Destiny 2: Lightfall

[moosegrinder]

It's just another pinnacle grind, innit. I do like the Enhancement Prism thing on the gear though, because I'm tight and don't want to pay for them.

 

I've found a loadout that works now  Mida Multi Tool and Ikelos SMG do the do, plus I've stopped running around like a twat and started paying attention to where people are with the radar and shit.

[pledge]

51 minutes ago, moosegrinder said:

It's just another pinnacle grind, innit.

 

There's no requirement to win (except a triumph for wins), so its full of people idling, or not playing the objective, or just giving up as soon as they are clearly behind. Most people win 50% of the time just down to luck of the draw so still progress ranks easily enough.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

On 04/01/2023 at 11:15, moosegrinder said:

After careful consideration and 2 hours of smashing my knackers in a drawer (metaphorically) I'm with @Garibaldi and Project: Seraph Shield (Legendary) can go and fuck itself. Quite happy to deal with anything in that mission except  bullet sponge Praxis. Just giving him a shitload of health and a stop gap shield removal mechanic is lazy and it can fucking do one.

 

I can't even make it past the first section before frustration kicks in and I give up!

[moosegrinder]

28 minutes ago, Superfamifreak said:

 

I can't even make it past the first section before frustration kicks in and I give up!

 

I did it again this morning for the second catalyst, took me ten minutes longer than the first time.

 

It's hard and requires a build that regens health and whatnot. You need an Arc weapon for shields through the level then void for the end (I think @Hexx said this when they gave me the Well build, which is effing HILARIOUS).

 

Are you relatively new to Destiny? There's a kind of inherent learning to how engagements and that work. Like, cover is WAY more important than you'd think, and you have to deal with the trash before it overwhelms you, and the thing with the shields and that.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

23 minutes ago, moosegrinder said:

 

I did it again this morning for the second catalyst, took me ten minutes longer than the first time.

 

It's hard and requires a build that regens health and whatnot. You need an Arc weapon for shields through the level then void for the end (I think @Hexx said this when they gave me the Well build, which is effing HILARIOUS).

 

Are you relatively new to Destiny? There's a kind of inherent learning to how engagements and that work. Like, cover is WAY more important than you'd think, and you have to deal with the trash before it overwhelms you, and the thing with the shields and that.

 

I got it on release with a PS4 Pro, played the main story etc and got the DLC up to Forsaken. Then stopped playing and got back into it a few weeks back.

 

Only now doing things like heists, nightfalls and vanguard etc. Holding my own in those, but on the legend missions I'm just getting destroyed!

[mikeyl]

Won’t work for everyone but got bored with just tickling the Legend Seraph Shield boss with the Arbalest so for the last phase just swung at him with the sword (with Repulsor Brace). Mans went down in seconds.

 

 

[pledge]

Banshee has a decent Funnelweb for sale currently. Very good for Seraph's Shield for the ads given it is void.

[dreamylittledream]

1590 on everything aside from the hat (which is 1589).

 

…five Pinnacle drops later still bloody 1590 on everything apart from my helmet.

 

FFS Bungie

[pledge]

Gilded the Iron Banner title and now seen the nice chainmail shader you get close to the second rank reset. No chance I'm getting that this time. I think the reset persists to the second iron banner of the season? 

 

The idling in the solo queue right now is quite bad. I'm in some games where half the teams are not even moving. I don't see how they avoid being kicked, I seem to get kicked for seconds of not moving. They don't even seem to be slightly moving, just motionless the entire match.

 

The new high value location is a fun change, but it gives such a bonus that whichever team holds it at 40 points get such a lead a comeback is insurmountable. 

[dreamylittledream]

Okay I retract my earlier statements to the contrary, with a decent fireteam legend Seraph Shield is much more fun and less testicle damagingly frustrating.

 

After several aborted attempts this weekend (damn it I did it solo last week why is it that brig encounter so damned frustrating) gave it a run on lfg and we did it in an hour and a bit, just the one wipe (on the brigs lol).

 

Catalyst two get, of course it dropped me a chest piece rather than the hat I need!!

[K]

According to Reddit, you can get multiple catalysts in one run of Legend Seraph's Shield. You just have to make sure you find the dead exo for each catalyst (and that the catalyst has been released, obviously). I haven't got the second one, I might try and see if I can get two and three in one go.

[Hexx]

1 hour ago, K said:

According to Reddit, you can get multiple catalysts in one run of Legend Seraph's Shield. You just have to make sure you find the dead exo for each catalyst (and that the catalyst has been released, obviously). I haven't got the second one, I might try and see if I can get two and three in one go.

I got the Exo for first last week and didn’t complete run 

 

Then did this week and got the second exo and completed run dropped both 

[K]

15 minutes ago, Hexx said:

I got the Exo for first last week and didn’t complete run 

 

Then did this week and got the second exo and completed run dropped both 

 

Tempted to save the catalysts until the last week - I managed a run of Legend Seraph's Shield using a solar titan and Lorelei Splendour (i.e. god mode), but it was still quite close at times and took ages. I'm not sure I have time to do multiple runs.

[Hexx]

48 minutes ago, K said:

 

Tempted to save the catalysts until the last week - I managed a run of Legend Seraph's Shield using a solar titan and Lorelei Splendour (i.e. god mode), but it was still quite close at times and took ages. I'm not sure I have time to do multiple runs.

It's only the Brig room that causes me trouble (although outside sniper section results in a few deaths).

I just wish it had checkpoints as it can be pretty long to try and do in one quick sit down session

[pledge]

6 hours ago, K said:

According to Reddit, you can get multiple catalysts in one run of Legend Seraph's Shield. You just have to make sure you find the dead exo for each catalyst (and that the catalyst has been released, obviously). I haven't got the second one, I might try and see if I can get two and three in one go.

You definitely can. I had cat 1 and cat 2 stacked and it worked in one run.

[pledge]

Sigh. Learnt a harsh lesson about LFG. Killed the final boss on legend seraph's shield and the leader kicks both of us from the fireteam before it counts as completed.

[Nate Dogg III]

Good heavens. 
 

 

[KartoffelKopf]

What's the light level for that new exotic mission? Been on a 6-month Destiny detox so am 1560 or something and can't be arse doing any levelling stuff.

[dreamylittledream]

1 hour ago, KartoffelKopf said:

What's the light level for that new exotic mission? Been on a 6-month Destiny detox so am 1560 or something and can't be arse doing any levelling stuff.

1580 for both versions which is the current hard (not pinnacle) cap for the season.

 

On legendary your power is capped at 1580 regardless of light level.

[KartoffelKopf]

1 hour ago, dreamylittledream said:

1580 for both versions which is the current hard (not pinnacle) cap for the season.

 

On legendary your power is capped at 1580 regardless of light level.

 

Balls, might leave it then.

 

Have Bungie said anything at all about binning the seasonal level grind for Lightfall? It completely killed my enthusiasm for the game this year. Having to deal with this shit...

 

On 08/01/2023 at 21:02, dreamylittledream said:

1590 on everything aside from the hat (which is 1589).

 

…five Pinnacle drops later still bloody 1590 on everything apart from my helmet.

 

FFS Bungie

 

...for weeks on end and then watch it all get reset again a few weeks later is just old now. 

[moosegrinder]

Your light level just goes up as you plug away at shit. You'd literally have to not play to failt to get to anywhere near 1580. And the game shits loot at you!

[dreamylittledream]

3 minutes ago, moosegrinder said:

Your light level just goes up as you plug away at shit. You'd literally have to not play to failt to get to anywhere near 1580. And the game shits loot at you!

If he’s 1560 he’s over the soft cap but under the hard cap so only gains light levels from powerful drops and artefact.

 

Its nothing like the frustration of the Pinacle grind (for reference I am now 7 drops and no hat - forever 1589 before artefact 😂) but it will still take a good few hours play to get up to 1580, which I can see is annoying if you just want to play new content.
 

There’s been rumours of them binning light level completely for Lightfall but I think it’s unlikely, that push to move the numbers up is a big hook to keep people playing (god help me I’m a mug for it).

[Nate Dogg III]

What I would like:

 

-Power curve retained for each new main expansion, but no seasonal cap bumps in between

-Pinnacle system binned

-Keep artifact power boosts to make hard activities more manageable over time

 

They've done enough tinkering around the edges of this stuff (raising your power level for the Leviathan activity; force-underlevelling you for Heist Battlegrounds, Contest mode etc) to suggest they're at least considering a major overhaul of how progression works. We're way past the point where 'number go up' was the reason people kept playing the game. I'm chasing red borders and high-stat armour and fun builds and Seasonal Challenges, and I barely look at the number in the top right (and in any case I get way more of that from the artifact than I do the pinnacle grind).

 

I reckon they know this side of the game needs a lot of work and imagine they'll use Lightfall and The Final Shape to try out some other stuff before they go into whatever the next saga looks like. Hope so anyway.

[KartoffelKopf]

34 minutes ago, moosegrinder said:

Your light level just goes up as you plug away at shit. You'd literally have to not play to failt to get to anywhere near 1580. And the game shits loot at you!

 

Which begs the question why bother having to grind a new light level every few months at all. Just let me jump in and play the content I want with the loot grind built around build and weapon crafting.

 

Give us the fun level-up bit with the big DLC campaign drop but just ditch the 3 month cycle of resetting everything and the tedious pinnacle grind (you WILL play Gambit and Crucible whether you fucking like it or not!) with it's reliance on finding the right fucking hat. Incremental improvements to stats can be XP-driven throughout the year but the content difficulty is just tiered, including the open-world/patrol zones, and not driven by me having to level up the artefact (again!) so I can play the hardest (and funnest!) GM content.

 

Everyone will be max level for most of the year, can play what they want when they want, the hardcore will have some minor gains in weapon stability or resilience or whatever, nothing game-breaking but enough to keep them playing. Targeted loot means people can go to town with their sexy builds and in-game loadouts (think this is coming right?) makes it fun to experiment. 

 

It's such a great game but the gameplay loop is just prehistoric now.

 

edit: or what @Nate Dogg III says

 

 

[mikeyl]

They loosening the entry requirements for the Grandmaster nightfalls they said. Which is great. Golf balls and golded Conqueror seals for everyone!

[Hexx]

Yeah the "do pinnacles for 10 levels" every season needs to og

[moosegrinder]

It's all fair enough. The pinnacle grind doesn't bother me because I don't do content that requires pinnacle level.

 

Is the grind entirely superfluous now? Isn't it designed to keep people engaged outside of just logging on to do the small pieces of content they're interested in? That's the f2p model, right? Keep people engaged as long as possible? Genuine questions, because I have no idea.

 

Have they ever released numbers of the amount of players who engage in end game content? I had a look at the achievements on Xbox to try and get an idea but they haven't put anything on there after Last Wish. The 'complete a nightfall on Grandmaster' is a 3.something% rate.

[KartoffelKopf]

1 hour ago, moosegrinder said:

Is the grind entirely superfluous now? Isn't it designed to keep people engaged outside of just logging on to do the small pieces of content they're interested in? That's the f2p model, right? Keep people engaged as long as possible? Genuine questions, because I have no idea.

 

 

You  might be right, I'm sure there are a big chunk of people that just like that number going up aspect and no doubt Bungie have swathes of data telling them that's the case.  All I know is that it's the reason I don't want to play (amongst other things) and that feeling of having to start over every 3 months was too much and I had to stop. Admittedly that could just be burn-out and a general apathy as it became less and less designed for someone like me, old fart with a ton of domestic responsibility, to play. 

 

I know there is a big part of the player base that believe there should be an element of proving your commitment to the game so you can claim the rewards that those activities give you. I dunno, the commitment of me giving Bungie £80 should really be enough proof.

 

1 hour ago, moosegrinder said:

Have they ever released numbers of the amount of players who engage in end game content? I had a look at the achievements on Xbox to try and get an idea but they haven't put anything on there after Last Wish. The 'complete a nightfall on Grandmaster' is a 3.something% rate.

 

I suspect that number is because of the high barrier to entry, you need 20 artefact levels which is a fair old grind and many will long since dropped off a season at that point. If you progress past the entry light level, you are capped anyway so why not just let soft-cap players in, set the power level the same for everyone and that 3.something% number I'm sure would go up.

 

Think I'm going to spend some time and do that mission though. Watching a few videos on that craftable weapon and it looks interesting. Not sure I'll use it but be fun to pop some heads.

[Qazimod]

Heist Battleground randos.  

 

No it's cool, you can both just wait there by the front door whilst I go off again to get the other laser to pop the remaining seals, it's fine; not like there are reinforcements incoming or anything. It's all good  

[Hexx]

50 point rift seasonal challenge is a disaster.

 

Activeky forcing you to work against your teams success to try and scrape meagre progress points is terrible design