And Then There Were Two

And Then There Were Two

Last night did not quite work out entirely as intended.  My hope was to get home and do a flurry of activities quickly in order to get my hunter Nightfall ready.  This did not happen because I came home to a whole slew of other things that needed to be taken care of immediately.  Then when my wife got home she realized that she had not stopped by the store to get Halloween candy for her classes, and I threw proper clothing back on and ventured out into the cold once more so she could get on with her lesson planning and grading.  All of this mean’t that I did not even get a proper start to the evening until around 7:30 last night…  which also meant there was no way there were enough hours to accomplish all of the things that I wanted to be doing.  I bowed out of Nightfall shenanigans and instead focused on knocking out the milestones needed to unlock a second set of luminous engrams.  The most tedious of these was the crucible, because not only did I need to do enough to get the Call of Arms…  but I had yet to do the pvp required to even unlock it.  Note to self…  in the future do this as part of the leveling experience so you don’t have to burn through it when you finish 20 and complete the story.  I cannot fully express how much I loathe “competitive mode” crucible playlist and I am continuing my track record of playing it exactly two times on each character to unlock the milestone.

And Then There Were Two

From there it was grinding the Crucible and I still am not in a position where I function well in this mode on PC.  The dynamics all feel vastly different and I wound up hooking up a controller to see if the aim assist would help.  Turns out it did…  and apparently I just cannot track erratic PVP targets with the mouse as I could with the controller.  Either that or I simply need to rely on the crutch that is aim assistance.  Regardless I am super happy with the way Destiny 2 PC feels with a controller and how easy it is to swap back and forth between the two modes.  Effectively to start using the controller you just pick it up and hit a button on it, and then to switch back you just click a button on your mouse.  So often on the PC you need to choose one or the other and it has to be toggled back and forth via some nested menu structure.  Here you can so easily swap back and forth that it feels completely reasonable for me to simply choose to use controller with the crucible and mouse and keyboard for everything else.  I am also assuming that most of the vehicle sequences are going to work much better with a controller, so I might simply start picking them up and doing that as well.

And Then There Were Two

All of the last minute grind completely paid off because the extra set of luminous engrams allowed me to move my Titan’s power level ahead just a little bit.  More importantly than that… I no longer need to grind Nessus because Hawthorne awarded me a 282 Uriel’s Gift…  one of those weapons I had been desperately trying to get back.  This means I once again have my crucible setup of choice in the form of Antiope-D, Uriel’s Gift and Hawthorne’s Field-Forged Shot Gun.  There are still a bunch of weapons I am missing that I want to try and get, but unfortunately the two I am missing the most are both on the Crucible loot table.  Here is hoping the next round of luminous engrams sees me getting a Better Devils and a Play of the Game, so that I don’t have to grind out faction tokens to get them that way.  The nightfall this time is Arm’s Dealer again but with Prism… meaning that there will be a rotating buff and matching the damage type increases damage output…  and not matching it lowers it.  Additionally we have Killing Time as a modifier meaning every mob killed slowly adds time back to the timer.  It should be interesting and way more challenging than last weeks grenade fest.  In theory I will be trying to get the Nightfall on two characters from this point out, so hopefully folks really get into it.  So far they seem to be enjoying it quite a bit because while I was doing my grindy bits there were Nightfall groups attempting to get it for various folks.  This week also sets up a new goal…  getting the Warlock leveled and through all of this content so she can start adding to the luminous bonanza as well.

First Week on PC

First Week on PC

This is one of those mornings when I am not even sure where to start the post.  It is like I have all of these disconnected thoughts in my head and am having a very hard time wrangling them together into something that follows any manner of logical progression.  Destiny 2 released on the PC last Tuesday and since then I have played a significant amount of it, only really taking a single night off to go do something else.  According to WastedOnDestiny.com I’ve played 32 hours of the game since release…  which is officially more than I played Destiny 1 on the Xbox One.  On the PS4 I managed to make it to 267 in that very first week, and on PC I managed to break the 265 cap and push on to 271 which makes me happy.  I am nowhere near as lucky as my friend Raz was…  who is sitting at something crazy like 282.  There are ways to do this…  but they involve madness and way more grinding than I was able to get in this week or really wanted to do.  Additionally I started working on secondary characters and managed to push the Hunter to 18 while recording the podcast… and finished leveling it to 20 and making it through all but the final quest last night.  I also started up my Warlock and got her to level 8, which was mostly about getting my 5000 clan xp to help level Greysky Armada.  We managed to hit rank 3 which is extremely awesome and is largely made possible by the fact that myself and Wolfy started leveling the clan a bit on PS4 before the release of PC.

First Week on PC

On Friday night we decided to give the Nightfall a go, which in truth I was uncertain about given that I only actually completed the Nightfall once on the PS4 side… and even then it was a bit of a pain in the ass.  I also remembered us being significantly higher than the 250ish we were when we tried it.  Together Tamrielo, RustySpork and I managed to get the boss down with about 3 minutes left on the clock, which is not good enough for the rat king…  but makes me happy nonetheless.  Yesterday afternoon I gave it another attempt with Mor and Grace and once again finished…  but just barely with me taking down the boss via a couple of pulse grenades and auto rifle fire at about the 1 second left on the clock mark.  Mor was just barely at the 240ish requirement for zoning in, so I feel like in the future so long as we are bringing in 260s we should be fine for this.  This week also was a bit of an aberration in that it was extremely easy to cheese the objectives because of the modifier giving us insane grenade and melee regeneration.  Striker Titan with double grenades meant I could clean out a bunch of adds almost as fast as I could throw them.  They still hit insanely hard though and I just don’t have the recovery yet that I really should for doing harder content.  This largely comes from just wearing a bunch of scraps instead of something resembling a full set of gear.  I am really hoping in a few weeks I can get the full set of Titan Iron Banner gear again because it makes for a really excellent base for shenanigans.

First Week on PC

I would have finished the Hunter but instead I took a lengthy break Sunday afternoon and worked on doing the weekly milestones on the PS4 side of the pond.  I have to say after playing so much PC…  the console version just feels sluggish and odd.  Everything seems to move more slowly, which makes the crucible much easier…  but everything else feel really odd.  Not only was the visual fidelity much lower than even my laptop running at greatly downgraded settings…  but just the movement speed of my character felt slower.  I noticed this when doing some of the intro missions where you are limping through the city…  on the console there was a specific point I could make it to before my character was forced to pause for a moment.  On the PC I could make it considerably past that point before I was forcibly halted, so my running theory is that the PC version just has faster movement speeds.  Weirdness aside I did manage to get used to the controller again and finish up Clan XP, Call to Arms and Flashpoint milestones which were enough to finish pushing me to 305.  I feel much better hibernating the character now that it is sitting at the level cap rather than being just slightly under it.  I will probably keep logging in at least once a week to finish off these easy milestones however because I feel like I need to keep contributing some Clan XP to TQMB in addition to all the work I am doing PC side with GREY.  Eventually once I have gotten my PC characters to a more manageable state I am sure I will start doing those three main milestones on six characters…  3 on PC and 3 on PS4.  It takes me roughly an hour to do all of the things needed to earn those three luminous engrams, and after a point that becomes my routine of logging in a new character each night and getting their progress.

First Week on PC

I am absolutely loving playing the game on PC because it fits my play style considerably better.  With the console it forced me to be in the room I have my PS4 set up in, but with PC  I can either be playing it on my gaming desktop or downstairs on my laptop.  The laptop doesn’t run it perfectly and I am having to throttle it down to 720 p and a few other considerations…  but it runs well enough for me to be able to do almost anything I might need to do.  For something like a Nightfall where there is a timer on the line I wouldn’t want to push it…  but It is more than fine for some strikes or crucible.  My activity of choice however is still doing public events and random token farming through chests and patrols.  My goal for tonight is to attempt to push the hunter through the various things needed to unlock her three easy luminous engrams, and then to maybe get her through the Nightfall.  From there my goal by next weeks reset is to have my Warlock finished off so I can start triple dipping on the powerful rewards front.  While it has been a pure joy starting over on the PC…  I do still want to arrive back at where I left off…  and hopefully in a much faster time frame than the seven weeks it took to get me there on console.  I am booned by the fact that the game seems to have traction among the AggroChat crew and with that means that there is likely going to be raiding before too much longer.  I am assuming the raid will open up tomorrow much like it did on the console side, and then I am assuming next week we will have faction rally once more.  Destiny 2 on PC is pretty much everything I had hoped it would be.

AggroChat #179 – Shadespire

Featuring: Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Tamrielo and Thalen

aggrochat179_720

This week we have a more normal show after last weeks super serious one.  We do however have a little bit of a call back in the form of a short discussion about how vocal minorities can negatively impact the press surrounding a game.  We talk a bit about the launch of Destiny 2 on the PC and how relatively smoothly it has gone.  We touch ever so briefly on the madness happening in Warframe right now with Twitch streams and free loot.  From there we delve into Warhammer Shadespire and spend a good deal of time talking about it and past Games Workshop games.  This leads to a bit of a discussion about the problem Magic the Gathering has with onboarding new players.  Thalen talks about his experiences playing Orwell, and Tam and Ash talk a bit about the Legend of Five Rings Living Card Game.  Finally we wrap things up with some talk about clicker games in general and two specifically:  Paperclips and Succubox.

Featuring

  • Vocal Minority in Gaming
  • Destiny 2 Launch
  • Warframe Twitch Nonsense
  • Warhammer Shadespire
  • Magic the Gathering Onboarding Problems
  • Orwell
  • Legend of Five Rings Living Card Game
  • Clicker Games
  • Paperclips
  • Succubox

Xur Week Seven: 10/27/17

Xur Destiny 2

Xur Week Seven: 10/27/17

This week Xur is located on Io in the Giant’s Scar area.  He is off to the left side of that area inside of a cave.  If you turn around and face away from Xur you should also find one of the region chests if you have not actually looted it.  This week is important because it is the first time Xur is available for PC players, and I have in fact double checked that the inventory on console and pc is exactly the same.  I however took my screenshots console side because I am still in the process of leveling all the things on PC and only have the Titan to 20… and even then I am not all of the way through the main story quest.  I noticed that the exotics were showing as level 19 and 254 instead of the 270 I was expecting, so wondering if finishing the game is a trigger for that shift to level 20 items.  I throw this out there just for folks to be careful when you spend your oh so precious legendary shards this week on the PC side of things.  Xur will be available until the weekly reset instead of disappearing sometime during the night on Saturday, so you have plenty of time to grind out more shards or get through the story.

Xur Week Seven: 10/27/17

This week for the weapon we have D.A.R.C.I. or as I have referred to this every time I have decrypted it from an engram…   infusion fuel.  What makes this weapon interesting is that while aiming you can view the health and other information about your target through your scope with the Personal Assistant perk.  This blends with the target acquired perk that causes you to have better target acquisition and precision damage while the Personal Assistant perk is in action.  My general problem with the weapon however is that I just don’t like medium impact snipers.  This weapon has 55 impact and the snipers I tend to use personally are in the 70-90 range.  Now is the point where I start speaking out of my depth, but I always feel like this medium impact variety has to be targeted at the crucible right?  It has really high stability and handling which should in theory make scoping in on your target extremely snappy.  I just have zero interest in using a sniper rifle in PVP, and if I am going to use one in PVE I want it to pack a bigger punch.  PC players it will probably still be worth a pick up for the power level bump if nothing else.

Xur Week Seven: 10/27/17

As far as armor goes this is a really phenomenal week and includes sort of a greatest hits collection of universally useful items.  Actium War Rig is one of the options that you can get on Titan, and if you are an auto rifle fan like me… it is probably going to be what you end up using.  The Auto-Loading Link perk causes ammo to loaded into your magazine when you stop firing the weapon at a tick rate of roughly one second.  What this means is if you are burst firing your weapon you can greatly extend the amount of time you can put off reloading giving you way more time to mop up enemies.  This works extremely well with weapons that have the rampage perk because you can keep rolling between targets without having to take the time to wait for reload, just allowing the weapon to tick once between bursts of fire.  Definitely going to pick this up for the power level and to have a more current version of this item rather than the level 105 item the game gives you.

Xur Week Seven: 10/27/17

Warlocks have a similarly universally good item in the form of the Eye of Another World helmet.  Similarly this is an item you can pick up on Titan and the cerebral uplink perk causes you to highlight priority targets but also improves the regeneration speed of grenade, melee and rift abilities.  Its rare that an item just makes everything universally work better, but that is in fact the mission of this helm.  Once again I highly suggest picking this up for the power level if nothing else, but for anyone who chose poorly on Titan…  then here is a nice second chance to get that item.

Xur Week Seven: 10/27/17

I’ve talked about this item before and I am not really sure what else I can add.  Knucklehead Radar is one of my favorite pieces of gear from Destiny 1 and I am super happy that it returned to Destiny 2.  The upgraded sensor pack causes radar tracking to be active while you aim down sights on every weapon.  This is just universally useful and is a crutch that I am not willing to give up while playing my hunter.  I used the hell out of the Memory of Gheleon artifact in Destiny 1 year 3…  and similarly I love this item.  Again if nothing else this is a good level boost for those PC players who are just now getting started.  I hope to be able to gather enough legendary shards before Xur leaves on Tuesday to purchase each of these items and have them ready for when I start leveling the Hunter and Warlock.

Xur Destiny 1

Xur Week Seven: 10/27/17

As has been the case the last few weeks, I am also doing the information about Xur in Destiny 1 lest we not all abandon the players who are still enjoying that game.  You can find Xur in the tower next to Lord Shaxx.  This week he brought something interesting…  the Jade Rabbit which was previously an exclusive for the PS4 players.  I had heard that the embargo had been lifted on selling the PS4 exclusive items, but I am guessing this is hard proof.  Here is a quick rundown of what he has brought for us this week.

  • Legacy Helmet Engram – 29 Strange Coins
  • An Insurmountable Skullfort – Titan Helm – 13 Strange Coins
  • Crest of Alpha Lupi – Hunter Chest – 13 Strange Coins
  • Claws of Ahamkara – Warlock Arms – 13 Strange Coins
  • Jade Rabbit – Scout Rifle – 23 Strange Coins
  • Hawkmoon and Moonglow Ornament – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust
  • Tresspasser and Crucible Assassin Ornament – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust