Destiny is really the first FPS I've put any time into outside of a PVE campaign (I have put maybe ten/twenty hours into Killzone 2 online, and that's it.) And I've not ventured into the Crucible much, outside of one or two previous IBs, and games of Control for fun. As such, TTK - with it's rewards for Crucible entry - has been a bit of a revelation for me. I've been enjoying PvP!

But I've still hated just the straight deathmatch/team deathmatch modes. I like Control, Rift, Salvage. Some objectives.

I was not looking forwards to Iron Banner Clash at all, plus it seemed like if you weren't using Pulse Rifles (a class of gun I don't really like) you were putting yourself at a disadvantage this time.

But I ended up having a surprising amount of fun. I almost felt like a decent player at times. The ebb and flow as the games tighten up around the Heavy drops then spread out again, starting to understand when to press forward and when to disengage, realising that in Clash, the K/D is all-important (and therefore not grant easy points to the opposition), I've really enjoyed it.

[PaB]

Alak-hul is the boss in the Sunless Cell!

Does anyone even bother doing Nightfalls any more?

D'oh I was thinking sunless cell was bond brothers for some reason.

[mikeyl]

Do the regularly with chums.

Its fun and can give ok rewards.

What was in your package Nimmel?

Randomly bumped into you on the Banner playlist! You shot me and ran away.

[Nimmel]

Randomly bumped into you on the Banner playlist! You shot me and ran away.

That's what Hexx does, usually whilst screaming!

[lordscotland]

Does anyone know if you buy a legendary engram from the cryptarch is it always a 280 or is there a chance of it being better?

[Hexx]

Not sure about purples. but if you get an Exotic it can be 290 or maybe 310

[Mercury]

Does anyone know if you buy a legendary engram from the cryptarch is it always a 280 or is there a chance of it being better?

Mine have all been 280 (and yet I keep throwing good money after bad!) but I hit 300 last night (thanks Iron Banner) so will try again once I have the Marks and see if that makes a difference.

[lordscotland]

cheers, I can now get to 311 so i didn't know whether to see if the cryptarch engrams give me some better stuff or continue my faction armour acquisition, which is all 280 without question.

[mikeyl]

I think exotics are guaranteed to drop at 310 when you're above 311 and have a higher chance of dropping at 310 when above 300.

Online folder raiding interest check btw. Still need VoG too

[Mercury]

Alak-hul is the boss in the Sunless Cell!

Does anyone even bother doing Nightfalls any more?

I look forward to a new Nightfall. Usually presents a reasonable challenge (for me anyway, particularly as it's just me and a mate) and the rewards have been slowly bumping me up.

Regarding Iron Banner, this was my first IB and I loved it. I was woeful at the start of the week but after much experimenting I got to a set-up (Titan SB with Bad Juju and 1000 Yard Stare) that I did okay with - even got the highest overall score bounty which I didn't think I stood a chance of at the start of the week. Didn't particularly like the IB gear (sharded the FR, don't like the HC, Machine Gun seems okay) but the ghost and artifact pushed me over 300 at long last. The armour looks pretty but doesn't really work for the way I play.

Talking of armour, I really don't like much of the Titan stuff. When a Crucible round starts and the team drops down, I always think "who is that cock in the astronaut helmet?" and realise it's me.

[Oz]

Got to rank 5 in my warlock in 10 games. Got to love the alt buff.

I didn't like IB clash at first, but it grew on me. I put my shotgun away and sniped mostly.

Yep. Sniping was much more effective than shotguns in this game mode. Not entirely sure why. It was horrible at the start then I got the pace of it and starting having better matches and enjoying myself more. My reward was a special which is prob what I least wanted but I'll take it. Lag also seemed to get better as the week progressed for whatever reason.

Main issue is sunbreakers. They really broke the game with that. Two and half minutes of someone running rampant in the map surviving direct rockets and snipes to the head and then getting their full health back from each kill. Fucking stupid. They should have patched that before iron B.

Even when getting health back with red death if someone shoots you half way through the regen effect stops. If a cuntbreaker hits someone with a hammer you can empty a clip on them and their health would continue going up until it is full again.

I also tried firing nova bombs at them and the most I would do is trade. So each time you hear one of those supers pop it becomes the benny hill section of oryx will 6 people running around trying to escape the giant asshole running around throwing hammers like a mindless nimrod. What a very unelegant way to play crucible.

[berties paw]

My rank 5 IB packages were all armour/class items, same with my boy. He got a pretty good roll on the Hand Cannon from a drop - Outlaw, Extended Mag and Hidden Hand, just a shame Hand Cannons are shit for now.

He's almost at 300 light, I solo'd Crota for him last night to try and get him an exotic or two and he got Black Hammer. First completion as well, shame it's no longer any use.

It's a lot harder when you don't have all your toys! No MIDA for the lamps, no Bones of Eao for the bridge and no Gjallarhorn for everything after. I had to swing to the platform down to the right of the bridge and jump up, the year 2 weapons tear everything apart though, so nothing gave me any trouble until I got to Crota. 2 rockets from Gjallarhorn take him down, but not from the launcher my boy has, it fires too slow to keep his shield down. Celestial Nighthawk/Golden Gun done the job eventually, took a while to get the timing right as you can only get 2 hits in per go. Then I had to build the super back up between swords. Hard going but got there in the end, he's playing solo, so his chances for exotics are pretty much limited to 3 of coins. I can run Crota for him every week and he'll maybe get a few year 1 exotics and unlock the year 2 version at the blueprint machine. The things you do for your kids, and he didn't even get the "Raider" achievement from it.

A couple of his friends are getting XBones and TTK for Xmas, so he'll have a fireteam soon.

[mikeyl]

Hammers are amazing. It's a special move called Supers, not Averages. They should clear house if everyone is grouping together. Much like the Nova Bomb, Bladedance or the Fist of Fury. It's not that easy popping a clanger out in the open too. You'd still have to work for those kills.

[berties paw]

Yep. Sniping was much more effective than shotguns in this game mode. Not entirely sure why. It was horrible at the start then I got the pace of it and starting having better matches and enjoying myself more. My reward was a special which is prob what I least wanted but I'll take it. Lag also seemed to get better as the week progressed for whatever reason.

Main issue is sunbreakers. They really broke the game with that. Two and half minutes of someone running rampant in the map surviving direct rockets and snipes to the head and then getting their full health back from each kill. Fucking stupid. They should have patched that before iron B.

Even when getting health back with red death if someone shoots you half way through the regen effect stops. If a cuntbreaker hits someone with a hammer you can empty a clip on them and their health would continue going up until it is full again.

I also tried firing nova bombs at them and the most I would do is trade. So each time you hear one of those supers pop it becomes the benny hill section of oryx will 6 people running around trying to escape the giant asshole running around throwing hammers like a mindless nimrod. What a very unelegant way to play crucible.

That gunsmith sniper - Eirene with Luck in the Chamber/Unflinching - was awesome during Iron Banner. This must be the first time I've had more snipes than shotgun kills.

I found the Hammer Titans less bother as the week went on, folk figured out how to combat them, run away if you are all grouped together or all focus fire on him if spread out a bit. The clang gives you plenty of warning as to whats coming. The only nerf I'd like to see applied is reducing the amount of hammers they can throw. It should be comparable with Golden Gun imo, either let Hunters fire Golden Gun for the the same duration or cut the hammers to 3 (4 with an exotic buffing it).

[MW_Jimmy]

Did you play the year 1 DLC? I didn't so I've not done those strikes or Crota yet either.

Yep, unfortunately. If I didn't pay out for the expansions I probably would've been there day one for Taken King. Ahh well.

[Bonzai1888]

Nightfall is pish easy, 19 strange coins was my first reward, some guy running behind me to first darkness zone sent me an invite so buddied up with him.

Theres no burn which is a huge bonus. Had to keep reviving him... He Kept running in coz he had a sword, that didnt end well.

[JDubYes]

Hammers are amazing. It's a special move called Supers, not Averages. They should clear house if everyone is grouping together. Much like the Nova Bomb, Bladedance or the Fist of Fury. It's not that easy popping a clanger out in the open too. You'd still have to work for those kills.

Yeah, but it's not that it's powerful that bothers people, it's that it's a bit too powerful. It's clearly by some distance the most effective Super in Crucible at present.* I only want a minor tweak here or there, not a full-blown nerf, but as it is their survivability is maybe a bit too high, and the effect is a bit too long.

* It has shorter windup than Nova Bomb, and I know this because I was playing Voidwalker last week at times just because it seemed be the only way to semi-reliably shut them down quickly, though even then you're still reliant on getting the drop on them, and normally just trade at best. Then it obviously has multiple shots and better armour (but moderately worse AoE, in the interests of fairness).

It lasts longer than Golden Gun, and has better armour and AoE. It has better range and armour than Bladedancer. It has better range and armour than Stormtrance, and kills a bit quicker. Titan Smash (which I was a little surprised to see some people still using) is shorter range and is single-use. (Then the others are obviously mainly support/utility.)

So yes, it's just that in its current form it's the most powerful and most difficult to shut down (as it's the only one I've seen that doesn't get taken down by a sniper headshot or one shot from a Golden Gun). It's not that the others are bad (i literally killed almost an entire team in about ten seconds last week with a Stormtrance, but that involved decent timing, getting the drop on them, the stars aligning perfectly in terms of their grouping, and the sixth man still managing to kill me with a shotgun), it's just that they're not as good, and what most of us want now is just a bit of balancing to level the playing field.

[Hexx]

It's only "downside" seems to be that you can (apparently) shoot the hammers down? Never seen that occur though

[Oz]

all supers require finesse to use appropriately and most effectively. Novas by using team communication or a good ability to read the radar, to find a group of people standing close together and popping out of cover just in time as a few hits from them will kill you before firing. stormcalling/bladedancing by finding clever ways to quickly cut the distance between you and multiple targets while avoiding fire. Then there's sunbreakers. You pop the super as you spawn, then start running around like an idiot mashing the fire button as you run into people. You can survive a rocket, you can survive a sniper headshot, you can survive one golden gun, you get your health back on each of the kill! I feel like people still defending this are just doing it to piss other people off or be contrarian. If that's why, good job.

[mikeyl]

All I'm saying is that, unless they are all just loitering in a room or corridor, it does a degree of skill to clear out more than one or two on a map. It's not just mindless idiots like me pressing one button and hoping everybody dies.

You have to judge where people are on the radar, point and shoot, chase, look round corners - all the while the timer is running down. A sniper or a primary can still do you in the back by the time it takes for you to turn around.

And one class has to be best at something right?

[ph0rce]

A primary can not drop a Sunbreaker, unless he's the stupidest, slowest, most oblivious one ever.

A full-auto shotgun, if you get the drop can do it or a sniper from miles away but as has been said before, it's far better to just run away.

Assuming they don't get dropped as soon as they pop it, once they are running about, mashing away, it's practically guaranteed kills.

I didn't play much IB but in at least 75% of the games, as soon as a team got to 9200 / 9400 you'd hear the clang & it'd be game over.

[Soi]

All I'm saying is that, unless they are all just loitering in a room or corridor, it does a degree of skill to clear out more than one or two on a map. It's not just mindless idiots like me pressing one button and hoping everybody dies.

You have to judge where people are on the radar, point and shoot, chase, look round corners - all the while the timer is running down. A sniper or a primary can still do you in the back by the time it takes for you to turn around.

And one class has to be best at something right?

It's not far off just pressing one button though. Hammers fly fast and the homing is generous. It's hard to miss with them. And the timer is huge -one IB game with my titan I activated my hammers, killed one guy and then ran to the complete opposite side of the map to kill a couple more.

It's not the killing potential that is overpowered about hammers, it's the fact that you get so much extra armour and that kills regen your health.

My prediction is that they will shorten the timer and decrease the extra armour. If they did that, it would still be arguably the best offensive super.

[ph0rce]

Reduce the homing range, shorten timer & decrease armour, and yeah, it'd still be the current best super.

Or change the perks so that they have to choose between health regen or homing ( and shorten the timer ).

[Uncle Mike]

I'd happily choose between homing and regen - I don't even spec the homing. Chaining, duration and regen is where it's at. Homing doesn't seem all that strong.

[LiMuBai]

Yeah I've noticed that the homing isn't particularly strong. Sunspots don't seem to be that effective either. Although the super itself is damn good, the rest of the build is pretty shitty: poor grenades, poor homing, useless sunspots ????

[Mr Ben]

Its purely the damage resistance that needs a nerf. Every other super can be shut down easily, but sunbreaker takes more.

[PaB]

Dunno about that. Imagine a Hunter running around with golden gun , but has 7 shots, that also have splash damage, and regains health with every kill. That's sun breaker.

[carlospie]

Having spent a lot of time in p v p it's clearly an unbalancing issue. It's sad it's taken this long to rectify it really. As soon as you hear that clunk you know it's gg