Destiny 2 - Developed by Bungie - The Bear and Badger

stormyskiesahead

Skade wrote:

First month of Witch Queen will be everybody on the void subclass and using the glaive, until they nerf them back into normality.

Void is my main for Warlock and I can't wait to try the glaive so yeah I'll be running with the herd for a while.

Is it too much to hope that the weapon crafting grind will be even remotely reasonable at launch?

Speedhaak

stormyskiesahead wrote:

I've been playing a lot lately and had some fun ticking off triumphs for various Titles (although that might all change when I have to play more Trials.) I should have Vidmaster as soon as we can arrange another Legend Dares run, and Realmwalker and MMXXI should follow in the next week or so. Had a blast running the Master Presage with Skade and Scant last night as well. Such a cool mission, I'll be sorry to see it go. Oh, and I've finally made a Hunter Lucky Pants build! Crimson is stupidly good fun here, the full 600% damage boost kicking in during the fourth burst and melting majors and champions alike. The best thing is it's also still a solid primary when I don't need the buff, and it allows me to run fusions and Particle Decon for all the damage. I'm pretty happy with the look as well. Gotta say though, I know I've abused Particle Decon as much as anyone else, but I'll almost be glad to see it go next month.

Nice work man!

Still trying to polish off Halo before I get back into Destiny. I know if I start playing Destiny without finishing Halo I'll never go back to it (Halo).

halfgone

Is the campaign/dlc worth it if you are going solo?

stormyskiesahead

@Haak Cheers! And I think there's about 6 weeks 'til Witch Queen launches and is looking like it could be pretty special. Could be a great time to jump back in!

@halfgone Bungie have been talking up The Witch Queen campaign and fingers crossed it should be worth a punt even if that's all you play. As with D2 in general though the campaigns are only ever a tiny part of the actual game, and to get the most out of it you'll be looking towards all the post-campaign and end-game content - the seasonal stories, activities and events, Legend and Master tier activities, dungeons, raids, etc. There's a lot to get out of D2 for a solo player, but some stuff really is better with or requires a team. If you were interested in any of that we've got a pretty active group atm and cross-play works a treat.

Also, if you haven't played it, the year 2 Forsaken campaign is free to play until The Witch Queen launches on Feb 22nd (when it'll go away). It's the best of the current campaigns imo, with Beyond Light just behind, and the opening mission is still my all time favourite Destiny campaign mission.

halfgone

Hmmm, thanks. always wanted to try it, might give it a punt if I get ganepass (only if Internet improves) or its on some sort of offer.

stormyskiesahead

Ah, they removed D2 from Xbox Gamepass back in December iirc.

You'll still be able to play the Forsaken campaign for free until Feb 22nd though, and there's some other permanent free-to-play content - including an introduction quest-line and access to the 3 core playlist activities plus one of the dungeons, though the dungeon's more of a team activity.

It's definitely a decent time to dip your toes in, even if you don't spend a penny.

stormyskiesahead

Okay, the first part was mostly for halfgone but then it just ended up as a general Destiny appreciation post. You have been warned.

D2 is absolutely not a game that'll click with everyone (but what is?) - a live-service looter shooter with MMO RPG elements - but if it does there's nothing else out there that can scratch the same itch.

The art direction, environmental design, music, and world building are superb. It still has the best feeling FPS combat I've ever experienced - and the guns themselves, oh boy, pure porn. Proper build crafting is now a thing and it's really damn good. The dungeons and raids are like nothing else in the FPS spectrum, and the seasonal story progression over the last 18 months or so has been handled superbly.

All of that is made so much more fun when playing with friends though. It's an easy going gaming chatroom to wind down with. It's an intense fuck you experience that'll test you and your team's skills and understanding of mechanics with some brutal endgame PvE an PvP content. Or it's something in the middle, it's all good. For me it's been a godsend over the last couple of years, and thanks to everyone who's put up with me falling off things again and again.

All in all, over 6 characters (3 deleted and restarted 'cause I didn't like their hair or whatever) I've sunk well over 2000 hours into D2 so far and can honestly see that I'll double that going forward. It ain't perfect, but despite loving to moan about it I really don't care. It's Destiny, and that's more than good enough.

stormyskiesahead

Srsly tho have ya'll seen the upcoming changes to weapon orb generation in the TWaB? I really don't think the ability to generate orbs with a few exotics that don't have catalysts is worth the cost of removing the existing mechanic altogether and adding it to an armour mod on the already overcrowded headpiece that'll most likely see you having to make the choice of generating orbs with one damage type over another and come at the cost of equipping one of the existing and super valuable head mods.

What the fuck, Bungo?

Brooks

They do seem to be making more trouble for themselves with this, but it occurred to me that what do I chiefly use orbs for? Charged with Light, and specifically survivability via the Protective Light mod in Grand Master Nightfalls. So what I'd prefer is them allowing me another mechanism for making myself less fucking squishy and not having to play incredibly safe and slow to get through endgame content.

Orbgen mods should go on class items, to me.

Diluted Dante

I still have no idea what this charged with light bollocks is.

Brooks

Get orb, get various buffs.

stormyskiesahead

Finally got those three titles I was working towards. Nothing too tough but I've only ever got Wayfarer before so this is cool.

Still messing around with and really loving the number of options we have for build crafting atm. Running my Titan with The Path of Burning Steps + Font of Might + High Energy Fire and causing Sunshot to hit for 75% extra damage with infinite grenades and screen-filling explosions is just wonderful, as is one-shot meleeing champions with a Well of Ions/Peregrine Greaves setup.

Still prefer the Warlock's Thorn/Necrotic Grip, and Hunter's Crimson/Lucky Pants builds though.

Digging playing around with my character's end of season fashions as well, especially my Hunter (I accidentally deleted the Hunter pic in my previous post.) Girl looks cool as fuck.

digi

Interactive trailer for destiny the witch queen.

https://www.bungie.net/en/Explore/Detail/News/51028

stormyskiesahead

Damn if Savathun-Gothic isn't my favourite environmental design theme yet (alongside the Dreaming City, obvs). Destiny art dept killing it yet again.

stormyskiesahead

Loved that opening mission once you got past the intro section, and I'm about to do it all over again in a fireteam. Will save the Legend difficulty for a second full campaign run.

The glaive feels great so far, and the Void rework is everything I wanted with my Warlock. Devour + slova bomb = super fun times.

Top work all around.

Brooks

Starting on Legend for first run, is entirely doable solo, they've tuned it well so far.

Brooks

Okay it got much harder (am halfway through), but I did insist on bringing an arc primary to a fight with only void shielded adds so

Kernowgaz

Haven’t played too much Destiny but me and a mate did the first mission on Legendary- fuck me that took about 3 hours, great fun but fucking hard especially the

Spoiler:

Kernowgaz

In Legendary mode, do you only get so many seconds to revive the team as a whole? We were dying and bleeding out in seconds at times after one of us has died previously.

Diluted Dante

If anyone hasn't bought the expansion, I found out you actually get to play a fair amount of it for free as I was waiting for my code to arrive.

If you weren't sure, it will give you a good idea if you'd want to pick it up or not.

stormyskiesahead

I'm only four missions in but for me this is easily the best Destiny campaign yet. The opening mission from Forsaken is still my all time favourite single mission, but every Witch Queen mission I've played has been better than everything besides that one.

Will try some Legend difficulty later. Love that we can finally replay the campaign at will.

Speedhaak

God damn can ye not tempt me! Jesus... Lost Ark and Elden Ring to play, need a 48 hour day. Plus a duplication device!

digi

I did the first mission solo as my mates were in a queue to play, then joined them to help them with it.
2nd mission were tough on my own and boss repeatedly killed me.
Recommended power is 1550 and we are still just in the 1400+ but also that boss is like a copy of the pressage boss with his flames on floor just inst killing you or burning you out almost instantly.
Defintly gonna need a firetrap for it on legendary.

stormyskiesahead

Speedhaak wrote:

God damn can ye not tempt me! Jesus... Lost Ark and Elden Ring to play, need a 48 hour day. Plus a duplication device!

Lol, yeah it's a busy time. I'm all-in on Destiny though, everything else is gonna have to take a back seat for a while.

Brooks wrote:

Okay it got much harder (am halfway through), but I did insist on bringing an arc primary to a fight with only void shielded adds so

Fingers crossed that new Adaptive Munitions perk will do work in harder/end-game content. Haven't got to try it yet, or seen anyone test it out though.

@digi That guy was a threat. Great fight with more to it than the usual burn-down.

stormyskiesahead

Gotta say, I'm not feeling the much-hyped Child of the Old Gods aspect for the Warlock just yet, with Devour and Chaos Accelerant being my go-to's so far in the campaign. Maybe that'll change once I get levelled and can start some proper build crafting though. The possibilities are intriguing, and I haven't even looked at the new exotics.

Kernowgaz

Are there any recommended guides for virtual noobs? Not really played it since before Forsaken really. My mate was talking me thru the character screen, aspects and other various things and I didn’t have a fucking clue.

Diluted Dante

It should give you a tour of the new subclass system, the aspects and all that. If you want a less complicated option, avoid Void and Stasis for now. Arc and Solar have a much more simple pick one of these 3 presets.

In terms of managing your gear, I'd really recommend you use an external app. The Official Destiny one is fine, but I usually use https://app.destinyitemmanager.com/

Means you don't have to be in the tower to access your vault, and it's much easier to use than the in game vault.

stormyskiesahead

Aspects and Fragments are a lil daunting at first but they will make sense before long. They're also way more flexible than the old system.

Here goes...

Aspects are powerful class-specific modifiers that seriously change the way you play. Take Warlocks as an example; they have 3 void Aspects: Devour, Chaos Accelerant, and Child of the Old Gods.

Devour - gain health on kills after getting an ability kill.
Chaos Accelerant - supercharge your grenades.
Child of the Old Gods - summon a floating orb when you cast your rift that debuffs enemies and buffs yourself.

You can only equip 2 Aspects, and each Aspect gives you 1 to 3 Fragment slots.

Fragments are cross-class modifiers that slot into your Aspects. These can do things like making your powered melee cause explosions, or debuff enemies you hit with grenades, or give you melee energy on grenade kills.

Unlike the limited and more powerful Aspects, there are lots of Fragments, and you can swap both them and Aspects around at will.

This stuff really comes into its own when you hit the power cap and start playing with mods and builds, and if last year was anything to go by there'll be some crazy shit going on. 'Til then just play around with them to help figure out what you enjoy using and don't worry about anything beyond that.

Brooks

I will be thrilled to learn how it's completely broken the PvP meta again.

stormyskiesahead

Oh yeah. I don't play much PvP but I can't help being fascinated by the meta discussion and all the ways Bungie fuck it up.

Howdy, Stranger!

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