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Destiny |OT43| Just What the Doctor Ordered

If one thing is clear, Bungie's matchmaking is still complete garbage (coming from someone who hadn't played for a full year, I expected some improvement). The consistency in which it would match me up against enemy teams with a group of 4+ when I'm solo queuing is the most frustrating bullshit. Either that, or dropping me off in a game in progress filling out a quitting spot on a losing team.
 

Dave_6

Member
people here who are 385 do nothing other than play Destiny.

I saw NUMEROUS players in IB that were 384-386. With me being 374, I was feeling the light level difference. I feel like I've played as much as possible and I'm struggling to get to the 380s.
 

Chitown B

Member
I saw NUMEROUS players in IB that were 384-386. With me being 374, I was feeling the light level difference. I feel like I've played as much as possible and I'm struggling to get to the 380s.

Bungie didn't design the game for people to be that high in the first week. Those that do sort of break the game for everyone else. But they have that much time on their hands (no work, no family?) so they can do it.
 

ToVenusAndBack_

Neo Member
Random question regarding the 4th monitor in the raid: when jumping to the corresponding canister after the monitors are activated, are you allowed to touch any of the other canisters? Or do you have to precisely land on the correct one for it to register?
 

AEREC

Member
I still have no idea how to level up to get ready for the raid. This past week my main was light level 348. I realize that light level matters in Iron Banner, but that's not going to stop me. I play on and off all week, complete all the bounties, get to rank 5 in Iron Banner (that's 25-40 games?), and I'm now glorious level 150. A full week of grinding Iron Banner for 2 light levels?

Ok, so I jump into the 350 level strike playlist. Run 10-15 strikes. Whoopee, I'm now level 351 after 3 hours of continual strikes.

Maybe Archon's Forge is the way to go? Ok, run that for around 2 hours. I have now successfully power leveled all the way to 353. Let's go!



How the fuck are you supposed to level up to get raid ready? I've been hovering close to 350 now for almost two full weeks.

I've decrypted countless legendary and exotic engrams (I'm not a hoarder) and at MOST they come out 1 light level above what I currently am (or at the same light level - which = no gains).

In the same boat...I even had a kid free weekend and I only went from 351 to 354 after tons of Strikes, AF and IB. I can't imagine how much grinding it takes to get to 380+

I did get three Skeleton Keys over the course of 5-10 level 320 strikes though.
 

stay gold

Member
Last day of iron banner. I was hating IB in the beginning. But as i kept playing i think i improved a lot and had so much fun. I'm much better at dealing with shotgun warriors now.
I still think this high impact long range shotguns are broken and wouldn't shed a tear if bungie nerfed them though.

Thanks to iron banner (plus exotic engrams and faction packages) i got all my characters to 385 (from 371).
Lingering song and unbent tree are fun weapons i'll be using in regular crucible for sure. Too bad no pulse or scout dropped for me. Maybe next time.

Tried trials and got destroyed. Like first match and we lost in seconds. Nice SBMM you got there bungie.
It's depressing. You believe you're average but these guys show you are thrash.

Trials doesn't have SBMM, it's based on number of wins on the card. Game 1 can be the hardest team on a card if you just happen to be starting in sync with a great team.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
So, now that IB is over, what am I supposed to be doing to get up to raid-worthy light level?

IB got me from 350 to 354. I was told to do SIVA strikes, and after running a bunch last night, came away with one piece of gear that upped that slot one light level. Is PoE still relevant for getting to 365?

Also, how do you get the medallion or whatever it is to pick up the eight artifacts? I got two from quests, and have no clue how to get the other six.
 
So, now that IB is over, what am I supposed to be doing to get up to raid-worthy light level?

IB got me from 350 to 354. I was told to do SIVA strikes, and after running a bunch last night, came away with one piece of gear that upped that slot one light level. Is PoE still relevant for getting to 365?

Also, how do you get the medallion or whatever it is to pick up the eight artifacts? I got two from quests, and have no clue how to get the other six.

Heroic Strikes drop two blues at 365 LL every strike. Couple that with the use of Three of Coins for Exotic leveling, Vanguard/Faction rewards, and Skeleton Keys on chests (if you want to use them along the way) and it should be quite easy to get to 365 LL.

You get the same quest each week for the artifacts. Having multiple characters will allow you to get all eight quicker.
 

Matt Frost

Member
So, now that IB is over, what am I supposed to be doing to get up to raid-worthy light level?

IB got me from 350 to 354. I was told to do SIVA strikes, and after running a bunch last night, came away with one piece of gear that upped that slot one light level. Is PoE still relevant for getting to 365?

Also, how do you get the medallion or whatever it is to pick up the eight artifacts? I got two from quests, and have no clue how to get the other six.

Strikes are worthless after 365. Now all you hace left to reach a higher light is: level up factions, raid, Osiris, the dawn or class items at the forge. Thats it
 

Kadey

Mrs. Harvey
Do that quest from the old blue woman at the peak. Noble deeds bounty. Each completed one gives you an artifact. Up to three a week if you have three characters.
 

JJShadow

Member
Random question regarding the 4th monitor in the raid: when jumping to the corresponding canister after the monitors are activated, are you allowed to touch any of the other canisters? Or do you have to precisely land on the correct one for it to register?

I'm pretty sure you are allowed to touch any of the others. Last time I did the monitors I landed on the wrong one but after repositioning the diamond still opened
 

Trakan

Member
If you find them hard to shoot then slide under. I don't see how they can nerf something that can already be rendered null with a button press.

Well, they chase you across the map and multiple seekers can spawn. I'm not really calling for a nerf, just surprised they survived this long.

And everyone ignores trade nades which are far dumber.

Are you referring to sticky nades? Yeah, the magnetism is pretty stupid. If anything, those should have been nerfed. I don't see why they needed to be touched from the Halo sticky grenades.

I saw NUMEROUS players in IB that were 384-386. With me being 374, I was feeling the light level difference. I feel like I've played as much as possible and I'm struggling to get to the 380s.

10 LL is like a 1-2 point damage difference. You shouldn't have felt anything different really.
 
So, now that IB is over, what am I supposed to be doing to get up to raid-worthy light level?

IB got me from 350 to 354. I was told to do SIVA strikes, and after running a bunch last night, came away with one piece of gear that upped that slot one light level. Is PoE still relevant for getting to 365?

Also, how do you get the medallion or whatever it is to pick up the eight artifacts? I got two from quests, and have no clue how to get the other six.
She's sold all eight within the first three weeks. If you have three characters it was possible to do the noble deeds quest three times in week one, three times in week two and twice this week. One of the medallions repeated this week.
 

StMeph

Member
Only just got back to Destiny and Rise of Iron, but started from 320 so I could only got to the low-350s from Iron Banner. Seems like such a shame because there was a good amount of loot dropped and wasted. Now to grind to 365.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Strikes are worthless after 365. Now all you hace left to reach a higher light is: level up factions, raid, Osiris, the dawn or class items at the forge. Thats it

Legendary engrams also have a 50-50 chance to drop 1 light level higher than your light level. First Daily Public events drop legendary engram on all three characters.

Challenge of Elders cards will still drop items up to 365 every week.

Archon Forge has dropped armor and weapons for me up to 365.

Weekly Archon Forge bounties have a chance to drop legendary gear up to 385. Had two Shadow Price drop at 385 for me last night.

Weekly Crucible bounty (if you did last year's crucible quest) also drops nightfall tier awards.

Once 365, people can just run the raid and easily get up to 5 pieces of either exotic items from the chests and bosses.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Heroic Strikes drop two blues at 365 LL every strike. Couple that with the use of Three of Coins for Exotic leveling, Vanguard/Faction rewards, and Skeleton Keys on chests (if you want to use them along the way) and it should be quite easy to get to 365 LL.

You get the same quest each week for the artifacts. Having multiple characters will allow you to get all eight quicker.

She's sold all eight within the first three weeks. If you have three characters it was possible to do the noble deeds quest three times in week one, three times in week two and twice this week. One of the medallions repeated this week.
Thanks. I'll just keep up the weekly strikes after the reset. I only have one character.

Strikes are worthless after 365. Now all you hace left to reach a higher light is: level up factions, raid, Osiris, the dawn or class items at the forge. Thats it

To be clear, I'm not at 365, I'm trying to get there.
 

Chitown B

Member
Heroic Strikes drop two blues at 365 LL every strike. Couple that with the use of Three of Coins for Exotic leveling, Vanguard/Faction rewards, and Skeleton Keys on chests (if you want to use them along the way) and it should be quite easy to get to 365 LL.

You get the same quest each week for the artifacts. Having multiple characters will allow you to get all eight quicker.

it's not so easy. You get only a couple levels if that, over your current. Then multiply that by 9 because you need each slot to be higher. Times hundreds of strikes.
 

Matt Frost

Member
Three of Coins for Exotics.

Damn I always forget about those xD

Legendary engrams also have a 50-50 chance to drop 1 light level higher than your light level. First Daily Public events drop legendary engram on all three characters.

Challenge of Elders cards will still drop items up to 365 every week.

Archon Forge has dropped armor and weapons for me up to 365.

Weekly Archon Forge bounties have a chance to drop legendary gear up to 385. Had two Shadow Price drop at 385 for me last night.

Weekly Crucible bounty (if you did last year's crucible quest) also drops nightfall tier awards.

Once 365, people can just run the raid and easily get up to 5 pieces of either exotic items from the chests and bosses.

Those are some really great suggestions

To be clear, I'm not at 365, I'm trying to get there.

Woops my bad I thought you were there already. Sorry
 

willow ve

Member
Heroic Strikes drop two blues at 365 LL every strike. Couple that with the use of Three of Coins for Exotic leveling, Vanguard/Faction rewards, and Skeleton Keys on chests (if you want to use them along the way) and it should be quite easy to get to 365 LL.

You get the same quest each week for the artifacts. Having multiple characters will allow you to get all eight quicker.

What heroic strikes are you running? I've run 20+ heroic strikes and I've never seen a blue that's greater than the light level I'm currently at +1 (so I get ~351 light level blues).

Is there really a strike playlist that guarantees 365 gear?
 
it's not so easy. You get only a couple levels if that, over your current. Then multiply that by 9 because you need each slot to be higher. Times hundreds of strikes.

My experience was quite easy. I ran Heroic Strikes (also getting Skeleton Keys from these) while using 3oC and ranking up Vanguard/Factions. I enjoy the gameplay though so I never really thought of it as a grind.

If you concentrate on one character and use the Exotic drops (sans the perfect ones stat/perk wise) as leveling boosters it goes much faster. Then once at an adequate LL just use drops as infusion fodder on other characters.

The raid will help as well, obviously.
 

wbarreda

Member
What heroic strikes are you running? I've run 20+ heroic strikes and I've never seen a blue that's greater than the light level I'm currently at +1 (so I get ~351 light level blues).

Is there really a strike playlist that guarantees 365 gear?

I just did the 320 sepkis perfected strike and got to 365 from 350 in about 4 to 5 hours. Also got 6 exotic engrams.
 
To be clear, I'm not at 365, I'm trying to get there.

Heroic strikes, Archon's Forge and Legendary engrams are the fastest way to get to 365.

Strike bosses drop decrypted blues up to 365.

Archon's Forge can drop all armor and 2 special weapons up to 365. Only the class items can go beyond 365. (if you're already 365 or higher).

Legendary and any blue engrams that decrypt into legendary will go up to 365.

Prison of elders sigil rewards also go up to 365.

Any factions you rank up will give you packages that can go beyond 365 (if you're already 365 or higher).

The 4 vanguard bounties and patrol quest from Shiro give a ton of Vanguard rep, plus legendary engrams.

Any exotic engrams you have can decrypt higher so best to save them till you're 365.

What heroic strikes are you running? I've run 20+ heroic strikes and I've never seen a blue that's greater than the light level I'm currently at +1 (so I get ~351 light level blues).

Is there really a strike playlist that guarantees 365 gear?

They drop up to 365. Your drops will be based on your current LL.

So if you're 350, you'll only get drops that are 351-353.
 
What heroic strikes are you running? I've run 20+ heroic strikes and I've never seen a blue that's greater than the light level I'm currently at +1 (so I get ~351 light level blues).

Is there really a strike playlist that guarantees 365 gear?

I should have said "up to" 365 LL. When I was running them to increase LL to 365 I always had blue drops 2-3 LL above what my current overall LL was. Again, use other methods along the way (especially 3oC while running those strikes) and it becomes much easier/quicker.
 

LunaticPuma

dresses business casual
What heroic strikes are you running? I've run 20+ heroic strikes and I've never seen a blue that's greater than the light level I'm currently at +1 (so I get ~351 light level blues).

Is there really a strike playlist that guarantees 365 gear?

Sounds like you're at one of the soft caps. There are soft caps at the decades where if you have an item under 350 it will restrict your drops to just +1 of your light. Once all of your gear is 350+, you'll see higher light jumps again.
 

specdot

Member
You know Axion Bolts can be both shot and slid under? They require no nerf.
While Axion Bolts are avoidable, in a 3v3 playlist they are a bigger problem. The fact that Tripmines got nerfed amazes me. Bungo's hard on for Warlocks drives me insane. Those QuickDraw exotic gauntlets that Warlocks have now are incredibly ridiculous.
 

Chitown B

Member
My experience was quite easy. I ran Heroic Strikes (also getting Skeleton Keys from these) while using 3oC and ranking up Vanguard/Factions. I enjoy the gameplay though so I never really thought of it as a grind.

If you concentrate on one character and use the Exotic drops (sans the perfect ones stat/perk wise) as leveling boosters it goes much faster. Then once at an adequate LL just use drops as infusion fodder on other characters.

The raid will help as well, obviously.

I guess anything here is "easy" as long as you have unlimited time. I think the question about best way to get to light level is usually predicated by "and I don't have 10 hours a day to play"
 

Chitown B

Member
Strike bosses drop decrypted blues up to 365.

They drop up to 365. Your drops will be based on your current LL.

the latter should be in bold, first. The former should say only Heroic and Nightfall. Really, "up to 365" is misleading and should probably be eliminated from these type of posts. People see that and think they can jump up to that in light on a random roll - but you can't. It's only the latter, as you mentioned. It takes forever.
 

Terrifyer

Banned
I hope this hasn't changed since I did it a week or two ago, so here's my understanding of leveling to 365 and beyond:

Up until 365 the two most plentiful sources of upgrades are legendary engrams and blue drops at the end of strikes. If you want variety you can run the Siva heroic playlist and at the end of each strike you'll get at least two blue items based on your current light level up to a cap of 365. If you want to do it quickly you can also spam the 320 version of sepiks prime straight from the director which will give you the same sorts of blues you'd see in the heroic playlist. Stay away from the regular Siva playlist for this purpose since the blues that drop at the end of strikes there cap at 340.

The biggest piece of advice I can give is to be intentional about how you use faction packages and skeleton keys. Because the gear you get drops based on your average light level, if your individual gear pieces become greatly out of sync level wise, you'll actually run into a soft cap where it will be nearly impossible to find upgrades until you upgrade the piece that's lagging behind. For example if you're light level 358 with a 350 artifact, you may actually have a number of pieces which are 360 and those will be very difficult to upgrade.

That's where the skeleton keys come in. Save them for when your artifact is 5+ levels behind your average light level, then run sepiks perfected or the mars valus taaurc strike and you're very likely to get a high level blue artifact from the skeleton key chest. These will drop based on your light level up to 385 and again you can just run the 320 level straight from director version to get them. This will boost you forward to faster progression.

As you get to 362+, the levelling from strikes will slow down. You can then start redeeming faction packages, opening exotic engrams, trying the raid, etc...to continue climbing past 365. Hope this helps.
 

stay gold

Member
While Axion Bolts are avoidable, in a 3v3 playlist they are a bigger problem. The fact that Tripmines got nerfed amazes me. Bungo's hard on for Warlocks drives me insane. Those QuickDraw exotic gauntlets that Warlocks have now are incredibly ridiculous.

They're a great grenade don't get me wrong, but theres no reason they shouldn't be good, they surely can't be called op. I slide under the majority of Axions that are thrown at me and take the 10~ damage or whatever, their main strength is flushing people out of cover and making them focus on something that isn't you for a couple of seconds.

Tripmine nerf was indeed stupid & is a result of Bungie looking at graphs instead of playing the game.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Heroic strikes, Archon's Forge and Legendary engrams are the fastest way to get to 365.

Strike bosses drop decrypted blues up to 365.

Archon's Forge can drop all armor and 2 special weapons up to 365. Only the class items can go beyond 365. (if you're already 365 or higher).

Legendary and any blue engrams that decrypt into legendary will go up to 365.

Prison of elders sigil rewards also go up to 365.

Any factions you rank up will give you packages that can go beyond 365 (if you're already 365 or higher).

The 4 vanguard bounties and patrol quest from Shiro give a ton of Vanguard rep, plus legendary engrams.

Any exotic engrams you have can decrypt higher so best to save them till you're 365.

My terrible luck from year 1 and 2 must have carried into year 3. Of the past ~10 legendary engrams, two decoded above my best light level in their slot - by one. Archon's Forge hasn't returned anything to up my level in several days. I used 15 Three of Coins and got two exotics, which bumped light 2-3 in their respective slots. (They were part of my going from 350 to 354, along with IB.) Naturally I forgot about Xur and didn't buy any this weekend.

I don't mind gradual leveling, I was just unsure about the activities that would help given my streak of luck. It does seem like progression is excessively throttled post-350, though.

I have yet to run Challenge of the Elders, will try to get a group for that this weekend, thanks.
 
I guess anything here is "easy" as long as you have unlimited time. I think the question about best way to get to light level is usually predicated by "and I don't have 10 hours a day to play"

I don't have this nor did I need it. There are plenty of suggestions and routes in-game to reaching a higher LL. Yes, you will have to play the game to get there.

Heroic Strikes
Raid (you can start it at a 355ish LL and complete the first three encounters at least thus boosting your LL from rewards)
Nightfall (same 355ish LL)
Forge
Crucible (end-of-match rewards, Weekly Bounty)
Iron Banner
Vanguard/Faction rewards
3oC
Legendary Engrams
Skeleton Keys

etc...
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Here is the problem with going from 350 to 365. It's too grindy. You are essentially being forced to do old content like the strikes and challenge of elders. Archon Forge drops have become much better since week 1, but they are still not enough. The weekly Archon Forge bounties and the patrol quest are a step in the right direction but let's not forget how empty Archon Forge used to be in the first couple of weeks.

I get it, there is not enough content in this update so they had to force everyone to play the older modes. But they screwed themselves when they moved from the superior 1-6 Light Level increase they had implemented in the April update to 1-3 light level with 3 being extremely rare. Locking Legendary engrams to only 1 light level above your LL also made it even more grindy.

Giving us ZERO guaranteed ways to get artifacts and ghosts also made the grind from 350-365 absolutely boring. All they had to do was do what Taken King did. It had a quest to give you a 310 bond. A quest to give you a 310 artifact and of course court of oryx which guaranteed a 310-335 artifact after the April update. Why couldnt Archon Forge do the same? There were multiple quests in Taken King that gave you a 300 weapon. That helped people go over the 290 light level requirement. There is no such thing in ROI.

Even in year 1, if you had enough marks, you could buy level 28 gear from vendors that got you raid ready for a level 26 VoG and year 1 was a fucking grind. Xur would sell level 30 exotics as well. Now he sells 350 gear. Vendors sell 350 gear. Artifacts are 350. Raid is 370. Why???

I started enjoying the game and the activities a lot more after i hit 370. I was finally competitive in the raid. I was having fun in archon forge despite the shitty loot. I loved Iron banner. I even liked doing Patrols. Bungie thinks we will all stop playing after we hit max light. They dont know us at all. We are addicted not because we want to hit max light. We are addicted because your gameplay is fucking amazing. I want to run a raid every day. I want to go into archon forge and beat those damn perfected shanks. I want to play Iron banner every day. It's because I like your game. Dont gate my progress because you think i will leave once i hit max light. Have faith in your game.
 

commish

Jason Kidd murdered my dog in cold blood!
Getting from 350 to 365 is a pain in the ass. There's no way around it. Yes, there are ways to do it, but it still sucks and is much slower than the grind between any other light levels. I went from 365 to 380 in much, much, much less time than it took me to get from 350 to 365.
 
yeah it sucks but you know the fix is right around the corner, and the fix is fairly trivial

- blue engrams cap out at 365 light instead of 340. BAM, people will just fly from 320 to 365 since blue engrams rain down in certain activities.

- purple engrams cap out at 385 light instead of 365. while rarer, you can at least buy them for X legendary marks.

- inject new source of ghosts and artifacts, bungie has already said this is going to be coming soon (probably hard mode update).


Its par for the course for MMOs and bungies, make stuff a bit more grindy for early adopters and then a few weeks or months later make it a lot easier. Just like anyone who took their time in the first 3 weeks was able to skip the faction grind from 365 to 385 and just run iron banana and boost themselves up via the quests/bounties, I suspect in 7-10 days we'll see this problem resolved as well.

I don't really like the way its structured but I can understand, if everyone was 385 a few days after ROI launched it would have made the raid trivial, since its far easier at 385 than 365. On the other hand when hard mode launches normal mode is gonna be a bit of a joke, but 385 will still be difficult for hard mode raid I imagine, the equivalent of going into normal with 365.
 
Getting from 350 to 365 is a pain in the ass. There's no way around it. Yes, there are ways to do it, but it still sucks and is much slower than the grind between any other light levels. I went from 365 to 380 in much, much, much less time than it took me to get from 350 to 365.

If you decide to run one particular strike over and over then yes it is, but if you run the Heroic Strike playlist and run the many other game-modes/alternatives to higher LL rewards as well then it isn't nearly as monotonous as a player could make it be.
 
Did everyone keep their 390 Outbreak Prime or use it to infuse another weapon?
I'm thinking of putting it into the raid scout, but it's already at 387. Probably not worth it.
 

Raven117

Member
Man, Iron banner really was worth running this go around.

Got my main and my alts (which I haven't touched in a year), up to at least 370.

Good weapon drops. Supremecy is a good Iron Banner game IMO. Its casual, chaotic, doesn't require the skill that trials takes. Just jump in, have some fun. Shotty, super, etc.

Gear rains down.
 

Chitown B

Member
just ran Sepiks Perfected strike (320LL). Took about 15 min. Got two blues two levels above me, and a couple blue engrams, and a purple engram. Good call.
 
Did everyone keep their 390 Outbreak Prime or use it to infuse another weapon?
I'm thinking of putting it into the raid scout, but it's already at 387. Probably not worth it.

If you get a second one maybe, but yeah I wouldn't dismantle your first one. Since we don't know anything about heroic mode, ya never know if its going to be the weapon that somehow makes the difference ala how useful touch of malice was for daughters and oryx.
 
If you get a second one maybe, but yeah I wouldn't dismantle your first one. Since we don't know anything about heroic mode, ya never know if its going to be the weapon that somehow makes the difference ala how useful touch of malice was for daughters and oryx.

This is probably the only reason I have not infused it as of yet but I could also just do it and buy another and infuse it up to 386 immediately.

However, with the impending LL increase it seems rather pointless. My main is 387 LL with both alts at 386 LL.
 

Niwa

Member
I haven't played since Crota's DLC and bought Rise of Iron last week, I'm worried that my Gjallarhorn and Vex are in a trash tier now amongst all the other exotics and legends stuff I have. Are They worth an upgrade?
 

Melchiah

Member
To my surprise I got an exotic shard from a patrol event. That hasn't happened before.

WS3SVn5.jpg
 

SkylineRKR

Member
I haven't played since Crota's DLC and bought Rise of Iron last week, I'm worried that my Gjallarhorn and Vex are in a trash tier now amongst all the other exotics and legends stuff I have. Are They worth an upgrade?

Anything from year one is useless. Its capped at 160 att if you rinsed CE. More than twice as low as the recommended firepower for RoI. Vex can't be upgraded, so its for the dumpster or Crucible. Horn in RoI is a separate thing as well.
 

Lima

Member
I had this question in a party today and got laughed at by Jigga and Bishop but they didn't really answer it. I hate my Warlock and would spend $90 to remake him with the subclass boosts. Can you buy it three times and fully level all 3 subclasses?
 
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