Xur Week Nine: 11/10/17

Destiny 2

Xur Week Nine: 11/10/17

It’s that time again folks…  time to go traipsing through otherwise dangerous areas in search of Xur.  I am very quickly going to run out of original things to say since the limited pool of exotics seems to be generating a bunch of repeat weeks.  This was a huge problem with Destiny 1 as well and made worse by the fact that they do not seem to put the exotics on a rotation of any sort.  There were several that we never actually saw sold by Xur in Destiny 1 and thusfar there is a whole slew that we have yet to see sold by him in Destiny 2.  You can find Xur in the Watcher’s Grave area of Nessus where he is up in a tree.  You can either hop up on the ledge and hop across or run a narrow path up the side of the tree.   He brought a few gems so lets check out his stock.

Xur Week Nine: 11/10/17

There are two exotic grenade launchers…  one of which is good and the other is likely the worst weapon in the game.  Thankfully the Prospector is the good one and probably well worth picking up.  It is a bit of a weird weapon to get used to because of the Excavation exotic perk, which keeps your grenades from detonating while you are holding down the fire trigger.  This has a bizarre interaction with the fact that this weapon has auto fire…  allowing you to pump out an entire magazine of eight grenades without actually detonating them and then detonating them all at once.  The only problem with this is that these are not sticky grenades so there is a bit of bounce when you fire them out without instantly detonating them.  The blast radius is rather small as well which again leads this to be a weird option because each grenade is not going to damage a very large area.  As a result this is really good when you can fire them down into some sort of enclosed area and then detonate all of them at once for a massive explosion.  More often than not I simply use this as a decent single fire grenade launcher which gives me more predictable results.  If you are wanting a work horse rather than a gimmick…  I highly suggest checking out Berenger’s Memory or Play of the Game legendary grenade launchers instead.

Xur Week Nine: 11/10/17

I actually had yet to get an insurmountable skullfort on the PC side yet so I was happy to see this item show up.  This is one of those situationally good items that allows for a slightly degenerate build.  The primary interaction is between Transfusion Matrix the exotic perk and Code of the Earthshaker path for the striker titan.  The perk causes kills with arc melee abilities to trigger health regeneration…  which is actually the reversal trait from Code of the Juggernaut.  This becomes a great farming build because Seismic Strike and the AOE damage it deals…  means you are going to be getting back lots of melee energy from the second part of this perk, allowing you to maintain damned near 100% up time.  On the battlefield what this means is that you can zoom around slamming into things rather than actually firing any weapons.  There are a few things that you could do to improve the reliability like slotting two arc melee recharge time mods, but when it works… it is insanely fun.  This is mostly a PVE build concept and every time I have tried to shoulder charge in the crucible I have paid a hefty price for it.

Xur Week Nine: 11/10/17

I’ve talked about this item at length several different times, so I am not sure what else I can really add.  The Eye of Another World is one of those items that passively all of your abilities work better.  This is the sort of set it and forget it always on item that I tend to favor,  because it requires zero attention to detail.  Unless you are going for a specific gimmick build… this is probably your best all purpose warlock item.  If you don’t already have it I highly suggest picking it up.  If you want more dialog from me on this check out one of the many other Xur posts where I have talked about it.

Xur Week Nine: 11/10/17

Similarly the Foetracer is a generally good item and I have started running it lately because it tends to help finish off mobs in Nightfalls.  Relentless Tracker perk visually marks your enemies after targeting them for a short period of time and causes you to deal extra damage when they reach low health.  That last bit helps and it is just enough of a change to make killing things seem faster which is always the name of the game in a Nightfall.  I do however miss my constant tracking radar while using this item, but I am trying really hard to learn to live without it.  Again I highly suggest picking this up, and also once again I have talked at length about this item in the past in any one of the many other times Xur has offered it.

Destiny 1

Xur Week Nine: 11/10/17

This week in Destiny 1 Xur is located in the Tower directly across from Lord Shaxx.  He finally restocked his inventory and is no longer bringing the Jade Rabbit, so hopefully you Xbox players picked that up while it was still available.  Interestingly Xur in Destiny 1 seems to be taking a queue from his personal in Destiny 2 because they both brought the Insurmountable Skullfort.  Let’s check out his items this week.

  • Legacy Arm Engram – 29 Strange Coins
  • An Insurmountable Skullfort – Titan Helm – 13 Strange Coins
  • Radiant Dance Machines – Hunter Boots – 13 Strange Coins
  • Claws of Ahamkara – Warlock Arms – 13 Strange Coins
  • The Last Word – Hand Cannon – 23 Strange Coins
  • Dragon’s Breath and Tigershark Ornament – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust
  • Zhalo Supercell with Not A Toy Ornament – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust

Xur Week Eight: 11/3/17

Xur Week Eight: 11/3/17

Xur this week is located in the European Dead Zone near the Winding Cove drop zone.  He is located on top of a hill that has an actual path to get up there…  but I never can seem to find it…  so I end up hopping up the rocks.  In some ways this is a disappointing week and in other ways…  for Titans at least it is a potentially exciting one.  This represents the first week I have been able to do the entire screenshot thing on the PC as I now have Titan, Hunter and Warlock up to the appropriate levels to get the items at the 270 maximum level.  Lets get on with the items he brought for us.

Destiny 2

Xur Week Eight: 11/3/17

This weapon is a little disappointing because it is one of the items you can get from the quest at the end of Io.  Additionally it seems to be an acquired taste.  Some folks absolutely love this thing… and others completely hate it.  It is essentially a pulse rifle that doesn’t fire like a pulse rifle, and in order to get the most out of it you sort of have to line your shots up like you were using a scout rifle.  That said it does seem to be considerably more reliable on the PC than it ever was on console.  If you can learn to use it you can shred things, but it takes a lot of getting used to.

Xur Week Eight: 11/3/17

Mask of the Quiet One has become this defacto crucible relic of choice for a lot of Titans.  The perks do a few things…  one of which is actually important and the other not so much.  The lesser of the perks is that Void Ability kills grant health regeneration, which rewards a chunk of health back to your bar when you kill a target with any of your void abilities.  This is useful for Sentinel Titans but fails to trigger on shield slams making it a little fiddly.  The perk everyone cares about however is that when you are damaged you gain melee, grenade and class ability energy.  Again this is rewarded as just a chunk of your energy bar and why this is so insanely popular in the crucible is the fact that you are ALWAYS getting damaged.  Just the act of running around while trying to avoid taking damage… ends up seeing you take plenty of damage to make this item useful.  I picked it up because I do not already have a copy on PC side, and is well worth hanging on to just in case you find it useful.

Xur Week Eight: 11/3/17

We’ve seen Nezarec’s Sin before from Xur and again it is a mid range item that to some extent gets out shined by several other Warlock exotics.  The perk Abyssal Extractors activates on void damage and causes you to gain a tiny sliver of energy back to grenade, melee and class ability.  This is interesting because the item says void damage and not void ability kills meaning you can proc it off of an energy or power weapon if you are carrying one of that type.  The biggest problem with the item is that the tick rate of this ability really is not that fast, and for me at least gets outshined by Eye of Another World which grants 10% increase to your recharge rates for doing nothing.  The only way Nezarec’s Sin would be useful is if you are really married to the voidwalker spec, and even then…  you are probably going to be better off just going with the Eye still.  It is worth getting the item for unlock purposes only.

Xur Week Eight: 11/3/17

Do you love the Crucible?  Do you really like using Tripmine grenades?  If you answered yes to both then these might be the right exotics for you.  If not then they might still be worth just getting the unlock because they look awesome.  These are essentially a worse version of gauntlets of the same name from Destiny 1.  I say they are a worse version because the old ones used to give you an extra tripmine grenade charge, making it extremely useful for trapping up multiple spots in an area.  In Destiny 2 they lost the extra charge and instead gained additional duration which is nowhere near as sexy.  The other interesting benefit is that they now highlight targets damaged in your grenade blast, making it easier to see which players may or may not have been weakened and giving you the ability to track them through walls if you are going to chase them down.  This is a situationally good item for players who really like the crucible and really like trip mines…  if you are neither or these things then you can pretty comfortably pass them up.  They are still largely worth the unlock slot to me however.

Destiny 1

Xur Week Eight: 11/3/17

In Destiny 1 this week Xur is located at the big gate near the speaker in the Tower.  Once again he is offering the formerly exclusive Jade Rabbit scout rifle giving a weird second chance for Xbox One users to get this up.  I am sincerely hoping that this is not going to be what he brings every week from now on since Destiny 1 has gone into maintenance mode.  Of the items available Twilight Garrison is especially interesting because it gives Titans the ability to do a midair dodge attack.

  • Legacy Special Weapon Engram – 31 Strange Coins
  • Twilight Garrison – Titan Chest – 13 Strange Coins
  • Don’t Touch Me – Hunter Arms – 13 Strange Coins
  • Alchemist’s Rainment – Warlock Chest – 13 Strange Coins
  • Jade Rabbit – Scout Rifle – 23 Strange Coins
  • Invective with Storm’s Reproach Ornament – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust
  • Zhalo Supercell with Shock Hazard Ornament – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust

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

Xur Week Six: 10/20/17

Xur Week Six: 10/20/17

I am technically on vacation right now and as a result I am getting around to making my Friday post much later than normal.  I am not sure how much this matters given that I am not one of the 4 am youtube crew that posts the news the moment Xur shows up.  This week I think we can officially confirm that Xur likely only has one spawn place per planet, because much like Nessus last week…  he is in the same location as before on Titan.  This means he is inside a little hut in The Rig sections of Titan, just a short distance from the drop zone.  You will potentially wind your way past some high value targets, so make sure you keep an eye open for either a weirdly named Captain or a pair of Servitors as you move to where Xur is.  The fallen will not go into the room he is located in, but they will absolutely hang out at the door and shoot you so you might need to do a little clean up on the way in as well.  Without further delay lets get into what Papa Xur brought us today.

Xur Week Six: 10/20/17

For those who played either the Console or PC betas, Sweet Business was the weapon handed to titans in Shaxx’s armory during the homecoming mission.  I decided then that I didn’t much care for it, but we will get into that a bit later.  This represented the only Exotic weapon I had yet to see in Destiny 2 that was not tied to a quest.  I am still technically missing the Rat King and the raid Shotty but I purchased Sweet Business for literally no reason other than to get the collection unlock.  Sweet Business seems to be one of those “your mileage may vary” weapons because I personally do not like it at all.  However it has a legion of fans that love to use it.  My issue is really a two part problem, firstly it takes awhile for this weapon to ramp up to maximum output.  Secondly 99 seems like a lot of bullets until you are firing these out at the maximum RPM after the ramp up time and then it feels like you have next to no ammo reserves.  This is miserable to use in the crucible because you effectively need to treat it as though it were a fusion rifle and predict the target coming into your field of view and make sure you are firing ahead of time.  The huge benefit of this weapon though is that it causes a massive amount of flinch in targets due to the High-Caliber rounds, and in most cases you can kill the target before they ever recover and deal damage to you.  It is certainly fun to play with but seems like a gimmick and I tend to prefer more reliable weapons in my kinetic slot.

Xur Week Six: 10/20/17

The Doom Fang Pauldrons are both a week one repeat and available through the main story quest when you finish Titan.  That said they are really amazing arms if you prefer maining the Sentinel sub class on your titan.  The exotic perk Horns of Doom makes it so that shield bashes during your super reset the cooldown of your melee charge, allowing you to throw your shield yet again.  This allows you to get a nice rhythm of throw, bash, throw, bash, etc until you run out of super energy.  This also stacks nicely with Code of the Aggressor that gives you a second shield throw out of the gate, however it only gives you one free throw instead of one each time you get a new melee charge.  Well worth picking up if you chose another option during that main story quest or even if your old one is woefully low light.

Xur Week Six: 10/20/17

The Raiden Flux is yet another week one repeat but a similarly sub class defining one.  From what I understand this is the defacto exotic for Arcstriders in part because the Exotic perk allows you to extend the duration of your super.  I personally prefer playing Gunslinger because of the utility of throwing knives, but I know a ton of people who like the acrobatics of the energy staff/spear class.  There isn’t a whole lot more that I can really say about this item other than if you don’t already have it you should probably go ahead and pick it up.  I will likely never stop using my Knucklehead Radar because I like 100% uptime on my tracking…  but this is seemingly a great option for that one specific sub class.  I’ve shifted towards preferring to use more generic non-class specific exotics, but I will always be missing out on some nifty intrinsic perks that come with matching the right item to the right class.

Xur Week Six: 10/20/17

Do you like the punch things a lot?  If so Winter’s Guile may be for you because the exotic Warlord’s Sigil perk causes melee kills to increase your next melee attack.  This perk stacks up to 5 times and you have roughly 2-3 seconds between kills to keep the chain going.  So in situations where you are getting swarmed you are going to be able to punch your way out of trouble, especially with devour active.  I’ve heard reports of players punching tier 1 enemies for 3000 damage with a full 5 stack, so these can dish out silly amounts of damage.  It almost makes me a little jealous that this is a Warlock item and not a Titan item.  The negative side of this…  is that they are SUPER situationally useful.  How many times are you really in a situation where you have mobs stacked in a fashion that you can really hit one every two seconds?  To make matters worse Warlocks have the slowest movement ability, which means you are going to have to rely on the very hard to use blink if you want to do any sort of gap closing.  Titan skating between various mobs in the same room seems doable…  Warlock blinking is a much more challenging proposal.  If you are up to the challenge then by all means grab these and punch some baddies.

Xur Week Six: 10/20/17

For Destiny 1 players, this week Xur is located at the Tower in the Vanguard area on the right side.  I am not sure if anyone cares about this but it sorta makes me feel better that I at least do.  Waiting on Xur to show up was always a magical thing and seeing how much stuff the old school version carries…  makes me hope they give the updated version something other than a handful of repeat Exotics.  Lets get into the goods…

  • Legacy Primary Weapon Engram – 31 Strange Coins
  • Immolation Fists – Titan Arms – 13 Strange Coins
  • Graviton Forfeit – Hunter Helm – 13 Strange Coins
  • Transversive Steps – Warlock Boots – 13 Strange Coins
  • Super Good Advice – Heavy Machinegun – 17 Strange Coins
  • Invective and Storms Reproach Ornament – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust
  • Suros Regime and Basilisk’s Glory Ornament – 30 Strange Coins 25 Silver Dust