Thanks to Dogcow for getting everyone's schedule together!

(We will need 1 more for tonight, 8 PM Pacific time. It's fine if you know what to do, but please don't tell the rest of us! ;) )

We had a good time in the raid. It was tough as I think our highest LL person was 367. Most of us were just above 360.

The now traditional "opening of the raid door" was quite fun this go around. We had a few funny deaths right at first with the expiration of the charges and I was standing behind the boss when he showed up. We ended up having 3 (maybe 4?) people running charges and 2-3 shooting charge eaters which seemed to work well. Pretty messy and I'll be happy to try that again a couple of times to get some better routes for collecting charges.

After we opened the door it was as expected -- jumping puzzles, though a bit milder than the tomb ships and bells of king's fall. I really liked in both hallway sections we went through that there were multiple ways through. Likely some secrets waiting around for us to get to.

Quickly we ended up at the first real fight. Learning this boss fight was an interesting process. We tried both simultaneously throwing the SIVA charges and staggering them. After some trial and error (and looking at the death screen a number of times) we realized that the first charge hit his shield and the next two did 107k damage to him. Great! Then we started trying to figure out the pattern of the rooms. This was the most annoying part I think -- that the rooms were really random, but unable to be used again. Especially at this point, when we didn't understand the monitors mechanic, we used up all four rooms just to get his shields down, then were confused as to what to do when his shields reset and we had no rooms left. And that anytime we managed to hit the monitors behind him they all said "Immune". I think it was Dogcow or Vortech who first saw the monitor light up and manage to break it. This was the last, painful key, but once we got that down (and learned about the captains) it was a matter of execution. I think it took us 4-5 attempts from that point before it totally clicked and then was suddenly smooth.

Callouts were key, I don't know how we'd do this fight without them. In particular, monitor callouts were the big one, we'd all get to trying to survive the boss attacks and adds (sometimes with captains) while still having to pay attention to the monitors. Once we started trying to say "watch the monitors" after the volley of charges it went much smoother -- people helped each other (okay me) when callouts didn't happen.

We ended up with a rotation something like this:

- throw bombs
- watch and kill monitors
- throw bombs
- watch monitors
- throw bombs
- kill captains
- watch monitors
- throw bombs
- DPS the boss
- call out a room, (prefer right room if available, then left, then right, then left).
- repeat

It was definitely a harder than expected fight that felt a little oryx-ridiculous for a while as far as coordination and needing to be perfect. Once we figured out the monitors it was still hard but made a lot more sense. It's a high cognitive awareness fight. No one thing is "hard", but juggling them all, at least for me, was very difficult. I was the charge thrower in the middle and it was frustrating having to additionally try and time throwing the charge around the dregs dropping often right on the charge there -- I hit the dropping adds more than just once or twice.

The path forwards from here was fun. The break-away floors got a few people. =) I liked again that there were multiple routes through the area, not just a single jump here, here, and here only.

We stopped soon after we got to the mace wielding zamboni. We'll start there tonight, looking for a way past it and heading down...

Overall I like it so far. I expect we are about halfway through the raid, and look forward to the last boss (and whatever happens to be between them and us at this point... the quest has 3 checkboxes, we're at #2 though!)

Also, please no spoilers for the rest of the raid in this thread. =)

We found out about the monitors by accident because I wiffed my charge really badly.

We found out about the monitors by accident because I wiffed my charge really badly.

We figured it out very quickly by simply looking at the score screen.

We found out about the monitors by accident because I wiffed my charge really badly.

We figured it out very quickly by simply looking at the score screen.

Congrats, thanks for chiming in.

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Not sure why it took us such a long time -- we looked specifically at the beginning for them in a number of ways but couldn't seem to interact with them in any meaningful way. I blame being low 360's and having a tougher time with add control, as well as possibly positioning, for not being able to get that part until later.

But uh... thanks for calling us stupid I guess? :P Glad it wasn't an issue for you guys. heh.

We found out about the monitors by accident because I wiffed my charge really badly.

We figured it out very quickly by simply looking at the score screen.

Congrats, thanks for chiming in.

I mean, it's a tip. The score screen gives lot of clues, but a lot of people seem to ignore them.

Not sure why it took us such a long time -- we looked specifically at the beginning for them in a number of ways but couldn't seem to interact with them in any meaningful way. I blame being low 360's and having a tougher time with add control, as well as possibly positioning, for not being able to get that part until later.

But uh... thanks for calling us stupid I guess? :P Glad it wasn't an issue for you guys. heh.

That's not how I meant it. I meant that the raids have often hid a lot of clues on the score screen. A lot of people gloss over it. The score screen was the key for us discovering that the aura holder had to kill ads during the Warpriest fight for example.

I mean, it's a tip. The score screen gives lot of clues, but a lot of people seem to ignore them.

Right, we read it, attempted multiple times to take out monitors, and could never do any damage. From hearing many other people do it, that was not unusual.

Yeah, as I thought I mentioned in my big post (maybe not), we tried those early on but couldn't get there. So we came back to it later.

No offense taken, but it sounded a little in that direction. =)

;p

http://m.imgur.com/8t87A9E?r

We found out about the monitors by accident because I wiffed my charge really badly.

We figured it out very quickly by simply looking at the score screen.

We had noticed them on the score screen early on, but that got put on the backburner while we figured out other mechanics. Then we kinda forgot about them. After figuring out the rest of the mechanics I re-noticed the monitors column on the score screen and started paying attention to them.

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We found out about the monitors by accident because I wiffed my charge really badly.

We figured it out very quickly by simply looking at the score screen.

We had noticed them on the score screen early on, but that got put on the backburner while we figured out other mechanics. Then we kinda forgot about them. After figuring out the rest of the mechanics I re-noticed the monitors column on the score screen and started paying attention to them.

My first raid group figured out the screens almost instantly, but we banged our heads against the encounter for almost 2 solid hours without even noticing the safe rooms on the sides lol

Munky eventually broke down and told us about them XD

Great write up! So, I missed it or forgot, but what time are we planning on tonight? Same time as last night (9pm MDT), earlier?

We found out about the monitors by accident because I wiffed my charge really badly.

We figured it out very quickly by simply looking at the score screen.

We had noticed them on the score screen early on, but that got put on the backburner while we figured out other mechanics. Then we kinda forgot about them. After figuring out the rest of the mechanics I re-noticed the monitors column on the score screen and started paying attention to them.

My first raid group figured out the screens almost instantly, but we banged our heads against the encounter for almost 2 solid hours without even noticing the safe rooms on the sides lol

Munky eventually broke down and told us about them XD

That's funny. We noticed the safe rooms relatively soon. It's fun hearing the different ways people come up with to defeat the encounters and what aspects they've struggled with.

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We found out about the monitors by accident because I wiffed my charge really badly.

We figured it out very quickly by simply looking at the score screen.

We had noticed them on the score screen early on, but that got put on the backburner while we figured out other mechanics. Then we kinda forgot about them. After figuring out the rest of the mechanics I re-noticed the monitors column on the score screen and started paying attention to them.

My first raid group figured out the screens almost instantly, but we banged our heads against the encounter for almost 2 solid hours without even noticing the safe rooms on the sides lol

Munky eventually broke down and told us about them XD

That's funny. We noticed the safe rooms relatively soon. It's fun hearing the different ways people come up with to defeat the encounters and what aspects they've struggled with.

That's the most fascinating part of blind raiding, to me - we all have to end up at the same place, in the end (well, close to the same place - Golgoroth proved that even after techniques were well-known, there might be multiple techniques to solving the problem), but each blind group is made up of 6 individuals who all bring their own way of thinking to the table. I LOVE that something that was totally obvious to one group made another group struggle for a while, while that second group had no problems at all with a second mechanic that stumped the first one.

And I love that Xenos found the way of interacting with the monitors by screwing up something else we already knew how to do. Lots of good discoveries in history were mistakes (penicillin, crazy glue) - blind raids allow people to suggest all manner of idiotic ideas, because some percentage of them turn out to be exactly what was needed.

There are definitely people (or groups of people) who never struggle with any of this stuff - they can walk into a new situation, size it up immediately, and just get to work on the mechanics, because the implementation is obvious to them. In some ways, I actually feel sorry for these people - because the joy of discovery after banging your head against a wall is way the hell better than just being right all the time.

I'm still gonna enjoy getting the mechanics down, though.

I'm still gonna enjoy getting the mechanics down, though.

And man we have a lot of work to go there :)
I'm still working on my counting for example.

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In some ways, I actually feel sorry for these people - because the joy of discovery after banging your head against a wall is way the hell better than just being right all the time.

Believe me, we more than made up for it with all the head banging on Aksis round two…

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In some ways, I actually feel sorry for these people - because the joy of discovery after banging your head against a wall is way the hell better than just being right all the time.

Believe me, we more than made up for it with all the head banging on Aksis round two…

I wasn't really aiming this at you. (I actually felt like you were trying to be helpful earlier when you said you'd figured out the monitors from the death screen, you just presented it in a tone-deaf way that came off as pretty insulting.) I was more thinking of the guys who finished the raid within 2 hours of it becoming available - people like that. For them, there's a joy in being first, sure - but once you've been first, what's left? I mean... there's clearly no discovery available, because those guys had to nail everything near the first time out - and if you can do that in a raid, you can do that in EVERYTHING in Destiny. I'd be bored, if I were them.

Seige engine spoiler:

When we got to the seige engine I gave Kermit a hard time for always going the wrong way when he picked up the parts. He was going right (when facing the engine) while the rest of us went left. Kermit was getting mad at himself for going the wrong way too until INSANEdrive asked if the beams on the right would be quicker. None of us had noticed them. Turns out that the way Kermit was accidentally going was way quicker than the way we were telling him to go.

Just FYI guys.

In some ways, I actually feel sorry for these people - because the joy of discovery after banging your head against a wall is way the hell better than just being right all the time.

Believe me, we more than made up for it with all the head banging on Aksis round two…

I wasn't really aiming this at you. (I actually felt like you were trying to be helpful earlier when you said you'd figured out the monitors from the death screen, you just presented it in a tone-deaf way that came off as pretty insulting.) I was more thinking of the guys who finished the raid within 2 hours of it becoming available - people like that. For them, there's a joy in being first, sure - but once you've been first, what's left? I mean... there's clearly no discovery available, because those guys had to nail everything near the first time out - and if you can do that in a raid, you can do that in EVERYTHING in Destiny. I'd be bored, if I were them.

No way I'd go for world's first. We had a great time exploring and looking for chests and clusters and things. Taking in the environment was super fun, since this raid ends up having a lot of atmosphere and scenery.

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I forgot you said that's where you stopped. Sorry!!!

I forgot you said that's where you stopped. Sorry!!!

No problem, I didn't see much & I'll keep my mouth shut about what I did see. :)

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In the root post of this thread Slycrel said:

We stopped soon after we got to the mace wielding zamboni. We'll start there tonight, looking for a way past it and heading down...
Also, please no spoilers for the rest of the raid in this thread. =)

He specifically requested that people don't spoil the remainder of the raid, including the zombie encounter. That post had a spoiler regarding the zamboni encounter. I was simply trying to keep our blind group untainted for the event tonight.

I didn't forget them. I was 100% certain that that monitor behind me on the wall was going to be incredibly important! I was constantly eyeing it like one looks at a hobo standing near a pie on the windowsill.

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meet acorn.