chess

Nice attempt on the vault last night fellas. We almost got it. We'll get it next week easily, now that everybody knows what they're doing.

TheKing

This week's Heroic/Nightfall is The Summoning Pits. Arc weapons are your friends.

chess

Arc weapons...time to break out the Plan C, I guess.

I'll be running the nightfall 3 times tonight if anybody wants to jump in. I like to do it first since it gives the XP bonus for the rest of the week.

K&AJones

You can count me in...at least with two characters. Should be on around 5:30-6 my time (Central).

Shame last night as we were so close. I'm sorry about "Warping" in the wrong spot but seriously; me and kanji were up in front and then wham...we thru the portal. I believe with you, us and others just random getting pulled in caused a bit of "ok...what just happened, what's going on and where do I need to go now" response. Still a good try with a good bunch...

chess

No worries Buzz. What I love about that boss fight is the level of coordination and teamwork it takes to execute. If any one person messes up or gets a glitch, you can recover with communication (except for maybe the relic handler), and when you ended up in the portal, you did fine. The glitch that's tough to recover from is the one where you go through the portal but don't actually end up on the other side. When that one pops up, somebody is always blind and confused, and if it's the relic guy, you're pretty much screwed.

And despite having the most vault experience, I was probably the weak link. It was really my first time on relic duty for either of the bosses, and I messed up plenty. But we really need to do more damage when he's vulnerable...not sure what was missing, but I'm used to seeing tons of grenades and powers flying around during that little window.

At any rate, you all got every reward except for the very last one, so not too bad. At a minimum, I saw a lot of people got armor, and those are probably the best drops IMO.

And we'll get it this week for sure.

musick

I'm back in for the raid anytime this week

K&AJones

I was one that got a armor piece but it was a Chest and I got that Exotic one for my Titan over the weekend. I've got plenty of armor..my Titan Helm of the Most Inlight is leveled all the way but I need more shards to continue and I just haven't got the drops.

The other was my Ice Breaker is still not all the way up...it leveled up again right after leaving the vault on patrol mission. I actually felt better with the newer hand Cannon than the Pulse and Assault Rifles I have. The Assault is good but to slow up close. The better Auto is an Exotic but I needed the Ice Breaker. Actually I felt better running in the Portal and provide backup shooting the orbs. Hopefully tonight will have a better result...providing I keep my head down and don't get zapped by some '1 in-a-1000' shots again....still pissed about that; more than last night.

musick

speaking of the Ice Breaker, I have been hesitant to spend ascendant energy to upgrade the last 3 slots on it (increase damage)

it is pretty much a one shot kill for 90% of the enemies as is
I guess it is worth it to do more damage to bosses and minotaurs/praetorians

thoughts?

chess

So, you're asking whether you should fully upgrade the best gun in the game?

Yes?

The Bus

The sass is strong with chess.

I need to fully upgrade mine. I am trying to figure out what my weak spots were and not having IB fully upgraded was one. I also can still upgrade my boots but the times I died in the Atheon section it was the kind of death were a little more armor would not have saved me.

Obey The D

I still need to do the Raid at some point. I was just getting off when you sent me the party invite last night Bus. For those of you doing the nightfall tonight I'll be on after 7pm est.

I really hope Xur offers the ice breaker again at some point. I was a few coins short that week and should have made more of an effort to grind for them.

So does anyone have an opinion on what a decent gun is to buy from the Vanguard? I was going to get an auto rife, but I'll probably get a secondary since I use the Hawkmoon hand cannon most of the time. I was thinking about the fusion rifle.

Also, regarding armor upgrades, I stopped once I hit 28 since, as others have mentioned, you can't get to 30 unless you acquire Raid armor.

chess

Maybe.

At some point, armor is only relevant to the extent that it levels you up.

If I had that weekend to do over, I'd have bought three. I had the coins but wanted to hoard them, and now I'm stuck switching the IB out all the time...and being annoyed when I forget.

Sounds like a solid plan, but there will be circumstances where you'll want a reliable legendary primary to pair with an exotic secondary.

Yeah, don't even think about 29 until you get some raid gear. Leveling all of that up will likely be a waste of resources in the long run.

musick

yeah, I stopped fully leveling armor (except my exotic sunbreakers) at 28 ... have plenty of shards to do so but I'm going to save them

chess

I did dump a bunch of resources into so-so Hunter gear to get her raid ready (28) last week. All I really got to show for it was a piece of raid armor, but I'll take it.

musick

I don't know if Share Play would have accomplished this but when I got home from softball last night I saw that you guys were continuing the raid we started on Sunday .... I knew the striketeam was full but would have liked to have been able to watch and see how your progress was going

chess

I thought we cruised through the middle boss...maybe 4th or 5th try. The maze and the jump were relatively uneventful. We got the first half of Atheon done without too much drama, and we ALMOST had him finished off on one of our last couple of runs but just couldn't pull it out. But the guys got some good loot and have the experience to take forward.

I might run my Warlock with this group this week, but I'd like to get it done earlier in the week if you guys can make it. I already have a decent group that I run my Titan with, and I have a well oiled machine that can carry me a bit with my Hunter, so I'm good on their vault runs. But my Warlock is my strongest, so I think I can help you guys with her.

19K

I was hesitant too.

I know it probably is the one of the best guns in the game, but I chose not to upgrade the last 3 slots on Ice Breaker. Like you said, it already one-shot kills the majority of enemies the game (as does pretty much every sniper rifle). Even fully upgraded it won't make much of a difference on the minotaur/praetorians since they don't have precision damage weak spots.

Personally, I think it's best to max out a primary weapon. Especially if you're fortunate enough to land a primary weapon that deals elemental damage.

That's my thoughts anyway. I think ice breaker easily gets the job done without being fully upgraded.

musick

yeah, I know chess seams to disagree but I haven't heard a compelling case yet ..... seems like some of the upgrades are so minor they are barely noticeable ... for instance I hardly ever notice the upgrade that is supposed to cause hit enemies to explode causing damage to nearby enemies

K&AJones

I think my Ice Breaker is at 283 damage but I've been getting better legendary guns to replace some rare I've been using and I need to get them up. One extra damage level can make a difference. Shouldn't be a problem finding some to do the Nightfall. I know Chess is planning (3) runs and I've got two characters to run as well.

TheKing

I soloed the heroic with my Titan. As long as you stay in the room, it's possible on Nightfall. I'd even say that the battle to unlock the door earlier in the strike is the hardest part. Facing 5 or 6 wizards at the same time is very rough.

I have 2 Nightfall runs left, as I got through it with my Warlock with 19K joining me near the end of that door opening. Though we did have a close call near the end where he went down, and then I went down while reviving him. But I had my special, and came back to life, and Phogoth went down shortly after.

Oh, and if you need shards/energy, make sure you're doing the daily heroic on Level 28, as you get 2 each day with each character.

K&AJones

Scott...if you have two left I'd love to run at least one (or even my other character as well) with you. I think I'm the only one here and on my friends list that didn't get into one last night.About every group I pulled up was full and all running Nightfall. I'm ususally on around 5:30-6 Central

Other than that a decent productive night...finally after four tries I actually got in a group who completed the Vault. Got in another one one and once again got bogged down with one having toleave, another was scheduld to run with another group and another connection issue. I did manage to get...

Legendary Chest & Gloves for my Warlock and the Atheon Epilogue Void Auto Rifle

...and got in the Daily & Weekly with one character, all three got the Public Event and several bounties.

TheKing

I finished my nightfalls, but I'll go through with you, there's a bounty for doing it or a Heroic.

I'm a lucky charm for my teammates on those. On one run, my partners got exotic helmets, and on another one got a SUROS and the other a Plan-C Exotic Fusion Rifle. I didn't do too bad, getting a Legendary Machine Gun and 11 Shards. My Hunter is now at 28 to match my Titan.

chess

Got all of my nightfalls and weeklies done. Didn't get much of anything interesting.

I'm up for a vault run tonight if there's enough interest.

K&AJones

I "May" know of one more that can help. He was part of the Vault run we were unable to finish and was wanting to do a Nightfall but couldn't find another. I hate to ask but if you don't mind at least one run I would appreciate it.

Chess...if you can wait till after I run the Nightfall I'll run with you on the Vault.

The Bus

I can do some Vaulting tonight but likely not more than an hour or two.

I need to do Weekly/Nightfall with my alt as well. Should be at 27 or 28 within the day.