Holy crap. I just passed 600 (606) trying to get to do the Black Armoury stuff. It’s such a slow grind after 600 - like powerful gear rewards are only a couple of power levels above my current score. The only way to get more gear beyond the daily and weekly challenges is to venture into PvP which I am kak at.
In related news, I created my own clan (Knights and Knaves) so that I could have the [KAK] tag next to my name for PvP. At least the randos I get matchmade with will know what they’re in for.
What also helps immensely is Prime Engrams - they typically gave me 4-5 PL bumps each. They drop quite regularly in Blind Well (Dreaming City) and Escalation Protocol (Mars), mainly due to the amount of orange and yellow bar enemies you get to kill during those events. You can also do the Wanted Bounty from Spider each week for a Powerful drop. You don’t have to venture to PvP to get them… Petra’s bounties in Dreaming City also consistently drop higher level powerful gear than the “Director challenges” do.
Oh, last thing - join an active clan, as the weekly clan unlocks from Hawthorne also net nice rewards which you don’t even need to participate in.
I do ALL of those so I expect this coming week will get me to 610+ easily enough (though a friend and I are going to grind as a ‘couple’ for the Valentines Day event rewards so there’s that too).
I should probably look at a more active clan, but I am also fiercely a solo player (I really only play with real-world friends if I can help it) and try to limit my interactions with anyone else as much as possible.
I really, really hate interacting with other people in online games (ironically, I’m amazing at interacting with strangers in face-to-face environments, go figure).
I’ve never talked or interacted with anyone in the clan I’m currently part of. I got an invite from someone at the Tower and decided to join. From then I’ve just been reaping the weekly clan engram rewards, as well as the triumph points associated with being in a high level clan.
Regarding the Valentine’s event, make sure to grind for The Vow - the legendary bow up for grabs. It will be a guaranteed 650 fully masterworked drop, which will help in leveling to 650. I did the same with Horror Story from the Halloween event, which made me level MUCH quicker from around 450 to 600.
I told the husband he better level up his char a bit so we can do this valentines event together(although, I know he is probably going to play once and then not want to play again)
The grind for The Vow is actually incredibly easy… 5 rounds of Crucible doubles and 2 bounties done and I’m already at 70 odd tokens. Another day or so and I’ll easily have the bow. Muuuuuuuuch easier than Horror Story.
Guuuuuuuuuys is anyone here a fairly active player on PS4?
Shattered Throne is happening (it’s curse week in the Dreaming City) and my solo-ass won’t manage. I wanna be a cursebreaker, like my father, and his father before him (and I want the Wish Ender!).
I’m running a Voidwalker Warlock (Attunement of Chaos), power level 643 (almost at the cap). I’m rocking a Skull of Dire Ahamkara to keep my super up - BUT, I haven’t done any raids and feel like I mostly get by on luck (platforming in FPS is NOT my strong point).
I’m gonna try my luck here, before awkwardly looking at the D2 Reddit.
Nope, PC here. Tried my luck at The Whisper over the weekend and the platforming got the better of me. I’ll have to give it a couple of runs before I’ll likely get the exotic…
That is one HELL of a platforming task. I don’t know how far I got in before time ran out, but it was just after the weirdly-angled passage where the floor shifts and pushes you down the side and you slide to your doom. A lot.
I will suss out the sherpa and LFG subreddits. I don’t like playing with strangers, but I may have to just suck it up for Shattered Throne.
Apparently you can solo the dungeon, so you don’t HAVE to go the sherpa or LFG route. Just read up on some tactics for the dungeon and which weapons would be best. I remember reading at some point that Fighting Lion is a great choice for the dungeon. I was lucky enough to have it and its catalyst drop during the Festival of the Lost last year.
I’ve checked a guide for it, and I think I’d be able to do most of it solo - but the Ogre battle with the Petitioner’s Mark/Burden will end up frustrating me.
Like with The Whisper, when things are on a time limit, it gets more stressful - and my stress response is not exactly to get faster.
I like to take my time (which is also why I steer away from playing with strangers, who may expect more rapid response - I’d probably end up slowing everyone down).
Still a great deal. I’m not so sure the Year 2 Pass is all that worth it. I didn’t get around to playing the Black Armoury much (I only unlocked 2 of the 4 forges) and only played 2 rounds of Gambit Prime so far. The Forsaken’s content though, has seen a ton of playtime from me.
I joined a really active clan, and now I play a lot more PvP than I thought I would ever be comfortable with.
I solo through all the milestones and bounties and stuff, then end up playing Gambit, Gambit Prime and The Reckoning with clan mates.
Forsaken is definitely worth it - the main campaign and end-game stuff in the Dreaming City is really cool (and surprisingly deep wrt lore). Annual pass is so-so.
The Black Armory was okay; with the forges they fixed the lack of matchmaking with things like Escalation Protocol and Blind Well (where you end up alone and can’t do the full activity), but introduced other frustrations (starting alone and having others join as time runs out, then booting you back to matchmaking).
But with Joker’s Wild they’ve really improved things. I think The Reckoning is my favourite ‘public activity’ now, with the way they handle matchmaking. I also really dig the lore and where the story is going. They’re clearly gearing up for Destiny 3 with the way the story is playing out. Light vs Dark showdown.
I have to admit that I sided with Uncle Drifter… Still early on in the quest line though. Have to farm Vex Strike bosses now. Done with the Cabal Strike bosses at least. But time is very limited for me currently, so the going is quite slow.
I’m back to looking like a trash bag with all the different mismatched armour pieces. I hate this part of the grind. I also know that just having the higher light pieces in your inventory (not stash) adds to the calculation of powerful drops, but I hate seeing the 650 on the character screen when I know I have 660+ pieces waiting to be equipped.
This is how it always goes, sadly. You hit the light cap, make your character look awesome, then go back on the grind once the level increases, and look like someone who’s just blindly waded through the lost and found section at a guardian orgy.
Unless you’re me and you keep trying to infuse the armour and guns you really like…only to realise the enhancement core economy is seriously broken.
I still can’t stop playing though. This game is like crack to me.
I think I managed to break my addiction. I haven’t played again since landing in Cape Town and, despite Destiny-related topics featuring highly in my Reddit feed, I haven’t had the slightest urge to start up the game. I think the last time I logged in was more than 2 weeks ago.
i started playing again this past weekend…
let my nephew play with my char a couple of times and he went and dismantled a lot of my legendary armour… so the bug has bitten again
so I expect this coming week will get me to 610+ easily enough (though a friend and I are going to grind as a ‘couple’ for the Valentines Day event rewards so there’s that too).