Who's doing Iron Banner this week?

[mannon]

Okay so who's doing IB this week?

I'll be doing it on PS4. Not sure yet if I'll generally be on early or late, but I'm aiming for about an hour per day, more on the weekend towards the end. Main objective most days is to do the bounties. That is... assuming it's pretty similar to IB2.0.

I've already got all the gear I need for level 31, but I want to do it anyway... mainly because I had so much fun last time. Oddly enough I mostly had more luck solo than with friends, but I think that was due to both them and myself being fairly inexperienced at first. Later I kept at it solo until I was doing well or well enough anyway.

[iw5000]

I am pretty sure I am sitting it out.

[hebbnh]

If there's 36 light gear I'll think about it but probably skip it anyway -- too much grinding this week and I need a bit of a break. If it's 33 light gear I'm definitely sitting it out.

[mannon]

I just wish they would give us planetary resources as rewards. heh I badly need to get my hands on some helium and even some iron. I'd probably be level 30 right now if I had the resources and glimmer.

[wittyscorpion]

I would like to but most likely won't have the time. I may just throw the "rank grinding part" out of the window and use IB solely as a more pleasant playlist to get my Bad Juju bounty done (I was told it is amazing now). If there are cool things offered at lower ranks without having to devote a lot of time, I may go for it, but it is unlikely for me to go beyond just rank 2 or 3.

[wittyscorpion]

Since armor is not going to provide any incentives, all eyes will be on IB weapon offerings (except for Marko, who will have his eyes firmly fixed upon shaders ). Last IB had at least 2 very solid offerings: Perun's Fire Fusion Rifle and Jolden's Hammer machine gun. I would not be surprised if this time there are solid offerings as well.

IB also provides the ability to re-roll IB weapons. I wonder whether it can also upgrade the IB weapons we got the last time to higher attack numbers. If yes, then that would be a very strong incentive because I have 3 from last IB. IMHO Bungie should make it happen, any extra incentive to play IB can provide an extra nudge to players to consider the event.

I will wait until tomorrow to see whether I'll need to put another 12 hour binge gaming session on my Sunday calendar. If I do, this will be my time to finally drive a character to Crucible Rank 3, to finally make purchasing Crucible legendary weapons from Crucible Master a viable option. This is the only "Rank 3" I am missing (which is a requirement for highest level purchase of the corresponding vendor), I already got that achieved for Vanguard/Dead Orbit/New Monarchy/Future War Cult.

[mannon]

I'm planning to do it for fun and bragging rights regardless, but I sure do hope for some cool loot, especially now that I really won't need any of the armor. (Though if I wind up in a position to get the armor I might do anyway, just to collect it and have options. But we'll see.

[wittyscorpion]

IB just became available and I checked it out, bad news all around:

1) Armor pieces are 33 light gloves and boots, which I already have for all of my characters (4 from loot drops, 2 from purchase);

2) Weapon offered: a solar sniper rifle with good impact that might be decent but probably is not worth the grinding to IB rank 4, and an auto rifle with max fire rate and min impact (the worst kind) that definitely don't feel worth grinding to rank 5;

3) Same emblems and shaders as the last time;

4) reforge only changes upgrades, max damage is still at 300. I verified this by wasting 2 MoL on the ScoutR I bought last time. Well, not exactly a waste because I did get a better version of the weapon, would have been great if the damage is upgraded as well;

Basically, I see almost no incentive for me to do any grinding on this. So this IB is only good for me as a way to finish my Bad Juju bounty.

Generally speaking: it feels like Bungie is not even makeing an effort to make IB attractive. Had they provided some good weapon offerings, like raid legendary quality, it could have been a lot more enticing.

[qupie]

I am also a bit disappointed about the weapons. I am still going to buy some boots for my warlock though, and it is a great way to earn some crusible marks in the meanwhile!

[wings]

Well that is a shame. Bungie decided to not to bother having some Titan armour with Intellect and Discipline that can be purchased with Vanguard Marks so Iron Banner would have been good now. 36 Light gear would have been worth it but I can get my armour with the Crucible without worrying too much about not being level 30 because I have started using the Helm of Saint-14 (max Discipline of 122) to upgrade it.

Bungie are treating this Iron Banner like an add-on, just like the Crucible really. Pity. I would play it regularly but it takes an age to reach the Crucible Marks cap compared to Vanguard and then some matches reach the timer limit in Rumble because everyone bar the winner gets 2 Crucible Marks so there is not incentive to try and catch up with first place. And then those Crucible bounties are either easy to get or hamper gameplay like Buckshot Bruiser etc.

[iw5000]

Dec 15, 2014 18:51:09 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

Since armor is not going to provide any incentives, all eyes will be on IB weapon offerings (except for Marko, who will have his eyes firmly fixed upon shaders ). Last IB had at least 2 very solid offerings: Perun's Fire Fusion Rifle and Jolden's Hammer machine gun. I would not be surprised if this time there are solid offerings as well.

uh...i'm going to disagree Witty. They weren't very solid as offerings because in less than a month, the Perun and Jolden both became outdated and worthless. I have both and they are now collecting dust. Never really got to use them. File that under a waste of time.

Here's a nice video reminder of just shitty the Crucible is....

[hebbnh]

Dec 16, 2014 4:58:29 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

IB just became available and I checked it out, bad news all around:

1) Armor pieces are 33 light gloves and boots, which I already have for all of my characters (4 from loot drops, 2 from purchase);

2) Weapon offered: a solar sniper rifle with good impact that might be decent but probably is not worth the grinding to IB rank 4, and an auto rifle with max fire rate and min impact (the worst kind) that definitely don't feel worth grinding to rank 5;

3) Same emblems and shaders as the last time;

4) reforge only changes upgrades, max damage is still at 300. I verified this by wasting 2 MoL on the ScoutR I bought last time. Well, not exactly a waste because I did get a better version of the weapon, would have been great if the damage is upgraded as well;

Basically, I see almost no incentive for me to do any grinding on this. So this IB is only good for me as a way to finish my Bad Juju bounty.

Generally speaking: it feels like Bungie is not even makeing an effort to make IB attractive. Had they provided some good weapon offerings, like raid legendary quality, it could have been a lot more enticing.

Good grief.  Why does it always have to be 2 steps forward and one step back with this stuff?  Actually that's too generous.  More like one step forward, 3 steps back.  Emblems, shaders, and class items staying the same was expected, but the reforge not upgrading weapons to 331 ATK is beyond ridiculous.  I feel bad for people that wasted a ton of motes reforging weapons to get a perfect perk setup, only to see that weapon be made obsolete within a month.  There are people on reddit who dumped HUNDREDS of motes on that, all for nothing.  I'd say it's unbelievable, but it's pretty much par for the course so far.  Stupid, but I guess I can safely break down my Timur's Lash for the extra energies (yeah, like I really need more of those...).  33 light gloves and boots?  Of course -- can't have people saving up their commendations by giving away helmets and chests in the IB.  Didn't they do gloves and boots last time anyway?  Not to mention how much of a waste this is for anyone who's already finished the Eris/Xur quest line.  Bottom line for me?  I'll be avoiding this event entirely, just like the first IB. Complete waste of time.

The only good takeaway from this?  If they announce an IB event within the first week or two of the next DLC, you won't have to worry so much about grinding for new vendor gear on opening week since you'll be able to grind IB on week 2 instead.  At least I guess that's good -- spread the grinding out so it doesn't feel as grindy, even though it still is.  Bungie needs to get their shit sorted out, and quickly.  People will tolerate this stuff once since it's the first DLC, but if this is going to be the status quo for every new DLC release, the player base is going to have a massive dropoff as people realize there's no point in staying on the hamster wheel.

[wings]

Dec 16, 2014 8:30:37 GMT -5 hebbnh said:

Dec 16, 2014 4:58:29 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

but I guess I can safely break down my Timur's Lash for the extra energies (yeah, like I really need more of those...).

Well I broke down my Jolder's Hammer and I didn't get any Ascendany Energy so I'm not sure if breaking down Timur's Lash will give them either.

[iw5000]

For what it's worth Heb, I broke down some of my Iron Banner 30 gear a few days ago and got NOTHING back in return. No Ascendant Shards. So I am not expecting any Ascendant Energies from my Jolders or Perun's Fire. Thanks Bungie. I only spent like 18,000 glimmer for those two IB guns, and never even had time to fully level them up before you made them obsolete with your new DLC. Thanks and fuck off. Assholes.

As far Bungie getting their shit together, ain't going to happen. They already got their money from us. This gaming model is not subscription based. So there is very little new money that will be coming in, and what it's in the content pipeline is just already finished stuff that is already in the game (More rooms opened with the next DLC). This game is on auto-pilot right now, with a skeleton staff assigned from Bungie to handle the remainder of the year. This Iron Banner is case in point. There's no adapting to the community here. And their true colors are showing....

....they just want us to keep grinding. To Bungie, they think grinding is the sole answer for quantity (or quality) of content. Not enough rooms in the new DLC? No big deal, we'll just get the player base to grind an extra 20 hours for guns and they'll never be the wiser. Players might be getting the Raid done to soon? No worries, we'll just occupy them with twenty more hours of gun and gear grinding.

[wings]

Dec 16, 2014 9:19:12 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Players might be getting the Raid done to soon? No worries, we'll just occupy them with twenty more hours of gun and gear grinding.

They will just nerf cheese spots and claim it as a bug purely because it makes players get something easier. However, bugs that makes things harder, like the ammo loss due to death/orbit/cut scenes from ammo buffs from armour, remain unfixed.

I'm wondering to bother with Nightfall because I will end up getting Ascendant Materials or Strange Coins, which is not worth my time.

[iw5000]

I think everyone should re-evaluate what you spend your time on. Right now, Bungie is playing it's customers for fools. They are laughing at all of us.

[hebbnh]

Well in that case I guess I'll just hold on to it for now on the off chance they actually allow reforging/upgrading old weapons into new 331 ATK versions for the next Iron Banner. Kind of ironic that the stuff people had to grind the most for is the most worthless stuff in the game to break down, isn't it?

As far as adapting to the community, I don't know. They've (supposedly) improved raid drops for Crota's End by taking into account how long it's been since you've gotten a certain drop, and trying to They nailed Iron Banner 2.0 in my opinion, and a lot of those changes seemed to stem from the complaints about the first IB being shit. The 2.0 rewards were worth the grind, at the time at least, and the level advantages were actually noticeable and important. This time? They just left it the same as last time, and the rewards basically make it the equivalent of IB 1.0. There's no reason for someone who's level 31 to participate at all because the weapons are junk. Boots are more or less the only reason for everyone else because you can get gloves for "free" through other means. I didn't expect them to hand out 36 light gear so we'd be seeing level 32s this soon, but at least make the weapons worth having and sell more than one armor piece that's relevant. I would've been tempted if there was a helmet available, for example, but they gave out the two cheapest pieces of gear instead. I don't get it -- they consistently fix something only to break it again.

You keep saying they want us to keep grinding. I ask, what the hell am I supposed to grind? I would grind IB if there was a good reason to, but there isn't. I'm going to be 31 on 3 different class characters by the end of this week, so I don't really need to grind marks or bounties. I'm not in a rush to level up weapons because I haven't gotten any 331 ATK ones worth upgrading except for exotics, and I'm halfway done with those and they'll be finished in a week or two whether I grind hardcore or not. I won't be buying many/any vendor weapons so I won't have anything to grind on that front until I get some raid guns, and again, it won't take all that much effort to level those up anyway. I'm more or less back to where I was a month ago -- Nightfalls, Weeklies, and Raids are pretty much the only thing worth doing. Honestly that's probably a good thing because I spend entirely too much time on Destiny, so only have 9 activities a week to really concern myself with means I can cut back my playtime quite a bit. Tuesday, Thursday, and some time on the weekends will be about it for the foreseeable future unless I have free time and nothing better to do. Like last night, after I said I was taking the day off, I ended up playing Destiny all night anyway LOL. Terrible.

[mannon]

The rewards are very disappointing for this IB. Less IB3 than IB2.0.1... I don't understand the weapons. In fact it seems like the only nod towards the expansion's changes was bumping the armor from 30 to 33 light, which is kinda pointless except for people who pretty much only play Crucible.

I'm split. I really enjoyed the last one and really wanted to push myself and play the hell out of this one, but now I'm not sure. I could get the cool shader I missed out on last time and that would be really neat. But with no other rewards of any real merit is it worth it? I even fantasized about getting the armor just for the options and bragging rights, but what's really the point? I don't have the materials to upgrade the gear I have now. My time would be better spent farming materials and marks to get those and faction to get a new AR.

I dunno. I'm going to take it one day at a time and we'll see. I had a lot of fun with IB last time. If it's fun I'll play it. If not then maybe I grind out some stuff to raise my level. I also still haven't unlocked Mars... which is an issue now that I need iron. ;3 Though I could purchase it, and why not, not much else on offer anymore from the Vanguard. It's weird how Bungie somehow managed to nerf both the old legendary weapons and vendor weapons by giving us higher attack weapons that are otherwise kinda crap. I guess the idea was the new weapons would be better at end game content, but still not as good at everything else... or something.

I dunno, and I don't think Bungie does either. We'll have to wait for a few patches to see what happens. The game had been tweaked to working quite well and now the DLC has just really messed up the ecology.

[markopolo]

Um......

No.

[mannon]

Dec 16, 2014 10:13:54 GMT -5 hebbnh said:

Well in that case I guess I'll just hold on to it for now on the off chance they actually allow reforging/upgrading old weapons into new 331 ATK versions for the next Iron Banner. Kind of ironic that the stuff people had to grind the most for is the most worthless stuff in the game to break down, isn't it?

It is and it isn't. Thing is they learned from the first QW event that they had to nerf the shards/energies on such event items because once someone achieved a higher rank they could simply purchase and dismantle to their heart's content and convert all their glimmer directly to shards and energy... which at the time were far more valuable than post TDB. All event items since then have not yielded shards or energy, so it isn't exactly breaking news.

[mannon]

Dec 16, 2014 10:26:26 GMT -5 markopolo said:

Um......

No.

Don't worry, I won't drag you into IB this time. The rewards just aren't there... Though I think it could be fun if we stuck together, and there is that shader that's supposed to look pretty sweet on warlocks.

I may just farm this week. Plus there are soooo many bounties now! I love PvE bounties. And I've got a TDB quest and the Bad Juju quest to work on. But I'm not up to the part of Bad Juju that IB can help with. I gotta run strikes. So... many... strikes... Guess I should strap in and run Debil's Lair a bunch.

[markopolo]

Dec 16, 2014 10:32:08 GMT -5 mannon said:

Dec 16, 2014 10:26:26 GMT -5 markopolo said:

Um......

No.

Don't worry, I won't drag you into IB this time. The rewards just aren't there... Though I think it could be fun if we stuck together, and there is that shader that's supposed to look pretty sweet on warlocks.

I may just farm this week. Plus there are soooo many bounties now! I love PvE bounties. And I've got a TDB quest and the Bad Juju quest to work on. But I'm not up to the part of Bad Juju that IB can help with. I gotta run strikes. So... many... strikes... Guess I should strap in and run Debil's Lair a bunch.

Nah... grind some rank n rep with me in the Cosmodrome... we'll get the shards and get to level 30, and then drop into the new raid for 30 seconds and then leave

[hebbnh]

Dec 16, 2014 10:27:54 GMT -5 mannon said:

Dec 16, 2014 10:13:54 GMT -5 hebbnh said:

Well in that case I guess I'll just hold on to it for now on the off chance they actually allow reforging/upgrading old weapons into new 331 ATK versions for the next Iron Banner. Kind of ironic that the stuff people had to grind the most for is the most worthless stuff in the game to break down, isn't it?

It is and it isn't. Thing is they learned from the first QW event that they had to nerf the shards/energies on such event items because once someone achieved a higher rank they could simply purchase and dismantle to their heart's content and convert all their glimmer directly to shards and energy... which at the time were far more valuable than post TDB. All event items since then have not yielded shards or energy, so it isn't exactly breaking news.

QW grind <<<<< IB grind.  QW missions took 5 - 10 minutes for a piece of gear after you completed a bounty that you probably would've completed while doing Vanguard bounties anyway.  So I can see why they took that away.  IB on the other hand took hours of grinding across several days to rank up enough to buy stuff, and even then it's not like the gear was cheap.  Personally I think 10K glimmer is more valuable than a couple shards or energies.  It's not a big deal either way, just one more thing about the game that doesn't really make sense to me.

[iw5000]

Dec 16, 2014 7:09:42 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Dec 15, 2014 18:51:09 GMT -5 wittyscorpion said:

Since armor is not going to provide any incentives, all eyes will be on IB weapon offerings (except for Marko, who will have his eyes firmly fixed upon shaders ). Last IB had at least 2 very solid offerings: Perun's Fire Fusion Rifle and Jolden's Hammer machine gun. I would not be surprised if this time there are solid offerings as well.

uh...i'm going to disagree Witty. They weren't very solid as offerings because in less than a month, the Perun and Jolden both became outdated and worthless. I have both and they are now collecting dust. Never really got to use them. File that under a waste of time.

Here's a nice video reminder of just shitty the Crucible is....

I put this up earlier. Could someone please explain to me what is happening in these deaths I experienced? Thought it might be relevant with the IB coming up this week.

[mannon]

Yeah the IB gear did cost a LOT of glimmer, but it was pretty easy to farm glimmer as well. I think Bungie decided it was safer to just keep the shard/energy nerf in place for IB gear rather than give the community a means to farm guaranteed shards and energy. As is you get the daily and first public event and all else is RNG dependant.

[hebbnh]

Massive, game breakingly bad lag there, IW. I've only seen it that bad a couple times in the last IB event. One guy on the other team was basically unkillable and put up 9000 something points.

[iw5000]

Dec 16, 2014 11:16:40 GMT -5 hebbnh said:

Massive, game breakingly bad lag there, IW. I've only seen it that bad a couple times in the last IB event. One guy on the other team was basically unkillable and put up 9000 something points.

I've done a few Crucible games here and there over the past two weeks. Regular crucible. The above weirdness, I have seen probably in every other game. Where opponents are immune to punches. Fusion rifles don't kill after three, four plus shots. Very frustrating. Take that first scene. I hit the opponent with an UP CLOSE fusion shot, which should be one shot kill. Then I punched him SEVEN times before he died. WTF? Again, seeing this at least every other game, maybe 1 in 3. I have probably close to twenty clips saved of this stuff. After while, I put that montage together just to show people.


I mean, come on. There is lag, ....and then there is this. Even the worst CoD lag ever, one is talking about 50 to 99 milliseconds typically. 100 milliseconds at times. Maybe 400 tops. What I am seeing in some of these Crucible matches is like five to six FULL SECONDS of lag. Crazy.

It leads me to think there is a new cheat glitch out there. Watch the later clips, it's not all lag.

[n1gh7]

Dec 16, 2014 10:52:46 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

Dec 16, 2014 7:09:42 GMT -5 iw5000 said:

uh...i'm going to disagree Witty. They weren't very solid as offerings because in less than a month, the Perun and Jolden both became outdated and worthless. I have both and they are now collecting dust. Never really got to use them. File that under a waste of time.

Here's a nice video reminder of just shitty the Crucible is....

I put this up earlier. Could someone please explain to me what is happening in these deaths I experienced? Thought it might be relevant with the IB coming up this week.

It was either people lagging, or your aim not being perfect. I wouldn't recommend using fusion rifles at that range. I honestly have never had issues like those... It almost seems as if the melee lunge is broken. Actually, you probably killed him with your first melees. It's just that the other player was lagging so badly they didn't die on your screen until a few melees later.

Next clip seemed to be fine. You melee'd him and he lost most of his shields.

Next one, you missed the second shot, and the third didn't have all the shots hit. Then your grenade ended up on the wrong side of the barrier so he shot you.

[iw5000]

The one roof sequence (0:30 sec) I am a bit far away. I get that. But watch the video, my aim is pretty solid. First two shots are hit. The third might be off by a bit. Regardless, three shots, PLUS a solar grenade right on top of him.....and he doesn't die. Really?

And in the last sequence, how is that fine? No range issue (0:45). Direct hit, zero damage. I retreat. Go in the hallway, get another direct hit (no damage on him), PLUS a punch.....and I die. Really?

[hebbnh]

The only consistent thing there is you're showing a red bar connection on the right side of the scoreboard every time you die, IW. Guys that kill you vary between terrible and great connection, but yours is always terrible at least according to the scoreboard thing. Who knows how accurate that is, but it might be a network issue on your end.