Found in the dark corners of time

The Vault of Glass raid will forever be intermingled in my mind with the “Good Times™” here at DBO. It was the first activity in which I got to play alongside you all. It was the host of the Flawless raider saga that saw us play nearly every other night for three weeks or so, as we bashed our heads against a buggy, herculean task, and eventually emerged triumphant.

I really, really like VoG. It is a substantial part of why I got to meet people here, and kept playing Destiny after the first few weeks. I like it so much that I have spent a cumulative 9 days doing nothing but that raid, during which I’ve killed Atheon 166 times.

Members of DBO, some familiar, and some whose names I’ve known for years and yet never played with, answered my call and ran me through Destiny 2’s VoG on Saturday. But also Sunday.

I live in New Zealand, time zones are complicated.

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This is the first time I’ve been “coached” through a whole raid. I have new sympathy for people who experience raids this way- it’s way too much information to digest and process in a short time, and I froze up a couple times when I had a role to play, causing a wipe. In my books, that’s just another reason I enjoy blind raiding- you organically figure out the mechanics by repetition, and by the time you beat it you’ve got the details locked down.

Speaking of, figuring out the gatekeeper mechanics must have been a pain, what with the constant swapping of who has the relic and all.

Some short takeaways from the run:

It was fun!
If it had been my call, I would have kept the raid as close to D1’s as humanly possible. The oracle killing order requirement seems like change for the sake of change, and the Gatekeeper encounter is wildly different. I know that the Destiny raiding community is way more experienced now than in 2014, but c’mon. That encounter was already A-tier.
I’m happy I was still able to run the relic and navigate the gorgon maze using my D1 knowledge.
WHY DID THEY CHANGE THE BUTTON BINDINGS ON THE RELIC???
Atheon seems to borrow a bit too much from Leviathan and Last Wish now. Why would you retroactively add the “communicate a pattern back to your fireteam” bit in? That’s not novel or interesting. Stop it. Bad Bungie. Bad!
My first two drops were Found Verdict and the Titan Gloves, the exact same rewards as my first run through D1 VoG. Coincidence?

So, yeah. Vault of Glass. Still a great time! I wanna do it again next week.

Oh, and I will never get tired of watching Claude fly across the room into Atheon:

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Sounds like a good time, and I’m sorry I didn’t see it to sign up. Let me know when you’re ready to do it again.

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I actually disagree with your opinions about the updates. I think it’s handled very well. Oracles definitely needed an extra thing to manage. With the D2 power curve, original Oracles would have been a breeze. I think the same is true of Atheon, and they found a good balance of adding a new twist while keeping it familiar. They definitely have gone way too far with requiring callouts in the past, but I don’t think that’s true of the new VoG.

In any case, it’s good to see you back, and I’m sorry I missed it.

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I understand your argument for blind raiding... but one of the biggest changes in Destiny since you were a regular is the sheer quantity of content available. I mean, yeah, sure, you can focus on one thing and get good at it (and as you noticed, you don't have far to go to get good at any of the new stuff in VoG, because your foundation is pretty damned solid)... but NOT getting coached through a raid that isn't new requires 5 other people who are patient enough to let you learn by doing what they already know. :)

(I know you weren't suggesting we should have done it that way. I'm just saying that's the tradeoff when you come back at a time when something isn't brand-new for everyone.)

I'm saddened by how much of the 'free-to-play' game isn't really free - or, more specifically, that they've built a modular game with a free foundation, but they don't let you buy modules. They're treating it like the cable companies do - and that makes me sad.

I'd love to keep playing with you, even though time zones are hard! :)

(Not just timezones. Voice chat can be hard, too. Part of me was sad that Lars couldn't hear/talk to us, because he was using a type of mic that isn't supported by the new cross-platform chat functionality... and another part of me is remembering Louis CK's "Everything is amazing and nobody is happy" discussion and berating myself for my sense of entitlement.)

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I understand your argument for blind raiding... but one of the biggest changes in Destiny since you were a regular is the sheer quantity of content available. I mean, yeah, sure, you can focus on one thing and get good at it (and as you noticed, you don't have far to go to get good at any of the new stuff in VoG, because your foundation is pretty damned solid)... but NOT getting coached through a raid that isn't new requires 5 other people who are patient enough to let you learn by doing what they already know. :)

I don't think you could find those five people, and the fun of it is solving it together regardless. Blind raiding with one person who's not blind might be possible, but still requires reservoirs of patience few mortals have.

(I know you weren't suggesting we should have done it that way. I'm just saying that's the tradeoff when you come back at a time when something isn't brand-new for everyone.)

I'm saddened by how much of the 'free-to-play' game isn't really free - or, more specifically, that they've built a modular game with a free foundation, but they don't let you buy modules. They're treating it like the cable companies do - and that makes me sad.

I'd love to keep playing with you, even though time zones are hard! :)

(Not just timezones. Voice chat can be hard, too. Part of me was sad that Lars couldn't hear/talk to us, because he was using a type of mic that isn't supported by the new cross-platform chat functionality... and another part of me is remembering Louis CK's "Everything is amazing and nobody is happy" discussion and berating myself for my sense of entitlement.)

We're in a chair in the sky!

Cyber, I think the raids (especially DSC) and dungeons (three-man raids) are worth the price of admission, but I realize you have other reasons not to go all in.

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