Destiny 2 | Curse of Osiris DLC - Part II

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I dont really know what the proper fix for Trials is though tbh...


I saw a post a while back by a highly regarded streamer who suggested instead of having the current win based matchmaking, changing it to a purely connection based matchmaking.


His argument was that on the one hand, for the Top 1% of players it becomes even easier to go flawless as on win #7 games they aren't matching other teams going for win #7 anymore... You could be on your flawless game and match up against a team on its 1st game of a card.


However, that also means the reverse is true. With the way the mode is played now, so many teams will quit a card and start over after one loss, meaning you have a lot of really good teams playing early win stages. Even some stacked teams that just farm tokens from the first 3 wins.


By switching to purely connection based matchmaking it means every time you search you have a chance to match up against any random team. So even for below average teams/players, they'll have an opportunity to get 4-5 games in a row against other below average teams.


That kind of change then also probably leads to more casual players playing the mode for rewards. I think another part of the problem is that as it is right now, the mode is dominated by the Top 10% of PVP players and not many people outside of that group actually bother to play the game. Make it more appealing for Casual players to put together a team and play for rewards and you start getting a bigger player base and even more opportunity for people who usually wouldn't go flawless, to have a chance at flawless.


The other thing they need to do IMO is increase rewards. In Destiny 1 one of the best things about trials was that after any game no matter how many wins or losses you had on your card, you had a chance to get a random loot drop from that game. So even if you're losing a lot of games it was worth playing for the chance to get loot drop, and if you managed to win games even better. In Destiny 2 Trials you don't get any rewards for losing at all, and winning you still don't get any random loot drops, just the guaranteed loot from 3-5-7 wins and tokens for winnin.



I think an increase in rewards made more easily available to below average teams... and a Matchmaking system that isn't card win based and instead just focused on getting good connections, those two things alone would go a long way to improving the Playlist for everyone.



I also saw someone mention the other day, the idea of introducing a new passage card called the passage of perseverance. A card that doesn't track losses, and you can't go flawless with the card, but it allows you to continue playing games on that card until you get 7 wins without having to reset after 3 losses.



Either way, I believe they have already said we should expect a overhaul of both Trials and Iron Banner later on this year, likely either season 15 or 16. Just be curious to see what it is.



I enjoy Trials, wish I played it more. I'm a Top 1% PVP sort, just don't have a consistent team to play Trials with so whenever I want to do a Flawless run I end up having to go through the Bungie lfg page which is an adventure in its own right.

 

[MAHJ71]

Nice to have Hung Jury back... but scouts need a buff overall..

 

[JaegerDice]

Nice to have Hung Jury back... but scouts need a buff overall..

Not sure what more they can do to buff scouts, since they've already said they want to keep scout rifle damage down on account of the longer/safer distance of engagement.

 

[MAHJ71]

Not sure what more they can do to buff scouts, since they've already said they want to keep scout rifle damage down on account of the longer/safer distance of engagement.

Something to make them worth using because outside of DMT they are always better options for where the meta is right now.

Ideally they separate PVE & PVP and have 2 different sandboxes.

 

[Dolemite]

Not sure what more they can do to buff scouts, since they've already said they want to keep scout rifle damage down on account of the longer/safer distance of engagement.

Play Destiny 1 for a while and you’ll see why all scouts are so weak (except for Jade Rabbit).

 

[Pay Carl]

Anyone on Xbox want to run VOG at 1 today?

not gonna be the best fire team but anyone is welcome just message me

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Bumping this thread because I feel like its kind of deserving.


The game at this point, might honestly be in the best spot it has ever been in. Trials of Osiris got a significant overhaul this season, and the numbers for its first weekend with the changes are pretty staggering. Over 750,000 players(~33% of all active players this weekend) including 120,000 that played Trials for the first time ever. 237,000 players went flawless including another 120,000 that went flawless for the first time ever(I personally was able to help two of my closest friends get flawless for the first time ever and we then proceeded to go flawless 3x over the weekend and had a 17 game win streak at one point). They've made phenomenal changes to the mode and really makes it inclusive for everyone and rewarding for everyone who plays.


Beyond just Trials though, the season itself is pretty good as well. A lot of new loot, solid weapons, New perks... Obviously VoG had just come out last time this thread was active, but VoG is still a lot of fun to run weekly and a number of weapons from that Raid are "meta" right now.


And we're coming up on possibly Bungie's biggest expansion ever in just a few months. The Witch Queen comes out February 22nd, and some of the new features being released with the expansion are crazy.




And beyond all of that, Bungie is doing a 30th anniversary celebrating 30 years of games at Bungie in December. Which will include a new Dungeon, exotic weapons, new 6 player activity, and a bunch of new weapons to Destiny(From old Bungie games like Marathon and possibly Halo) as well as some of Destiny 1's favorite weapons.



Long story short, for anyone that played Destiny once upon a time and are still at all interested in it, now's a really great time to come back. There's plenty of content to do now and catch up on over the last year or so, and in a few months we're likely looking at the biggest expansion Destiny has ever done.

 

[Dolemite]

I play on two different accounts across three platforms.

 

[Morbo]

Bumping this thread because I feel like its kind of deserving.


The game at this point, might honestly be in the best spot it has ever been in. Trials of Osiris got a significant overhaul this season, and the numbers for its first weekend with the changes are pretty staggering. Over 750,000 players(~33% of all active players this weekend) including 120,000 that played Trials for the first time ever. 237,000 players went flawless including another 120,000 that went flawless for the first time ever(I personally was able to help two of my closest friends get flawless for the first time ever and we then proceeded to go flawless 3x over the weekend and had a 17 game win streak at one point). They've made phenomenal changes to the mode and really makes it inclusive for everyone and rewarding for everyone who plays.


Beyond just Trials though, the season itself is pretty good as well. A lot of new loot, solid weapons, New perks... Obviously VoG had just come out last time this thread was active, but VoG is still a lot of fun to run weekly and a number of weapons from that Raid are "meta" right now.


And we're coming up on possibly Bungie's biggest expansion ever in just a few months. The Witch Queen comes out February 22nd, and some of the new features being released with the expansion are crazy.




And beyond all of that, Bungie is doing a 30th anniversary celebrating 30 years of games at Bungie in December. Which will include a new Dungeon, exotic weapons, new 6 player activity, and a bunch of new weapons to Destiny(From old Bungie games like Marathon and possibly Halo) as well as some of Destiny 1's favorite weapons.



Long story short, for anyone that played Destiny once upon a time and are still at all interested in it, now's a really great time to come back. There's plenty of content to do now and catch up on over the last year or so, and in a few months we're likely looking at the biggest expansion Destiny has ever done.

curious, how is it the "biggest expansion ever"?

unless I'm missing something, the destination will be the usual circular map layout about the same size as any other map...I haven't heard anything that would lead one to believe otherwise?

think it will have 1 raid and a typical amount of new strikes(probably 2, maybe 3)

also I assume something is getting vaulted when WQ comes out..? again, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[JaegerDice]

curious, how is it the "biggest expansion ever"?

unless I'm missing something, the destination will be the usual circular map layout about the same size as any other map...I haven't heard anything that would lead one to believe otherwise?

think it will have 1 raid and a typical amount of new strikes(probably 2, maybe 3)

also I assume something is getting vaulted when WQ comes out..? again, correct me if I'm wrong.

Bungie claims it's the biggest as far as raw explorable area. They claimed the same in the past with Forsaken, and sure as hell lived up to the billing with two full-sized, full-featured areas to explore.

As far as vaulting, can't be sure, but storyline wise is DOES appear the Dreaming City may be vaulted as a result of the Guardians breaking the curse that keeps it in an infinite loop. I will be sad if that happens, because for my money, the Dreaming City is the most beautiful area of any online service game, ever made.

So if Bungie says this is the biggest one yet, I'd wager we're going to see a very large area. Maybe two, like in Forsaken, or maybe just one double-sized one.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

curious, how is it the "biggest expansion ever"?

unless I'm missing something, the destination will be the usual circular map layout about the same size as any other map...I haven't heard anything that would lead one to believe otherwise?

think it will have 1 raid and a typical amount of new strikes(probably 2, maybe 3)

also I assume something is getting vaulted when WQ comes out..? again, correct me if I'm wrong.

There's going to be 2 explorable areas.

Savathuns Throne world will be the new and big one which is supposed to be the biggest explorable area yet with hidden secrets similar to what we got on The Dreadnaught in The Taken King.


We are also supposed to be getting an unvaulted Mars added back. But it won't be just the usual Mars either, it will have been darkness consumed and very different from before.

We're also getting 3 new Dungeons next year. Now they probably aren't going to release all at the launch of Witch Queen but we likely get 1 Dungeon with Witch Queen. Bungie said every new season starting at Witch Queen will feature either a new raid, new Dungeon, or legacy raid brought back.

And there's also the new weapon crafting feature, legendary campaign mode, and supposedly a much bigger campaign in general this time around

Beyond that... It's also going to be a massive expansion in terms of the likely player base for it. The numbers of active players on Destiny right now are very high, in part due to the Witch Queen hype. Bungie is treating this expansion sort of like "Destiny 3", but not actually a brand new game.


It's going to have a lot of content and should kick start a full year of more content then we've previously had.

Bungie claims it's the biggest as far as raw explorable area. They claimed the same in the past with Forsaken, and sure as hell lived up to the billing with two full-sized, full-featured areas to explore.

As far as vaulting, can't be sure, but storyline wise is DOES appear the Dreaming City may be vaulted as a result of the Guardians breaking the curse that keeps it in an infinite loop. I will be sad if that happens, because for my money, the Dreaming City is the most beautiful area of any online service game, ever made.

So if Bungie says this is the biggest one yet, I'd wager we're going to see a very large area. Maybe two, like in Forsaken, or maybe just one double-sized one.

Dreaming City can't be vaulted yet. I believe it has to do with being part of the Foresaken expansion. And since the Foresaken expansion isn't free yet, Bungie can't remove paid content and they can't remove free content until 1 full year after it became free. Something to do with the Steam terms of service.


However, if the rumors are true we are probably going to see the EDZ get vaulted. And Foresaken will go free in February so that Dreaming City can be vaulted for the Lightfall expansion.

 

[S E P H]

The game at this point, might honestly be in the best spot it has ever been in.

Interesting to read, how is Beyond Light? I am a big Destiny player, but I haven't had any single desire whatsoever to come back into it since dropping it right before BL came out. I don't mind grinding for guns and armour pieces, but I just don't like the grinding method in the game. All the DLC's have been quite bar-bone, so to increase the hours the devs just made everything so time-consuming that it isn't fun. FTR I haven't played Beyond Light, but a lot of major complaints is that the DLC should've added to the universe and not have planets vaulted and I can't really blame the players who have that negative opinion. I understand a lot of the ones were sort of useless, but then why did Bungie make the game where they decided to make them that useless where it needed to be vaulted you know? I am very sure there are game mechanics that needed them vaulted, but I still don't like that method.

The PvP was also quite bar-bone in terms of map design and I got too frustrated in Gambit to want to play that again. Maybe it is how I played the game which killed my interest, but it seems a lot of the aspects requires a ton of research and I don't have time to nor desire to do the research needed to complete quests besides raids or the weekly ones like strikes. Like they had that entire Golden Cabal statue one and to this day I am not sure what the purpose of it was and I think I did like half of the adventures for it.

 

[Dolemite]

Interesting to read, how is Beyond Light? I am a big Destiny player, but I haven't had any single desire whatsoever to come back into it since dropping it right before BL came out. I don't mind grinding for guns and armour pieces, but I just don't like the grinding method in the game. All the DLC's have been quite bar-bone, so to increase the hours the devs just made everything so time-consuming that it isn't fun. FTR I haven't played Beyond Light, but a lot of major complaints is that the DLC should've added to the universe and not have planets vaulted and I can't really blame the players who have that negative opinion. I understand a lot of the ones were sort of useless, but then why did Bungie make the game where they decided to make them that useless where it needed to be vaulted you know? I am very sure there are game mechanics that needed them vaulted, but I still don't like that method.

The PvP was also quite bar-bone in terms of map design and I got too frustrated in Gambit to want to play that again. Maybe it is how I played the game which killed my interest, but it seems a lot of the aspects requires a ton of research and I don't have time to nor desire to do the research needed to complete quests besides raids or the weekly ones like strikes. Like they had that entire Golden Cabal statue one and to this day I am not sure what the purpose of it was and I think I did like half of the adventures for it.

100% correct about the PvP maps. They’re f***ing puny. I refuse to play them until they update them. They all need to go.

Beyond Light is fun but it’s a huge (but worth it) Grind.

 

[Smoke]

Yeah, Beyond Light is worth a go.

The seasons are pretty meh considering they all have the same format. The drawn out story lines are okay I guess.

I'm taking a break until January or so as I got my head deep in to FFXIV and its next expansion.

 

[Morbo]

There's going to be 2 explorable areas.

Savathuns Throne world will be the new and big one which is supposed to be the biggest explorable area yet with hidden secrets similar to what we got on The Dreadnaught in The Taken King.


We are also supposed to be getting an unvaulted Mars added back. But it won't be just the usual Mars either, it will have been darkness consumed and very different from before.

We're also getting 3 new Dungeons next year. Now they probably aren't going to release all at the launch of Witch Queen but we likely get 1 Dungeon with Witch Queen. Bungie said every new season starting at Witch Queen will feature either a new raid, new Dungeon, or legacy raid brought back.

And there's also the new weapon crafting feature, legendary campaign mode, and supposedly a much bigger campaign in general this time around

Beyond that... It's also going to be a massive expansion in terms of the likely player base for it. The numbers of active players on Destiny right now are very high, in part due to the Witch Queen hype. Bungie is treating this expansion sort of like "Destiny 3", but not actually a brand new game.


It's going to have a lot of content and should kick start a full year of more content then we've previously had.




Dreaming City can't be vaulted yet. I believe it has to do with being part of the Foresaken expansion. And since the Foresaken expansion isn't free yet, Bungie can't remove paid content and they can't remove free content until 1 full year after it became free. Something to do with the Steam terms of service.


However, if the rumors are true we are probably going to see the EDZ get vaulted. And Foresaken will go free in February so that Dreaming City can be vaulted for the Lightfall expansion.

ok. I found Cosmodrome to be a complete disappointment and I sincerely hope that is not the standard for unvaulted map content going forward. It is entirely fitting that the vendor is Shaw Han, the most boring Destiny character ever created. I would rather vault Nessus..EDZ has the hawkmoon mission which I imagine people will still want to do for a while yet.

I'm all for dungeons but where the game is lacking is using more of its existing map areas and a lack of more than a handful of strikes. sounds like 2 problems that could be solved at once.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Interesting to read, how is Beyond Light? I am a big Destiny player, but I haven't had any single desire whatsoever to come back into it since dropping it right before BL came out. I don't mind grinding for guns and armour pieces, but I just don't like the grinding method in the game. All the DLC's have been quite bar-bone, so to increase the hours the devs just made everything so time-consuming that it isn't fun. FTR I haven't played Beyond Light, but a lot of major complaints is that the DLC should've added to the universe and not have planets vaulted and I can't really blame the players who have that negative opinion. I understand a lot of the ones were sort of useless, but then why did Bungie make the game where they decided to make them that useless where it needed to be vaulted you know? I am very sure there are game mechanics that needed them vaulted, but I still don't like that method.

The PvP was also quite bar-bone in terms of map design and I got too frustrated in Gambit to want to play that again. Maybe it is how I played the game which killed my interest, but it seems a lot of the aspects requires a ton of research and I don't have time to nor desire to do the research needed to complete quests besides raids or the weekly ones like strikes. Like they had that entire Golden Cabal statue one and to this day I am not sure what the purpose of it was and I think I did like half of the adventures for it.

Beyond Light was good. It was a big grind at first, the "campaign" had to be done on all 3 of your characters(If you played 3 characters) in order to unlock the new stasis ability, which became really tedious by the end of it.

I also put campaign in quotation marks because it wasn't really much of a true campaign IMO. More of like just doing different missions to unlock your stasis ability. That said the missions were generally fun and one of the hunts in particular I really enjoyed, but doing the full thing 3 times was annoying by the end of it.

That's one thing I am really looking forward to with The Witch Queen. It sounds like we are getting much more of a traditional campaign, that should push more of the over arching story forward. We've been building up to the Savathun storyline since essentially The Taken King all the way back in D1, if not earlier then that.

100% correct about the PvP maps. They’re f***ing puny. I refuse to play them until they update them. They all need to go.

Beyond Light is fun but it’s a huge (but worth it) Grind.

Personally I am a big fan of PVP, it's what I play the most of in the game by far and its the reason I continue playing. It is very fast paced, and you really need to have a good understanding of your abilities and your subclass to do well.

The maps have gotten boring since it's been over 2 years since the game has gotten new maps at this point. Personally I only started playing again in August 2020 but even after a year of the same maps, a change is needed. The good news on that front is Bungie recently came out and guaranteed we'd be getting some new maps starting with The Witch Queen. I believe they said we'd be getting 4 maps in total over the course of the next year(Not a lot but better then nothing for two straight years). One completely brand new map, Two maps brought back from Destiny 1, and one vaulted Destiny 2 map updated and brought back.

The Trials of Osiris changes continue to be generally good for the mode as well, it's never been easier then it is now to go flawless and get those adept weapons.

Yeah, Beyond Light is worth a go.

The seasons are pretty meh considering they all have the same format. The drawn out story lines are okay I guess.

I'm taking a break until January or so as I got my head deep in to FFXIV and its next expansion.

The content is generally pretty good though. I have to admit I only started playing again with Season of Arrivals so I dont know what the content was like before that, though I know menagerie was fantastic and played a lot of that before it was vaulted.

But from everything I've read from folks who have played every season, they generally agree the story structure with each season this past year since the launch of Beyond Light has been the best it's ever been. And missions like Harbringer, Presage, and now this season with Shattered Realm have all been exceptionally well received.

This season in particular is going to be a tough one to get through. Considering the seasonal story ends in 3 weeks from now, and we've still got 5 months before The Witch Queen actually comes out. I think November in particular is going to be a very dry month content wise for the game.

That said, I think the 30th anniversary even is going to surprise some people in just how much content comes with it. A lot of new weapons to chase, a brand new 6 man activity brought into the game, and of course exotic quests and the new Dungeon.

ok. I found Cosmodrome to be a complete disappointment and I sincerely hope that is not the standard for unvaulted map content going forward. It is entirely fitting that the vendor is Shaw Han, the most boring Destiny character ever created. I would rather vault Nessus..EDZ has the hawkmoon mission which I imagine people will still want to do for a while yet.

I'm all for dungeons but where the game is lacking is using more of its existing map areas and a lack of more than a handful of strikes. sounds like 2 problems that could be solved at once.

Yeah the Cosmodrome was pretty disappointing I'd agree. Like honestly I dont know if I've went there more then 5 times since they unvaulted it.

But the reason they did that was mostly for the new light campaign. To give fresh brand new players to the Destiny world, something close to what we got in that Original Destiny 1 campaign.

It's just a shame they didn't do more with it. And they've even come out and said since they aren't doing anything else with it, it just kind of... exists at this point.

I think if Mars gets unvaulted and the rumors are true, it will be significantly different and will play a significant part of The Witch Queen expansion. We'll have to wait and see if those rumors are accurate or not though.


The Strikes thing will be interesting. I generally feel like Beyond Light was kind of underwhelming in terms of content beyond the campaign. We only got one strike on Europa, and that was the only strike to come out with Beyond Light and not a single Crucible or Gambit map on Europa either. They could have done so much more then that with a planetary environment that really was completely different from the rest.


All that said, I think Witch Queen is going to be pretty big, a much bigger expansion then what we got with Beyond Light. I thought I read somewhere that it was going to come with two new strikes at launch as well. It will really push the story forward a lot, have a true campaign(And the legendary version sounds really exciting as someone who found Beyond Light to be a tad too easy throughout it). The Raid should be crazy as well. Bungie has said the feedback they got on Deep Stone Crypt was essentially that it was too easy and they took that pretty seriously. I'm expecting the raid in Witch Queen to be quite a bit harder. And of course weaponcrafting could completely change the way Destiny is played.

 

[MAHJ71]

I've enjoyed this season a lot.

Looking forward to GMs starting next week and 30th anniversary closer to Christmas.

Witch Queen, where do I begin... looks friggin' awesome.

Overall, based on what they talked about and showed in the WQ reveal I'm pretty confident that things are going to be pretty damn good with this game for the foreseeable future. I think Bungie fully recognizes what they have and they've shown a willingness to listen to the community in terms of shaping how stuff plays out.

 

[Chaels Arms]

I just downloaded the base version of Destiny 2. I played the **** out of Destiny but never picked up the second one until now. I heavily prefer PvP. I'm using a hunter build because that's what I always preferred in the first game. I see a lot is the same but a lot is different (most noticeably the weighted knife takes forever to throw now it seems). I did enough PvE to get the subclasses but that's really it.

I feel like I'm getting seriously outgunned in the Crucible. Like all my best guns take a million shots to kill anyone whereas I'll go down to two shots from an auto rifle or a scout rifle. I admittedly don't understand the armor system at all anymore so I think that might be the main issue. I don't get how the armor pieces are all associated with an element. Should I be committing to having all my armor with one elemental affinity or does it not matter? Also, I've been speccing all my stuff for max mobility even if it means giving up one or two light points, am I doing something wrong here? I have an 1135 light level after a few hours of almost exclusive Crucible play and I'm just getting crushed by people around 1300 light level which is fine but are there any specific weapons or anything I should be trying to do with my armor? I don't mind dipping into PvE if it'll really help in PvP but PvP is where I spend most of my time. Thanks.

 

[Dolemite]

I just downloaded the base version of Destiny 2. I played the **** out of Destiny but never picked up the second one until now. I heavily prefer PvP. I'm using a hunter build because that's what I always preferred in the first game. I see a lot is the same but a lot is different (most noticeably the weighted knife takes forever to throw now it seems). I did enough PvE to get the subclasses but that's really it.

I feel like I'm getting seriously outgunned in the Crucible. Like all my best guns take a million shots to kill anyone whereas I'll go down to two shots from an auto rifle or a scout rifle. I admittedly don't understand the armor system at all anymore so I think that might be the main issue. I don't get how the armor pieces are all associated with an element. Should I be committing to having all my armor with one elemental affinity or does it not matter? Also, I've been speccing all my stuff for max mobility even if it means giving up one or two light points, am I doing something wrong here? I have an 1135 light level after a few hours of almost exclusive Crucible play and I'm just getting crushed by people around 1300 light level which is fine but are there any specific weapons or anything I should be trying to do with my armor? I don't mind dipping into PvE if it'll really help in PvP but PvP is where I spend most of my time. Thanks.

Pvp is broken and has been for some time. In some cases you’ll have to do some PvE activities to get the good PvP stuff like raids or quests.

My advice is look up Azteccross or the Ascendant Nomad on The YouTubes for PvP advice.

One thing you can do is keep an Eye on the weapons you’re getting killed with and find out how you can get it.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

I’m nearing 80+ hours main as a Titan, Doom Fang Pauldrons.

I need a Monte Carlo, what’s the best way to get exotics? I know, nooby question but I’ve maxed the season pass too.

 

[KlausJopling]

I’m nearing 80+ hours main as a Titan, Doom Fang Pauldrons.

I need a Monte Carlo, what’s the best way to get exotics? I know, nooby question but I’ve maxed the season pass too.

If you havent already go see Xur this weekend (and every weekend until you get it). You can purchase particular exotics he sells each week (one weapon and one armor for each class, and then purchase a random exotic). Then on Xur 2nd page pick up the quest (once completed it gives you a material so you can turn it in for an additional random exotic (you can do the quest each week if you finish it before the reset on tuesday). Before you purchase the random one purchase the weapon and armor if you dont have them yet because the random one will start with exotics you dont own first.

Aside from that i think the only way that has a guaranteed chance at an exotic (that isnt always armor like the solo lost sectors) is the nightfall playlist. check the different levels as higher levels have a better chance at exotics but they may require that you have 2 others rather than be match made.

****Just thought of another possible one. Visit the exotic kiosk in the tower. You can use it to buy older exotics. Don’t hold me to it but I think other than some glimmer , the item required to purchase is the exotic cypher. Which you get from the season pass and if you already spent it from the quest you can get from xur. That’s the quickest way to get it.

 

[JaegerDice]

I just downloaded the base version of Destiny 2. I played the **** out of Destiny but never picked up the second one until now. I heavily prefer PvP. I'm using a hunter build because that's what I always preferred in the first game. I see a lot is the same but a lot is different (most noticeably the weighted knife takes forever to throw now it seems). I did enough PvE to get the subclasses but that's really it.
I feel like I'm getting seriously outgunned in the Crucible. Like all my best guns take a million shots to kill anyone whereas I'll go down to two shots from an auto rifle or a scout rifle. I admittedly don't understand the armor system at all anymore so I think that might be the main issue. I don't get how the armor pieces are all associated with an element. Should I be committing to having all my armor with one elemental affinity or does it not matter? Also, I've been speccing all my stuff for max mobility even if it means giving up one or two light points, am I doing something wrong here? I have an 1135 light level after a few hours of almost exclusive Crucible play and I'm just getting crushed by people around 1300 light level which is fine but are there any specific weapons or anything I should be trying to do with my armor? I don't mind dipping into PvE if it'll really help in PvP but PvP is where I spend most of my time. Thanks.

Welcome back!

1) Armor elemental affinity only affects armor mods. Some mods have an affinity to them, meaning a void mod can only be equipped on void armor, etc. Pretty much every mod that provides a passive stat buff (aim assist, dexterity, reload speed, ammo count, etc) is neutral, meaning that it doesn't matter what your armor element is. Ability stat buffs (ability recharged rates) and supplementary abilities (for example, the 'charged with light system' and 'warmind cells'), are more frequently tied to element. More over, different pieces of armor have access to different mods. For example, helmet mods are different from arm mods, are different from chest mods, etc. So in some cases, you'll only have access to a specific mod if you have a void helmet. Mods can drop like guns or armor, or you can buy them from the gunsmith or ada-1 in the tower.

2) Outside of two modes, Trials of Osiris and Iron Banner, Light Level is irrelevant in Crucible. Light level has no impact on damage dealt and damage taken.

3) Specing for max mobility as a Hunter is the smart move. Ideally you want 'spikes' in Mobility, Recovery and Intellect. The first mod slot on every piece of armor allows you to choose a stat to boost. Mobility, Resilience, Discipline and Strength are all worth 3 points of energy, Recovery is worth 4, and Intellect is worth 5. So generally speaking, when people are specing their armor, they prioritize Intellect and Recovery cause it's cheaper to make up the difference in Mobility, Strength, Discipline and Resilience.

4) Don't ignore the artifact mod. If you've played little PVE this season, you may not even have earned it yet. Play the story missions and you'll get it. The powerlevels you unlock through it aren't a big deal for PVP, but you get artifact mods from it too. And one of the big ones factors into the next point:

5) As far as weapons in PVP, the meta shifts a bit pretty much every season. As for right now:
Fusion Rifles. There is an artifact mod in the last column where any shot from a fusion rifle or linear fusion rifle weakens an enemy to shots from a fusion rifles for several seconds. This effect works for all your teammates as well as yourself, so if anybody has the mod equipped and tags an enemy with a fusion rifle, even for minor damage, your fusion rifle will do huge damage against that enemy.

In keeping with this, the most deadly weapon in the meta right now is the Vex Mythoclast, which you may remember from Destiny 1. It was reintroduced and sucked pretty bad... so Bungie buffed it, and buffed a bunch of classes of fusion rifles at the same time. Now it's a fusion rifle that fires like an auto-rifle and hits like a truck. The only way to get it is through the Vault of Glass Raid, and sorry to say it will take AWHILE to get it to drop, unless RNJesus LOVES you.

Other weapons that do well in the crucible:

Shotguns or Snipers. Pick your preference. Both are effective if you know how to use them.

Hand cannons. 140rpm are the best right now.

Pulse rifles. You want either the slowest firing (340rpm, High Impact) or the fastest firing (450rpm, rapid fire).

Scout rifles. Same deal. You want 150rpm or 250rpm. There are some good 200rpm EXOTIC scouts, but generally speaking, you want to kill in 3 headshots or want to spam shots really fast.

Breach-load grenade launchers. These are PROFOUNDLY annoying in PVP. Look for anything with auto-loading holster, and one of spike grenades or proximity grenades. Use a quick-access sling weapon mod, and you can fast-swap to any weapon for a one-shot clean-up.

Auto-rifles. These aren't ass good as they used to be. If you get a 600rpm, you want a damage perk and ideally high-caliber rounds for added flinch. 720rom are better but generally lower range, so depends on your comfort gentling close or controlling recoil at range. The lower rpm high impact assault rifles are pretty trash in PVP, better in PVE.

Submachineguns: If you get a submachinegun with good range stats and/or the range-finder perk, then use them. They are underrated in the current sandbox. The problem with 900rpm submachinguns was that they chewed through ammo so fast and you'd be left empty, but now that primaries are infinite ammo, you can unload without issue.

Bows: Some people LOVE these things. They shoot one arrow, take an opponent down to zero shields and half health, then clean up with another weapon. I am frankly just not good enough for this strategy.

Machine-guns: IMO the best Heavy weapon for PVP. The better ones have good range, take few shots to kill, have a big clip, and start with lots of ammo. Unlike rockets or grenade launchers, you don't need enemies bunched together to get the most out of the ammo you get.

URGENT: Iron Banner is one this week. There's a quest you can complete with each character that rewards several pinnacle level rewards. In addition to that there are 4 bounties you can collect for each character, each of which also awards pinnacle gear. You also get tokens you can turn in for potentially a fantastic 450rpm kinetic pulse rifle, a fantastic kinetic submachinegun, and fantastic rapid-fire shotgun, a good energy 140rpm hand cannon. Your light level might have a big negative impact on your personal stats, but they'll boost your bounty progress. So if you're looking for good weapons, this weekend is a good time to play. Just jump into the IB playlist.

 

[Jovavic]

I'd be down with some Destiny Classic, get back to collecting Strange Coins and Motes of Light

 

[Dolemite]

I’m nearing 80+ hours main as a Titan, Doom Fang Pauldrons.

I need a Monte Carlo, what’s the best way to get exotics? I know, nooby question but I’ve maxed the season pass too.

Xur.

 

[Chaels Arms]

Is Beyond Light worth the $40 price tag? I'm ready for some more content but that seems steep especially with Witch Queen coming in a few months...