The reason some people are finding it "harder" than others is because it is completely dependant on RNG. If you have good luck with drops, great! You'll level up fairly quickly. But if you have bad luck, you're fucked and there's nothing you can do about it except grind longer.

Turns out Cody really did level super slowly, and he really does never get Strange Coins or Motes of Light.

Why? because as he admitted last night, he discards all blue engrams, because apparently he thought that Legendary Engrams were all that mattered, despite us repeatedly telling him that Blues help you get higher-light (including Legendaries!), Strange Coins, materials, and Motes.

I nearly gave myself a concussion from facepalming so hard...
So yeah, Cody really did have to grind three times as much as everyone else to get to the same levels... But it was entirely as a result of his own actions.

Activities like IB and Trials will certainly help. It'd be great if there was a similar PvE activity.

Post-patch Archon's Forge is pretty great now in terms of a steady stream of loot (dozens of Blues, Lots of high-light Legendaries from the bosses). I ran it for a bit last night after Trials, and ended up with about two dozen blue engrams (and a handful of Legendaries).

High-light legendaries from AF still cap at 365, right?

But yeah, Trials drops loot regardless of whether you win or lose (apart from the 5 & 7 drops, and the fact that you can get three Gold packages a day (assuming you run all three characters), for a total of 12 Gold packages each weekend of Trials. It's a TON of loot.

And since we've established that the Raid can be done with 350s in your team (unless you're terrible, like Avateur), and you can get double loot on each encounter (assuming you craft SIVA keys, which are easy to collect), you shouldn't have trouble leveling in PvE. Just gotta man up and do the raid.
(This was our Blind Raid team, and keep in mind that we didn't have Cyber for the final encounter:)

I think next weekend I'll give Trials bounties a shot and see where that gets me. I'm not terrible like Avateur, I'm my own special version of terrible.

Yeah. Blues top out at 340, so I stopped decoding them because I thought it was pointless when 340 wouldn't help me.

Oops.

And since we've established that the Raid can be done with 350s in your team (unless you're terrible, like Avateur)

A Raid is a team thing, and our mechanics are flawless. It was a team DPS failure. I'm terrible for other reasons, Trollymunky. Btw, off topic, but that GV stuff at HBO? Hilarious!

The reason some people are finding it "harder" than others is because it is completely dependant on RNG. If you have good luck with drops, great! You'll level up fairly quickly. But if you have bad luck, you're fucked and there's nothing you can do about it except grind longer.

Turns out Cody really did level super slowly, and he really does never get Strange Coins or Motes of Light.

Why? because as he admitted last night, he discards all blue engrams, because apparently he thought that Legendary Engrams were all that mattered, despite us repeatedly telling him that Blues help you get higher-light (including Legendaries!), Strange Coins, materials, and Motes.

I nearly gave myself a concussion from facepalming so hard...
So yeah, Cody really did have to grind three times as much as everyone else to get to the same levels... But it was entirely as a result of his own actions.

So... Maybe I'm missing something here, but how do blue engrams help you post light 340 when they only decrypt to light level 340 max? I mean, aside from weapon & armor parts you get when you shard them and cryptarch rep for decrypting them.

I've been hanging onto the blue engrams & decrypting them just for the rep & parts, but they mostly just add a bunch of housekeeping, as far as I've seen.

Im not blind haha, i enjoy watching some twitch streams. But i havnt run it yet. My main thing is my availability ends before the PDT crew events even start

I just assumed from some of the talk, that there was an RNG or other design decision that could eventually be "fixed". At least from your perspective it doesn't look like there is, unless they release an update with additional content that you find fun.

It could very easily be fixed. Make enough missions, strikes, quests, etc., that give guaranteed rewards that culminate to you having a sufficient light level to run the raid. I just don't understand how this isn't just common sense for the folks designing these expansions.

What percentage of the Destiny population should be able to do the raid after doing those missions? Because after playing all the easy to find content (no use of the internet on my part) I was at 360. I made a point of playing strikes (which I found fun) to gain as much as I could, which got me to 365. I'm not so sure I couldn't have, personally, done the raid at 360. So for be I'd bet it was doable after only the provided content (and I haven't found/acheived all content). So the question is, what percentage of the Destiny population should be able to, without much difficulty, run the raid after the story missions. 90%? 50%? 10%?

I feel pretty confident that if the content had dropped my raid group at 380 prior to the raid that we wouldn't have felt the joy we did upon completion...we'd be better rested today...our bosses would be happier...but if it was a walk in the park would we feel good about it?

It seems to me that the optimum goal would be for people to attempt the raid and complete the raid at the edge of their ability to do so. For my fire team we finished the raid under the recommended light, but not by much. For us, that felt hard and good. In fact we talked about how in a couple months when we're all 380 that this would be easy. Instead it came down to the wire each time, everything had to be perfect each time, and there was always doubt, even at the last second before we beat it. After beating it I log into the forums here and find that teams beat it with an average light level below ours, and I'm amazed. That amazement wouldn't exist if everyone came out of the stories at 380 light. So, where do you draw the line? Do you draw the line just on the other side of your own personal preference and ability?

For my part, I've enjoyed the content I've done done in order to level up, my only wish is that I didn't feel like I needed to do as much in a single sitting to be raid ready on the scheduled date. I've only tried the new arena once, but have enjoyed the strikes I've done... well, except for when I was dealt the same two cabal strikes 6 out of 7 runs.

I can't speak for him, obviously, but I'd be willing to bet that Cody enjoyed the content, too . . . once. But not replaying it multiple times. It'd be like them making you run The Library fifteen times in a row in order to unlock Assault on the Control Room. That's exactly what they're doing now to let people play the raid. And what's the benefit? It's not like running strikes over and over is teaching you any key intricacy of the game you'll need for the raid. It's just gating progress to gate progress.

Okay, but no one is making you replay the exact same content over and over any more than is natural for Destiny. At the end of the day, if you want to play Destiny for more than 20 hours you WILL be repeating content. For most of us, that is still fun! The entire design of the game is to make that fun. If you don't find repeating a strike or a mission fun, than yeah, Destiny is going to be really hard to swallow. But I'd also argue that doing the content repeatedly isn't REQUIRED for all Destiny players, only for a majority that aren't good enough to run the raid at 360 light.

Actually, I was quite surprised that all content but raid content was easy to do after 15 hours of play. Even the Nightfall wasn't bad at 355. When I tried it day one at 345 it was demoralizing though ;-)

When you buy from Xur with strange coins, you buy 3 of Coins, not any of the 350 LL stuff he sells (unless you really need that item).

Then you use 3oC every time you do anything, and you get a bunch of exotic engram drops. Those decrypt up to the max light level, and are your primary source of infusion fodder once you hit 365.

You enjoy so little of it, Cody, that I'm beginning to think that Destiny is not the game for you. Too often I see people who can’t decide that and move on. If someone doesn’t like, say, Destiny or Halo 5 or whatever, that thing must be dismissed or labeled as broken over and over and those who like it ridiculed and shamed.

In the case of Destiny, though, let’s think about what it is. It is primarily a social game. It is designed to be played with others, preferably friends. I’m not criticizing Destiny or the wonderful people on this forum, when I say that I think the people who have the most ideal experience of Destiny are those who have friends who play--friends who have a similar schedule and skill level, friends whose company they enjoy, in real life and while playing the game. Actual friends, in other words. Friends who would be friends with or without Destiny. (I don’t quite feel like one of those people, BTW. I feel like I have friends here, but whether it’s schedules or skill levels or what have you, I feel like I have to struggle to find five people who have the patience to wait for me in order to carry me through a raid unspoiled.)

Let’s call these people who play with their friends Destiny’s core fans. The core fans played the same activities in Halo 2 and Halo 3 almost nightly because they had fun doing it, especially with friends. Some of the core fans care about the same things you care about--improving, mastering the game, and so on, but that’s not their focus. Many of the core fans hit a plateau of mastery long ago, and don’t care that they did. They just plain enjoy playing Destiny for the fun of it. A big part of that is it’s a hobby that they can enjoy with friends. And unlike Halo games, Destiny has something new—a progression system. Love it or hate it, drops provide a metagame that some of us gearheads enjoy for what it is, which is gravy on top of the fun we already having (because we’re playing with friends, remember?).

You described the boring activities, but you know what I know? When I get bored I stop doing what I’m doing, and even with the pressure to level up, I’ve yet to be bored playing The Rise of Iron. There’s always a new weapon or strategy I’m trying out. And then there’s the missing ingredient: when I’m playing with friends, I don’t really care if we get the same strike again. It’s a chance to do it better, and push comes to shove, I enjoy the time regardless.

Don’t you and your friends have a favorite bar you like to go, not because it’s new and different, but because it’s familiar? Or are you the guy who everyone has to accommodate because you’ve already had all the beers they offer on tap, and you want to go to the new place across town. I mean, that’s fine, but you might not have the social experience in the other bar, and that may be fine with you, too. Really, though, if your friends stay at the familiar bar, is there really much to gain by trashing their choice?

It also has the bonus feature that korny isn't very good at it ;)

"Those dang wolves"

But there's no way that the dang AI could follow me that far out...

Do you decode one at a time? For example, I started Rise of Iron at 334. For every blue engram I got, I would just decrypt one. Say it decrypted into a chest piece. If the light level happened to be higher than my current chest piece, I'd infuse it. Then I would go back and decrypt the next one and repeat the process.

Sure, every now and then they'll decrypt below the light level or even with the light level of your current item, but by not decrypting them in batches, you maximize your chance of higher light overall. Well, until 340 anyway.

3 Eris rank up packages have netted me zero artifacts and 30 or so heroic strikes have netted me 1 skeleton key.

Life so crazy.

Yeah, RNG is a bitch. The first day of strikes I got no keys then I decided to do it a second day, within 5 strikes I got two keys back to back.