DESTINY 2 September 8th....XBOX,PS4 and PC!

[Gamma]

Damn, thought I had a cheeky partial work-around in that the official Destiny app now lets you collect bounties... but as soon as I log in on PC the app disables Variks. I guess I could pick them up on PS4 at the beginning of a session then actually complete them on PC but that's a lot of extra fucking about for a handful of bounties.

Hadn't really participated much in the Dawning event so I just belted out the triumphs on PC, the reduced travel times were the difference between being arsed to do it or not. Just had to jump back to PS4 because I can't deliver a cookie to Riven.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Back on yesterday and last night. Got my exotic stasis grenade launcher and had fun doing so. I'm only level 54 on the current season pass though. Will see how far I can get with one week of the current season remaining (according to Destiny app).

[Gamma]

You've unlocked Duality, that's the main thing. Probably worth pushing to rank 57 to get the high stat roll on the helmet, but it's not a great spread for the Warlock. The ornament sets later in the pass are pretty fugly this time IMO, but that's subjective.

For a while now I've pretty much just jumped on once a week to run the raid (so back on PS4), and ran through the Harbinger quest to push the Crow story forward. It's a cool mission, but not on the same level as The Whisper or Zero Hour, and I don't care enough about Hawkmoon to farm it. None of that stuff's going away at the end of the season though, there's actually a surprising lack of FOMO this time around. I think my to-do list consists of knocking out 11 more Nightfall Ordeals for a triumph that I may or may not bother with.

The big one is Crucible tokens being deprecated- took me literally hours but I turned in the 6K I had piled up, only kept one or two weapons but got about 1000 legendary shards from dismantling all of the shit Shaxx gave me. Scored a few cool emblems I didn't know were in his loot pool too.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Got to 57.

[Peppermint Lounge]

The ornament sets later in the pass are pretty fugly this time IMO, but that's subjective.

Just had a look at the ornaments and I think they improve what is certainly not one of my favourite sets. I want them and I'm appalled at my brain for adding up the cost of silver required to get them.

[Gamma]

Hahaha. Steeplechase definitely looks better than the base set, I slapped it on my wrathborn gear just to make it visually easier to find in the menus when running a hunt. I'm not about to buy silver under any circumstances, but I always try and have a decent amount of bright dust saved up in case the set that's sold throughout the season is good, and ended up getting the Forbidden Visage set on all three this season. The thing is, once you get a set of ornaments you like, the gear chase dies in the arse. Everything that drops for me now is just a bunch of numbers that probably suck compared to my current gear, and my best gear isn't even that good. I just completed the Warlock set from the new raid and would love to wear it around as it looks pretty cool, but if I do I have 66 Resilience and fuck-all Recovery so it pretty much just sits in my inventory.

Meanwhile, there's a new trailer and suddenly this season's armour ornaments don't seem so unappealing...

Zavala's such a boss. Stoked for three more strikes, even if two are returning favourites... but that clown suit armour's disgusting. Best I can hope at this point is that it sneaks into the "so bad it's good" category.

[Peppermint Lounge]

The armour is a decent match for my female Awoken Hunter. The beehive helmet looks a bit daft. I think I'm going to put some time into my Titan and/or Warlock and get them their stasis powers. I like battlegrounds. Nice and quick. I've really grown to love Europa after I was initially underwhelmed. Enjoyable to get around and a tonne of varied things to do that keeps the XP grind interesting and fun. Possibly my favourite D2 planet.

[Gamma]

Can't make it work for the Warlock- I thought the three giant ball things were part of the helmet, but one comes off the helmet and the other two are connected to the shoulders, so they each look pretty stupid without the other. The high stat rolls in the season pass are hot garbage again too (resilience), pouring salt into the wound that is the excellent sets from the Season of Dawn being sunset. RIP my Titan that had great stats and looked like Eva Unit-01.

On paper I wasn't too excited by the weapon types that were coming this season, but after the stability balances the new kinetic SMG absolutely shreds. The new Frenzy perk is crazy, I've got an Outlaw/Frenzy roll at the moment but am hunting for Subsistence or Overflow in that first slot. The sidearm is also top tier, and as luck would have it those two weapons are paired together in one of the focused engrams, so that'll be my go-to umbral dump. The sniper feels really nice too, not sure if it has the perks to compete with my Ikelos or Distant Tumulus though.

Liking the season itself so far, Battlegrounds feels pretty much like an extra strike playlist, pretty solid for a seasonal activity. Weekly Challenges for bright dust seem like a decent change, and have succeeded in funneling me into a couple of activities that I normally wouldn't bother with. It's great having Devil's Lair back, though I'm disappointed that the associated areas will not be added back to the Patrol space.

The secret mission that dropped the other day was wicked, has a real sci-fi/horror vibe. Run Arms Dealer to get started if you don't know what I'm talking about.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Is the secret mission soloable? I'm down if any GR guardians want to group up.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Actually I’ll have a solo crack so I can take my time and appreciate the work and atmosphere.

[Gamma]

There's no time limit and it doesn't lock your loadout so it's solo-friendly to a point (lots of exploring at the start and some minor puzzle solving), but once you get to the boss room you'll probably wish there was at least one other person that can draw aggro. I two-manned it and we rezzed each other a couple of times, each of which would have been a wipe solo. The boss is also a bit glitchy at the moment and can teleport in ways he's not supposed to be able to, so err on the side of getting a few potshots in then retreating to safety. He can belt you into a wall and turn you into a fine paste as I found out numerous times.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Ran my warlock through Beyond Light and all my characters now have their stasis powers. I'm having some trouble with the warlock stasis super though. I must not be using it correctly because I'm not finding it that powerful and I actually had to redo a couple of the Beyond Light boss fights due to the need to get up close to use it. I succumbed three times to the cheap-arse boss stomp attack that catapults you sometimes off the side of a platform while fighting Eramis. Now to decide which to grind for the rest of the season.

[Gamma]

A standard melee attack counters any boss stomp. You don't even have to land the hit on anything, as long as you're performing a melee attack at the same time the stomp happens it doesn't push you back, and the window is pretty generous. If you do go flying, you can cancel your momentum with a sword swing (or Icarus Dash if you're running top tree solar Warlock)- sometimes I purposefully let a boss stomp me away to get out of a hairy situation, then use a sword to avoid caving my face in on the nearest wall. Keep in mind that you'll take more damage depending on how close you are to the boss, so it's not always a good idea to tank the hit. I run with bugger-all Resilience (currently 8, I'd go 0 if I could) and can comfortably absorb a stomp at close range from a boss that's the same level as me, two stomps is pushing my luck but usually works out ok if I'm not under heavy fire, three is almost certain death. You quickly get a feel for what you can get away with in the different activities, and it will vary depending on your Recovery (I'm usually 80-100 there so my health comes back pretty quickly).

TBH I'm not a huge fan of Stasis as a subclass, at least when playing solo. It's great on the Hunter- grenade/Shatterdive is a very effective combo that's fun, easy, and effective, and I love the "dump and forget it" nature of the super. Titan I haven't put enough time into to make a call, but sliding to shatter crystals is nice and always available, and even just the extended slide feels good. The super excels when you're playing with other Stasis users, but feels a bit like "Arcstrider with extra steps" when you're by yourself. The Warlock super feels clumsy and ineffectual- top tree Nova Bomb is better for burst damage, Stormtrance is better for add clear (particularly with Crown of Tempests), and Well of Radiance is always going to be a good call for harder activities like raids and whatnot. Stasis really shines when you're in a fireteam of three all running it and can synergize with each other, you just steamroll through content.

All of that said, I'm still maining Warlock this season... I just don't use Stasis much. If you're just trying to knock out some bounties or whatever, it's terrible. Things like grenade kills or super kills are a nightmare, as technically the baddies freeze then die from shatter damage, not the super/grenade itself. I've gone hours without getting a single "valid" Stasis kill. Meanwhile ticklefingers with Crown of Tempests can finish a "Get 20 super kills" bounty in a single super. If you really want to use Stasis though, I'd 100% recommend Hunter. Chuck a pair of Fr0st-EE5 on and/or some weapons with Wellspring or Demolitionist and the grenade/Shatterdive party never stops. They've nerfed it twice and it still slaps.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Great info Gamma, thanks. I look forward to countering the next stomp.

I kind of agree on Stasis. The grenades are horrible. I main a Hunter so am fine with the Super. Withering Blade goes alright too. Prior to Beyond Light I'd been playing a lot of hours with my Warlock. Stormcaller Warlock is possibly my favourite way to play the game solo. Stormtrance is another counter for stomp attacks actually as the lightning stream pulls you back toward the boss.

[Gamma]

Yes! And even though it's clearly a crowd control super, it still belts bosses pretty hard. Lasts ages when there's a steady supply of little guys around that get caught in the storm.

[Rorschach]

Anyone want to do the new Raid? Apparently not super difficult but needs a minimum of 5 people to do it relatively easily and a decent drop at the end. I can bring two others to the party but to fill out a team need 3 more plus anyone else who wants to play. PC version for the moment but I can play on the Xbox as well.

[Gamma]

Still waiting for PC Gamepass or full-blown crossplay.

For the record, everyone says Deep Stone Crypt is easy, and I’d agree once you’ve learned how to do everything and run it a few times for it to sink in. While you’re learning, it’s the most confusing raid in the whole franchise IMO.

[Rorschach]

Yeah, I've watched a few videos now of it. It certainly seems confusing, particularly the second part of the Raid but looks the most doable so far. I'm hoping for crossplay shortly. So many more players to join in.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Feel free to drop me a line here or on Discord if you're planning it. Kids willing I'd be happy to join.

[Rorschach]

I’m literally just waiting for cross play to be implemented. The hard part is getting a party together in the same timezone. That said, I play pretty regularly with a party of two others, just running the weeklies and presage/simulation missions and the best time is usually 8:30pm of a night or 8:00am of a morning (one guy is in Scotland, our morning is his night and vice versa). My roster changes by the month so pretty flexible with time but thinking a night run from 8:30pm on a weekend is the best bet. Just one mate of mine, he can only play on Xbox so just waiting. Pep and Gamma here, plus three others I can bring to the group makes 6 unless Lestat is still keen, could start right away for just PC players.

[Peppermint Lounge]

That feeling when you can hear the Destiny season clock ticking, you have 30 or so levels of your pass to get but you're engaged with other games.

[Gamma]

Weekly Challenges are your friend, they award massive chunks of XP and if you've only been playing on and off through the season you'll have a bunch of them that overlap.

I'm still clawing my way to 1225 so I can try a Grandmaster Nightfall, I'm sitting on 1224 and need either another 1.3 million XP for +1 from the artifact, or some luck with Iron Banana drops this evening. Really hope Saladman brings the goods, I don't have time for that XP grind.

[Gamma]

IB got me over the line to 1325 (not 1225, duh). Just ploughed through three GM Nightfalls, got a couple of decent Palindrome drops, a few exotics, and ended up on 1327. They're pretty fun! Hopefully with the changes next season it won't take so long to gain access to them.

[Gamma]

Loving the new visual style in Vault of Glass, finally Mithrax's story is getting some more screen time, and Fallen hatchlings are just about the cutest thing ever. Very much looking forward to this season, the only downside to that trailer is it would appear Gina Torres is gone.

Transmog looks like a bit of a shitshow but it wouldn't be Destiny without Bungie creating unnecessary problems. I don't think I'll be coming anywhere near bumping up against the seasonal limits they're putting on the system personally, but it's still an obvious cash grab.

[Peppermint Lounge]

Agreed on visual style.

Got my current pass done. Logged in last night expecting a chore session but ended up having a blast doing PUG strikes. Saw some content I'd not seen before and just enjoyed being dazzled by great visuals and good gameplay.

Rorschach have seen you're back on of late so if you're in need of an extra for some of the new season group stuff with please feel free to hit me up. If I see you on I'll drop you a line also. Same goes for you Gamma though I understand you move between platforms.