Keep your awesome shirt, Bungie. I am not playing another game of Salvage as long as I live.

Then your subject line should say "will not" instead of "might not".

That said... you are technically correct.

The best kind of correct.

I play with Raga on crucible and we've had some great games with plenty of fun.

Perhaps the issue is more who or therefore lack of, you play the activity with.

Raga's post suggests he was playing with randos and let's be honest here. Salvage is a backwards ass game mode anyway.

You post makes a lot of sense. Basically, don't do what you don't find fun. I'm pretty good at staying away from things I dislike. I only did Salvage today for the Moment of Triumph. And that's one of the few times I've played Salvage this year. I really like the idea of Salvage and with a few tweaks it would be an awesome and fair mode. But right now it's not.

I similarly avoid Trials of Osiris. I'm actually pretty good at Skirmish. The 3 on 3 suits me for some reason. But Trials... the way one mistake is so completely punishing and the way the gameplay jerks to a halt over and over,usually before a minute has gone past, infuriates me to no end. I can't ever seem to pickup on tactics or get a feel for an enemy. Not having been at max light since House of Wolves just compounds the difficulty and frustration, so I stay completely away from the mode.

But I don't hate pvp or Destiny's Crucible. I love the feel in general and am of the opinion that Control is one of the best pvp modes developed in something like a decade. Sure, I grumble about Join in Progress being braindead sometimes, but for the vast majority of the time I really enjoy the Crucible.

So, yes, I hear you. And I do avoid the things I dislike and take breaks from Destiny after having a frustrating session. But, I guess I do want to make clear that overall I do enjoy myself and my complaints about modes or features I dislike don't mean there aren't plenty of things I do like.

Thanks for the reply. :)

Thanks for the point breakdown. It really shows how bad a policy it is to... play the game right. I did have fantastic success with my Defender but somewhat less success with capturing with three people as one or both of my "teammates" were usually idle on the other side of the map. :/

Great stuff!

Armed with this info, I might even subject my friends to playing Crucible with me.

First off, I feel your pain. Salvage is horribly designed (sorry bungo).

- Never attempt to capture the relic unless all three of your teammates are present and actively capturing. You only get points for the people in the circle when it captures.

- If the enemy team has captured the relic, disarming it nets your team 150 points per player on your team, regardless of where they are on the map. The best strategy in the game is to let the enemy capture with only 1 player (+100 points to the enemy), kill that one guy (+100 points for the kill to your team) and disarm (+450 points to your team) for a net gain for 450 points.

- If your team is able to successfully defend a captured relic, you get 200 points per player on your team (so +600 points).

- You get 50 points per revive. Always revive. Always prevent your opponents from reviving if you can.

Now let's break down the risk/reward of capturing:

- Capture with 1 player = 100 points
- Capture with 2 players = 200 points
- Capture with 3 players = 300 points
- Disarm = 450 points
- Successful defend = 600 points

Min points: Capture w/1 minus disarm = -350 points
Max points: Capture w/3 plus defend = 900 points

Other scores to keep in mind:
- Capture w/2 minus disarm = -250 points
- Capture w/3 minus disarm = -150 points
- Capture w/1 plus defend = 700 points
- Capture w/2 plus defend = 800 points

Capturing with all three players present and immediately being disarmed is roughly equivalent to one guy on your team being killed by two people at once (100 points kill, 50 points assist), so it's not a huge loss. But missing people during that initial capture is giving your enemy free double or triple kill points, which really adds up.

More specific strategy stuff: Defender titans are boss in this game mode. Bubble over the relic after you capture it to make defending easy. Save your offensive supers for clearing defenders if the other team seems to be trying to capture. See a lone enemy capturing? Let him. Two or more enemies? Kill them until only one is left. On some larger maps, the spawns are so far away from the action that capturing with 1 is okay if you know the enemy is spawning across the map. Thieve's den comes to mind.

Good luck, guardian!

The only thing I'd add to this is that your disarm numbers, all the way through, assume that all 3 players on the disarming team are alive at the time of disarm. Since this happens so infrequently, your numbers are a little misleading. (Far more common: you go for the disarm, two teammates are killed in the attempt, one player manages it and the disarm is worth 150, instead of 450. Likewise, a successful defense is rarely worth 600, because doing so can require sacrifice.)

The key to salvage, as you point out, is that critical actions (arm/disarm/capture) are worth more when players are in specific states (in the arming circle/alive). My win percentage when playing with folks who pay attention to this (mostly friends, because communication is key in Salvage) is well above 60%, while my overall win percentage (because I've played a lot of Salvage solo) is under 40%.

- No text -