Destiny 2: Lightfall

[Nobuo's Organ]

I'm glad my favourite hack for infinitely respawning weak Powerful Enemies still works, as this first machine gun quest would be tedious AF without it.

 

Edit: feck, the recommended power level to forge it is 610 and I'm only at 566

[Hexx]

Yeah 600 and randoms failed the forge pretty quickly 

[bobontheway]

Oh, really? I'm hovering around 590 so looks like I've got some catching up to do.

[Qazimod]

I tried it at around 594 and yeah, it's pretty brutal.  

[Nate Dogg III]

If orange bars dropped heavy like they’re supposed to, if heavy ammo finder worked, and if the game shared my definition of a power weapon multikill - that is, killing more than one thing using a power weapon - I can imagine that having power weapon multikills be one of the first things you do in a new sort-of expansion could be actually quite fun. 

 

Unfortunately, well, you know. Sounds like I’m a good 30-40 power off being able to do forge stuff anyway, so I’m good. 

[bobontheway]

Thunderlord + escalation protocol is the way forward for that one Heavy ammo dropping is still entirely too infrequent though

[sbrandon111]

I just went to the opening bit of the leviathan raid, killed the guards then rinse and repeat.

[Nobuo's Organ]

I feel like an idiot a day after paying money for a thing, is this the true Destiny 2 experience?

 

If this week is anything to go by, it's going to be another 5 weeks before I can do anything with what the annual pass provides access to.

[lewismistreated]

Yeah, this is... not great. I'm already kind of burned out with doing the same weekly Forsaken stuff to up my light level to 600 - the idea that what little there seems to be in this expansion requires you to get back into that same LL grind, with no immediately 'new' experiences is not a good look at all. 

 

And I'm still hunting the Frigid Cocking Jackal. Must have burned at least 500 stems at this point. Almost entirely convinced that the drop is broken. 

[Nate Dogg III]

10 hours ago, bobontheway said:

Thunderlord + escalation protocol is the way forward for that one Heavy ammo dropping is still entirely too infrequent though

 

Yeah I Thunderlorded it eventually, after an hour of killing multiple things with power weapons and not having a single one register as a multikill. Then another quest step involving killing orange bars and, nah, I'm good thanks. Complete waste of two hours of my life if I'm honest.

 

This is really bad, I have to say. I totally get that 'putting the hobby back' means paying more attention to the endgame and the people that play every day, but an expansion, whether you call it that or not, also needs to give lapsed players a reason to come back. I got a cutscene and one new room in the Tower and then I was off doing the same stuff I got bored of doing a couple of months ago, with the same old loot drops, albeit at a higher tier. I finished the night on 581 in heels. I'm literally weeks away from being able to do the new content that gets me the new toys. I am standing at the bottom of a big hill and I already can't be bothered with it.

 

It's arguably even worse for the people that did stay the course, that had three characters at 600 and were looking forward to having something new to do, because they haven't got it yet either – unless they're prepared to Gladd it up on Twitch and farm prime engrams 20 hours a day. I am totally up for Bungie trying new things – their mid-year expansions have never been as good as their September ones, so clearly something needs to change. But having essentially nothing worth doing on day one of a new content drop for 99% of your playerbase is such a staggeringly dumb move. I have no idea how it got through.

[K]

Yeah, it feels like there was more new stuff added as part of the free update last week. It's only a £10 expansion (or the rough equivalent thereof), and frankly, I'm still not even close to being short of stuff to do, but it's still the same stuff from yesterday.

[lordscotland]

£10 for a new raid though isn't it? Don't think anyone can really judge until they've had a look at that. Unless you're a non raider, in which case i'd think the game would have  lost its allure a while back.

[Nate Dogg III]

47 minutes ago, markh said:

£10 for a new raid though isn't it? Don't think anyone can really judge until they've had a look at that. Unless you're a non raider, in which case i'd think the game would have  lost its allure a while back.

 

I mean, sure, but what's the recommended power level for that and what am I supposed to play to get my level to where it's supposed to be? Like I say, I don't disagree with them targeting endgame players, but I do think they've got the numbers wrong.

[Gorf King]

I don't have a problem with the new content being largely endgame. I think the main issue and the big mistake is that there are no new stepping stones to that endgame - the very first Forge, which is the only new activity I can see so far, is punishingly tough if you're at 600 or even a few points above it. And the way the rewards are structured, unless you're both very grindy and very lucky there's no way you'll be at recommended level for even the first Forge within the first few days. And on Friday the second Forge comes out, which I perhaps wrongly assume has a higher entry level, along with a raid which is 640 recommended.

 

I don't have an issue at all with these being the recommended levels and it taking a while to get there, but a paid-for content drop has to give you something new to do to help you get there. It does feel off that you've only last expansion's content to grind like buggery in order to access the shiny new things. I'm not yet convinced that the Forges will be that compelling anyway - the first one seems a bit one-off and simplistic, the only challenge being that it's over your level - although obviously that's too early to call for the rest of them. I'm sure there's a fair amount that's not been revealed or discovered yet and obviously the quality of the raid is completely unknown. But Black Armoury doesn't make a great first impression, simply because your first experience of it is basically 'here's a brief intro to a brief and simplistic fight for a single new weapon and, oh, it's difficult solely because you're way under level for it so come back in a week or two. The old content is over there.' I love all the endgame, and I like a challenge, but a paid drop just needs at least something new to do to lead up to it, mixed in with all the old stuff.

[Hexx]

It's a badly flubbed release IMO.

 

First you have a series of kill X of Y with Z quests. That take you back to existing content.

 

Then you have the Forge. 615-630 content. That's VERY hard to do at 600 (not impossible). That'll take 2-3 weeks of old content for people to be high enough to have realistic chances.

 

They released all of this on the same night - so people rushed through old content to bounce hard off light requirements until they go and do more old content. 

 

In a couple of weeks the Forges might be good - but it's a shock for people that were expecting new stuff to do to be told "Go do old stuff!!!!". Perhaps they had unrealistic expectations - but I don't think so. If you "completed" Forsaken at LL600, I think you should be able to do the new stuff off the bat (with a challenge). Not have to go back.

 

At the very least it should been better sign posted that those grinds should be done while doing old challenges/powerful drop content...most people I expect ground them out quickly (EP for example) in a rush to get to new content...only to be told "Nope. 10 LL too low! Sorry!")

 

Better would have been to stagger the release (say) LL increase one week, grinds the next week and the forge the 3rd week to let people power up ready. 

 

As it is people came to "launch night" of new content and got told to back to old content. (There's no way to level 600+ that unlocks in the new content - you literally only have old stuff to do).

 

Add in the fact the first forge (so far) looks mechanically simple...it's only hard because you're massively under leveled

 

If you were a returning player - there's nothing new for you to do...except go back to the old content you left behind a few weeks/months. That's terrible for a DLC pack to entice players back.

 

The "entry forge" should have been 600/610 Light (say) to give people new things to do from the off

[Uncle Mike]

It's the same with the Raid too, probably. A 640 recommended level, and after a reasonable grind last night, all my Friends are at max 604. It's not a great curve at the bottom. Obviously it's all transitional, but with Christmas coming up quickly it basically means your average some-lifer won't hit a lot of the new stuff until Jan.

[Hexx]

4 minutes ago, Uncle Mike said:

All my Friends are at max 604

 

605 here  (Aren't we friends?)

 

Also - if you fail you have to go to matchmaking/loading again, even if on a pre-made fire team. (I suspect to ensure super/ammo resets etc) but it adds to pain

 

[Uncle Mike]

Well, I did go to bed.

[pinholestar]

I was slightly dubious about this Season Pass malarkey and how much content it would realistically provide, so I held off on it. I know there’s a new raid coming but day-to-day can someone tell me what new activities are available? Is it just new bounties and a horde mode?

 

I rinsed the living shit out of Forsaken, getting characters to 600, completing the raid, Shattered Throne and all that stuff and loved every second of it. But after a few weeks I’d pretty much seen and done everything and got more than my money’s worth, so was happy to go off and play other things. If this seasonal approach over the next year is going to be light on actual new activities to do then I’ll probably just wait until the next big expansion I think.

[Gorf King]

 

Plus there's probably some hidden stuff to be discovered.

[pinholestar]

So what are the Forges? Are they arena combat encounters similar to the Blind Well?

[Gorf King]

I only know what the first one's like.

 

Spoiler for what's in the first Forge:

 

Spoiler

 

There appear to be two waves of very high level enemies. You kill them, and some drop those familiar Destiny ball things that you fling at a target, and when you hit the target with twenty of them you get the next wave where you have to get another twenty hits on target. The enemies get tougher as you go along: the activity is recommended PL 610 but we were facing PL 625 enemies when we wiped. It's all against a timer and the timer is tight, but you can add a few seconds on with each kill of a super-tough enemy and landing balls on the target.

 

We only got half way through the second phase on our go last night, but after that's done there appears to be a boss phase, and that's basically it.

 

I'm hoping there's more to the other Forges than that but at a higher level still. I reckon they'll change the mechanics up.

 

 

[Thor]

 

Best DLC ever.  

[El Spatula]

I've been stuck at 520 Light for weeks. Never seem to get any drops better than that even when doing powerful gear activities. Guess I'll never get to do the new DLC

[Gorf King]

You know the powerful gear is given in reward for challenges and bounties, not drops from the enemies themselves, yeah? Sorry if that's obvious, but if you're doing the milestones and challenges every week you'd be getting things a lot higher than 520 from them.

[El Spatula]

I have been doing those, I rarely seem to get anything higher than 520 . Had loads of powerful engrams. Must be doing something wrong...

 

 

[auntyclimax]

I’m out forever.

 

Some of my best ever gaming moments were around D1 (deef, gin, Soi, markh, Rattle, and all the regulars).

 

I wouldn’t know where to start now.

 

 

[Lyrical Donut]

22 minutes ago, auntyclimax said:

 

I wouldn’t know where to start now.

 

 

 

Shoot the men.

[El Spatula]

Okay now hit 526.... Dizzy heights!

[mechamonkey]