Destiny 2: Lightfall

[Gorf King]

It probably is a whole different community - I literally don't know anyone who plays competitive any more. I hardly know anyone who plays the PvP at all; I haven't even bothered with the milestone the past two or three weeks.

[Lyrical Donut]

52 minutes ago, The Eagle Lord said:

i don't know if it's because i'm playing Hunter this time round

 

...

 

But in all seriousness, since they removed the radar, teamwork and comms are more important than they've ever been in competitive. It's a solo queue nightmare with randoms - especially if you get matched against a pre-made team of 4.

[Mr Ben]

TWAB

Faction Rallies

Quote

As one event winds down, the next one ramps up. Faction Rallies is starting up again. Dead Orbit dominated the first event of Season 3. We will see if they defend their position at the top, or if New Monarchy or Future War Cult step up to take their spot. Faction Rallies will be available Tuesday, June 26, at 10 a.m. PDT through the following weekly reset.

 

In a previous TWAB, we told you that Winner’s Offering weapons would be added to the event reward pool after the first event. That was incorrect for Season 3, which will operate differently than past seasons. During this season, the factions will continue to feature their original Winner’s Offerings for all three events.

 

If you didn’t make it to Rank 50 with your faction of choice during the first event, you can pick up where you left off by pledging to them again. Or you can opt to start up with new blood, but remember that your pledge is account wide. Choose carefully.

Exotic Armour Sandbox Changes (3 pieces per class) coming July 17th:

 

Quote

Victor: We’re bringing another set of changes to Exotic armor with Update 1.2.3. As we continue to iterate on Exotic armor, we hope that you will also continue to provide feedback. You’ve heard the goals from the last TWAB, where we introduced the changes, so let’s get right into them.

 

Like the Update 1.2.1 changes, anything written below is in addition to any existing benefits that the Exotic already provides, unless it’s explicitly mentioned otherwise.

Hunter

Lucky Raspberry

• Increased chance to fully recharge your Arcbolt Grenade on Arcbolt Grenade hits.
• Guarantees a recharge on getting a full chain that hits four targets.
  • While just about everybody could appreciate the theoretically infinite grenades Lucky Raspberry could generate, its purely random nature made many people shy away from it. With this change, your input will now affect the outcome, so plan your throws accordingly.

St0mp-EE5

• Increased benefits when using Strafe Jump and Triple Jump.
  • The usage rate of St0mp-EE5 in the Crucible was fairly good, but since it mostly affected High Jump, people were somewhat pigeonholed if they wanted to change up their air game, so the other double jump variants were tweaked to have more impact.

Young Ahamkara’s Spine

• Removed marking functionality. 
• Improved the Tripmine Grenade’s blast radius and throw speed, and made it so your Tripmine Grenades are harder to destroy.
• Solar ability hits now grant some Tripmine Grenade energy.
  • The marking functionality, while useful in some circumstances such as in the Crucible, did not have much merit in PvE, so we removed it to head in a better direction. Now, your Tripmine Grenades are punchier, and you can get access to them faster.

Titan

ACD/0 Feedback Fence

• Now grants Fury Conductor stacks on melee hits instead of kills. 
• Fury Conductors now grants stacking melee damage resistance.
  • These changes were mostly aimed at making Fury Conductors better in PvE encounters. While the Feedback Fence could protect you from hordes of Thrall by keeping them staggered, it just wasn’t that much use against something like a Hive Knight wielding a sword. The changes also make this Exotic better in the Crucible, but the solution of just shooting opponents still works.

Doomfang Pauldrons

• Void melee kills now grant more Super energy.
• Shield Throw hits will now extend the duration of your Super.
  • Titans have a lot of Exotics that help with punching things. To differentiate this one from the rest of the herd, we’ve increased the impact this Exotic has on your Super and on how you use it.

Dunemarchers

• Reduced the time to activate Linear Actuators while you are sprinting to 1.5 seconds (down from 5 seconds). 
• Increased the damage of the chain lightning effect (+70% in PvP, 440% in PvE).
  • While the lightning effect of Dunemarchers was novel, the time needed to start it up and its fairly low impact led to many players simply seeing these as “the sprint pants.” So, we’ve made the lightning much more deadly and frequent.

Warlock

Crown of Tempests

• Collapsed the total number of stacks of Conduction Tines to 3 (with the same total effect), and each stack of Conduction Tines lowers the upkeep cost of Stormtrance.
  • Nezarec’s Sin and this Exotic were quite similar, so we pushed harder on this Exotic for Stormcallers who want to invest heavily in ability use. Warlocks also don’t have many Exotics that modify their Supers, and not receiving the full benefit of Conduction Tines during Stormtrance was a little disheartening, so we added a benefit during the Super’s duration to alleviate that.

Karnstein Armlets

• Removed melee hit effects (resilience/mobility/target highlighting). 
• Melee kills now instantly heal you, then grant continuous healing for 8 seconds.
  • In this iteration of Karnstein Armlets, we’ve simplified the Exotic to be about death and healing. Previously, the effect was split between hits and kills, providing inconsistent experiences. While the effect is much more basic now, it should be more reliable and more effective in most situations.

Starfire Protocol

• Empowering Rift weapon damage hits now grant Fusion Grenade energy (20%).
  • Much as with the Lunafaction Boots, we felt like giving a bonus to players who decide to go on the offense with Empowering Rift, rather than playing it safe with Healing Rift.

[Gorf King]

It's game over, man. Game over.

 

 

 

Not been a bad expansion, this one - certainly a lot better in terms of having fun things to do and chase than vanilla. Although there are still tons of underlying problems with the game, if the detail of Forsaken matches the noises Bungie are making - and which the summiteers cautiously support - then they may make a half-decent fist out of the game come the next expansion. 

[Uncle Mike]

That's one hell of a grind. Oof.

[Gorf King]

Well, it's not been too bad. I haven't even done all my basic milestones for the past 2-3 weeks, and I've only finished *counts on fingers* er, three raids? And only one of those was the new one - I think I completed a couple of Leviathans, and the new lair once, but that's all. Five weeks of EPs gets you all the EP gear, and that's really quick and easy to do in a six since they nerfed the boss levels, so it's really not been much of a grind. I expect the path to max in Forsaken to be a lot longer (max is pencilled in for 600, isn't it?).

 

And that's fine, as long as the activities are fun and varied (e.g. nothing like the faction rally grind, which is tedious in the extreme, worse than anything I've done to get to max). If the activities that help get you there remain challenging and fun to do, I'd be happy if the path was longer.

[Uncle Mike]

I'm just jealous. No team to do things with, so a bit locked out of stuff.

[Gorf King]

Jump in and do some shit next week. Except next week's probably not a good one, because faction rally, and that really is a tedious grind, and interferes with stuff like EP a bit even if you do have time to spare after factioning.

 

I might hit EP for reals again the week after, as I still haven't got the shotty. If you're prepared to hang around during server setup there's bound to be spaces. I suspect a few people might want to weapon farm still (only Ben has all three weapons - and as you'd expect, multiple copies of each).

 

Eater of Worlds I haven't even tried yet. So there'll be that to come as well, but I suspect some people will want to wait for the book in three weeks time. There's bound to be people repeating stuff then, and going for challenges etc.

[lordscotland]

15 hours ago, Gorf King said:

It's game over, man. Game over.

 

 

 

Not been a bad expansion, this one - certainly a lot better in terms of having fun things to do and chase than vanilla. Although there are still tons of underlying problems with the game, if the detail of Forsaken matches the noises Bungie are making - and which the summiteers cautiously support - then they may make a half-decent fist out of the game come the next expansion. 

 

Well done, you’re nearly ready for the true Bengame (TM)

[Mr Ben]

True. He still doesnt have an EP shotty

[Scruff]

34 minutes ago, Mr Ben said:

True. He still doesnt have an EP shotty

 

 

But his Hunter is holding a gun you don't have  

[Gorf King]

So's the Warlock 

 

(mine's a special colour)

[Mr Ben]

I got 2 Positive Outlook's last night (if thats what you mean). Not interested in DFA in the slightest, as Midnight Coup is better.

[Gorf King]

2 minutes ago, Mr Ben said:

I got 2 Positive Outlook's last night. Do keep up

 

That's not Positive Outlook...

[Mr Ben]

No idea what you mean then.

(unless you mean Midnight Coup, which I have 3 masterworked versions of, but I thought you already knew that )

[shirubagan]

Holy crap. This is gorgeous. Guns are incredibly satisfying too. 

[Mr Ben]

Seems there was a hotfix (server side, so no patch) for the Fighting Lion, but it means the API is under maintenance (again), meaning DIM and any other item manager is borked for the time being.

 

The other thing is, it would seem Bungie really want people to pledge FWC this week, as the flashpoint is on Nessus, and all the ornaments for the FWC set require you to kill Vex, or loot a certain lost sector on Nessus. Not only that, but I turned in some tokens just now to FWC, and Lakshmi is dropping 380 engrams if you're already 380 natural.

 

"Please pledge FWC. Please!!" - Bungie, maybe.

 

[Janski]

Certainly isn't subtle...

 

[Mr Ben]

 

Knowing them they'll just stick them in the strike catalyst loot pool, and barely anyone will get one, like the current lot.

[Gorf King]

Looks like everyone's going to be keen to prestige the raids come 17 July.

 

 

Those Armsweek references:

 

 

Obviously incomplete and out of date, but that kind of thing I guess.

[Gorf King]

Also, faction rallies are the second worst thing ever in Destiny, just behind the decision to hide valuable weapon catalysts behind rank 50 in them. Please don't do this again, Bungie - make grinds less about doing 333x the same menial task, and attach them to more varied and challenging activities, and not be one-week time-limited shitty shit shite fuck this I'm out.

 

(If the catalyst drop rate in prestige raids means you have to complete each a hundred times to almost guarantee a drop, I reserve the right to amend my list of worst things ever in Destiny to include everything in Destiny.)

[K]

The faction rallies are really poor design. The weapon forge on Mercury would be a better model - there isn't this insane time limit and it doesn't disproportionately reward the most boring activities, so you have to do a variety of different activities at your own pace.

[Gorf King]

Aye, it's proper shit.

 

Some extra faction tokens if you want them (20 per character):

 

 

[Mafro]

 

Going by that it looks like we might be getting Moments of Triumph soon?

[Uncle Mike]

Yeah, that's long overdue. It's going to make grabbing that last Latent Memory, and the Sleeper Nodes a lot easier. Phew. Just wait now for someone to build the site.

[Gorf King]

1 hour ago, Mafro said:

Going by that it looks like we might be getting Moments of Triumph soon?

 

They've been scheduled in the roadmap for a while now, for July 17.

 

 

Obviously the changes to tracking in the API are in service of that. There'll be more details in tonight's TWAB.

[Gorf King]

Has no-one mentioned this? They haven't. Destiny 2 is free on PSN to download and play, in its entirety including all modes and gear, from 8am tomorrow until 1am Monday morning. So enough time to finish the campaign and do a bit of striking and PvP and whatever other shit you can get up to, I guess.

 

 

Comments on the free weekend video include the usual gems:

 

- "Warframe > Destiny"

- "You would have to pay me money to play this"

- "This game is dead"

- "not even for free would i play this crud"

- "I feel like i'm getting ripped off"

- "I'll stick with Warframe thx"

- "thanks I always wanted to play the worst game ever"

- "They gotta pay me to play this"

- "I'd rather stare at a wall"

- "i wait for anthem thanks"

- "When is the free Monster Hunter weekend? I want to play it"
- "warframe is always free"

- "Free is still to expensive. Not worth my time"

 

And the hallmark of true genius...

 

- "I bet You going to need psplus"

 

Still, with all these reluctant players who somehow still won't be able to resist the lure of getting something for nothing, it might be an ideal time to attempt that long-delayed Trials triumph.

 

j/k! not even for free would i play that crud

[Gorf King]

TWAB has some more details of the July 17 update, including the prestige raid lairs. They drop P400 weapons (the existing raid ones), and the two prestige lairs feature one of three rotating modifiers (one of which is Prism), and curated loadouts (which I'm sure old Luke once said they wouldn't do as it'd be 'no fun'). But it's only fixed archetypes, rather than specific weapons, so not so bad?:

 

Quote

 

What You Get

We believe players will be chasing after three different pursuits in the summer Prestige raid lairs.  

• 400 Power Weapons: The only way to get 400 Power armor before Forsaken is by participating in the Summer Solstice event, but the only way to get 400 Power weapons before Forsaken is by completing Prestige Spire of Stars and Eater of Worlds. Every time you complete all the encounters in a Prestige raid lair that week, you will be rewarded a 400 Power raid weapon. This can be any raid weapon from Destiny 2, not just the weapons that drop in that raid lair. 
• Raid Armor Ornaments: Each Prestige raid lair has its own set of unique armor ornaments. 
• Exotic Masterwork Catalyst:  Both raid lairs have a Masterwork catalyst that can be found only as a rare drop in the activity.   

 

What You Do

Each week, there is a curated weapon suite and a global activity modifier for Spire of Stars and Eater of Worlds. The weapon set and modifier will be the same across both activities.

• Curated weapon loadouts are based on weapon archetypes. So over the summer, you might see combinations that require you to equip Auto Rifle/Submachine Gun/Sniper Rifle or Scout Rifle/Hand Cannon/Rocket Launchers
  • Loadouts are not locked inside the Prestige raid lair. You can bring tons of different guns into a raid lair and swap between them at will as long as the gun meets the required curation. For example, if you were doing Spire of Stars and the loadout is [Auto Rifle/Submachine Gun/Sniper Rifle], you might want to use Surous Regime for Val Ca’uor Phase 1, but swap to Ghost Primus for Val Ca’uor Phase 2 so you can equip D.A.R.C.I. for boss damage.
• We are shipping three activity modifiers that the raid lairs rotate between. Two of these modifies are brand new and were built from the ground up by the raid team to work in raids. The third is a fan favorite from Destiny 2: Prism. 
• Each of these modifiers is designed to provide Guardians with advantages over their enemies when they lean into it.
• The goal of using these modifiers and loadouts is to change the way you engage with Prestige raiding each week. The first week, the modifier and weapon loadout might synergize really well with strategies and armor exotics you’ve been using for months. Next week, the modifier and weapon loadout might push you to explore the encounter in a different way and use different exotic armors (looking at you Lunafaction). 

 

 

There's lots more in there, including changes to the Crucible (and sixes), collections, etc.

[Gorf King]

The best checklist site so far is undoubtedly https://www.d2checklist.com/ - click on the third tab, Nodes, for the new stuff that's tracked.

 

Despite the June roadmap saying July 17 for the year one Triumphs, it seems clear now that we're not getting them on that date - just the changes mentioned in TWAB above. So August for the book, I guess? Unless I missed something. There's a new roadmap due early July, so I guess all the rest of it will be in there.

[Uncle Mike]

I just need to know which one Latent Memory 35 is now.