The Thorn bounty is teaching me to love PVP

So I was pretty cool on PVP up until last week. I was sitting at a sub 1 K/D, and I just felt like I was banging my head against the wall. Every time I sat down to play, I'd drop into the daily playlist for the rewards, get bumrushed and get out. Last week I started the thorn bounty, and given that my only void weapon was an ok shotty (Hard Luck Charm) I decided to go for it.

After a few rounds I realized I'd been playing Destiny PVP all wrong, and suddenly, I can't get enough of it.

I used to play Halo aggresively, there was no conflict I couldn't jump it, toss some grenades, melee some faces and come out of without at least a kill. It wasn't the most efficient, but I could keep an okish K/D, and if i was with a crew I could add a lot to the team. In Destiny PVE, I find agression and daring also works best. Unless you are cheesing encounters there are few safe spots, and getting to the next best cover often involves aggressively moving through enemies.

Destiny PVP however is based around patience. Without the thorn bountie I was charging in and getting slaughtered. With the thorn bountie I started caring about Dying much more. Suddenly it clicked. Forcing myself to wait a bit, or to take the non obvious path made me better, and the game much more enjoyable. I also went from a ~.7 k/d when I was ready to give up in crucible to a ~1.2 k/d and climbing. I'm also nabbing some better PVP weapons, (My new Pulse rifle, the Spare Change is preeeeetttty beastly) and have gotten into this great virtuous circle of "Get better" -> "Have more fun" -> "get better stuff" -> "get better" etc.

My recent highlight was after getting obliterated one round of skirmish by a group relying on The Last Word, I got matched with them again, this time a man down. "Well shit I thought" I ended up going to town, racking up over 20 kills and a 2.1 k/d. I also moved about 60 points on the ole thorn bounty. That'll teach you to dance on my orb :)

I know people like to highlight the Xyor fight as the best part of thorn bounty, but I think the void kills are the most interesting, as they opened my eyes to how much fun Destiny PVP can be.

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I kinda had the same experience. I don't remember when the turning point was, but it eventually clicked that I did better when I took my time to pick fights, and run away before I had lost. With so many options in terms of subclasses, grenade types, armor specialties, weapons.... it takes a while to find your groove. But when you do, it's so nice. I climbed as high as 1.4 k/d overall, but have been dropping slowly for about a month. Partially due to playing in trials, which really shows your skill level.

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Running away at the right time is a great lesson to learn in PvP. Finding cover, taking the time to get shields back up before re-engaging leads to fewer deaths and more kills (because not everyone else has learned this lesson).

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heh, i did my thorn bounty before Bastion and first light were removed from the Control playlist. I would just hang out at the edges of the map and wait for heavy ammo, then basically just sniped people with the Truth Rocket Launcher.

If you lock on to someone, then point straight up in the air as you shoot, the rocket will go way up before u-turning to head to target. great for shooting over debris that would mess up a shot with any other tracking rocket.

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That's good to hear!

I am not good at the Crucible at all, but I love it. And you're right, approaching it like Halo is bound to get you killed. I had/have the same problem. In Halo, you could charge headlong into any situation, and come out okay if you were decent.

In Destiny, that's bound to get you killed with nothing to show for it. It plays entirely differently, which surprised me. Granted, Halo very much rewards planning and patience, and high levels of play I'm sure that is required. But in normal day to day matchmaking, you can get by just by being aggressive. That just plain doesn't work at all in Destiny (at least for me; maybe it would if I had a higher skill level).

Despite being bad at it, I like the dynamic of Destiny's PvP. I do still find myself playing it too much like Halo too often, but I'm slowing weaning myself out of that style.

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I am not good at the Crucible at all, but I love it. And you're right, approaching it like Halo is bound to get you killed. I had/have the same problem. In Halo, you could charge headlong into any situation, and come out okay if you were decent.

... [snip] ...

Despite being bad at it, I like the dynamic of Destiny's PvP. I do still find myself playing it too much like Halo too often, but I'm slowing weaning myself out of that style.

This, so much this. Among my local friends whom I still sometimes LAN Halo 3 with being aggressive & charging in is very rewarding, NOT in Destiny. Once I figured this out & was able to actually get a kill here & there in Crucible it actually became fun, but then I have a few good games, get overly confident, start playing like I'm Master Chief, and, I do poorly.

Someday I'll figure it out for reals.

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This, so much this. Among my local friends whom I still sometimes LAN Halo 3 with being aggressive & charging in is very rewarding, NOT in Destiny. Once I figured this out & was able to actually get a kill here & there in Crucible it actually became fun, but then I have a few good games, get overly confident, start playing like I'm Master Chief, and, I do poorly.

Someday I'll figure it out for reals.

Agreed. I'm not good at crucible. At all. Just ask the 360 crew. Despite that, I've come to enjoy it, especially with friends. Every now and then I have a great game where I actually have a positive K/D ratio and feel like I contributed.

I just signed up for my second Thorn bounty (at the urging of my youngest who will be the recipient of it), and I'm actually looking forward to it. Having Word of Crota and a void sniper should help it go better. Look for some crucible fireteam builder events in the near future....

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That's good to hear!

I am not good at the Crucible at all, but I love it. And you're right, approaching it like Halo is bound to get you killed. I had/have the same problem. In Halo, you could charge headlong into any situation, and come out okay if you were decent.

for the most part, Halo was an even slate of speed, armor, weapons. anything that could give you an advantage was lying on the ground, and it was a mad dash to control the spawns of those weapons/overshield/etc.

There are way too many variables in Destiny. Even with the exact same weapon, the perks, range, impact, etc could all be different. You don't know if they have grenades or not. They may have a better melee than you. They may have spec'd for more armor. Running and gunning is a crap shoot, b/c you are not on level footing.

It definitely takes more patience, and thought.

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That is also definitely part of my problem. I honestly don't spend to much time on my builds, such as they are in Destiny. I don't (and haven't, and most likely won't) do a lot of research on perks and abilities and stacking these things together. I'll experiment until I find something I like, but it definitely won't be the "best" combination of those things. And while they've definitely tried to make it so that there is no "best" build, I think it's obvious that certain things are definitely favored and advantageous.

In many encounters, stuff like this might not make a big, or any, difference. In other situations, you can definitely be screwed by not having he right perks.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it is a thing that I'm not terribly interested in, so realize that I'm willing putting myself at a disadvantage by not really investing in being knowledgeable about it.

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That is also definitely part of my problem. I honestly don't spend to much time on my builds, such as they are in Destiny. I don't (and haven't, and most likely won't) do a lot of research on perks and abilities and stacking these things together. I'll experiment until I find something I like, but it definitely won't be the "best" combination of those things. And while they've definitely tried to make it so that there is no "best" build, I think it's obvious that certain things are definitely favored and advantageous.

In many encounters, stuff like this might not make a big, or any, difference. In other situations, you can definitely be screwed by not having he right perks.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it is a thing that I'm not terribly interested in, so realize that I'm willing putting myself at a disadvantage by not really investing in being knowledgeable about it.

I don't think the perks at the moment you are using are incredibly crucial. Most of my kills are still via gusn, but choosing the right gun combos and getting a gun that fits your playstyle is HUGE.

Actualy, not to be tooo happy, but the lack of a way to make quick swap loadouts is SUPER annoying. Like "Ohh shit, it's a CQB map, now I need to switch out 2 guns, 4 perks, and change up which perk this gun is using right now."

Two minutes later I go "hey something feels off" and I realize I forgot something.

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Actualy, not to be tooo happy, but the lack of a way to make quick swap loadouts is SUPER annoying. Like "Ohh shit, it's a CQB map, now I need to switch out 2 guns, 4 perks, and change up which perk this gun is using right now."

Two minutes later I go "hey something feels off" and I realize I forgot something.

This is where the Loadouts feature of things like Tower Ghost or DIM come into play, but again, that's something I definitely can't be bothered with. I imagine some people have a loadout set up for any situation, and can quick swap based on whatever map comes up.

I definitely do not care enough to set up a bunch of those, though. The inconvenience of spending all the time setting them up definitely outweighs the convenience of quick swapping when they are.

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And I effing hate the PVP portion. I'm so close to just dumping the bounty in favor of buying the damn thing straight up next time someone is selling it.

I don't like Destiny's PVP. I have never liked Destiny's PVP. I actively avoid Destiny's PVP.

If I play aggressively, I get boned. If I play cautiously, I get boned. If I play alone, I get boned. If I play with people I know and trust to help me, I get boned. There's only so much boning I can take before dying every 10 seconds, only to respawn and hike halfway across the flipping map to the conflict, and then immediately die again, becomes enough to ruin what was going to be a relaxing and fun night.

The worst part, the FUCKING worst part, is having a single good game, where I make some progress, ANY progress, on those stupid kills/assists, and then having the very NEXT game completely wipe that progress back to zero.

PVP can go to hell.

And while I'm on a roll bitching, what the hell is with this stupid quest anyway? Ikora hits me up with "Yo, I got a lead on a sick Shotgun, you want?" and then instead of giving me, you know, something approaching an actual lead, has me collect her laundry to prove I know how to survive some tough shit, pick daffodils to prove I can handle myself in combat, and talk to the president because fuck you have some entirely unrelated tasks before I'll give you this magic shotgun I've had in my back pocket this entire time (I don't actually know how these things work, I'm assuming this is what's going to happen.).

Ugh.

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And while I'm on a roll bitching, what the hell is with this stupid quest anyway? Ikora hits me up with "Yo, I got a lead on a sick Shotgun, you want?" and then instead of giving me, you know, something approaching an actual lead, has me collect her laundry to prove I know how to survive some tough shit, pick daffodils to prove I can handle myself in combat, and talk to the president because fuck you have some entirely unrelated tasks before I'll give you this magic shotgun I've had in my back pocket this entire time (I don't actually know how these things work, I'm assuming this is what's going to happen.).

Spoilers, that is what happens, she wants to pass it on to someone worthy-- the rest of the exotic bounties aren't though. Tt's not bad compared to Thorn, I got the Invective bounty while I was on the void kills section of the Thorn bounty and I finished it at least two days before I finished with Thorn; definitely more of a task than the SGA bounty though. Also I'm pretty sure Xur never sells any bounty weapons and never will.

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And I effing hate the PVP portion. I'm so close to just dumping the bounty in favor of buying the damn thing straight up next time someone is selling it.

That will never happen, do not delete. Xur does not sell Bounty weapons.

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And I effing hate the PVP portion. I'm so close to just dumping the bounty in favor of buying the damn thing straight up next time someone is selling it.

I don't like Destiny's PVP. I have never liked Destiny's PVP. I actively avoid Destiny's PVP.

If I play aggressively, I get boned. If I play cautiously, I get boned. If I play alone, I get boned. If I play with people I know and trust to help me, I get boned. There's only so much boning I can take before dying every 10 seconds, only to respawn and hike halfway across the flipping map to the conflict, and then immediately die again, becomes enough to ruin what was going to be a relaxing and fun night.

The worst part, the FUCKING worst part, is having a single good game, where I make some progress, ANY progress, on those stupid kills/assists, and then having the very NEXT game completely wipe that progress back to zero.

PVP can go to hell.

And while I'm on a roll bitching, what the hell is with this stupid quest anyway? Ikora hits me up with "Yo, I got a lead on a sick Shotgun, you want?" and then instead of giving me, you know, something approaching an actual lead, has me collect her laundry to prove I know how to survive some tough shit, pick daffodils to prove I can handle myself in combat, and talk to the president because fuck you have some entirely unrelated tasks before I'll give you this magic shotgun I've had in my back pocket this entire time (I don't actually know how these things work, I'm assuming this is what's going to happen.).

Ugh.

Send me your info (SS# optional), and I'll have the PvP portion done in half an hour. I'd recommend Shareplay, but, you know...

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When I got my Thorn bounty I didnt have any other exotics. I also didnt have any good legendaries that were Void. I actually didnt have any void weapons. I went to the gunsmith and he happened to be selling a void fusion rifle. I bought it. It was TERRIBLE. low charge rate, low stability, impact was mehh. But its what I had. I kept trying to go Rambo in the crucible but never got anywhere. Eventually I told myself, slow down. I learned how to essentially beat people without depending on my weapons. Sometimes killing a player is more of a mind game than a fire fight. Eventually I learned this the hard way and was able to get my bounty done one weekend, with breaks of course. it just goes to show that just having certain guns dont win you the game. I mean certainly it helps, but skill is still a requirement.

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I learned nothing.

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Aetheon's Epilogue is the only true way to do this bounty.

It's so sad that it only does 19 damage a head shot WITH weapons of light... But man is it satisfying when you actually get a kill with it. I also almost fell over laughing when I actually dueled someone else with the same gun. It took us like 2 minutes to kill each other.

But really, I haven't really learned much, just that I need better weapons. Also that I'm a really shitty sniper. Also that Swordbreaker should never be used in PvP.

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The Thorn bounty is teaching me to love PVP (Destiny)