In the reef.

Saint-14, Bones, Voidfang, Invective, legacy helm.

I overslept this morning so I was in a rush to get out the door to work.



Saint-14 - every bubble bro should own one of these. It's not really relevant in the current content IMO, except maybe during the Taken phase at Golgorath, and even that's reaching. Still, it's a very good insurance exotic to have, and who knows, it might be handy in the new raid.


Bones - they do a thing. How important is that thing to do, only you can decide. Me, I really only used these for the jumping puzzle, but then they nerfed blink so now I use these with better control jumps on my bladedancer for PVP. They help bring back needed maneuverability for the hunter. I really, really like them.


Voidfang - probably more of a PVP thing. Improved axion bolts are alright, the main thing is that you spawn with a grenade no matter the class. So these can be useful in Trials.


Invective - God, I really hope this doesn't inspire people to bring this thing back out for the last few days of Iron Banner...pretty good for what it is. Pair these up with a defender Titan and No Backup Plans to piss everyone the fuck off in crucible. Pretty decent for PVE as well. But apart from the ammo regen thing, it doesn't really accomplish anything in the grand scheme of things. Sniper rifles are more useful for high end PVE, and a well rolled Party Crasher or the Vanguard quest Conspiracy Theory is better for PVP.


Legacy helm - hell, I think all the year one helms are in year two now. Buy one if there's something from year one you're specifically looking for.

Most of us are still around if the urge ever hits you again.



 

Eyasluna, where have you been all my life?  



So in the weeks leading up to Rise of Iron, I've told myself I'm gonna take it easy, have some fun, nothing too serious.  Didn't finish out Iron Banner this time around, only got one character to rank 5, and I kinda cheesed getting there by using a weekly bounty I had left over from the last Banner.  I've been hoarding motes and strange coins, planetary materials, and cleaning out the vault some.



I did set myself a goal though, after being on the receiving end of someone who's good with it, and seeing a lot of it being used in this recent sweatys tournament, that I was gonna learn how to use Eyasluna in crucible.  Now, that's not to say I don't know how to use hand cannons or something - I whored year one TLW super hard, and used a bunch of them in PVE until they got nerfed into oblivion sometime around the 2.0.0 update.   I'm primarily a pulse rifle/scout rifle guy, I love me some Hawksaw and Mida, but I've used them to death so I figured I'd try something new.  So I put all that stuff away in the vault, took a few hand cannons with me, and went into the crucible.



The first few games were absolutely brutal, learning the recoil patterns for legendary hand cannons, understanding how bloom works, the different sights and how they and the range stat relate to auto aim and hit detection.  I started off in 3v3 game modes and rumble, something a little more intimate with fewer people running around, then moved onto 6v6 game modes.  I'm far from an expert, but I'm starting to figure it out, and it's becoming really, really fun and depending on the map and the opposition, very, very effective.



When my aim is on, I can effectively challenge a Doctrine of Passing at close to mid range with my Eyasluna that has only one range perk on it (hammer forged, FWIW).  I do okay against people with Hawksaws and PDX45s up close, at mid range I get my ass kicked because those things are so much more forgiving to use than the hand cannon.  And I can't really do anything against Mida at distance, and they're hard to hit up close too because of the increased movement speed of the Mida's exotic perk.  TLW still melts my face off up close, nothing I can do about that.  And any other auto rifles besides Doctrine, I'll eat their lunch all day at close to mid range.  Two head shots and a body shot kills.  I have a Judith-D that can two shot low armor enemies, like max agility hunters or ~315 or lower light players with level advantages enabled.  I'm looking forward to finishing the Impreciation quest now for The First Curse.



More than anything, it's been a lot of fun using something different.  I was getting a little frustrated and bored with PVP, but it's like a whole new game using a hand cannon.  So if you dare, dust those cannons off and try them out in the crucible.  With the various weapon balances, they're in the best shape they've ever been since launch, IMO.  One caveat though - if you're on a spotty connection and you're using a hand cannon, you will feel it and you will feel it hard.  Try at your own risk.  Otherwise, give it a shot, see how you like it.  I haven't had this much fun in the crucible in quite some time.

That's bananas.  



But I wonder a few things, like were these heroic strikes, and did any of these take into account any burns?



Melting point is a very strong Sunbreaker ability a lot of people don't really utilize.  There ain't a lot of opportunities to use it during the raid, Golgorath is about the only time to use it and it needs to be applied properly since it doesn't stack with the Nightstalker bow.  But it is fantastic during strikes.



Still, very cool.  Might have to dust off Sunbreaker and give it a go on strikes.



 

 
I can see both sides of the coin.


I like mechanic driven raids. I don't wanna sound like an elitist or an asshole, but I like to think that I'm better than the average bear at Destiny PVE, and I like King's Fall for the fact that everyone has to contribute and be on their game to complete it. In Vault of Glass or Crota's End, one or two strong players can carry the team to victory. Not so with King's Fall.  Skolas was like that too, in that everyone really had to be on their game, communicate well and work together to beat him. I liked that part of the 35 POE.


That being said, it is very frustrating when mistakes are made and things don't go according to plan, and the way most of the encounters are set up, it's very hard if not impossible to recover if you've got one or more players down. From the moment you spawn in to Oryx's death, the encounters are very unforgiving for the average fireteam. Video games are supposed to be fun, and having someone die repeatedly causing the whole team to fail sucks. The guy who's having problems probably feels like a piece of shit for letting the team down, and the rest of the team are getting flustered with that guy or those guys who keep messing it up. It makes for a salty, tense environment sometimes and that's just no fun.


I want the new raid to be challenging yet fun. I'm hoping Bungie took some lessons learned from King's Fall and applied it to Wrath of the Machines. If nothing else, maybe make the challenge modes (if any) the relentless and unforgiving part, for the guys who want that. I dunno. I guess we'll see how it pans out in another month or so.

 
I'm torn on it. I've used it a bit, and while it is good, to be really amazing you've got to have to be able to move around the map well and understand how the spawns work.


In most people's hands, it's just a trolly weapon to make people angry.

 
It's when you have tier 4 status in all three stats - intellect, discipline and strength. 4 + 4 + 4 = 12.


The idea is to have max reduced cool downs on all your abilities, but IMO it isn't really useful enough to stress over. For the min/max OCD types, sure. I play this game a bunch and don't really care about tier 12.

For my uses and purposes in PVE and PVP, I really only use two different setups: 5-5-1 or 4-5-3 or 4ish.


For most of my PVE adventures, and for PVP with a titan, all I really care about is having quick access to my super and grenades. I'm not gonna be punching a lot of things in high end PVE, and titan melee sucks in PVP.  Having a grenade every ~30 seconds or so is huge, especially in the crucible.




I do use a little more strength based build for my hunter or warlocks, because their melee attacks are very powerful in PVP. Having throwing knives or a backstab capable blink strike ready every 30 seconds is stupid good, and we all know how good all warlock melees are.


 

Naw, you're still a killer.  We had a few close games, we were just playing against a bunch of dudes trying really hard tonight.



Doubles was fun though, I do want to play some more of that this weekend.