Destiny 2: Lightfall

[dreamylittledream]

I’d completely given up getting the Scallywag title as was not going to craft and level 3 seasonal weapons to level 20 (had already done all the other challenges for the title) so I was officially out.

 

But now it’s down to one it suddenly looks doable if dull before Tuesday.

 

Gah don’t drag me back, I was staying away until Lightfall

[Qazimod]

On 30/11/2022 at 10:29, Qazimod said:

I was playing the season half attentively.

 

 

 

 

There's always next season, I guess.

[pledge]

Every season I change my email to a different domain in the hope that it will fix it so I get the summary emails, and it never arrives. Why cant they provide it as a page on bungie.net I don't know.

[Qazimod]

Quote

MATCHMADE ACTIVITY: Heist Battlegrounds

Seraphs have deployed to multiple destinations to infiltrate Braytech facilities, bypass advanced defense systems, and neutralize hordes of Wrathborn. Your security clearance has been granted and your Seraph fireteam awaits, Guardian.

 

EXOTIC MISSION: Operation: Seraph’s Shield

For this mission to succeed, Guardians must gain access to the most impenetrable facility in the solar system: a Braytech orbital platform above the Last City. Break through layers of security each week and awaken Rasputin before it's too late.

 

BECOMES AVAILABLE ON DECEMBER 20: Revision Zero
Once deep enough within the facility, Guardians will reach the weapon Revision Zero. In the weeks following its discovery, multiple catalysts can be acquired, each adding to the mysterious Exotic’s power.

 

https://www.bungie.net/7/en/Seasons/SeasonOfTheSeraph

[moosegrinder]

For some reason I just assumed there'd be nothing going on until Lightfall. I am an idiot.

WTF are Captains Coins?

 

[Nate Dogg III]

Oh boy, finally 

[K]

The matchmaking was broken last week, and soloing strikes was absolute bliss. The level of challenge was almost precisely Halo on Heroic, and it was lovely not to have to compete for kills with some dude going for the speedrun world record. 
 

I get why they don’t do it, but I’d love to see a solo strike playlist. 

[Broker]

I think I might take a break here, because like:

 

Quote

MATCHMADE ACTIVITY: Heist Battlegrounds

Seraphs have deployed to multiple destinations to infiltrate Braytech facilities, bypass advanced defense systems, and neutralize hordes of Wrathborn. Your security clearance has been granted and your Seraph fireteam awaits, Guardian.

 

EXOTIC MISSION: Operation: Seraph’s Shield

For this mission to succeed, Guardians must gain access to the most impenetrable facility in the solar system: a Braytech orbital platform above the Last City. Break through layers of security each week and awaken Rasputin before it's too late.

 

BECOMES AVAILABLE ON DECEMBER 20: Revision Zero
Once deep enough within the facility, Guardians will reach the weapon Revision Zero. In the weeks following its discovery, multiple catalysts can be acquired, each adding to the mysterious Exotic’s power.

What the actual fuck does any of that mean? I get why they’re not going to say “hey this season in Destiny we’ve added yet another temporary game mode where you fight through some fodder enemies then kill a few bosses, maybe stand in a circle or Chuck something if you’re lucky”. But I feel like rather than making it sound exciting, I’m just very aware that I’ve read quite a number of words there and have literally no idea what I’ll actually be doing, and I’m assuming I can’t find out unless I give them money

[Nate Dogg III]

I think the honest answer (do strikes/gambit/crucible/public events for a currency that lets you open an extra chest at the end of a temporary game mode) is probably proven to spark less interest and make less money than getting a copywriter to jazz it up a bit. 

 

Played a bit last night. I can confirm you do strikes/gambit/crucible/public events for a currency that lets you open an extra chest at the end of a temporary game mode, though said game mode at least seems better than last season's. They've also rejigged crucible, which I found myself weirdly enjoying last season, so fair enough. They're definitely trying to get us all playing public events though, for some reason. The payout's almost as generous as rituals, and they've increased the glimmer rewards to compensate for the removal of planetary mats.

[K]

The seasonal content seems geared to making new strikes at the moment; I only managed to do the first Heist Battleground on the moon, but it was basically a short strike, reusing a lot of assets and locations from the Warmind expansion and the Rasputin strike, but looking pretty flipping impressive for all that. 
 

I kind of wish you could solo it, I spent the quick go I had yesterday sprinting through this gorgeous, atmospheric location trying to keep up with this warlock dude who was cutting through enemies like an electric carving knife. Destiny has this weird divide between matchmade activities that you can’t solo and are very easy, and non-matchmade activities that you’re tacitly encouraged to solo but is off-puttingly bastard hard. The point at which Bungie cut off the matchmaking is the point where stuff becomes too hard to realistically do on my own. 

[mikeyl]

Thing I hate most is chilling in a public area trying to get kills for another dumb weapon level and some nut just runs in and grenades everything. Yeah nice one what was the point in that. 
 

New levels look cool as hell. Love all the Europa and Warmind facility stuff, it’s beautiful, but the encounter design seems a bit lame, like a little bit more thought (jumping puzzle) and it could’ve been a cool exotic mission or something. I think it could be great on a timer and in super hard mode, but then they’d have to give you something nice for it.

[moosegrinder]

That's why I do all my kill shit in Lost Sectors. It's just less grievous.

[pledge]

My moments of Triumph t-shirt just shipped - so that nicely aligns with this years starting... Unless I'm forgetting they've made it harder to get the seal this time. I don't remember having to do a raid at all, and this time there's 2 plus rotating challenges. Seems excessive.

 

I get the feeling this is going to be a weak season for me. I didn't particularly enjoy the intro mission. Then it was do heist, do activity, do the exact same heist in a playlist instead (which has champions so sucks when you get matched with people with no mods...) 

[Nate Dogg III]

I quite like that there are Champions in the seasonal activity. Less fond of needing a hand cannon for unstop though, haven't used those in an age.

 

I got an Ikelos SMG from the vendor engram rank reward with Feeding Frenzy and Voltshot and it's absolutely monstrous. I imagine I'll still lean towards Tarnished Mettle for hard solo stuff because of the range, but for more close-up farming-type stuff Ikelos with Witherhoard is going to take some beating. Lovely. 

[moosegrinder]

My Seventh Seaph Officers Revolver had the dust shaken off of it for that. It annoys the piss out of me that the Unstoppable/Overload/Barrier mods are mainly for Primary weapon ammo weapons until tier 3 when you can get a grenade launcher. Also that they stopped mods working on Exotics that already have one of the disruption types on it.

[Nate Dogg III]

You have to ADS for like three seconds with the hand cannon too before you can proc the stun, I don't like it at all. And IIRC unstop GL costs like 7 energy which is a right old build-wrecker. I'm afraid I'm currently being that guy who relies on teammates to sort the unstops and just cover barrier/overload, though I carry a hand cannon so I can swap stuff around if I need to.

 

I'm still really enjoying Crucible. No idea what's wrong with me.

[Kirby]

I've been falling in/out of love with Destiny 2 since I got my Ps4. This season should have been perfect for me. I mean PIRATES!

 

But as it dragged on I went from "yes! I want to that damn Scallywag title" to there's much more fun things to be doing when it comes to gaming. I think I realised just why when a friend of mine who I used to LARP with (nerd +10) pointed out that Destiny is a lot like our old LARP days, in that we had the exact same woods which we used week in week out for different stories/quests.

 

It was the same location but "different" stories, items etc.

 

That is essentially Destiny 2. Here's the same stuffing location but this season we're going to "pretend" together that its really new as there's all this amazing new stuff to find/do. Having said that I give it until Feb next year when I end up getting drawn into the gunplay and the fact that I really enjoy GM Nightfalls.

 

[pledge]

The API being down and having to use the vault is pretty annoying.

[K]

I quite like the 3-second ADS until unstoppable procs. It feels a bit dramatic - when you see an ogre, you have to draw your gun and stop shooting for a brief second. It gives a bit more texture to the combat. The seasonal activity playlist seems fun too - it felt too easy when I was playing it through the director, but if you go through the playlist, you're constantly under a penalty of 5 light. It makes the game feel quite punchy and dangerous - not frustrating, but just enough difficulty to give it a bit of bite.

 

The campaign-style mission where you infiltrate the snowy installation was pretty impressive, too. It felt like proper campaign content, and was hard but doable solo. I'm onboard with this season so far - the seasonal titan armour looks brutal.

 

That said, people who don't shoot the spider mines and let them go off should be put in prison. 

[Nate Dogg III]

10 minutes ago, K said:

That said, people who don't shoot the spider mines and let them go off should be put in prison. 

 

Hanging's too good for 'em!

[Qazimod]

Everybody gangsta until XIVU'S BATTLE HYMN SURGES WITH YOUR PULSE, THERE IS ONLY WAR.

 

Always when my Super's almost done charging as well. (I'd create an Intellect build but I like punching too much.)

[Superfamifreak]

What's the deal with the Nightfall strikes now? I only have the Forsaken, Curse of Osiris & Warmind DLC. Am I locked out of them now?

[dreamylittledream]

1 hour ago, Superfamifreak said:

What's the deal with the Nightfall strikes now? I only have the Forsaken, Curse of Osiris & Warmind DLC. Am I locked out of them now?

You can’t play them any week where the strike is from Beyond Light or The Witch Queen.

 

They will work as normal if the strike is from the base game or Forsaken.

[Superfamifreak]

17 minutes ago, dreamylittledream said:

You can’t play them any week where the strike is from Beyond Light or The Witch Queen.

 

They will work as normal if the strike is from the base game or Forsaken.

 

That's good to know. Not that I'll ever be able to do them as I'm awful at the game!

 

How will I know when those ones are available?

[dreamylittledream]

Nightfall changes weekly and it says what location it is.

 

Anything on Europa or the Throne World is from Beyond Light and Witch Queen and the strike on the moon (Scarlet Keep) is from Shadowkeep.

 

Anywhere else and you should be golden. 
 

Oddly despite this restriction you can still play strikes in the normal playlist from expansions you don’t own. Can only assume this is because it’s random which one you are allocated.

[K]

If strikes in the playlist were restricted to ones you owned, I suspect the result would be the base D2 strikes popping up all the time, or much longer wait times, as the game would have to either limit you to levels that all three players owned, or wait until it found two more players with the same mix of expansions that you have. I guess it depends on how they would do it (i.e. whether the game chooses a strike and finds players who can do it, or chooses players and then finds a strike they can all do), but ultimately I imagine they'd want to provide a better experience for F2P players who are then encouraged to go on and buy the expansions so they can do the harder content.

[Qazimod]

I didn't know this week was the exotic mission! Or I had forgotten. I was just derping my way through weeklies trying to get more currency for upgrades for the seasonal wotsit, and then I got wrapped up in an actual for-realsies long-winded mission with the promise of an exotic at the end.

 

The mission itself wasn't too daunting - checkpoints and respawns are kind and a lot of stuff can be figured out with dumb trial and error. And of course it's manageable solo, which is always nice. (It was no Presage, but then what is  ) I liked the idea of swapping buffs to make progress - apparently that's borrowed from a raid thingy, but I don't raid.

[Superfamifreak]

Anyone fancy teaming up? PSN: MonkeyJuggleDX

 

 

[Nate Dogg III]

Really enjoyed the exotic mission, actually felt doable solo (at 1590 admittedly) and very generous with the checkpoints etc. Very pleased there was no timer either (I only got around to Vox Obscura last week because the time limit combined with getting chucked back to the start if you wiped was just too stressful for me). Took me a couple of hours, most of that being an idiot with puzzles etc, but I really enjoyed it. Lovely sense of spectacle to bits of it too.

 

The Ikelos SMG with feeding frenzy and voltshot is absolutely insane, by the way. I'm trying to get builds together for the other subclasses after playing exclusively Arc since I came back to the game alongside Arc 3.0 but they all feel like a step back because the Ikelos just melts stuff. 

[Qazimod]

7 minutes ago, Nate Dogg III said:

Lovely sense of spectacle to bits of it too.

 

I liked the change of vibe when you're doing platforming 

 

Spoiler

in the geosynchronus orbit zone outside... before being thrown back inside for more close-quarters madness.