I'll open this with a thank you to the crew who did this. I know that it isn't like we 5-guardianed VoG on hard mode back in the day, but it felt like an accomplishment none-the-less. It was pretty easy overall, but we did figure out some unique ways to die along the way:

• RNG is the Final Boss of Destiny
  That opening drop is a dice-roll that can be frustrating. We had 3 return-to-orbits as a result of this.
  
• The opening bridge you build goes away eventually.
  Having been frustrated by the first death-by-fall, our team wondered whether we actually needed everyone to make the drop. Beard argued we should just send me down for science. I landed at the bottom and all was well. My team huddled around the edge of the diving-hole waiting for a report from me. I started my run through the abyss when I heard everyone on the comms yelling followed by the game informing me all of them had just died (except for Rellekh) as the bridge disintegrated. Scientific inquiry can be deadly.
  
• The abyss-run is super easy, but you can still steal a defeat from the jaws of victory by...
  So I was soloing the pit portion, danced to some rave music (which unoudid pointed out was a good teabagging rhythm) ran into the bright light, and never took my hand off the forward motion control of the stick. Everyone spawned around me at the bridge and I just walked off the ledge and fell onto the ground directly by the annihilator totems, dying on impact. It took me a few seconds even realize what happened as the despair set in.
  
• (non-death learning that occurred) Most technical errors are user-generated.
  I couldn't get my turtle beach headset to send out audio. I could hear everyone, but no one could hear me. I restarted the xbox, traded headsets with rellekh and nothing seemed to work. Our solution was for me to talk loud enough that I would come through Rellekh's headset, who was sitting next to me. We did this for a while until Rellekh looked over and the chest-level audio controller on the headset and said, "is that switched flipped to mute?"

Overall, it only took a few false-starts and then things went smooth as butter. Crota only takes one sword carry and 6 slams nowadays. I almost felt sorry for the poor guy.

First of all, Congrats! Unlocking Flawless Raider is quite a thrill :)

• RNG is the Final Boss of Destiny
  That opening drop is a dice-roll that can be frustrating. We had 3 return-to-orbits as a result of this.
  
• The opening bridge you build goes away eventually.
  Having been frustrated by the first death-by-fall, our team wondered whether we actually needed everyone to make the drop. Beard argued we should just send me down for science. I landed at the bottom and all was well. My team huddled around the edge of the diving-hole waiting for a report from me. I started my run through the abyss when I heard everyone on the comms yelling followed by the game informing me all of them had just died (except for Rellekh) as the bridge disintegrated. Scientific inquiry can be deadly.

I've done 2 Flawless runs through Crota now. The first time we didn't have too much trouble with the initial drop. The 2nd time, a few months later, we had the absolute worst luck getting everyone into the Abyss alive. Someone died on the landing almost every single time.

Eventually, we decided to change things up. Cyber and I dropped down into the pit together, while the rest of our group stayed up top. Cyber and I 2-manned the Abyss together. When we warped to the next section of the raid, everyone was teleported in with us.

Overall, it only took a few false-starts and then things went smooth as butter. Crota only takes one sword carry and 6 slams nowadays. I almost felt sorry for the poor guy.

Yeah, Crota himself sure doesn't put up as much of a fight as he used to. I kind of love the Crota raid more than ever now because your fireteam just shreds their way through hundreds of enemies in a fun and chaotic series of battles :)

First of all, Congrats! Unlocking Flawless Raider is quite a thrill :)

Thanks!

I've done 2 Flawless runs through Crota now. The first time we didn't have too much trouble with the initial drop. The 2nd time, a few months later, we had the absolute worst luck getting everyone into the Abyss alive. Someone died on the landing almost every single time.
Eventually, we decided to change things up. Cyber and I dropped down into the pit together, while the rest of our group stayed up top. Cyber and I 2-manned the Abyss together. When we warped to the next section of the raid, everyone was teleported in with us.

Ahh, we failed to properly isolate the variable. Would have made our lives a bit easier. #sciencefails

Yeah, Crota himself sure doesn't put up as much of a fight as he used to. I kind of love the Crota raid more than ever now because your fireteam just shreds their way through hundreds of enemies in a fun and chaotic series of battles :)

I really enjoy that raid. While I like the overall feel and mechanics of VoG better, CE is the one I killed a lot of time in trying to figure out how to solo/dual it with UpNorth. Doing that helped me master certain elements of it and it's where I really began to feel competent as raid organizer/leader. There's something nostalgic about it that I just love.

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Having been frustrated by the first death-by-fall, our team wondered whether we actually needed everyone to make the drop. Beard argued we should just send me down for science. I landed at the bottom and all was well. My team huddled around the edge of the diving-hole waiting for a report from me. I started my run through the abyss when I heard everyone on the comms yelling followed by the game informing me all of them had just died (except for Rellekh) as the bridge disintegrated.

I would've paid so much to hear that. It sucks that I was late--I thought it was going to be 3 teams of 3(I heard that was the easiest method).

I restarted the xbox, traded headsets with rellekh and nothing seemed to work. Our solution was for me to talk loud enough that I would come through Rellekh's headset, who was sitting next to me. We did this for a while until Rellekh looked over and the chest-level audio controller on the headset and said, "is that switched flipped to mute?"

Yep. Happens to everybody. I was sitting there thinking "Wait, how did you trade headsets with relle--Oh, right!" I keep forgetting you're married. I'm used to everybody being hundreds of miles apart from each other. Duh.

[*]The opening bridge you build goes away eventually.
Having been frustrated by the first death-by-fall, our team wondered whether we actually needed everyone to make the drop. Beard argued we should just send me down for science. I landed at the bottom and all was well. My team huddled around the edge of the diving-hole waiting for a report from me. I started my run through the abyss when I heard everyone on the comms yelling followed by the game informing me all of them had just died (except for Rellekh) as the bridge disintegrated. Scientific inquiry can be deadly.

Heh - we would have learned this lesson, but someone (Paddy? Korny?) knew it already, so we waited on shore.

Thanks for being a better runner than North would have been ;)

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Yeah. That's how rellekh survived. She just didn't tell anyone else it would disappear. Pretty Machiavellian of her.

When I get back up north next week

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