Update is up!

Interesting, on nearly all of the top-10 weapons lists not only do I not use the ranking weapons, but I don't even OWN more than maybe two of them...

I have Thorn and Dragons Breath. And I think that's it.

Those weapon stats were rad. I hope they do it again maybe sometime down the line or after expansion two has been out for a bit with it's new gear. I'm a sucker for that stuff :)

- No text -

Got all the way to Crota the other day with no cheese except sword-flying across the bridge. Looks like you cant do that any more though. Is it possible to form the bridge solo, do we know?

This guy does it pretty well. I'm not sure exactly what they mean by "Players will now be required to wait for the bridge to be completed prior to crossing with the sword", so we'll have to see if this is still viable when the patch drops.

Got all the way to Crota the other day with no cheese except sword-flying across the bridge. Looks like you cant do that any more though. Is it possible to form the bridge solo, do we know?

I doubt it. Starting the bridge requires you to have one person on the button and another two on the Totems.

This guy does it pretty well. I'm not sure exactly what they mean by "Players will now be required to wait for the bridge to be completed prior to crossing with the sword", so we'll have to see if this is still viable when the patch drops.

You could jump up and lunge your way across with the sword. Kind of like that Bladedancer crossed the Hellmouth.

So, that Queen thing is never coming back.

4 Iron Banners, No Queen's Bounties.

Nice.

Also, if they're gonna require bridge crossings in Crota's End, does that mean they're also going to make bridge crossings possible in any way?

So, that Queen thing is never coming back.

They said that Queen's Wrath is going to get a (deservedly) significant reworking. Tyson Green, straight from the October 24th Bungie Weekly Update:

• Over the last few weeks, the Tower played host to two events, and we learned a lot from both of them. Queen’s Wrath will be going back into the oven for a while. With Iron Banner, we have been able to move forward quickly with a lot of your feedback.

--------

Also, if they're gonna require bridge crossings in Crota's End, does that mean they're also going to make bridge crossings possible in any way?

What? The second bridge crossing is perhaps the simplest part of the whole raid. The mechanics are pretty straightforward and there's lots of room to maneuver around. Where has your group been getting caught-up?

Also, if they're gonna require bridge crossings in Crota's End, does that mean they're also going to make bridge crossings possible in any way?

I don't think any other group has ever screwed up the Bridge section as much as our group did the first time (We never killed a Gatekeeper), and we still succeeded. At one point, I think I had three Gatekeepers swinging at me while I ran in circles to capture the far platform.

That was insanely tough, but very possible, and we weren't even doing it right.

He might be having the exact problem I was. With the whole get killed if activating bridge and lose bridge if not. Now I know how it works, but still haven't tried it. My group cheeses a LOT.

I read that right, right?

He might be having the exact problem I was. With the whole get killed if activating bridge and lose bridge if not. Now I know how it works, but still haven't tried it. My group cheeses a LOT.

Figuring out how to make the bridge work legit was the most fun I've had with this game. It does concern me that they're seemingly fixing the whole 'get a few people across and wipe' bit, just because if you have less than 6 people, you can't actually get everyone across from a purely mathematical standpoint (at least as I understand it with the changes they're planning).

Figuring out how to make the bridge work legit was the most fun I've had with this game. It does concern me that they're seemingly fixing the whole 'get a few people across and wipe' bit, just because if you have less than 6 people, you can't actually get everyone across from a purely mathematical standpoint (at least as I understand it with the changes they're planning).

Are you sure? We did it legit with only 5 people last night.

Figuring out how to make the bridge work legit was the most fun I've had with this game. It does concern me that they're seemingly fixing the whole 'get a few people across and wipe' bit, just because if you have less than 6 people, you can't actually get everyone across from a purely mathematical standpoint (at least as I understand it with the changes they're planning).

Are you sure? We did it legit with only 5 people last night.

After you got two across, how did you get the 3rd person? I understand the bridge stays up for a little bit after you form it, but it sounded like they were going to require someone to stand on the pad to keep it open from here on out? Is that not the case? I only skimmed the update.

***Here's the relevant part of the update:

-Players will now be required to cross the bridge in order to complete the bridge encounter.
-Players will now be required to wait for the bridge to be completed prior to crossing with the sword.

Dunno if this means you'll need someone on the pad the whole time or not. If that was the case, you absolutely need 6 people; it can't physically be done with less if it requires one on the pad and two on the totems the whole time the swordbearer is crossing.

I always thought that it would be great to have those maps in the normal Control map list. They aren't that small and I think they would be quite intense.

Tyson Green, straight from the October 24th Bungie Weekly Update:

That might even further solidify my point--from October. Iron Banner has been reworked each time, and they manage to bring it back pretty much once a month. Destiny was released in September, right? I started in October. I've played two Iron Banners since then, and a 4th(my 3rd) is coming up next. Unless they're having a DLC-sized makeover for the Queen's Wrath, why are they sacrificing so much of PvE for PvP?

What? The second bridge crossing is perhaps the simplest part of the whole raid. The mechanics are pretty straightforward and there's lots of room to maneuver around. Where has your group been getting caught-up?

Where the swordbearers can slice right through that shield they're not supposed to be able to touch and 1-hit kill us even though we're 30's and 31's.

Oh, and where that one guy is supposed to stand IN THE OPEN UNPROTECTED while every enemy in the world is either shooting at him or again, swordbearers(see previous paragraph). My teammate had to run in circles nonstop with high sensitivity in order to make the turns and maximum agility to BARELY dodge their sword swings. Oh, and there's three of them. Also.

Oh, and I forgot the Knights! With butt clenching accuracy, they can kill any guardian in three shots. That's where we get stuck.

I don't think any other group has ever screwed up the Bridge section as much as our group did the first time (We never killed a Gatekeeper), and we still succeeded. At one point, I think I had three Gatekeepers swinging at me while I ran in circles to capture the far platform.

That was insanely tough, but very possible, and we weren't even doing it right.

Which brings us to my next point--what is "right"?
Does someone just whip out a Mythoclast or Last Word or any of the weapons I DON'T have and just drop level 32 and 33 enemies effortlessly? How can the bridge holders defend themselves when the sword guys just walk on through their barriers with no problem? How can the CENTER guy stay alive for more than a quarter of a second--WITHOUT running in a circle defenselessly? When stacked against the odds with their sword MUCH stronger than yours, and doesn't dissipate the second they actually NEED it?

What is right? What is good?

After you got two across, how did you get the 3rd person? I understand the bridge stays up for a little bit after you form it, but it sounded like they were going to require someone to stand on the pad to keep it open from here on out? Is that not the case? I only skimmed the update.

***Here's the relevant part of the update:

-Players will now be required to cross the bridge in order to complete the bridge encounter.
-Players will now be required to wait for the bridge to be completed prior to crossing with the sword.

Dunno if this means you'll need someone on the pad the whole time or not. If that was the case, you absolutely need 6 people; it can't physically be done with less if it requires one on the pad and two on the totems the whole time the swordbearer is crossing.

I don't think that means that, I think they're just saying that if you attempt to cross the chasm at all before the bridge completes you'll die, which will prevent people from jumping across the chasm with the sword (one of the ways they soloed the section before). Not positive, but I don't think it'd affect your ability to do it with 5.

After you got two across, how did you get the 3rd person? I understand the bridge stays up for a little bit after you form it, but it sounded like they were going to require someone to stand on the pad to keep it open from here on out? Is that not the case? I only skimmed the update.

***Here's the relevant part of the update:

-Players will now be required to cross the bridge in order to complete the bridge encounter.
-Players will now be required to wait for the bridge to be completed prior to crossing with the sword.

Dunno if this means you'll need someone on the pad the whole time or not. If that was the case, you absolutely need 6 people; it can't physically be done with less if it requires one on the pad and two on the totems the whole time the swordbearer is crossing.

I don't think that means that, I think they're just saying that if you attempt to cross the chasm at all before the bridge completes you'll die, which will prevent people from jumping across the chasm with the sword (one of the ways they soloed the section before). Not positive, but I don't think it'd affect your ability to do it with 5.

My concern would be that they'd have an insta-kill barrier over the chasm whenever the bridge isn't completely formed; so you could get out over the chasm and jump up to slash across, but once that bridge starts to deform, you'd just die because of the kill barrier. It's the sort of ham-fisted fix that I expect from Bungie at this point.

*edit - does the bridge deform for other groups after you complete it? It did for our group the first few times we did the encounter if someone wasn't always on the center pad, and I guess we just assumed it always did after one of our sword bearers fell through it while running across.

Also, if they're gonna require bridge crossings in Crota's End, does that mean they're also going to make bridge crossings possible in any way?

Honestly the bridge (done the dairy-free way) is about on par with the Gatekeeper section in VoG in my opinion. Requires the group to be on point, but it's far from impossible. Our first run through we didn't know anything about it and we ended up figuring it out and completing it in under an hour if I remember correctly.

As far as Queen's Wrath, I know very very few people who enjoyed it the first time (I being one of the few), so I think it's going to have a much bigger overhaul than Iron Banner. Aside from causing a small amount of rage there is no reason for them to not run Iron Banner just because they haven't finished updating Queen's Wrath.

Which brings us to my next point--what is "right"?
Does someone just whip out a Mythoclast or Last Word or any of the weapons I DON'T have and just drop level 32 and 33 enemies effortlessly? How can the bridge holders defend themselves when the sword guys just walk on through their barriers with no problem? How can the CENTER guy stay alive for more than a quarter of a second--WITHOUT running in a circle defenselessly? When stacked against the odds with their sword MUCH stronger than yours, and doesn't dissipate the second they actually NEED it?

What is right? What is good?

Here is what is right. We've been doing it very successfully.

1. Everybody be sure to kill a gatekeeper whenever they cross. That way you have zero running around making things harder.
2. Send your best guy over first, or the guy who can blind stuff.
3. Cross bridge. Kill Gatekeeper. Optional: have gatekeeper blinded for you.
4. Everyone is across, all group together on the right.

It sounds like your problem is that your group isn't killing gatekeepers.

The bridge has been the easiest part thus far. Our second run in the double header last night actually had zero wipes, and our first only one at the deathsinger.

... why are they sacrificing so much of PvE for PvP?

That's not how it works.

EDIT:

• Queen's Wrath, last time, worked like this:
  
• She had her own set of bounties. Fallen-focused.
  
• Complete one bounty, get one token.
  
• Token unlocks 1 play in a special playlist that picks a random story mission (from a very small subset).
  
• Complete mission and get rewarded with random Legendary item from: helm, chest, sniper rifle, Ship.

Given that you could have 6 bounties a day, and it ran for 2 weeks(?), there were Legendary armour pieces dropping all over the place. They quickly removed the ability to dismantle them for shards so as not to completely usurp the Daily Heroic. At which point, it felt like you were grinding samey bounties, for a token where you would grind the same few missions, for a CHANCE at a slightly, minisculely better roll on your armour or a tiny chance at a sniper rifle.

It got old really fast. It wasn't unique or different in any way to existing Daily Heroics and bounties. You did not miss much.

Bungie taking more time to rework it is not a crime, is not unexpected, and the work they already completed on Iron Banner does not prevent them from bringing it back as an event regularly, and does not prevent further work on Queen's Wrath and hopefully bringing it back later on.

//shouldn't even have to say this

Jeez, dude, if I've made it through that section you should be able to. There's a ton of videos out there showing what a good run looks like. (Pro tip: if your run isn't looking like that [e.g., you're dealing with three gatekeepers at once], it's best to wipe and start again. There are a few sections of this Raid where you can go a long time with less and less hope of success. Know when to wipe. Everybody gets more practice and gets better at handling the smaller mistakes so they won't matter.) In these rants of yours you consistently blame the game. The game is sometimes the problem, but not to the extent you make it out to be.

It got old really fast. It wasn't unique or different in any way to existing Daily Heroics and bounties. You did not miss much.

Bungie taking more time to rework it is not a crime, is not unexpected, and the work already did on Iron Banner does not prevent them from bringing it back as an event regularly, and does not prevent further work on Queen's Wrath and hopefully bringing it back later on.

But here is the thing: Bungie is in a bind. Everybody expected the Queen's Bounty missions to basically be like what the dark below missions were. Like they are going to make more for free! That expectation was entirely Bungie's fault in the way they worded the event, and the fact that we already had these unused areas on our hard drives (just waiting to be activated).

Honestly the bridge (done the dairy-free way) is about on par with the Gatekeeper section in VoG in my opinion. Requires the group to be on point, but it's far from impossible. Our first run through we didn't know anything about it and we ended up figuring it out and completing it in under an hour if I remember correctly.

Going in completely unaware, we completed it in about 45 minutes.

Got all the way to Crota the other day with no cheese except sword-flying across the bridge. Looks like you cant do that any more though. Is it possible to form the bridge solo, do we know?

I doubt it. Starting the bridge requires you to have one person on the button and another two on the Totems.

For the record: In the area with the Totems, I activated it and got across solo. But died immediately on the other side to a knight.

It sounds like your problem is that your group isn't killing gatekeepers.

The bridge has been the easiest part thus far. Our second run in the double header last night actually had zero wipes, and our first only one at the deathsinger.

Any advice for a group that has killed all the Gatekeepers but can't get the last guy across yet? Our final guy gets swarmed by enemies on the home side and has to solo a Swordbearer with constantly regenerating health. Shortly after the Ogres and wizards show up and we can't provide too much help to him anymore. Is it a "have good weapons" thing? Should we just sacrifice that last guy and go ahead without him?

Tyson Green, straight from the October 24th Bungie Weekly Update:

That might even further solidify my point--from October. Iron Banner has been reworked each time, and they manage to bring it back pretty much once a month. Destiny was released in September, right? I started in October. I've played two Iron Banners since then, and a 4th(my 3rd) is coming up next. Unless they're having a DLC-sized makeover for the Queen's Wrath, why are they sacrificing so much of PvE for PvP?

PVE is hardly neglected. It has two challenges each week that grant lucrative items. The Weekly Heroic Strike grants up to 9 Strange Coins and is the best way to buy exotic weapons from Xur. (The Last Word is on sell NOW by the way.) The Weekly Nightfall Strike grants very high end items and takes far less time to get those items than ranking up Iron Banner. Then there's the Heroic Daily Story missions that grant much needed upgrade materials.

What? The second bridge crossing is perhaps the simplest part of the whole raid. The mechanics are pretty straightforward and there's lots of room to maneuver around. Where has your group been getting caught-up?

Where the swordbearers can slice right through that shield they're not supposed to be able to touch and 1-hit kill us even though we're 30's and 31's.

Oh, and where that one guy is supposed to stand IN THE OPEN UNPROTECTED while every enemy in the world is either shooting at him or again, swordbearers(see previous paragraph). My teammate had to run in circles nonstop with high sensitivity in order to make the turns and maximum agility to BARELY dodge their sword swings. Oh, and there's three of them. Also.

Oh, and I forgot the Knights! With butt clenching accuracy, they can kill any guardian in three shots. That's where we get stuck.

I don't think any other group has ever screwed up the Bridge section as much as our group did the first time (We never killed a Gatekeeper), and we still succeeded. At one point, I think I had three Gatekeepers swinging at me while I ran in circles to capture the far platform.

That was insanely tough, but very possible, and we weren't even doing it right.

Which brings us to my next point--what is "right"?
Does someone just whip out a Mythoclast or Last Word or any of the weapons I DON'T have and just drop level 32 and 33 enemies effortlessly? How can the bridge holders defend themselves when the sword guys just walk on through their barriers with no problem? How can the CENTER guy stay alive for more than a quarter of a second--WITHOUT running in a circle defenselessly? When stacked against the odds with their sword MUCH stronger than yours, and doesn't dissipate the second they actually NEED it?

You're vastly overrating the exotic weapons. The Last Word in particular is awesome at taking out one or maybe two light to medium targets but it kinda sucks when you're fighting a swarm or wave of targets like at the bridge. I would much rather have had one of my large magazined guns vs the mere 8 shots of The Last Word. I got pulled into a raid a couple of days ago and all I had on me was The Last Word and to my embarassment I died multiple times where I'm usually fairly comfortable and steadfast in that section. To be clear, there is no effortless dropping of enemies with anything less than an exotic rocket launcher.

Beyond that it sounds like maybe your group was doing the bridge wrong. You should:
1. Hold the central button with at least one person while keeping someone on each of the side totems. It may be neceassary for someone drift to help out the totem people if they get in trouble.
2. Work together as much as possible to take down the Swordbearer who appears after a few seconds. People on the totems can leave their totem for a few seconds to help out as long as they stay close enough to get back before everyone dies. When you kill the Swordbearer a Gatekeeper sword knight spawns on the far side.
3. The closest person should pick up the dropped sword and IMMEDIATELY cross the bridge and kill the sword weilding Gatekeeper on the far side. If you are too slow or hesitate your sword will vanish before you're done with it. (If you fail to kill a Gatekeeper your next sword guy will face two of them, the one you didn't kill and the new one. If that guy fails to kill any Gatekeepers your next guy will face three. Killing two is doable. Killing three is possible but is very much a long shot.
4. If each person that crosses the bridge kills their Gatekeeper you will soon have three Guardians on the far side. Your remaining three on the near side should now group up and get off the central bridge button. The three on the far side will now be the ones maintaining the bridge by staying on the far side central button and far side totems. They will be under heavy fire so it is crutial that you get your next three across as soon as possible to support them.
5. Once you get all six of your people across the Hive will mount a large assault on you including a wizard and a pair of Ogres. Survive and kill the enemy and you've beaten the section!

If you're doing it right you should only ever fight one sword knight at any time. Doing it completely right is hard though, I don't think any of my raid groups executed the above 100% correctly. One thing that helps a great deal is a Defender Titan with the Helm of Saint-14 helmet since it blinds any enemy that walks inside the Titan's bubble. I've cast that right on top of enemies to blind them. It makes killing a Gatekeeper or Swordbearer trivial since they will be staggering around blind instead of fighting back.

I've managed to get across the bridge with just two other people, and this was before we understood that the totems did anything more than kill us.

What we figured out was that standing on the pad until a second before the totems fire, hopping off, rinsing and repeating with great timing will actually slowly progress the bridge forward. Now, we had to hop on and off 5-10 times, and we failed many times, but it was possible.

The only caveat with this is that, at least when I made the run across the bridge, I got myself in the air as soon as I could make the jump to the other side, just in case the bridge fell out from under me. I do not know for sure that the bridge stayed up for as long as it would take to run across.

Still, using this method would be tedious for 2 people, and couldn't be done with one person. While the sword person runs you need someone dancing on and off the pad to keep it up long enough.

I must say that when I was told that you could simply stand under the totems to keep from dying to them, it all became a lot easier :)

Those weapon stats were rad. I hope they do it again maybe sometime down the line or after expansion two has been out for a bit with it's new gear. I'm a sucker for that stuff :)

There is DEFINITELY more to this game than goes on in our little corner of the internet.

Pretty much every single gun that we argue about here or claim to be the go-to isn't even on the list of that the community uses.

There could be some factors to that...seeing the blue weapons caught me off guard at first, but that could possibly be due to Christmas noobs.

OR, it could be that maybe there aren't as many 20+'s running around as we think.

Maybe we complain too much about RNG here....maybe we're pretty lucky enough already.

Pretty cool, though. I'd like to see a break down by exotics though, like what are the top 10 used exotic armors by class and weapons. Do other Titan's love Armatarium as much as I?

Any advice for a group that has killed all the Gatekeepers but can't get the last guy across yet? Our final guy gets swarmed by enemies on the home side and has to solo a Swordbearer with constantly regenerating health. Shortly after the Ogres and wizards show up and we can't provide too much help to him anymore. Is it a "have good weapons" thing? Should we just sacrifice that last guy and go ahead without him?

He doesn't actually have to cross.

If you want him to, all he really has to do is stay up the stairs where you first spawn in the area, and take out enemies until the sword bearer appears. You can use snipers or rockets to kill him. You don't really need good ones, but that's obviously a plus. Any Purple rocket launcher will do.

Alternatively, he could just wait up there and snipe the ogres as they appear across the gap. I don't think everybody actually needs to go across.

Any advice for a group that has killed all the Gatekeepers but can't get the last guy across yet? Our final guy gets swarmed by enemies on the home side and has to solo a Swordbearer with constantly regenerating health. Shortly after the Ogres and wizards show up and we can't provide too much help to him anymore. Is it a "have good weapons" thing? Should we just sacrifice that last guy and go ahead without him?

When the final couple people have yet to cross, it really helps if a couple Guardians use snipers to help clear the enemies on the first side.

Any advice for a group that has killed all the Gatekeepers but can't get the last guy across yet? Our final guy gets swarmed by enemies on the home side and has to solo a Swordbearer with constantly regenerating health. Shortly after the Ogres and wizards show up and we can't provide too much help to him anymore. Is it a "have good weapons" thing? Should we just sacrifice that last guy and go ahead without him?

When the final couple people have yet to cross, it really helps if a couple Guardians use snipers to help clear the enemies on the first side.

Just to clarify--is that when the crossed group is getting 3/2-hit killed by the Boomer Knights, or when the GatekeeperS are 1-hit slicing us through-and-through the Gatekeeper Barrier?

Or is it when we're getting zero-hit killed by the Ogres(again, plural) that spawn at the end?

Oh, and does the middle guy still have to run in a circle dodging more Gatekeepers while doing all this?

What level are you guys? I don't mean to sound disparaging but those boomers really aren't so bad in my experience. Only the first person across has to deal with them alone, and that's when they're at their most dangerous, obviously. Unload your heavy into them and you should be fine though.

I'm also "plate capture guy" in my raid group, and have literally never been killed doing it. That may be because we always kill the gatekeepers though?

If the gatekeepers arent dead, your best bet is to just keep double-jumping to avoid them. Or better yet, take a minute to lure them near an edge and knock them off with Fist of Havoc, Arc Blade or Solar Grenades.

Any advice for a group that has killed all the Gatekeepers but can't get the last guy across yet? Our final guy gets swarmed by enemies on the home side and has to solo a Swordbearer with constantly regenerating health. Shortly after the Ogres and wizards show up and we can't provide too much help to him anymore. Is it a "have good weapons" thing? Should we just sacrifice that last guy and go ahead without him?

When the final couple people have yet to cross, it really helps if a couple Guardians use snipers to help clear the enemies on the first side.

Just to clarify--is that when the crossed group is getting 3/2-hit killed by the Boomer Knights, or when the GatekeeperS are 1-hit slicing us through-and-through the Gatekeeper Barrier?

Or is it when we're getting zero-hit killed by the Ogres(again, plural) that spawn at the end?

Oh, and does the middle guy still have to run in a circle dodging more Gatekeepers while doing all this?

At this point I don't know what you are talking about anymore. What is a Gatekeeper Barrier? I've never dealt with one in the six or so times I've beaten that section. And why are you fighting three Gatekeepers? If you're doing it right you should only fight one at a time. Ever. As for the rest... learn to dodge and use cover and temporarily retreat? The end battle is kinda tough but we had two guys defeat it all by themselves the other day so it can't be nearly as hard as you make it out to be!

The totems each have a blue glowing "barrier" beneath them that the Gatekeepers don't seem to like walking through. I assume this is what Monochron's talking about?

At this point I don't know what you are talking about anymore. What is a Gatekeeper Barrier? I've never dealt with one in the six or so times I've beaten that section. And why are you fighting three Gatekeepers? If you're doing it right you should only fight one at a time. Ever. As for the rest... learn to dodge and use cover and temporarily retreat? The end battle is kinda tough but we had two guys defeat it all by themselves the other day so it can't be nearly as hard as you make it out to be!

I mean, 3 isn't even that big of a deal. The first time we did a bridge clear we'd been goofing around to see what the cap on gatekeeper spawns was (we could only get 3 max to spawn) and I was able to kill 3 with one sword.

Those?! I should hope not. That would be one heck of a wrong assumption to hold on to once you got killed a couple of times... But yeah, that's the only barrier I can think of as well... :/

Yeah. I just wanted to emphasize that doing it well means you'd never be fighting more than one. His team already seemed to be suffering misconception so erring a bit on the exact right way to do it seemed to be better than suggesting they try to take on two or three Gatekeepers...

3. The closest person should pick up the dropped sword and IMMEDIATELY cross the bridge and kill the sword weilding Gatekeeper on the far side. If you are too slow or hesitate your sword will vanish before you're done with it. (If you fail to kill a Gatekeeper your next sword guy will face two of them, the one you didn't kill and the new one. If that guy fails to kill any Gatekeepers your next guy will face three. Killing two is doable. Killing three is possible but is very much a long shot.

So my teammates(I was too scared to pick up the sword first) didn't kill the Gatekeeper each time--that's what happened. Now I understand. And that's why the middle plate had to continue running around non-stop: none of us on the other side had a sword. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I was told only the Swordbearer's Sword could damage Gatekeepers. Is that really right? Also, once you kill them, do they respawn? Or is it just those three?

What level are you guys? I don't mean to sound disparaging but those boomers really aren't so bad in my experience. Only the first person across has to deal with them alone, and that's when they're at their most dangerous, obviously. Unload your heavy into them and you should be fine though.

The very very first time I played Crota's End, I was 29. And yes, upon retrospect, I realize that was a super-bad idea. I had no clue the enemies would actually level up in difficulty as the stupid fucking thing progressed! I'm a level 30/31 now, but those Boomers still seem to pose a problem--mostly because of the fact I can't move from my position once the three of us make it across.

If the gatekeepers aren't dead, your best bet is to just keep double-jumping to avoid them. Or better yet, take a minute to lure them near an edge and knock them off with Fist of Havoc, Arc Blade or Solar Grenades.

I'll try that, and inform my Raid-mates--if it comes to that again.

Given that you could have 6 bounties a day, and it ran for 2 weeks(?), there were Legendary armour pieces dropping all over the place. They quickly removed the ability to dismantle them for shards so as not to completely usurp the Daily Heroic. At which point, it felt like you were grinding samey bounties, for a token where you would grind the same few missions, for a CHANCE at a slightly, minisculely better roll on your armour or a tiny chance at a sniper rifle.

Yeah, that sounds like a big problem. But it also sounds like it would be really, really, really helpful and beneficial.

It got old really fast. It wasn't unique or different in any way to existing Daily Heroics and bounties. You did not miss much.

Sounds about right.

Bungie taking more time to rework it is not a crime, is not unexpected, and the work they already completed on Iron Banner does not prevent them from bringing it back as an event regularly, and does not prevent further work on Queen's Wrath and hopefully bringing it back later on.

Again, I don't have a problem with Iron Banner--save for the only 5-7 bounties it ever has--but it just seems a little strange, maybe uneven to me. All the stuff I've heard about what's new coming and arrived to Iron Banner and what not--Queen's Wrath hasn't even been mentioned in any way since October! No progress? No updates? No release dates? No information?

//shouldn't even have to say this

Hey, I joined late and Strikes are getting repetitive. I'm a fucking noob. I get it.

The game is sometimes the problem, but not to the extent you make it out to be.

God, it certainly seems that way.

Those?! I should hope not. That would be one heck of a wrong assumption to hold on to once you got killed a couple of times... But yeah, that's the only barrier I can think of as well... :/

You're definitely right about that. Not going to fall for that one next time.

(The Last Word is on sell NOW by the way.)

Heh heh. I saw. Second that happened, I Struck like crazy--had to do a Nightfall and three weeklies. But I finally bought it.

PVE is hardly neglected. It has two challenges each week that grant lucrative items. The Weekly Heroic Strike grants up to 9 Strange Coins and is the best way to buy exotic weapons from Xur. The Weekly Nightfall Strike grants very high end items and takes far less time to get those items than ranking up Iron Banner. Then there's the Heroic Daily Story missions that grant much needed upgrade materials.

True, but on a side note, you can only do all those once. And it's good to have, but take the Dailies for example. That's two Ascendant Materials. And each weapon or armor piece requires six(sometimes eight) for each single upgrade in the final tier. That's 9-12 days trying to get that full upgrade. And during those 9-12 days, if you're doing Heroic Strike, Nightfall or Raid, which there's a good chance you're also doing, then you may possibly get another Legendary piece that you have to fully upgrade. Another 9-12 days for that, and it never ends. The Queen's Wrath event that RC described yes, it sounds ludicrous but it also--especially to me--sounds like a HUGE relief and a large burden lifted off us if only for a limited time--so we wouldn't have to be committed to a full-blown Raid and 5 constantly different partners (who never tell you it's their first time until we get to the friggin' Vex timegates). Raids are fun, but they're often difficult, and always a huge timesink. Yes, time investment in a game like Destiny is necessary and required, but doing The Buried City, The Archive and A Rising Tide over and over as a means of a shortcut dries up real quick.

I'm hungry. I gotta go eat, and then I'll see if I can finish Vault of Glass again tomorrow.

3. The closest person should pick up the dropped sword and IMMEDIATELY cross the bridge and kill the sword weilding Gatekeeper on the far side. If you are too slow or hesitate your sword will vanish before you're done with it. (If you fail to kill a Gatekeeper your next sword guy will face two of them, the one you didn't kill and the new one. If that guy fails to kill any Gatekeepers your next guy will face three. Killing two is doable. Killing three is possible but is very much a long shot.

So my teammates(I was too scared to pick up the sword first) didn't kill the Gatekeeper each time--that's what happened. Now I understand. And that's why the middle plate had to continue running around non-stop: none of us on the other side had a sword. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I was told only the Swordbearer's Sword could damage Gatekeepers. Is that really right? Also, once you kill them, do they respawn? Or is it just those three?

Correct, only a sword can harm a Gatekeeper. Assuming your team has a perfect run you should face six Swordbearer's on the near side and use their swords to kill a corresponding six Gatekeepers on the far side. If one of your team doesn't manage to kill their Gatekeeper the next person can try to kill two before his sword goes away. If two of your people fail its usually best to wipe and try again from the start though since the next person faces three. It is possible for one person to kill three Gatekeepers, but they have to get across very quick and make zero mistakes.

Heh heh. I saw. Second that happened, I Struck like crazy--had to do a Nightfall and three weeklies. But I finally bought it.

Wow. That's a lot. Good job enduring it all. The Last Word is good for Crucible. It can fire extremely fast, pretty much as fast as your can pull the trigger, and that gives you the option to fire it slowly for accuracy or go to town on someone up close with its stable rapid fire. Once you get used to its capabilities it can be very deadly, just don't expect a miracle from it. The other powerful guns still give it a run for its money.

PVE is hardly neglected. It has two challenges each week that grant lucrative items. The Weekly Heroic Strike grants up to 9 Strange Coins and is the best way to buy exotic weapons from Xur. The Weekly Nightfall Strike grants very high end items and takes far less time to get those items than ranking up Iron Banner. Then there's the Heroic Daily Story missions that grant much needed upgrade materials.

True, but on a side note, you can only do all those once. And it's good to have, but take the Dailies for example. That's two Ascendant Materials. And each weapon or armor piece requires six(sometimes eight) for each single upgrade in the final tier. That's 9-12 days trying to get that full upgrade. And during those 9-12 days, if you're doing Heroic Strike, Nightfall or Raid, which there's a good chance you're also doing, then you may possibly get another Legendary piece that you have to fully upgrade. Another 9-12 days for that, and it never ends. The Queen's Wrath event that RC described yes, it sounds ludicrous but it also--especially to me--sounds like a HUGE relief and a large burden lifted off us if only for a limited time--so we wouldn't have to be committed to a full-blown Raid and 5 constantly different partners (who never tell you it's their first time until we get to the friggin' Vex timegates). Raids are fun, but they're often difficult, and always a huge timesink. Yes, time investment in a game like Destiny is necessary and required, but doing The Buried City, The Archive and A Rising Tide over and over as a means of a shortcut dries up real quick.

Right, but look at it from my perspective. For a while I wasn't even doing the dailies much less the weeklies. I was relying on drops and marks to buy and upgrade my armor (via sharding). Imagine how happy I was to learn I could be steadily earning towards the next upgrade. Just throw in a little patience and you'll have your guns and armor upgrade in no time. :)

Do public events every day with each character, and you get a lot more ascendant materials.

Also, could you do me a favor? When you respond to people, could you respond to their post, and not clip things into the responses of other people's post? It's disorienting, and you run the risk of the person never reading your response to them. Thanks!

- No text -

Understandable. It's worse to have a big confusing UBER reply with unattributed quotes.