A smarti's guide to 2nd/3rd character progression
Sept 27, 2015 5:19:08 GMT -5
Pegasus Actual, markopolo, and 1 more like this
Post by wittyscorpion on Sept 27, 2015 5:19:08 GMT -5
(Note: this post is a work in progress. I'll continue to add more stuff as I get deeper on my 2nd).
Throughout this post, I am using the word "primary" to referring to your leading character, and "alternates' to refer to your 2nd and 3rd characters.
Prelude
As we are getting our primary characters deeper and deeper into quests and raids, at some point the return-on-play-time-investment from that character will drop significantly. That would be a good time to start thinking about progressing 2nd and 3rd characters. The purpose of this post is to provide information on how to do this as effectively as possible.
Unlock the new subclass
This is a no brainer and I guess most bros have already done it:
1) do the first mission in The Taken King story quest, "The Coming War";
2) Go back to Tower, talk to the class Vanguard and pick up the new subclass quest;
3) Complete the subclass quest;
After that you will need to get through the subclass upgrade tree and eventually unlock everything. Earn various experiences to progress through that (bounties, etc);
The "Light" game
In parallel to the above step, you can bring up the light of your alternates without even playing it, by doing the following:
1) After getting at least 1 290+ for each class specific slot (helm, gauntlet, chest, boots, class items, artifacts) at your primary character, start considering to decode any new engrams you earn at your alternates;
2) Decode these engrams at alternates instead. Make sure to max the light first by i) temporarily moving the highest weapons + ghost shell from your primary over, and ii) max total defense on Armor + Class Item + Artifact;
3) When doing the above, you can consider the following strategy when deciding 2nd vs. 3rd character:
i) Focus on getting 2nd to 290+ light;
ii) Then switch focus to 3rd character;
iii) When both are around 290: choose the character that has lower value for the corresponding slot; (e.g.: say your 2nd character's max defense on helm is 283, and your 3rd is 289, then do it on 2nd;
4) Alternatively to the 1-3 above: keep in mind that you can infuse legendary pieces with gear from a different class. Once you get a legendary piece with solid perks and stats rolls you like, and provided that you have plenty of marks to spend on infusion, you can bring the light up on your alternates by consuming pieces from your primary. The good thing about this strategy is that since your primary is at significantly higher light level, decoding engrams there can statistically give you significantly higher valued gear.
By simply doing the above, you'll be able to get your alternates to 290+ light fairly quickly (I have my Hunter at 298, and I am able to bring my warlock to 297 and my Titan to 295 in just a couple of days).
This step can be done in parallel with the steps below.
Rank up gunsmith to get class specific weapons
This step is also in parallel to the steps below.
If at all possible, complete Gunsmith weekly field tests on your alternates. They are fairly quick to do, and can rank you up on Gunsmith rep. The benefits:
1) The higher the rank, the more armsday orders you can place. If nothing else, this is an easy way to earn marks, not to mention that Gunsmith can offer some really solid legendary weapons;
2) The higher the rank, the more choices (of different perks) you have when picking up your order;
3) Each time you rank up, you get a package of goodies from Gunsmith;
Most importantly:
4) Upon reaching rank 2, you get a weapon quest which leads to class specific legendary special weapons (Hunter -> SniperR, Titan -> Shotty, Warlock -> FusionR);
5) Upon reaching rank 3, you get a weapon quest which leads to a class specific exotic primary weapons (Hunter -> Hand Cannon, Titan -> AutorR, Warlock -> ScoutR);
These quests are easy and quick, and the weapons are great to have.
Complete TTK story mission and Dreadnaught Patrol quests
Start investing bits of time into your alternates and knock out missions in TTK quest one by one. Lots of other stuff are gated by this quest.
Get another sword
The reason why you want to do this step is you can only get 1 sword from your primary character. If you want to collect all 3 legendary and 3 exotic swords that have different elemental properties and unique perks (on exotic version), you'll have to get through the sword quests 3 times (other exotic weapon quests on the other hand only need to be done once on your primary and then can be shared to other characters);
1) Complete the short and fairly painless Dreadnaught patrol quest. Make sure to pick up exactly 1 Calcified Fragment while doing this (this is a hidden requirement for quest "A Broken Will");
2) Go back to Tower;
3) Go around the Eris/Lord Shaxx/Vanguard section to pick up a whole bunch of side quests (or decline the ones you know for sure that you don't want to do again);
4) Come back to Eris for quest A Broken Will;
5) Follow quest instruction and talk to Lord Shaxx;
6) Follow quest instruction and purify the sword with Hadium Flakes and Motes;
7) Follow quest instruction to dispense planet mats Spinmedal / Relic Iron / Helium Filaments (different swords require different ones). This will conclude the "A Broken Will" quest;
8) Infuse the sword from 220 attack to 280 attack
9) Upgrade the sword until it has the last "bubble" yet to complete, then move the sword to your primary character that has already done A Sword Reforged quest, and follow instruction here, a lot of work can be skipped!
To get exotic version, Do NOT do this on separate characters, you can do it on 1 character, and save a lot of steps! (bigger, highlighted font for emphasis)
Follow these SGAs:
Short version - switch the sword to your main character before filling the last upgrade bubble. It will allow you to skip the PvP portion.
www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/3mbjxo/when_levelling_your_legendary_sword_for_the/
Get 300 Attack legendary special weapon
Complete the Neverending Battle quest you picked up at step 3) of the above section, and you'll have a choice between 300 attack Shotty and 300 attack FusionR. Since you can only choose one on your primary, you want want to do it again on your second to get the other.
This one is not that interesting, because once you start raiding on your primary, you'll get 300+ attack weapons. The main reason why you want to consider this is for collection purpose.
Also, going through 5 Vanguard Strikes -> 5 Heroic Vanguard Strikes -> Nightfall is interesting to do anyway:
a) Great way to play through the new strikes from different class/subclass perspective;
b) Y1 subclasses have strike specific quest steps that you can complete when doing this;
c) Doing consecutive strikes without going to orbit can give you streak bonus;
c) You'll want to do NF on your alternates at some point;
Get 300 Artifact
In parallel to the above step, you can complete The Court of Oryx quest for 300 artifact. This is THE sure way to get your artifact slot to reach 300. Otherwise you are at the Cryptarch's mercy.
This is a somewhat hidden quest. To unlock, do this:
1) Go to Dreadnaught Patrol -> Court of Oryx;
2) Kill one boss then immediately go back to Tower;
3) Talk to Eris, she will give you the quest;
To complete the quest: go to Court of Oryx, and initiate or join other players to get 6 tier 1 kills, 3 tier 2 kills, and 1 tier 3 kill.
The best way to do this is to form a big party of 3 fire teams, each with 3 players, through inviting players you see on the court. Once the party is formed, coordinate to make sure everybody knows what to do and what not to do, and just keep putting runes in one after another. The Court of Oryx also has streak bonus, so the more you do the better the reward.
Get 310 Artifact
To get this, you'll need to get the following quest chain:
1) TTK story mission quest;
2) -> TTK strike quests (Tip: instead of doing these quests directly, just do Neverending Battle, which will get you to play 11 strikes. By the time you are done, you are (almost) guaranteed to have played each of the new TTK strikes at least once);
3) -> The Taken War:Venus and The Taken War:Earth;
4) -> The Taken War:Mars
5) -> The Road to King's Fall
The last quest requires raid, so you should consider getting 1-4 done, as well as the first step of 5, before getting your character into raid (Nice to have, not a big deal if you can't since most likely you'll be running through the raid multiple times)
Throughout this post, I am using the word "primary" to referring to your leading character, and "alternates' to refer to your 2nd and 3rd characters.
Prelude
As we are getting our primary characters deeper and deeper into quests and raids, at some point the return-on-play-time-investment from that character will drop significantly. That would be a good time to start thinking about progressing 2nd and 3rd characters. The purpose of this post is to provide information on how to do this as effectively as possible.
Unlock the new subclass
This is a no brainer and I guess most bros have already done it:
1) do the first mission in The Taken King story quest, "The Coming War";
2) Go back to Tower, talk to the class Vanguard and pick up the new subclass quest;
3) Complete the subclass quest;
After that you will need to get through the subclass upgrade tree and eventually unlock everything. Earn various experiences to progress through that (bounties, etc);
The "Light" game
In parallel to the above step, you can bring up the light of your alternates without even playing it, by doing the following:
1) After getting at least 1 290+ for each class specific slot (helm, gauntlet, chest, boots, class items, artifacts) at your primary character, start considering to decode any new engrams you earn at your alternates;
2) Decode these engrams at alternates instead. Make sure to max the light first by i) temporarily moving the highest weapons + ghost shell from your primary over, and ii) max total defense on Armor + Class Item + Artifact;
3) When doing the above, you can consider the following strategy when deciding 2nd vs. 3rd character:
i) Focus on getting 2nd to 290+ light;
ii) Then switch focus to 3rd character;
iii) When both are around 290: choose the character that has lower value for the corresponding slot; (e.g.: say your 2nd character's max defense on helm is 283, and your 3rd is 289, then do it on 2nd;
4) Alternatively to the 1-3 above: keep in mind that you can infuse legendary pieces with gear from a different class. Once you get a legendary piece with solid perks and stats rolls you like, and provided that you have plenty of marks to spend on infusion, you can bring the light up on your alternates by consuming pieces from your primary. The good thing about this strategy is that since your primary is at significantly higher light level, decoding engrams there can statistically give you significantly higher valued gear.
By simply doing the above, you'll be able to get your alternates to 290+ light fairly quickly (I have my Hunter at 298, and I am able to bring my warlock to 297 and my Titan to 295 in just a couple of days).
This step can be done in parallel with the steps below.
Rank up gunsmith to get class specific weapons
This step is also in parallel to the steps below.
If at all possible, complete Gunsmith weekly field tests on your alternates. They are fairly quick to do, and can rank you up on Gunsmith rep. The benefits:
1) The higher the rank, the more armsday orders you can place. If nothing else, this is an easy way to earn marks, not to mention that Gunsmith can offer some really solid legendary weapons;
2) The higher the rank, the more choices (of different perks) you have when picking up your order;
3) Each time you rank up, you get a package of goodies from Gunsmith;
Most importantly:
4) Upon reaching rank 2, you get a weapon quest which leads to class specific legendary special weapons (Hunter -> SniperR, Titan -> Shotty, Warlock -> FusionR);
5) Upon reaching rank 3, you get a weapon quest which leads to a class specific exotic primary weapons (Hunter -> Hand Cannon, Titan -> AutorR, Warlock -> ScoutR);
These quests are easy and quick, and the weapons are great to have.
Complete TTK story mission and Dreadnaught Patrol quests
Start investing bits of time into your alternates and knock out missions in TTK quest one by one. Lots of other stuff are gated by this quest.
Get another sword
The reason why you want to do this step is you can only get 1 sword from your primary character. If you want to collect all 3 legendary and 3 exotic swords that have different elemental properties and unique perks (on exotic version), you'll have to get through the sword quests 3 times (other exotic weapon quests on the other hand only need to be done once on your primary and then can be shared to other characters);
1) Complete the short and fairly painless Dreadnaught patrol quest. Make sure to pick up exactly 1 Calcified Fragment while doing this (this is a hidden requirement for quest "A Broken Will");
2) Go back to Tower;
3) Go around the Eris/Lord Shaxx/Vanguard section to pick up a whole bunch of side quests (or decline the ones you know for sure that you don't want to do again);
4) Come back to Eris for quest A Broken Will;
5) Follow quest instruction and talk to Lord Shaxx;
6) Follow quest instruction and purify the sword with Hadium Flakes and Motes;
7) Follow quest instruction to dispense planet mats Spinmedal / Relic Iron / Helium Filaments (different swords require different ones). This will conclude the "A Broken Will" quest;
8) Infuse the sword from 220 attack to 280 attack
9) Upgrade the sword until it has the last "bubble" yet to complete, then move the sword to your primary character that has already done A Sword Reforged quest, and follow instruction here, a lot of work can be skipped!
To get exotic version, Do NOT do this on separate characters, you can do it on 1 character, and save a lot of steps! (bigger, highlighted font for emphasis)
Follow these SGAs:
Good info on completing the exotic sword quest for a second character.
Short version - switch the sword to your main character before filling the last upgrade bubble. It will allow you to skip the PvP portion.
www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/3mbjxo/when_levelling_your_legendary_sword_for_the/
Fantastic thought I just had for everyone who hasn't gotten an exotic sword yet: Hold off on running the Darkblade special strike to finish that quest and get your exotic until you acquire all 3 legendary swords and have all three of them to the final stage in the questline. Why? You might be able to finish off all three of them by doing just the one strike. Hmmmmmmmmm.
Get 300 Attack legendary special weapon
Complete the Neverending Battle quest you picked up at step 3) of the above section, and you'll have a choice between 300 attack Shotty and 300 attack FusionR. Since you can only choose one on your primary, you want want to do it again on your second to get the other.
This one is not that interesting, because once you start raiding on your primary, you'll get 300+ attack weapons. The main reason why you want to consider this is for collection purpose.
Also, going through 5 Vanguard Strikes -> 5 Heroic Vanguard Strikes -> Nightfall is interesting to do anyway:
a) Great way to play through the new strikes from different class/subclass perspective;
b) Y1 subclasses have strike specific quest steps that you can complete when doing this;
c) Doing consecutive strikes without going to orbit can give you streak bonus;
c) You'll want to do NF on your alternates at some point;
Get 300 Artifact
In parallel to the above step, you can complete The Court of Oryx quest for 300 artifact. This is THE sure way to get your artifact slot to reach 300. Otherwise you are at the Cryptarch's mercy.
This is a somewhat hidden quest. To unlock, do this:
1) Go to Dreadnaught Patrol -> Court of Oryx;
2) Kill one boss then immediately go back to Tower;
3) Talk to Eris, she will give you the quest;
To complete the quest: go to Court of Oryx, and initiate or join other players to get 6 tier 1 kills, 3 tier 2 kills, and 1 tier 3 kill.
The best way to do this is to form a big party of 3 fire teams, each with 3 players, through inviting players you see on the court. Once the party is formed, coordinate to make sure everybody knows what to do and what not to do, and just keep putting runes in one after another. The Court of Oryx also has streak bonus, so the more you do the better the reward.
Get 310 Artifact
To get this, you'll need to get the following quest chain:
1) TTK story mission quest;
2) -> TTK strike quests (Tip: instead of doing these quests directly, just do Neverending Battle, which will get you to play 11 strikes. By the time you are done, you are (almost) guaranteed to have played each of the new TTK strikes at least once);
3) -> The Taken War:Venus and The Taken War:Earth;
4) -> The Taken War:Mars
5) -> The Road to King's Fall
The last quest requires raid, so you should consider getting 1-4 done, as well as the first step of 5, before getting your character into raid (Nice to have, not a big deal if you can't since most likely you'll be running through the raid multiple times)