Meet the expansion

[wittyscorpion]

I am taking a stroll through the tower, my notes:

1) Eris is selling some good looking emblems and shaders (Marko, be careful about her "charming" your currencies away );

2) Black Wax Idol consumables are INDEED needed for some purchases, so that's not a rumor! I am glad that I saved 30 or so for the occasion;

3) If you got the expansion pack, you will get a package of goodies from the Post Master;

4) Faction vendor purchases require Crudible Commendation. It is unclear to me whether you'll get a commendation by ranking up faction. A reasonable guess is a Crucible one.

Regarding purchase, I decided on the safest strategy of all: DON'T BUY ANYTHING, yet. I am at level 30 with good 300 weapons, that should be good enough to survive in the new world for a week or so. During this week, I have high hopes of getting legendary weapon/armor/engram drops for free, so I don't have to spend anything. Also, I want to wait and see what Xur offers on Xur's Day...

[wings]

Dec 9, 2014 9:57:00 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Oh ok. That's why there were no icons in the Tower. Xur won't appear until Friday.

I did see the new Weekly and Nightfall. But those Eris missions need to be done first.



I'm not real sure I like how Bungie did all of this. There are people who put in A LOT of time to do things right. Get weapons finished in all the elements. Upgraded. Get different classes of characters completed. Fought hard to round out armor and gear. Did all this work to finish three completed characters, all equipped and ready to go and then.....

.....Bungie's basically saying "It was all pointless hahaha, you can just buy what you want for Marks now!! Joke is on you!!!". WTF? That's lame. And I say that as someone who put in 1/4 of the time of some other people. A lot of people i know did a lot work getting all their guns and armor and backup stuff leveled up, to be done correctly. No reason too. And yes, I know those who did all the work of getting things done properly will have an advantage now, of being level 28, 29, 30, in doing the new material....but it's a irrelevant. There's just not that much to do at higher levels right now. And a Level 21 player who did no work before, can be leveled up to 30 with just some Strike mission playing now in no time at all. Any time advantage is tiny. They'll catch up in no time, with 1/100th the effort. This is dumb. Prior players spent MONTHS grinding away looking for level 30 gear.....and now Bungie just hands out Level 33 like it's Halloween candy? Lame.

I know Bungie needs to keep the masses of players caught up. You don't do this, you develop a system of Have's and Have-not's. But surely there has to be better way than this. Where it's like, "OH, YOU DIDN'T DO ANY WORK BEFORE, NO PROBLEM. YOU CATCH UP FOR FREE". That seems a bit excessive. I know for myself, there is no way I am going to spend/waste time endlessly grinding extra weapons or armor or anything else ever again in this game. For example, collect weapons? Why bother. It's a time sink and you end up getting them for free later.

I feel like Bungie duped a lot of people into playing this game waaaaaay to much before. This DLC kind of tipped people off now, that those efforts of grinding aren't really needed, or at least as much.

There are several mechanics in this game that are there to keeping players mindlessly grinding and slowing progress. They are as follows:

1. Glimmer cap at 25k even though exotics now take 7k to upgrade.

2. Vanguard and Crucible Marks capped at 100 a week, 200 total per character.

3. Vanguard and Crucible gear now requiring a Commendation to be purchased, which is only gained through ranking up your faction as far as I know.

4. Requiring the Crucible to be played to gain Crucible Marks. Depending on your skill preferences, you may have to play more Crucible than before, e.g. Titans after Intellect and Discipline will need full Future War Cult gear because Commander Zavela favours Strength, and we know how useless that is for high end-game content. Giving Destination Materials in exchange for Crucible Marks was a good way to get some fast Crucible Marks as some matches can be slow.

5. Daily Story Missions upped from level 28 to level 30 instead of having level 30 as an additional alternative to play at. Would one extra Ascendant Shard or Energy for level 30 really break the bank here?

6. No method of converting Ascendant Shards to Ascendant Energy. The lack of Ascendant Energy will play a part in high end-game content for players with weapons that are not fully upgraded.

7. Non-DLC players are shafted this week. No Weekly Heroic or Nightfall from the vanilla game as an alternative. A few Guardians might miss out on Strange Coins with Xur next week. DLC players could have the DLC Nightfall/Weekly Heroics in addition to the vanilla game and they get to play what they paid for, while non-DLC players are not locked out of something they paid for either.

8. Cap on synthesis packs in your inventory and vault set to 20. Everything else is uncapped. With the Glimmer cap as it is, and with Xur being only a 48 hour merchant at the weekends and not always guaranteed to sell heavy ammo synthesis packs, people will stock up on them. These take place in the Consumables section, which usually has eight slots filled with Glimmer related products anyway.

9. The addition of Radiant Shards and Radiant Energy also means inventory and vault space is an issue. This can be solved by getting rid of the categories in the vault as many people may have unused spaces in the armour section.

10. The new armour is more expensive than before the level cap increase.

11. Xur repeating Exotics, despite his limited availability and stock, giving rise to players questioning whether or not his stock is actually RNG or being hand picked by Bungie staff themselves to control the drop rate. DeeJ mentioned it was the latter in a video apparently and it was deleted.

[wittyscorpion]

I turned in all the engrams I saved, 1 exotic, 2 legendary, and a bunch of blues. Bad news all around:

1) None of the engrams got "upgraded" to the higher rarity;
2) The 1 legendary and 1 exotic armor I got still have the old max light, 27 and 30 respectively;
3) I ranked up on Cryptarch, and got one legendary engram from the package. Unfortunately, it gave me 2 energy so I did not get a chance to see what the new engrams will produce;

[hebbnh]

Dec 9, 2014 11:14:16 GMT -6 mannon said:

Yeah I guess that's true, but it still feels like more than getting to level 28 from vendor was...

I think I better save my marks until after I see what Xur has to offer. I'll be pissed if I buy a 33 light legendary chest piece and then he sells an exotic one. heh

You could actually get to 29 before with 1 exotic plus 3 pieces of vendor gear, so literally nothing has changed in that regard. You were able to buy your way to one level below the cap before just like you can now, and raid gear is still a requirement to actually hit the cap. The only difference is right now you can buy your way ahead of people who spent hours grinding to hit 30, which cheapens it in some way for some people I guess.

Good call on holding off on buying anything -- that's my plan as well.

[wings]

Also with engrams, Tiger Strikes do not give them for users without DLC. I had no idea the loot was that good!

[wittyscorpion]

For players who have already reached level 30, holding off is a sound strategy, for multiple reasons:

1) The longer you can hold off, the better chance you have to get legendary weapons/armors from loot drops / engrams for free. It will save you precious marks and commendations;

2) Unless you have enough to get to level 31, there is no hurry to get armors. One important factor for that is which exotic piece to use and we can't know until we see what Xur has to offer. With a piece of new/revamped exotic fully upgraded to 36-light, only another 2 pieces of 33-light armors are needed;

3) More importantly: CsE raid could drop 36-light raid gear. 2 pieces of 36-light (either 2 raid gears or 1 raid gear + 1 new/revamped exotic) can get us to level 31, at cost of nothing other than upgrades;

4) The remaining question is whether we can survive the Nightfall and raid with 300-attack weapons. We won't know until we run through them at least once, which may drop us some good weapons;

All in all: IMHO buy nothing and rely on loot drop from both non-raid and raid activities for a week, then reevaluate the situation, is a sound choice for all level 30s.

[wittyscorpion]

Dec 9, 2014 13:44:12 GMT -5 wings said:

Also with engrams, Tiger Strikes do not give them for users without DLC. I had no idea the loot was that good!

What have you gotten? Share your glory!

[wings]

Dec 9, 2014 13:44:42 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

Dec 9, 2014 13:44:12 GMT -5 wings said:

Also with engrams, Tiger Strikes do not give them for users without DLC. I had no idea the loot was that good!

What have you gotten? Share your glory!

I never touched the Tiger Strikes. Thought about it last weekend if only to see why this dude on Reddit was crying over the possibility of someone buying Heart of Praxic fire because he played got it to drop having played the Tiger Strikes over 100 times. Once I've done the Weekly Heroic and Nightfall for three characters I am usually bored of the strikes.

[wittyscorpion]

On a separate topic: I am glad (although selfish) that Bungie decided to put the expansion pack content into the weekly (and hopefully daily as well) rotation. IMHO it is a sound decision because I can venture a guess that the vast majority of the Destiny players who still care enough to play daily/weekly/Nightfall WILL get the expansion pack.

[markopolo]

Dec 9, 2014 12:42:51 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

1) Eris is selling some good looking emblems and shaders (Marko, be careful about her "charming" your currencies away );

I make no promises now or later.

No promises at all

[mannon]

I don't know if it will stay in rotation. This may be the only week it is.

[tooros]

I saved my rollover vanguard rank. Got my package: a solar shottie the "secret handshake"

Upgraded legendary. 272 attack. Solar damage.

Like I'm going to use any secondary in cqb other than the godly murmur.

[wings]

Dec 9, 2014 14:03:13 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

On a separate topic: I am glad (although selfish) that Bungie decided to put the expansion pack content into the weekly (and hopefully daily as well) rotation. IMHO it is a sound decision because I can venture a guess that the vast majority of the Destiny players who still care enough to play daily/weekly/Nightfall WILL get the expansion pack.

Which would be fine if this was additional to vanilla strike content so non-dlc users have a non resticted game still.

[wittyscorpion]

Dec 9, 2014 14:09:09 GMT -5 tooros said:

I saved my rollover vanguard rank. Got my package: a solar shottie the "secret handshake"

Upgraded legendary. 272 attack. Solar damage.

Like I'm going to use any secondary in cqb other than the godly murmur.

That reminded me: I have 2 of my 3 characters saved up for that, with the other half way through. High hopes of some good drops

[thebb22]

I hopped on at lunch for 15 minutes or so just to check out the new stuff. After seeing that the first story mission was going to give me 10 vanguard marks upon completion on hard and I was already at the cap, I immediately went back to the tower to buy the new gauntlets. Level 31 here I come...

[wittyscorpion]

Dec 9, 2014 15:19:06 GMT -5 thebb22 said:

I hopped on at lunch for 15 minutes or so just to check out the new stuff. After seeing that the first story mission was going to give me 10 vanguard marks upon completion on hard and I was already at the cap, I immediately went back to the tower to buy the new gauntlets. Level 31 here I come...

You'll need at least another piece and a revamped exotic to get to level 31, right?

I probably will just get some destination materials if I get into that situation. I am sure that I will be short on everything again very soon.

I have my finger crossed at a raid gear drop from CsE so I don't have to buy any level 31 gears (1 exotic at 36 + 1 raid gear at 36 + 30 * 2 = 132 = level 31).

[markopolo]

Dec 9, 2014 12:42:51 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

4) Faction vendor purchases require Crudible Commendation. It is unclear to me whether you'll get a commendation by ranking up faction. A reasonable guess is a Crucible one.

And there goes any desire I have to level up factions......

[wittyscorpion]

Dec 9, 2014 15:22:26 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

Dec 9, 2014 15:19:06 GMT -5 thebb22 said:

I hopped on at lunch for 15 minutes or so just to check out the new stuff. After seeing that the first story mission was going to give me 10 vanguard marks upon completion on hard and I was already at the cap, I immediately went back to the tower to buy the new gauntlets. Level 31 here I come...

You'll need at least another piece and a revamped exotic to get to level 31, right?

I probably will just get some destination materials if I get into that situation. I am sure that I will be short on everything again very soon.

I have my finger crossed at a raid gear drop from CsE so I don't have to buy any level 31 gears (1 exotic at 36 + 1 raid gear at 36 + 30 * 2 = 132 = level 31).

I do have one problem that I need to figure out how to address. I have some completed bounties saved up, but no new exotic/legendary/raid weapons & armors to upgrade yet. Looks like my options are:

1) Keep them saved until I acquire a new exotic/legendary/raid weapon or armor. The problem with that is I have less bounty space;
2) Upgrade old exotic weapon or armor. This will be a little bit of waste if I intended to revamp them soon;
3) Buy new legendary weapon/armor. Could be a bit of waste because most likely they will soon be replaced by the much better raid grade weapons/armors;

Tough choices, and chicken & egg problems (need higher attack weapons and/or level 31 armors to have easier time at raid, and need raid to drop weapons/armors)...

Probably will go with option 2) for now until Xur shows up.

[iw5000]

Dec 9, 2014 10:19:03 GMT -5 hebbnh said:

iw5000: To an extent, yes, the "Haves" kind of get shafted when the "Have nots" get to catch up so easily. But that's pretty much par for the course for MMOs (from everything I've read, at least). Players in WoW could spend months or years to get the best of the best purple gear available, only to have it replaced by new greens or blues upon completing one or two quests after an expansion. You can't have it so people who join a year down the road basically have no hope of ever catching up to the best-geared players unless they dedicate their entire life to that goal, or nobody would ever buy the game more than a few weeks after release.

I'd argue that the "Haves" still have some pretty nice advantages, certainly not irrelevant as you suggest. 300 ATK primary weapons with elemental damage are going to be extremely helpful against shielded enemies in the new raid, in addition to Nightfall burns and everything else they were already excellent for. They're going to shit on the new "better" 331 ATK kinetic damage primaries for those purposes, and "Have nots" have no way to get those except going back to the VoG instead of playing new content. Players that are already 29 or 30 should be able to run the new content immediately no problem, whereas the "Have nots" are going to have to go grind faction marks/rep/bounties for hours to be able to buy the new gear to get them where we already are. We also have a ton of ascendant materials at the ready to upgrade whatever new stuff we so get, whereas "Have nots" will probably struggle in that regard and have to grind public events, dailies, or VoG to amass a good stockpile of those materials. I think we're still a lot more ahead of the curve than you think we are.

Yeah, I do get it that you can't leave new players hopelessly behind, but I just feel they could have rewarded the grinders a bit better. Bungie just played it a bit to much on the cheap side. Not a game breaker by any means, I'm just giving some first impressions there.

[hebbnh]

Dec 9, 2014 15:32:26 GMT -5 markopolo said:

Dec 9, 2014 12:42:51 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

4) Faction vendor purchases require Crudible Commendation. It is unclear to me whether you'll get a commendation by ranking up faction. A reasonable guess is a Crucible one.

And there goes any desire I have to level up factions......

Just to confirm, according to reddit, leveling up a faction (FWC, DO, or NM) does reward you with a crucible commendation.

[markopolo]

Dec 9, 2014 16:21:48 GMT -5 hebbnh said:

Dec 9, 2014 15:32:26 GMT -5 markopolo said:

And there goes any desire I have to level up factions......

Just to confirm, according to reddit, leveling up a faction (FWC, DO, or NM) does reward you with a crucible commendation.

Ah! gotcha!

that's lazy.... why not make a seperate accomodation... hell, they can share it with a "Faction Accomodation" for all 3

[iw5000]

Question....

The Vault of Glass was a level 26 Raid on normal. Level 26 enemies at the start, ending with Level 28 monsters. The Hard VoG mode was level 28 at the start, with level 30 at the end.

So the new raid, Crotas End...The normal Crotas End Raid is going to be Level 28 raid, with level 30 enemies at the end. And in January at some point, they'll release the Hard version of the raid, which will be Level 30 at the start, with Level 32 enemies at the end.

Is the above correct? Or is the new Raid (normal mode) going to be level 30 going to 31....and Hard mode being level 31 going to 32? Maybe I am confused here.

[mannon]

I thought there was going to be enemies that are level 33 even?

[malgato]

I thought new raid was level 30, Hard mode level 33.

[wittyscorpion]

Dec 9, 2014 16:29:26 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Question....

The Vault of Glass was a level 26 Raid on normal. Level 26 enemies at the start, ending with Level 28 monsters. The Hard VoG mode was level 28 at the start, with level 30 at the end.

So the new raid, Crotas End...The normal Crotas End Raid is going to be Level 28 raid, with level 30 enemies at the end. And in January at some point, they'll release the Hard version of the raid, which will be Level 30 at the start, with Level 32 enemies at the end.

Is the above correct? Or is the new Raid (normal mode) going to be level 30 going to 31....and Hard mode being level 31 going to 32? Maybe I am confused here.

First of all: CsE normal starts at level 30.

Regarding what CsE normal is going to end with: do you want spoilers or not? If not, heb has the answer (he already revealed something of this nature in the LFG thread, but hidden until you highlight his post).

Level 33 enemies on hard seems to be still unconfirmed, at least I have not seen anything from official channels. However, looks like the player community have already accepted it as fact.

[iw5000]

It was my understanding that the new Light Levels are now going to be ...

Level 32 - 144 Light points ( four pieces of 36 gear = 144)
Level 31 - 132 Light points ( four pieces of 33 gear = 132)
Level 30 - 120 Light points ( four pieces of 30 gear = 120)
Level 29 - 109 Light points
Level 28 - 098 Light points
Level 27 - 087 Light points

So I can't imagine there being a level 33 enemy, which would mean even a max leveled 32 would be incurring a 23% nerf to all his damage. That wouldn't make any sense.

[iw5000]

Why would Bungie put enemies into the game, that would automatically put players into a situation with a 23% attack nerf?


As far as looking up stuff, if people are already doing it, then i'll just go look myself. Didn't want to, but oh well.

[wittyscorpion]

Dec 9, 2014 16:49:36 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Why would Bungie put enemies into the game, that would automatically put players into a situation with a 23% attack nerf?


As far as looking up stuff, if people are already doing it, then i'll just go look myself. Didn't want to, but oh well.

Regarding the OP enemies: my guess is hard mode is going to drop some OP weapons to offset the higher enemy level. They (most likely) will not have high attack numbers, but probably with some really nice bonus perks.

So far we have not looked up stuff. The only thing we know is the enemy level at the end. It is a very mild spoiler, but a spoiler nonetheless. Not sure how hardcore you want to be on "no spoilers".

For me: this is probably as far as I am willing to go on the spoiler front.

[iw5000]

well, if you know, I want to know too lol. No point in being the only guy in the group that doesn't know.


So if CsE starts at level 30, does normal then end with what level? Are you saying the normal mode might end with 33? Or is that the spoiler, knowing the end level?

[malgato]

And to be fair, the enemy level info was generally available or at least anticipated before today. I think the Game Informer article talked about it.

I still haven't read anything on the new raid. Just working off previously released info.