The only part that is "hard" is getting all 50 fragments. That really wasn't hard really just required you to actually do all the COO stuff and the raid chellenges.

I am terrible and almost never play pvp and I did that entire questline in less than 48 hours. Granted I had a little help but overall it wasn't really very hard. It mostly just requires you to play different stuff and use some different weapons. There's really nothing much to be proud of in the year 2 MoT. Year 1 was much better imho.

I'll be coming off my xbox hiatus this week if all goes well.  Just had a rough patch and then couldn't really give a fuck for a bit.

Me and a buddy two-manned CoE, twice this week. Pretty easy to get to 30K, as long as you are spreading your supers out for reinforcements. I played as a bladedancer, because I didn't figured I'd get many super kills as a gunslinger or nightstalker. Those guys on the weekly update that get close to 60-80K points have my respect, I have no idea how they do it. I think our high score for one game was 38K. Hopefully the modifiers won't be to bad in the future with two of them.

So they just released info on the artifact changes. They are actually useful. You have to quest to unlock them and there are 8 universal ones that sound awesome and supposedly represent the iron lords.

From Game Informer

A new character named Tyra Karn is the centerpiece for Guardians looking to acquire the new Iron Lord artifacts. She sends players out into the Plaguelands to commit mighty deeds in memory of the Iron Lords – a task that should be pretty straightforward for anyone who engages with the new content. Upon completing that task, you gain an item called the Iron Lords’ Legacy, which in turn can be used to acquire one of three artifacts Tyra has on offer in any given week. Over the course of eight weeks or more of play, you should be able to acquire all eight new artifacts.

Each of these artifacts has a game-changing ability attached to it. One offers the option to melee enemy units and gain their allegiance for a short time. A second artifact eliminates your super, but gives you two grenades, two melees, and an increase in all your stats. Each of the artifacts can be combined with exotic weapons and armor, as well as subclasses, to create new and interesting build options. Moreover, every one of the new artifacts is meant to evoke the character of the Iron Lord for which it is named. For instance, Jolder tended to charge headlong into danger, so her artifact eliminates the sprint recharge delay.

Thorn and a few other exotics are coming forward

Shaders will effect class items again

The new raid is called Wrath of the Machine

The max light level will be 385, with the cap escalating to 400 once Hard Mode of the raid becomes available.

Said crucible design lead Lars Bakken: “Rise of Iron includes the introduction of a long-awaited feature our community has been clamoring for.”

Festival of the Lost is coming back in October, and the Sparrow Racing League will fly once again in December. No word on what’s coming in 2017 before Destiny 2, though.

There’s a new Crucible mode called Supremacy (which we’ll see at Gamescom) and what appears to be a new Horde mode called Archon’s Forge.

Old strikes Devil’s Lair and The Summoning Pits are revamped and will reappear in Rise of Iron.

Sounds like some good stuff in there although I can't say I'm pleased with Thorn coming back.

Is it available for preorder yet?

Through Gamestop so far.  Weirdly, Microsoft hasn't approved it through their store yet.  Seems to me the code hasn't gone gold yet.

Other new stuff:

Archon's Forge unlocks after completing the campaign.  Shorter than POE but harder than CoO, drops exclusive loot and requires fallen splicer kills to use as tribute.

The flaming axe relic regains ammo with light attacks but uses a lot with heavy.  Keeping above X% ammo count will have it do 2x damage

Memory of Radegast artifact adds an ability to swords that lets you deflect energy-based projectiles

Ornaments are the new cosmetic on top of chroma.  Texture skins you can add on top of everything.

Iron Banana is getting an overhaul on damn near everything.  Shaders/gear won't be required for bonuses.  The buff is disappearing and instead levels will be easier to get.  Every bounty will have the ability to drop weapons/gear.

Khvostov is back as a weird hybrid exotic that you can adjust the rate of fire and trigger type, so it can be an auto/pulse/scout depending on options picked.

Strikes drop a key for chests that will spawn at the end.  Could have strike exclusive loot or upgrades.

Warlocks get exotic boots (finally)

Robocop esk sidearm (not really sure on details yet)

Exotic pulse rifle that chains SIVA to nearby enemies to damage them with headshots.  (appears to be the r/ destiny Price of Exile weapon that Cosmo_BNG referred to their weapon design guys)

New Jellyhorn and Thorn will have quests to get them.

The Forge is a 5 minute timer Horde Defense and the SIVA used is world spawn "offerings" you have to find.

Record book for the expansion will unlock the Lord of Iron gear set as you complete it.

Iron Banner, Iron Lords, Trials, new raid and Forge all have completely new weapon/armor sets.

Artifacts
Memory of Radeghast: adds a new ability for sword heavy weapons to reflect projectiles, including ogre blasts and crucible rockets.
Memory of Perun: adds ability to highlight guardians with full super in yellow, and guardians with low health in red.
Memory of Jolder: removes sprint cooldown
Memory of Silmar: dramatically reduces any damage dealt by DoT effects (such as Thorn poison).
Memory of Felwinter: lose your super, but gain an extra grenade and melee, and boost to all stats.
Memory of Gheleon: gain detailed radar at all times, including when aiming a primary (grants precision radar and third eye).
Memory of Skorri: speeds super recharge for all nearby allies.
Memory of Timur: Melee an enemy for a chance to make them an ally for a short time.

Sterling treasures are replaced with Radiant Treasures, so the Taken set may be short term to get.  Still free to get 3x per week though.

FWC, DO, and NM are all getting new sets of gear including weapons, armor, sparrows, ships, ghost shells, etc.

Sepiks Prime is back as Sepiks Perfected.

The Super Ogre strike is getting reused for something called The Abomination Heist.

New Cruicible mode - "Supremacy" - kill enemies to make them drop a crest. Your team only scores if someone (you or a teammate) picks up that crest. Enemy team members can also pick up the crest to deny your score, but they won’t gain any points themselves.

Minus raid items, every class item is returning with y2 stats and can change color from shaders.

All Y2 gear can get upgraded to Y3 stats

After you finish the campaign there are unlockable missions going into strikes.

 World of Warcraft is making a Xur joke (text below condensed to Destiny related stuff)

Xur'ios has two types of inventory items; some items are fixed, and are always available, but ONE item each day is a variable, randomly rotating item that will change from day to day in trade for curious coins.

Krota's Shield - Cost: 50 Curious Coins
Gjallar's "Horn" - Cost: 50 Curious Coins
Mote of Light - Cost: ?
Court of Farondis Vendor List - Cost: 100g
Nightfallen Vendor List - Cost: 100g

So all these changes are in the Sept update?

All of the changes sound pretty interesting.  I'm looking forward to it big time.  Anyone else thinking about taking off work on release day or maybe the day after?

no, not for this game anymore lol

I think the only other time I've taken a vacation day for a video game was for Diablo 3.  I used to have better things to do with my vacation days, but now I'm a parent with a 2 year old and haven't been on a real vacation in 3 years.

I'll be here release week, but out if town the following.

So it's been 6 months since I last played Xbox. Really feeling the urge of getting the new S and playing some Destiny again...

thought we like him with the lights off?



I plan on trying to do something tonight, raid, pvp w/e  just picked me up a bottle of apple pie shine

Expansion is now live on the xbox store for preorder

https://store.xbox.com/en-US/Xbox-One/Bundle/Destiny-Rise-of-Iron/672fb55c-db78-4800-b394-bf02ab83962a

Sweet! Ordering!

oh hell.

Missed you guys too much. Let's just say I'm quite rusty and trying to figure out what has changed the last 6 months.

I think this sums it up:
Rep gains are increased so you get packages more often, and they have better loot. Legendary drops from packages could be up to 5 pts higher than your current light level.
Certain weapons and armor can drop with "chroma" glow effects.
Challenge of Elders and 2 new strikes were added.
High rate of fire stuff (Last Word, Grasp of Malok, MIDA, etc.) are generally best in PvP.
Sniper rifles got nerfed slightly so they zoom slower.
Fusion rifles got a stability buff, making them somewhat viable in PvP now.
Year 2 Moments of Triumph book started a couple weeks or so ago.

Don't forget the 3 sec cool down on Shadestep.

I made it to the mountaintop over the weekend. What a grind. I'll never get it complete on my warlock and titan before the deadline, but I guess completing the questline is at least something to work towards overall.

Also ran about 7 heroic strikes in a row last night. I got a Stolen Will shotgun from one of the strikes. Went into the crucible with it, and that thing has range in there better than any other shotgun I've tried out. I know its probably not the best out there, but I seemed to really like it. I guess some of the reviews it got didn't seem to perform well in pvp, but I'm going to try it out a little more before.

I'll be up for a COE run later this week to go towards Triumph. I've hardly made any progress on the Mountain Top quest so I don't know about that one.

I'm going to try and keep my FOMO in check this time around. Using 3 characters will be highly unlikely and just the thought of the HM Oryx raid brings back nightmares. I'm going to be a filthy casual.


I'm looking forward to Rise of Iron strike/key system for targeting the strike exclusive loot.

If these guys can carry my sorry ass through a hard mode Oryx challenge, they can carry anyone.

 
Never thought I'd hear HM Oryx and comedy in same sentence. I had one HM clear back in the day and that was enough for me. Countless times I ran up to Oryx but rarely did I have the stomach to see him again. I know on one occasion we spent about 4 hours on challenge mode Oryx alone. That pretty much took away my appetite for KF.

 
Very true. I know Destiny will have the best rewards for hardest content. KF really exhausted me. I hated how ONE mistake caused a wipe. It demanded perfection. It was rewarding no doubt but the stress wore me out. I kind of forgot why I enjoyed the game and was getting caught up in feeling the need for the best gear (or chance at the best gear). And the time commitment was brutal. Part of the reason I stopped playing was how much my wife hated my dedication to the game (cue the jokes).


I'll be interested in seeing how demanding the new raid will be but my focus for the immediate future will be crucible and strikes. At it's core this game is a phenomenal experience. Graphics are beautiful, controls are tight, and it plays smooth. I enjoy hopping on to pop coins during strikes, knock out some bounties, or mess around in patrol.

The Challenge of Elders modifiers suck this week. Trickle just needs to be taken out of the game entirely.

 
I saw that Trickle is both on NF and COE. I also see bonus points for grenade kills which is GREAT with trickle. Not looking forward to it.

CoE wasn't as bad with trickle as I thought it would be, but we barely made it about 30,000. I was on my warlock with two fusion grenades and just used my super to refill those if it was up. Precisions and melee's if we could and once we hit 30K on final boss, we burned him quick just so we didn't lose many more points. Trickle is still a bitch.

Trickle seems like a game mechanic that only exists to make weapons with grenadier/army of one somewhat desireable for the min/maxers who chase after perfect rolls for every different modifier.

Looking for help at some point with Kings Fall normal for my ToM. I have golgorath CP in normal. Beyond that I just need the two CF after golgy

PS4 add me xXTheGing3rManXx