Ok, I'm really late with this week's post. Sorry about that. Been a little preoccupied by all the AWESOME RAIDS I've been running :D

See what I did there?

Several great Crota runs over the past week. Had some fun times with sword-newbies taking their first crack against Crota. We also brought in a Rando with a hard mode Crota checkpoint, which lead to some great drops (DogCow and I both got the Word of Crota we needed, and I think some exotics got dished out as well).

A funny pattern that has begun to develop: our PS4 raid group seems to have adopted an interesting new technique for clearing the Bridge section in Crota's End. It's a strategy I like to call "get CruelLEGACEY across the bridge and let him solo the rest". No joke, 3 out of my past 4 Crota raids, that's exactly what happened. It almost happened during the 4th run too, but Korny had to go and ruin it by staying alive and 2-manning the Ogres with me ;p

I swear you guys are doing this on purpose without telling me lol. Next time, I'm going to go last just to miss with everyone ;)

What about everyone else? Any great raiding adventures this week?

Killed him with my burnination from punch. Got Fatebringer (not shown.)

Suck it, Blue.

We should make you go last. =)

Also, that random we picked up... sure liked to talk to the boomers when distracting them! Also singing to himself... That was pretty funny.

Complete garbage. I hate RNG so much.

- No text -

Was it singing? I thought he was laughing to himself and I'm so accustomed to our group's tragic hilarity I assume any laugh indicates a screw-up so I was worried most of the time for no reason.

I had a great week, first I got another word of Crota with my Titan, then I got the crux and another icebreaker with my hunter, THEN I got the last exotic I needed (except ps exclusives), thunderlord, with my warlock. Not sure if I'll play much before how comes out, but rngesus was nice to me this week :)

It almost happened during the 4th run too, but Korny had to go and ruin it by staying alive and 2-manning the Ogres with me ;p

I had run the Raid the night before on very little sleep, and I was causing us to wipe over and over to the point where I was given an... Affectionate nickname (some of the deaths were completely stupid, such as when I was carefully running across the bridge, only to end up directly under it)... It ended up just being me alone with a Bladedancer, having to solo the Ogres. With a combination of Blink and Gjallarhorn shots, we got through that segment.

I swear you guys are doing this on purpose without telling me lol. Next time, I'm going to go last just to miss with everyone ;)

Maybe... I do enjoy doing other things while my team struggles. :v

What about everyone else? Any great raiding adventures this week?

Just the one where I kept wiping us over and over. I was almost passing out (and ended up sleeping about twelve hours that night).

I almost missed a cool moment during Thursday's run because I didn't want to mess with streaming.

It would have been even cooler if I didn't stop every few seconds to bring up the recording option on the Xbox. I wonder how many of those things I could have killed if I hadn't kept stopping.

-Disciple

That's right, DBO's Xbox One Hard Mode dedicated swordbearer, Zero Point Fox, has gotten a Crux of Crota after 12 hard mode runs. What Xboners are going to have to do now to sword HM Crota, the world may never know.

I also got a Crux, after 7 hard mode runs, and DiscipleN2k with 13 runs is still Cruxless. He did get another Gjallarhorn and Word of Crota, though.

Other fireteam members:

ProbablyLast got through his second hard mode run with expertise, and got Word of Crota, a gun he's been looking forward to, and the sparrow.

Lawnmower, in his first hard mode Crota run, got a Word of Crota.

JediMattFoley, a good guy with a good attitude did fantastic in his first Crota run, considering it was on hard mode, AND he was underleveled. He died a few times, but mostly did fantastic. He got a Word of Crota.

Ah man, I had so much fun. I've played Halo with a few of you guys over the years, definitely you Funkmon. My old gamertag was DanteThePoet if that rings any bells.

I've only been playing Destiny for a few months and I haven't even made it past the Templar on VoG with the other group I've been raiding with, so Hard Mode Crota was very sweet.

Funkmon you've shown me that I've got a lot more to learn about being a warlock. I typically run void, with my Obsidian Mind and BJJ. Any knowledge you feel like sharing would be much appreciated. I'll be busy leveling up my Apotheosis Veil for the next time you guys need a 6th man.

Oh, I also got an Oversoul's Edict, a sweet pair of boots, and a couple really cool shaders. All in all, so much fun. Thanks for inviting me! :D

Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time.

What was that, Halo 2 era High Impact Halo? Yeah, we played a lot. YOU CAN BEAR WITNESS TO THE MAJESTY OF NEW001, NEW002, AND NEW003, THE GREATEST GAMETYPES EVER.

Warlocking is easy. Voidwalker is very fun, but for sheer orbage, sunsinger is best. The self res is a game changer, too. Some time online we can talk about it. I'll be mostly playing the 360 I think this week, but we can play and I'll learn you the finer points. If you read the forums often, Cody Miller has a lot of great instructive posts. We disagree on small things, but by and large he is dead on. And he is better than me at video games, so he is probably right.

For raids, sign up for the DBO Fireteam Builder events and we'll run a bunch. If you set one up yourself, whether it be VOG or Crota, I'll try to make it.

Mr Nico got fatebringer and mythoclast in the same run tonight. Had some super buggy and laggy moments tonight, don't know if it boiled down to bad connections or if it was server-side but it led to some new ones I'd never seen.

Mr Nico got fatebringer and mythoclast in the same run tonight. Had some super buggy and laggy moments tonight, don't know if it boiled down to bad connections or if it was server-side but it led to some new ones I'd never seen.

Our Crota run got me nothing but shards (and a second Swordbreaker)... but our VoG run rocked. Fatebringer, Hezen Vengeance, Found Verdict (the only one I already have), Truth, and Aspect of Glass (a pretty cool ship). Best run I've done. :)

It has explosive rounds, which take part of the damage done from the bullet and turns it into an explosion. This does the same net damage. However, the perk firefly (which does way more tons of bonus damage) requires someone to die from a headshot, NOT from the explosive rounds. So, if you are facing high level mobs who won't die from a thousand damage shot, you should take OFF explosive rounds to get Firefly to proc more often.

Annoyingly, the other perks are largely useless. There you go.

- No text -

- No text -

- No text -

- No text -

I ran Crota normal on my 2 main characters and got shards/energies up and down. Nothing else.

Then I tried hard mode on my 31 Hunter (wow it's hard being under leveled) and got Oversoul Edict, Abyss Defiant, and the Raid boots on 1 run! My first Raid primaries other than Atheon's Epilogue!! Plus with those boots I can get my Hunter to 32, which is nice

After this, I ran my third character through the raid for the first time and picked up Black Hammer, which I've been really longing for!

After spending a lot of time in the Crota raid this weekend, I now have 2 of my 3 L31 characters with the hard mode checkpoint at Crota, so I'd love to at least knock one of those out tonight, if not both! I really want to get some armor for my Titan to get to 32 (either boots or helmet), and of course either the raid scout rifle or hand cannon. Since I am not a fan of pulse or auto rifles...

On my 27th VoG hard mode completion, I got the Mythoclast!!! Now, I'm only missing the 4th horseman and the Crux.

I also got another Fatebringer and another Truth. Score!

- CC

See I just had to not join.

Did you run it multiple times?

Epic! That really was cool, surprised you didn't get detain bubbled

Did you run it multiple times?

Nope. Didn't find anybody with the time, plus I didn't save the checkpoint correctly with my alts. Everybody needs to wipe when I drop in or it doesn't save. Oh well.

I at least got the Crota pulse rifle, which is something I was wanting. I just need Black Hammer and WoC to drop there. I might start focusing more on those.

Wow, that is a great haul! Have fun with the new toys... especially Fatebringer :)

Funkmon is right that explosive rounds can mess with firefly.... but he's not exactly right that the explosive rounds do the same amount of net damage as without it turned on.

Non-explosive rounds do just over 1500 damage. Explosive rounds do just over 1000 normal damage, plus the same amount of explosive damage (for a total of just over 2000 damage).

What this means in practical terms is that Fatebringer, with explosive rounds turned on, can one-shot the goblins in hard mode VoG, whereas Fatebringer without explosive rounds turned on cannot.

Awesome!!! And we thought you were gonna have to wait four more raids to get it - you are one lucky SOB ;-)

With my LAN party last week, I wasn't going to have much time for raiding, but I really wanted a few more chances at Hawkmoon before the party; so on Tuesday night I ran three nightfalls, plus one Crota (normal) and VoG, using the Gorgon checkpoint 3x. Of course, those 7 chances at an exotic yielded nothing.

While we were at the LAN - and trying to convince Kermit that he isn't as "bad" at games as he tries to let on - Ottermack, Kermit, and myself three-manned Crota (on normal). Kermit got two exotic weapons (Thunderlord and Dragons Breath if I remember correctly), as well as Black Hammer. We (mostly Ottermack) also helped Kermit get both Thorn and Invective over the weekend too.

Funkmon is right that explosive rounds can mess with firefly.... but he's not exactly right that the explosive rounds do the same amount of net damage as without it turned on.

Non-explosive rounds do just over 1500 damage. Explosive rounds do just over 1000 normal damage, plus the same amount of explosive damage (for a total of just over 2000 damage).

Also not exactly right.

The amount of damage explosive rounds by themselves do it programmed by enemy type. Your normal damage is always ⅔ plus explosive rounds. How much the explosive rounds do depends on what you are fighting. You gain a small amount of damage versus Cabal, and a large amount against Vex. Other enemies have no bonus, and you do the same net damage.

- No text -

Yeah, Kermit's a big faker. He isn't nearly as bad as Warbow. :3

What was your 3 man strategy on Crota? Double up on rockets?

- No text -

With my LAN party last week, I wasn't going to have much time for raiding, but I really wanted a few more chances at Hawkmoon before the party; so on Tuesday night I ran three nightfalls, plus one Crota (normal) and VoG, using the Gorgon checkpoint 3x. Of course, those 7 chances at an exotic yielded nothing.

While we were at the LAN - and trying to convince Kermit that he isn't as "bad" at games as he tries to let on - Ottermack, Kermit, and myself three-manned Crota (on normal). Kermit got two exotic weapons (Thunderlord and Dragons Breath if I remember correctly), as well as Black Hammer. We (mostly Ottermack) also helped Kermit get both Thorn and Invective over the weekend too.

I didn't get Dragon's Breath, but I did get No Land Beyond. I was delighted. Destiny drop-wise and otherwise, it was a great weekend.

Watching Ottermack in the Crucible was amazing and instructive. I think I learned from just watching him. I got on Crucible last night with some trepidation, thinking that my rank was going to be screwed up from Ottermack having become the awesome Kermit for an hour or so. It wasn't bad at all, and I feel I improved just by better knowing how to handle certain sections of the maps.

Yeah, Kermit's a big faker. He isn't nearly as bad as Warbow. :3

What was your 3 man strategy on Crota? Double up on rockets?

I'm not offended but I do blame all my problems on Bungie geometry. As for Crota and rockets, I find that if you shoot your first rocket wide or over his head. It's makes your teammates pick up the pace and work harder. I motivate!

- No text -

Yeah, Kermit's a big faker. He isn't nearly as bad as Warbow. :3

What was your 3 man strategy on Crota? Double up on rockets?

I fired two Gjallarhorns and Kermit fired one Hunger of Crota while Ottermack did the sword thingy.

Awesome!!! And we thought you were gonna have to wait four more raids to get it - you are one lucky SOB ;-)

Haha. Yep, I know it hurts to think you had to complete 4 extra raids to get yours. You're so unfortunate! LOL

- CC

Field scout also lets you carry the max amount of reserve ammo. That way you don't have to have armor that lets you carry more.

- No text -

Oh! I didn't even think about that. What's the difference?

- No text -

Regular amount is (IIRC) 72. Field scout ups this to 100+.

If I don't use this perk, I usually find myself hunting for primary boxes after a bit.

Yeah, that makes sense. I have field scout on my Timur's Lash and I always have a hundred plus. On my word of Crota I have a significantly smaller number. It's so sensible! Thanks!