Destiny; April Content Broken Down
Hi Guys,
Okay so the Bungie stream just finished, and I want to talk to you about what was announced, then what I like and disliked. First of all there will be a new Light Level cap of 335, which is something that will divide players, I personally don't mind this, it is a big enough raise to keep me busy for a while. At the end of the day, we are getting one new "Raid" like encounter, 1 revamped Strike and 1 new Strike, so they could have made 350, but items would drop at higher level. So to achieve the new Light Level Cap, there is a revamped Prison of Elders, which is made up of two versions, a match made light level 260, and a 320 light level non match made version. In the 260 version, you no longer need a Key for the big chest in the loot room, instead you can complete it as many times per week as you want, opening that chest as many times as you want. Deej mentioned briefly that Legendary Marks would be earned in the 260 version, along with Engrams will drop, and Vanguard Bounties can be completed in this version. The 320 variant is where the meat of this update rests, you must buy a ticket to gain entry to the Challenge of Elders, and it features 3 bosses, which must be killed along with additional enemies, this being because all enemy kills earn you and your fireteam points. These points are added up on your Ticket and will reward you accordingly. So the first reward that can be earned is for gathering 30,000 points in one match(containing 3 rounds) so it will not be as simple as rushing in and killing the boss, quite the opposite, you want to make sure the boss lives, in order to spawn more enemies, to earn your bonus. This will award you with a weapon, which in the stream was dropped at 335 light, though I would assume it is not a guaranteed 335 drop. Then there is the other point tally, for which you must earn 90,000 points, though this can be done in multiple games, with multiple different players. This will reward you with an armour piece, which I again will assume can drop up to 335. I would be a bit disappointed if they are guaranteed 335 level drops, as this would make getting to the new cap fairly easy, but on the flip side to this, 3 guaranteed high end weapons per week, would bring be back to see if I can get something interesting. You will also be able to do Kings Fall at new light levels, with normal mode dropping 320 gear, and hard mode dropping 330 gear, you can then get a 335 artifact from the Court of Oryx. On top of this there will be the afore mentioned new Strike, which will see us taking down Malok, we didn't see any gameplay from this strike, just clips of the boss and arena.
Okay so the Bungie stream just finished, and I want to talk to you about what was announced, then what I like and disliked. First of all there will be a new Light Level cap of 335, which is something that will divide players, I personally don't mind this, it is a big enough raise to keep me busy for a while. At the end of the day, we are getting one new "Raid" like encounter, 1 revamped Strike and 1 new Strike, so they could have made 350, but items would drop at higher level. So to achieve the new Light Level Cap, there is a revamped Prison of Elders, which is made up of two versions, a match made light level 260, and a 320 light level non match made version. In the 260 version, you no longer need a Key for the big chest in the loot room, instead you can complete it as many times per week as you want, opening that chest as many times as you want. Deej mentioned briefly that Legendary Marks would be earned in the 260 version, along with Engrams will drop, and Vanguard Bounties can be completed in this version. The 320 variant is where the meat of this update rests, you must buy a ticket to gain entry to the Challenge of Elders, and it features 3 bosses, which must be killed along with additional enemies, this being because all enemy kills earn you and your fireteam points. These points are added up on your Ticket and will reward you accordingly. So the first reward that can be earned is for gathering 30,000 points in one match(containing 3 rounds) so it will not be as simple as rushing in and killing the boss, quite the opposite, you want to make sure the boss lives, in order to spawn more enemies, to earn your bonus. This will award you with a weapon, which in the stream was dropped at 335 light, though I would assume it is not a guaranteed 335 drop. Then there is the other point tally, for which you must earn 90,000 points, though this can be done in multiple games, with multiple different players. This will reward you with an armour piece, which I again will assume can drop up to 335. I would be a bit disappointed if they are guaranteed 335 level drops, as this would make getting to the new cap fairly easy, but on the flip side to this, 3 guaranteed high end weapons per week, would bring be back to see if I can get something interesting. You will also be able to do Kings Fall at new light levels, with normal mode dropping 320 gear, and hard mode dropping 330 gear, you can then get a 335 artifact from the Court of Oryx. On top of this there will be the afore mentioned new Strike, which will see us taking down Malok, we didn't see any gameplay from this strike, just clips of the boss and arena.
So there is your recap, now I want to talk about how this makes me feel. Generally I like the additions, the Light Cap is lower than I would have liked, but it couldn't and shouldn't be higher without extra new content. Which is my only real problem with the reveal, I don't feel that they have put that much effort into this update, new armour and weapons sure, but the new bosses seem to be Taken reskins of existing enemies, and as far as I could tell the Prison hadn't changed aesthetically. The only truly new content is a new Mission and Strike, the Mission we know nothing about, and the Strike is a totally new boss, that we will sadly be fighting in an arena we already know. Now this all means that future content is getting more attention, and I am okay with this, especially as they have just done enough to bring me back to Destiny. Though I'm not sure there is enough here to bring people back who are less devoted to the game, and I'm not sure it can keep me engaged for more the a couple of weeks. Which is fine, especially considering this update is being given to everyone totally free of charge as long as you bought The Taken King expansion. Lastly I want to talk about what I think I would like changed from what we saw, firstly is an endless mode, where by wave after wave of enemies with more health, and who also appear in greater number are thrust at you. This could open the possibility for a third point tally, that would require something huge like 1,000,000 points earned in a week, and guarantee a 335 Exotic. Seeing as they earned 30,000 points in maybe 20 minutes, with a polished team I think 1,000,000 could be done. I just feel like I could earn 90,000 points in an hour or less, and then that is the new content finished on one character for the week.
Anyway, all in all I am happy with what is coming to Destiny, there isn't tonnes, but it will bring me back to the game, and for that I am grateful to Bungie. However I'm not sure they have done a good enough job to bring anyone but the diehard fans of the game back, only time will tell if I am right!
Thank you very much for reading,
Ed
Twitter
Anyway, all in all I am happy with what is coming to Destiny, there isn't tonnes, but it will bring me back to the game, and for that I am grateful to Bungie. However I'm not sure they have done a good enough job to bring anyone but the diehard fans of the game back, only time will tell if I am right!
Thank you very much for reading,
Ed
Destiny; Challenge Mode Review
Hi Guys,
The last three weeks have seen a new event added to the Kings Fall Raid in Destiny, Challenge Mode, which has changed the way you need to kill one of the three main bosses. Today I want to do a recap of the three challenges, and talk about whether they are worth doing, and how challenging they actually are.
So in the first week we had the War Priest, which needed to be killed after the Aura was held with a different person every time. The Aura holder being the first person to step on the last plate. This was a rather disappointing challenge, as many people did it with either no change or little change to how they normally did the encounter. The team I did it with had no challenge what so ever completing it on Hard, and the reward was the 48th Calcified Fragment, an Emblem(only on Hard Mode), a guaranteed 320 on Hard, 310 on Normal, weapon to drop and a guaranteed 320 Hard or 310 Normal Arfifact to drop. By completing it on Hard Mode for the first time that week on any one character, you would you Normal and Hard Raid rewards, as well as Normal and Hard Challenge mode rewards. So I got a 320 Sniper, 310 Rocket launcher, a 320 and 310 Artifact along side the random rewards for completing the encounter for the first time on that character in the week. So looking back it was a disappointing change to the boss, but exceptional loot for those around light level 300 or 310. So people geared up and prepared for the Golgoroth Challenge the following week.
Golgoroth came around and was far more challenging that War Priest.... for the first few hours, then people worked out a way to make the encounter much easier, whilst still completing the challenge, which was that everyone had to hold Golgoroths gaze at least once per cycle. So what people worked out you could do, is the normal one Orb strategy where everyone drops down into the pool and does damage on the boss, they rather that doing damage for the following 5 gaze fazes, it is simply passed around safely from the side of the pit. I would be very surprised in Bungie intended this, as they said in a weekly update, "but apologies in advance to those that run the single-pool strat for Golgoroth"(full article). Anyway Bungies intentions aside this was much closer to what I had been imagining, it took me around about 2 hours to complete it, though I did need to find a second group to attempt it with, as I couldn't get it done with the first group. The rewards for Golgoroth followed a similar pattern to War Priest, with a guaranteed 320(Hard) or 310(Normal) piece of Armour, along with an emblem if completed on Hard, the 49th Calcified Fragment, and an artifact or two depending on difficulty. People then moved their sights to Oryx Challenge Mode, and speculation was everywhere as to what the challenge would be!
The following Tuesday rolled around and this one took a little longer for people to work out the challenge, people came to the conclusion, still only hours after the challenge was pushed live, that you would have to detonate all 16 orbs at once to complete the challenge. Many people, myself very much included, were very surprised by this, as when this strategy was first found a few months ago, many people could show that it crashed a lot of peoples consoles. Clearly hidden in one of the patches since these reports, that was fixed, and now people knew how to complete the final challenge. What you have to do, is save up four bombs in each area, totally 16, and then detonate them all at once, taking Oryx down to his last stand in one foul swoop. By doing this you will face 3 Shades of Oryx, as you won't need to run after the first cycle as there will be no damage done to Oryx. This challenge was by far the hardest for me to pull off, I attempted it with several groups, the majority of which disbanded due to the difficulty, however I eventually bested Oryx and claimed my prize, of either a Primary Weapon or Helmet at 320(Hard) or 310(Normal) Light Level, then the now standard 320/310 Artifact, an emblem(Hard Mode only) a new awesome Ship(Hard Mode only) and the much coveted 50th Calcified Fragment. Now assuming you have earned all the previous 49 fragments(as I had done), many people assumed there would be an amazing reward for collecting every fragment, after all it is a very hard thing to collect them all. What did we get I hear you ask? A Shader. Nothing more, nothing less. This has angered many people, myself included to some extent, and while some believe that there will be an Exotic quest that unlocks after a certain amount of time, I myself believe that we have had our reward, and will earn nothing further from the fragment collection. I'm okay with this, as the journey those 50 fragments took me on, was an amazing one, and while it was occasionally gruelling, it was worth it in the end, even if it all led to a Shader, we all will still have the tale of the 50.
Thank you very much for reading, I will post again after Christmas now, so I hope you have a wonderful time!
Ed
Twitter
The last three weeks have seen a new event added to the Kings Fall Raid in Destiny, Challenge Mode, which has changed the way you need to kill one of the three main bosses. Today I want to do a recap of the three challenges, and talk about whether they are worth doing, and how challenging they actually are.
So in the first week we had the War Priest, which needed to be killed after the Aura was held with a different person every time. The Aura holder being the first person to step on the last plate. This was a rather disappointing challenge, as many people did it with either no change or little change to how they normally did the encounter. The team I did it with had no challenge what so ever completing it on Hard, and the reward was the 48th Calcified Fragment, an Emblem(only on Hard Mode), a guaranteed 320 on Hard, 310 on Normal, weapon to drop and a guaranteed 320 Hard or 310 Normal Arfifact to drop. By completing it on Hard Mode for the first time that week on any one character, you would you Normal and Hard Raid rewards, as well as Normal and Hard Challenge mode rewards. So I got a 320 Sniper, 310 Rocket launcher, a 320 and 310 Artifact along side the random rewards for completing the encounter for the first time on that character in the week. So looking back it was a disappointing change to the boss, but exceptional loot for those around light level 300 or 310. So people geared up and prepared for the Golgoroth Challenge the following week.
Golgoroth came around and was far more challenging that War Priest.... for the first few hours, then people worked out a way to make the encounter much easier, whilst still completing the challenge, which was that everyone had to hold Golgoroths gaze at least once per cycle. So what people worked out you could do, is the normal one Orb strategy where everyone drops down into the pool and does damage on the boss, they rather that doing damage for the following 5 gaze fazes, it is simply passed around safely from the side of the pit. I would be very surprised in Bungie intended this, as they said in a weekly update, "but apologies in advance to those that run the single-pool strat for Golgoroth"(full article). Anyway Bungies intentions aside this was much closer to what I had been imagining, it took me around about 2 hours to complete it, though I did need to find a second group to attempt it with, as I couldn't get it done with the first group. The rewards for Golgoroth followed a similar pattern to War Priest, with a guaranteed 320(Hard) or 310(Normal) piece of Armour, along with an emblem if completed on Hard, the 49th Calcified Fragment, and an artifact or two depending on difficulty. People then moved their sights to Oryx Challenge Mode, and speculation was everywhere as to what the challenge would be!
The following Tuesday rolled around and this one took a little longer for people to work out the challenge, people came to the conclusion, still only hours after the challenge was pushed live, that you would have to detonate all 16 orbs at once to complete the challenge. Many people, myself very much included, were very surprised by this, as when this strategy was first found a few months ago, many people could show that it crashed a lot of peoples consoles. Clearly hidden in one of the patches since these reports, that was fixed, and now people knew how to complete the final challenge. What you have to do, is save up four bombs in each area, totally 16, and then detonate them all at once, taking Oryx down to his last stand in one foul swoop. By doing this you will face 3 Shades of Oryx, as you won't need to run after the first cycle as there will be no damage done to Oryx. This challenge was by far the hardest for me to pull off, I attempted it with several groups, the majority of which disbanded due to the difficulty, however I eventually bested Oryx and claimed my prize, of either a Primary Weapon or Helmet at 320(Hard) or 310(Normal) Light Level, then the now standard 320/310 Artifact, an emblem(Hard Mode only) a new awesome Ship(Hard Mode only) and the much coveted 50th Calcified Fragment. Now assuming you have earned all the previous 49 fragments(as I had done), many people assumed there would be an amazing reward for collecting every fragment, after all it is a very hard thing to collect them all. What did we get I hear you ask? A Shader. Nothing more, nothing less. This has angered many people, myself included to some extent, and while some believe that there will be an Exotic quest that unlocks after a certain amount of time, I myself believe that we have had our reward, and will earn nothing further from the fragment collection. I'm okay with this, as the journey those 50 fragments took me on, was an amazing one, and while it was occasionally gruelling, it was worth it in the end, even if it all led to a Shader, we all will still have the tale of the 50.
Thank you very much for reading, I will post again after Christmas now, so I hope you have a wonderful time!
Ed
The Taken King; Would Trading Be A Good Idea?
Hi guys,
Today I wanted to talk to you about something that Destiny players have been talking about since the game came out, namely the ability to trade weapons, armour pieces and other items with other players.
I have a very firm personal idea about whether trading should be in Destiny, but if I came out and told you that at the beginning it would make for a boring post! So in the name of a reasoned argument, I will maintain my air of mystery for a short while...
Let's look at the positives of trading first, balance of frequency. What I mean by that is the randomness in this game(or RNG as I will be referring to it as) can stop you getting the rewards you want for a very long time. My introducing trading people will get the reward they want, by sacrificing a reward they don't want. For example, I have had 2 Hawkmoons(check out my review for it Here!), 2 The Last Words, 2 Lucky Raspberries, and 3 Knucklehead Radars. However, I am yet to acquire even my first Ice Breaker or Mida Multi Tool, so surely it would be fair for me to swap my Hawkmoon for an Ice Breaker? Well this works on paper, but I think that in practice it would feel hollow for me to get my first Ice Breaker like that. I still live in hope that one of these days a Nightfall will drop one, or I will become extremely lucking in a Raid or even a Dragon Strike of Crucible Match. The thought that I would be handed one on a plate somehow makes the experience less rewarding. However as a counter to my counter, Xur exists in the game, this means that next week he could sell the Ice Breaker and I would doubtlessly pick it up, the same can be said for the Mida Multi Tool!
They are the positives of trading being added into Destiny, now let's look at the problems! As many of you should know, the Gjallahorn(the most powerful weapon in the game) was recently sold by Xur, this means that basically everyone in the game now has the Gjallahorn. This means that there is a slight(if not major) imbalance in the game. Thankfully this will not last long, as it has been recently confirmed that the Gjallahorn will not be coming with us into Year 2! However this kind of imbalance would constantly be happening because of the Trading. Imagine people who play this game all the time, I know of several people(leaders in the Destiny Twitch directory) who have probably earned over 10 Gjallahorns since the game was released. If these copies could then be distributed to other Guardians, the afore mentioned imbalance caused by Xur selling the Gjallahorn would be a near constant problem. The counter to this is that it might force Bungie to balance weapons more frequently, due to the number of people who will have the powerful weapon. Another issue with trading is the potential for duplication glitches, but I won't speculate on what glitch might be brought into the game.
Now I have looked at positives and negatives of introducing Trading into Destiny, let's look at some of the ways it could be balanced if it were to be introduced! Firstly the option that springs to mind is that you must have completed 5 Strikes and a total of 5 hours play time with the person you want to trade with. This might discourage people from selling weapons online, like they are doing with Flawless Trails Passages at the moment. Secondly, you could make it so that the traded weapon is slightly less powerful than it legitimately earned counter part. For example at the moment(at the end of Year 1) the highest Attack Stat is 365, maybe traded weapons could be capped at 345 instead. I think one of these, or any other nerf would need to be introduced to traded weapons, in order to balance them.
This whole time I have been talking about trading Exotic items, maybe they could introduce trading, but limit it to Legendary or lower tiers of rarity. If this were the case I think the only limitation that would need to be put in place was that you aren't allowed to trade Raid weapons or Trials of Osiris weapons. The problem with that is the fact that you are then left with a rather small pool of items that can be traded, so I doubt it would be worth implementing just for those few items!
All in all, I would be very happy to never see trading introduced into Destiny, I think I wouldn't feel I earned that weapon as much as getting it randomly. The ability to give the most powerful weapons to nearly everyone could be exploited very easily, which would reduce the balance of the game even further than it currently might be! Be sure to let me know what you think of trading being introduced into Destiny on Twitter!
Thanks for reading,
Ed
Today I wanted to talk to you about something that Destiny players have been talking about since the game came out, namely the ability to trade weapons, armour pieces and other items with other players.
I have a very firm personal idea about whether trading should be in Destiny, but if I came out and told you that at the beginning it would make for a boring post! So in the name of a reasoned argument, I will maintain my air of mystery for a short while...
Let's look at the positives of trading first, balance of frequency. What I mean by that is the randomness in this game(or RNG as I will be referring to it as) can stop you getting the rewards you want for a very long time. My introducing trading people will get the reward they want, by sacrificing a reward they don't want. For example, I have had 2 Hawkmoons(check out my review for it Here!), 2 The Last Words, 2 Lucky Raspberries, and 3 Knucklehead Radars. However, I am yet to acquire even my first Ice Breaker or Mida Multi Tool, so surely it would be fair for me to swap my Hawkmoon for an Ice Breaker? Well this works on paper, but I think that in practice it would feel hollow for me to get my first Ice Breaker like that. I still live in hope that one of these days a Nightfall will drop one, or I will become extremely lucking in a Raid or even a Dragon Strike of Crucible Match. The thought that I would be handed one on a plate somehow makes the experience less rewarding. However as a counter to my counter, Xur exists in the game, this means that next week he could sell the Ice Breaker and I would doubtlessly pick it up, the same can be said for the Mida Multi Tool!
They are the positives of trading being added into Destiny, now let's look at the problems! As many of you should know, the Gjallahorn(the most powerful weapon in the game) was recently sold by Xur, this means that basically everyone in the game now has the Gjallahorn. This means that there is a slight(if not major) imbalance in the game. Thankfully this will not last long, as it has been recently confirmed that the Gjallahorn will not be coming with us into Year 2! However this kind of imbalance would constantly be happening because of the Trading. Imagine people who play this game all the time, I know of several people(leaders in the Destiny Twitch directory) who have probably earned over 10 Gjallahorns since the game was released. If these copies could then be distributed to other Guardians, the afore mentioned imbalance caused by Xur selling the Gjallahorn would be a near constant problem. The counter to this is that it might force Bungie to balance weapons more frequently, due to the number of people who will have the powerful weapon. Another issue with trading is the potential for duplication glitches, but I won't speculate on what glitch might be brought into the game.
Now I have looked at positives and negatives of introducing Trading into Destiny, let's look at some of the ways it could be balanced if it were to be introduced! Firstly the option that springs to mind is that you must have completed 5 Strikes and a total of 5 hours play time with the person you want to trade with. This might discourage people from selling weapons online, like they are doing with Flawless Trails Passages at the moment. Secondly, you could make it so that the traded weapon is slightly less powerful than it legitimately earned counter part. For example at the moment(at the end of Year 1) the highest Attack Stat is 365, maybe traded weapons could be capped at 345 instead. I think one of these, or any other nerf would need to be introduced to traded weapons, in order to balance them.
This whole time I have been talking about trading Exotic items, maybe they could introduce trading, but limit it to Legendary or lower tiers of rarity. If this were the case I think the only limitation that would need to be put in place was that you aren't allowed to trade Raid weapons or Trials of Osiris weapons. The problem with that is the fact that you are then left with a rather small pool of items that can be traded, so I doubt it would be worth implementing just for those few items!
All in all, I would be very happy to never see trading introduced into Destiny, I think I wouldn't feel I earned that weapon as much as getting it randomly. The ability to give the most powerful weapons to nearly everyone could be exploited very easily, which would reduce the balance of the game even further than it currently might be! Be sure to let me know what you think of trading being introduced into Destiny on Twitter!
Thanks for reading,
Ed
The Taken King; Twitch Reveal 1
Hi guys,
If you didn't know last night(or afternoon depending on your time zone) Bungie held a Twitch reveal stream for the Tower, and looking ahead to Year 2. This is the first of three Twitch based reveals they will be hosting over the next few weeks! We learned about tons of stuff, and today I wanted to talk to you all about my highlights!
First up, I will start with the most obvious feature that many people myself included(you can check out my post on it Here!). Vault space is increased significantly Vault Space, it is being doubled to be specific! This means that we can now carry 72 weapons in out vault at any one time. The Armour section is also being more than doubled with 72 slots of armour as well!
Then we have probably my favourite set of additions, and they are the Legendary weapons, and how we acquire them! Firstly the Gunsmith in the Tower will now have a reputation meter, which can be ranked up by using specific White weapons, and completing specific challenges with each weapon. When you reach Rank 1, you will be allowed to purchase legendary weapons for 2,500 Glimmer, there are five to purchase each week, and they will be delivered to you every Wednesday(I presume 24 hours after reset!) which will now be called Armsday. Now I have a few things that I would like clearing up, firstly does our reputation with the Gunsmith reset each week, if not we are basically being given legendary weapons each week. Last night we saw that all five of the weapons required only Rank 1 in order to be ordered. Perhaps your reputation stays the same, but each weapon requires a new rank, so only when you have reached rank 5, will you be able to purchase all the weapons each week. Which leads me onto my next point, which is the number of weapons we are allowed to purchase, perhaps there is a cap per week, of say 2! All speculation aside, I am incredibly excited for this change, and I can't wait to learn the specifics!
Then we have Legendary Engrams which we will now be able to purchase from the Crypatch for varying levels of Legendary Marks(more on them in a second), it was also confirmed in the stream, that these do have a chance to decrypt as Exotic! This is an excellent what of gambling to get new weapons, that aren't available to purchase from the vendors! Don't worry about people spam buying them either, as they cost 135 Legendary Marks, which is a nice amount cheaper than the vendor weapons(by 15 marks).
I've mentioned Legendary Marks a few times now, so let's look closer that them! Gone are the separate Vanguard and Crucible Marks, in place we will now have Legendary Marks. This currency will now be one of the most used in the game, as you can buy a very wide variety of weapons and armour, from specialist vendors including New Monarchy, Dead Orbit and Future War Cult. I adore this change, as there are many faction weapons that I would like to buy now, but because I don't play tons of Crucible, I don't accumulate many Crucible Marks, and thus can't buy many! Due to the vast number of things you can spend these new Legendary Marks on, there will no longer be a cap on the number you can earn per week! You can still only hold 200 Marks at once, but you can spend those, earn more, and repeat the process as many times as you like! This is another amazing change that I am very excited for! As you can see below, this character is now earning 10 Legendary Marks for completing a Strike rather than the current 6 Marks. This could be due to some unknown buff, maybe from the new Ghost shells, but the ability to earn 10 per Strike is very nice!
If you didn't know last night(or afternoon depending on your time zone) Bungie held a Twitch reveal stream for the Tower, and looking ahead to Year 2. This is the first of three Twitch based reveals they will be hosting over the next few weeks! We learned about tons of stuff, and today I wanted to talk to you all about my highlights!
First up, I will start with the most obvious feature that many people myself included(you can check out my post on it Here!). Vault space is increased significantly Vault Space, it is being doubled to be specific! This means that we can now carry 72 weapons in out vault at any one time. The Armour section is also being more than doubled with 72 slots of armour as well!
Then we have probably my favourite set of additions, and they are the Legendary weapons, and how we acquire them! Firstly the Gunsmith in the Tower will now have a reputation meter, which can be ranked up by using specific White weapons, and completing specific challenges with each weapon. When you reach Rank 1, you will be allowed to purchase legendary weapons for 2,500 Glimmer, there are five to purchase each week, and they will be delivered to you every Wednesday(I presume 24 hours after reset!) which will now be called Armsday. Now I have a few things that I would like clearing up, firstly does our reputation with the Gunsmith reset each week, if not we are basically being given legendary weapons each week. Last night we saw that all five of the weapons required only Rank 1 in order to be ordered. Perhaps your reputation stays the same, but each weapon requires a new rank, so only when you have reached rank 5, will you be able to purchase all the weapons each week. Which leads me onto my next point, which is the number of weapons we are allowed to purchase, perhaps there is a cap per week, of say 2! All speculation aside, I am incredibly excited for this change, and I can't wait to learn the specifics!
Then we have Legendary Engrams which we will now be able to purchase from the Crypatch for varying levels of Legendary Marks(more on them in a second), it was also confirmed in the stream, that these do have a chance to decrypt as Exotic! This is an excellent what of gambling to get new weapons, that aren't available to purchase from the vendors! Don't worry about people spam buying them either, as they cost 135 Legendary Marks, which is a nice amount cheaper than the vendor weapons(by 15 marks).
I've mentioned Legendary Marks a few times now, so let's look closer that them! Gone are the separate Vanguard and Crucible Marks, in place we will now have Legendary Marks. This currency will now be one of the most used in the game, as you can buy a very wide variety of weapons and armour, from specialist vendors including New Monarchy, Dead Orbit and Future War Cult. I adore this change, as there are many faction weapons that I would like to buy now, but because I don't play tons of Crucible, I don't accumulate many Crucible Marks, and thus can't buy many! Due to the vast number of things you can spend these new Legendary Marks on, there will no longer be a cap on the number you can earn per week! You can still only hold 200 Marks at once, but you can spend those, earn more, and repeat the process as many times as you like! This is another amazing change that I am very excited for! As you can see below, this character is now earning 10 Legendary Marks for completing a Strike rather than the current 6 Marks. This could be due to some unknown buff, maybe from the new Ghost shells, but the ability to earn 10 per Strike is very nice!
One of the other things that was shown off during the stream was the new Ghost Shells, these will be purchasable from most of the vendors in the tower. Notable The Speaker now boasts a collection of Blue(Rare) Ghost Shells, and other Vendors such as the Crucible, will sell Legendary Ghost Shells! I can't wait to see what the Raid Ghost Shell looks like!
Then there are the Exotic Blueprints, these store all your Exotic items, be them armour or weapons, even if you have dismantled an Exotic before, you can "re buy" it now for and Exotic Shard and a few other materials. It is unclear whether when you pull an Exotic out of these stations it will still have the experience you previously earned on it, if I had to guess, I would say yes! While we are talking about Exotic Blueprints, the Gjallahorn was shown in Deej's Year 1 section of weapons, but then it wasn't shown in his Year 2 section. I strongly think that this means that the Gjallahorn will not be coming with us into Year 2. Assuming that this is not a glitch at actual fact, we can see some other Exotics that will not be coming with us into Year 2.
Then there are the Exotic Blueprints, these store all your Exotic items, be them armour or weapons, even if you have dismantled an Exotic before, you can "re buy" it now for and Exotic Shard and a few other materials. It is unclear whether when you pull an Exotic out of these stations it will still have the experience you previously earned on it, if I had to guess, I would say yes! While we are talking about Exotic Blueprints, the Gjallahorn was shown in Deej's Year 1 section of weapons, but then it wasn't shown in his Year 2 section. I strongly think that this means that the Gjallahorn will not be coming with us into Year 2. Assuming that this is not a glitch at actual fact, we can see some other Exotics that will not be coming with us into Year 2.
The Thorn, Hard Light, Necrochasm and Vex Mythoclast are all not shown in the Year 2 Primary section, despite clearly being available in the Year 1 Primary Section. My first thought was that this meant that these weapons would not come with us into Year 2, however I am very sceptical that they would not allow us to take the Raid Exotics(Vex and Necrochasm) into Year 2, for that reason, I think this image shouldn't be something we should base large theories around!
That will do it for me, be sure to let me know what you favorite feature from this live stream event is, in the comments below!
Thanks for reading,
Ed
Twitter
That will do it for me, be sure to let me know what you favorite feature from this live stream event is, in the comments below!
Thanks for reading,
Ed
Destiny; Hawkmoon Review
Hi guys,
You have probably noticed recently that I have been doing more content about Destiny, I'm really enjoying playing and writing about Destiny, and you guys seem to be enjoying the Destiny focus. There will still be a variety to my website, it's just that at the moment Destiny is where I have the most fun, which is why today I want to bring you my first review of an Exotic item, and I thought I would start with my favourite, Hawkmoon.
I'm sure any Destiny player is aware that Hawkmoon, Monte Carlo and Forth Horsemen are all exclusive to the PlayStation consoles. But seeing at they will be added into the loot pool on Xbox with the release of The Taken King, I thought I would review it for you! I was very lucky recently, and got Hawkmoon and the Vex Mythoclast in one drop from defeating Atheon on Hard mode. In the short time since I got my hands on this weapon I have fallen in love with it. I have unlocked all the perks on it, including getting it to 365 damage, so let's get into my thoughts!
One of the first things you will notice when you pick this weapon up is the impact, you are not doing this weapon justice, it has one of the highest impact ratings I have ever seen on a primary weapon. It also has an amazing stagger ability to it, which proves very handy on any major enemies(those with yellow bars), sadly it has no affect on bosses, as far as I can tell. The range for this weapon is in the medium department I would say, with the gun struggling to preform at longer distances, especially when considering the low zoom optic automatically fitted on this weapon.
The thing that I love most about this weapon is the magazine size, which clocks in at a whopping 13 rounds, this is higher than every other hand cannon in the game, with the popular Fatebringer boasting an 11 round clip(pre patch 2.0, it seems it will be reduced to 10 after the patch). It has a fairly low recoil on it, making it easy to land multiple precision shots(again this is pre patch 2.0 which seeks to make this harder). Now we have spoken a little about the base stats, lets look at the perks and what they do for the weapon.
In the first column of perks there are Accurized Ballistics, Field Choke and Aggressive Ballistics, I have opted for Accurised Ballistics, as it adds range and impact at the cost of stability. As I said the stability is very manageable so this trade off is a good one for me! In the middle column of perks we have, Hammer Forged, Quick Draw and Speed Reload. Now seeing as Hammer Forged is the only perk to offer a meaningful reward in my opinion, that is the one I have opted for, as it increases Range and Impact, in exchange for nothing!
This weapon doesn't really have an exotic perk like other exotic weapons, rather it has two perks which work together to increase the damage potential of this weapon even further that the base stats. We have Luck in the Chamber, which means one random bullet will deal greater damage! Then in the normal Exotic Perk slot we have Holding Aces, which means two more bullets dear bonus damage! This then means that 3 out of your 13 bullets will deal considerable bonus damage, meaning that it is incredibly potent against all enemies, including bosses!
In the short time since I unlocked this weapon, it has become my favourite Exotic in the game(though I have just acquired the Gjallahorn for Xur so we will have to see how long it keeps that title!). I have already racked up nearly as many kills with is as my Thorn, which used to by my most used weapon. All in all this is an amazing weapon, that all players(Xbox included) should aspire to acquire, though that is easier said than done!
Thank you very much for reading,
Ed
Twitter
You have probably noticed recently that I have been doing more content about Destiny, I'm really enjoying playing and writing about Destiny, and you guys seem to be enjoying the Destiny focus. There will still be a variety to my website, it's just that at the moment Destiny is where I have the most fun, which is why today I want to bring you my first review of an Exotic item, and I thought I would start with my favourite, Hawkmoon.
I'm sure any Destiny player is aware that Hawkmoon, Monte Carlo and Forth Horsemen are all exclusive to the PlayStation consoles. But seeing at they will be added into the loot pool on Xbox with the release of The Taken King, I thought I would review it for you! I was very lucky recently, and got Hawkmoon and the Vex Mythoclast in one drop from defeating Atheon on Hard mode. In the short time since I got my hands on this weapon I have fallen in love with it. I have unlocked all the perks on it, including getting it to 365 damage, so let's get into my thoughts!
One of the first things you will notice when you pick this weapon up is the impact, you are not doing this weapon justice, it has one of the highest impact ratings I have ever seen on a primary weapon. It also has an amazing stagger ability to it, which proves very handy on any major enemies(those with yellow bars), sadly it has no affect on bosses, as far as I can tell. The range for this weapon is in the medium department I would say, with the gun struggling to preform at longer distances, especially when considering the low zoom optic automatically fitted on this weapon.
The thing that I love most about this weapon is the magazine size, which clocks in at a whopping 13 rounds, this is higher than every other hand cannon in the game, with the popular Fatebringer boasting an 11 round clip(pre patch 2.0, it seems it will be reduced to 10 after the patch). It has a fairly low recoil on it, making it easy to land multiple precision shots(again this is pre patch 2.0 which seeks to make this harder). Now we have spoken a little about the base stats, lets look at the perks and what they do for the weapon.
In the first column of perks there are Accurized Ballistics, Field Choke and Aggressive Ballistics, I have opted for Accurised Ballistics, as it adds range and impact at the cost of stability. As I said the stability is very manageable so this trade off is a good one for me! In the middle column of perks we have, Hammer Forged, Quick Draw and Speed Reload. Now seeing as Hammer Forged is the only perk to offer a meaningful reward in my opinion, that is the one I have opted for, as it increases Range and Impact, in exchange for nothing!
This weapon doesn't really have an exotic perk like other exotic weapons, rather it has two perks which work together to increase the damage potential of this weapon even further that the base stats. We have Luck in the Chamber, which means one random bullet will deal greater damage! Then in the normal Exotic Perk slot we have Holding Aces, which means two more bullets dear bonus damage! This then means that 3 out of your 13 bullets will deal considerable bonus damage, meaning that it is incredibly potent against all enemies, including bosses!
In the short time since I unlocked this weapon, it has become my favourite Exotic in the game(though I have just acquired the Gjallahorn for Xur so we will have to see how long it keeps that title!). I have already racked up nearly as many kills with is as my Thorn, which used to by my most used weapon. All in all this is an amazing weapon, that all players(Xbox included) should aspire to acquire, though that is easier said than done!
Thank you very much for reading,
Ed
Gamescom; The Taken King
Wow, okay guys we have just had a massive amount of information about the upcoming expansion to Destiny, The Taken King. So I want to break down what we have learnt, and talk to you about some of the hidden bits that were shown in the new Game Informer Youtube Video. First of all go and check out the Game Informer articles they have released talking about all this new information. Check them out Here! So let's start talking, firstly Peter Dinkladge will not be reprising his role as our Ghost, instead legendary voice actor Nolan North has recorded all of the lines from our current Ghost. This means that after TTK has launched we will not hear a peep from Dinklebot! In previous trailers we have seen a different skin on the Ghost in our hand, at the time I assumed that we would be getting interchangeable skins for our Ghosts. However it is possible that the colour of our Ghosts will just be changing for good.
The next thing we have to talk about is the fact that Year 1 legendary weapons will not be coming with us into Year 2, that is right your beloved Fatebringer or Vision of Confluence, will not be with us for long on our journey into the Dreadnaught. Game Informer have said that we will use old weapons for the first few hours of The Taken King, but quite soon we will need to upgrade to the new arsenal! I personally am very happy with this change, though I would have liked to see it only affect Raid Legendaries, I don't see a particularly large problem with letting us keep non-Raid legendaries. However Cozmo the join community manager for Destiny has come out and said that we shouldn't dismantle our legendaries yet. More details as to why we shouldn't will come via the Twitch streams Bungie will hold for TTK!
Along with this weapon change, so to is the way we level up, if I am interpreting the information correctly then light levels will be a thing of the past. We will now only have to level up our characters based on XP. This will mean that we are not constricted with our armour choices, in the current version of the game you have to wear quite specific armour pieces in order to stay at the level cap, this seems to be changing with TTK!
Moving onto the trailer that Game Informer released which included loads of hidden bits. Firstly and perhaps most excitingly for me, we have this picture:
The next thing we have to talk about is the fact that Year 1 legendary weapons will not be coming with us into Year 2, that is right your beloved Fatebringer or Vision of Confluence, will not be with us for long on our journey into the Dreadnaught. Game Informer have said that we will use old weapons for the first few hours of The Taken King, but quite soon we will need to upgrade to the new arsenal! I personally am very happy with this change, though I would have liked to see it only affect Raid Legendaries, I don't see a particularly large problem with letting us keep non-Raid legendaries. However Cozmo the join community manager for Destiny has come out and said that we shouldn't dismantle our legendaries yet. More details as to why we shouldn't will come via the Twitch streams Bungie will hold for TTK!
Along with this weapon change, so to is the way we level up, if I am interpreting the information correctly then light levels will be a thing of the past. We will now only have to level up our characters based on XP. This will mean that we are not constricted with our armour choices, in the current version of the game you have to wear quite specific armour pieces in order to stay at the level cap, this seems to be changing with TTK!
Moving onto the trailer that Game Informer released which included loads of hidden bits. Firstly and perhaps most excitingly for me, we have this picture:
So here we have a Stormcaller Warlock who is killing Vex on the multiplayer may Blind Watch. Now it is my strong belief that we will see a horde mode implemented into Destiny similar to the Infinity Ward Call of Duty games. Where by you have to kill enemies on the multiplayer maps! Not where it says Vex Destroyed, I believe that this is the wave progression meter! Note also that in the heavy weapon slot for this character is the picture of a sword! Could this be the artefacts that were teased some time ago? What ever it is, it has a ammo counter for it!
Just a little thing here but the enemies we will be facing will simply have the prefix of Taken before their names. Also a look at the new Titan subclass Sun Breaker!
If my eyes are not deceiving me this is either The Strangers Rifle, a reward from the campaign of the base game. Or it is the Fate of All Fools, and Exotic scout rifle that seems to be featured as part of TTK. We already know that the Fate of All Fools can only be acquired via an Exotic Bounty.(UPDATE: This is actually a new Exotic Scout Rifle called No Time To Explain, it is unknown what the quest entails to earn this weapon, or how the quest is unlocked!)
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Finally we have a look at 2 new weapons that we will be able to use once The Taken King has been released. On the right is what I believe to be another Exotic Scout Rifle, the Jade Rabbit, which similar to Hawkmoon, Monte Carlo and The Fourth Horseman, will be exclusive to Playstation players for the first year of TTK. Then on the right is a shotgun, which very well may be a shotgun rewarded from the new Raid in TTK. I am basing this of the aesthetic of the weapon, which has a distinctive Hive feel about it, though obviously I could be wrong!
That concludes my thoughts on the new information released about The Taken King, be sure to let me know what you think of this new info in the comments below!
Thanks for reading,
Ed
Twitter
That concludes my thoughts on the new information released about The Taken King, be sure to let me know what you think of this new info in the comments below!
Thanks for reading,
Ed