Pretty much. If you started a character today:

1. Run story missions and do all of your bounties to get to 20
2. Keep running bounties throughout this process to get your Vanguard up to 3
3. Farm public events for Vanguard Marks (100 per week) and shards
4. Buy Vanguard boots and gloves (148 coins total) between now and next Tuesday
5. That along with whatever rare armor (and maybe a random legendary) should get you to 24-25, and you can run the weekly for 6-9 strange coins.
6. By next Friday, you should have enough coins to buy Xur armor
7. And you should also have at least one Vanguard Commendation for a helm or chest (whichever Xur isn't selling)
8. Run the Vault of Glass for more shards if you want
9. Run a Nightfall for guns or armor
10. Level all that shit up with bounties, expansion "story" etc.

Welcome to 31.

I'm very confident that I could have a fresh character with no existing armor to 31 by Friday of next week, and I could then run the new raid and run it again the following Tuesday, so who knows, maybe 32 in two weeks?

The only potential hang up to the plan above would be Xur selling exotic gauntlets for whichever class you pick.

Not if you get a Warlock! Sunbreakers guaranteed!

LOL

No, I mean that gauntlets would be bad, because the boots and gauntlets are the two pieces of Vanguard armor that you can get without commendations. It would slow you down a bit. Then again, getting two commendations in 7-10 days shouldn't be a problem if you end up having to buy both the chest and helm.

And all of my list above is without PVP. Assume you could get some Crucible Marks and commendations even quicker.

Yea....I wouldn't break down any Raid gear at this point either. I'm sure Bungie knows they screwed a lot of people by putting gear you can out-right buy now above the PITA to get Raid Gear that took a heck-of-a-lot of hours, work and luck to get. Hopefully they'll wise up and come up with something that will make still useful. For now mine is staying put....

I'm already running out of Shards....the new stuff... Gloves and Boots are eating it up. I might need to run the "Lite Raid" just to get Shards & Energy....

by no means was I encouraging anyone to break down IB gear (sorry if it came across that way) .... I am well aware that you get no mats from it for breaking it down ... same with Queen's bounty rewards

my point was that for the new light level 33 gear, everyone can now easily obtain, they should have made it so the last upgrade slot required breaking down raid armor or IB armor which would break down into a new material (call it a raid or IB shard) to fill it ..... thus making those past rewards we worked hard for important

Or the Nightfall, if you want guaranteed shards

If I play my Hunter in the "Lite Raid" it's a 100% Guarantee because that's what he has gotten the last six times...Shards & Energy

While I am playing less Destiny now than I was a month ago, I am still spending as much gaming time as possible playing Destiny, if that makes sense.

The core mechanics of the game are awesome, and the Raid was great content. I am hoping more future content is like it.

Feel the exact same. I have basically been playing this fucking game for 2-3 hours a day for the past month and a half. Not quitting it, but gonna slow down I think. I have Alien, Mordor, GTA, Sunset Overdrive, Metro, Halo MCC, Diablo 3, Evil Within, COD sitting unopened along with Infinity 2.0, Trap Team, LBP3 and Lego Batman 3 for kids for Christmas.

Was thinking the same thing last night and today. The only thing keeping me playing right now is the good ole times we have playing together on strikes, raids, etc. Seriously, this has been the most fun I've had playing with others in a long while. But, I have absolutely NO desire or drive to level up the new vanguard gear. I don't feel like doing the same bounties, patrols, and missions (albeit TDB brought a few new ones) that I've done a thousand times already. The core gun play, graphics, and weapons/armor are great, but that only lasts for so long before one grows tired of it.

And even if you think of it as “I will log in once a week to do the Raid and Strikes” that's more than I am playing other older games.

I think I might start cutting down too. Maybe just weeklies, some occasional bounties, and checking in with Xur so I can spend more time watching movies, checking out other games, and maybe even going outside.

This. This. This.

I honestly think the only reason I am playing and trying to level up is so I can keep up with you guys and stay in the social part of the game. We accomplished next to nothing last night over 90 minutes in the first part of the new raid and I still enjoyed it.

I see your point but unless I (and others) want to keep running VoG for shards, chatterwhite and worthless gear, I still have to grind the new gear in order to be productive in the new raid and increased level nightfall. Not feeling like jumping back on the treadmill at the moment. Not saying never though....

OK, we just had a somewhat fruitful run.

The group ran through the old raid. We tried on hard, and were able to cheese the Oracles, but couldn't get past the Templar. Boo. So we did a full raid on normal instead. Outside of a weird revive glitch I had where my Radience started me a mile away from my body and the relic I dropped against the Templar, we did everything on the first try. I even took Sooner inside the portal for the gatekeepers and that went smoothly. Atheon took 4 rounds due to a poor Titan bubble placement and Sooner falling off the island twice.

In the end, I finally got the Raid boots for my Warlock. Yay? I also got a second Hawkmoon, but sadly the old Raid still gives you the old 300 level exotics. I'll probably trade that one in to Xur if I can and keep my maxed out one for another character.

Then we decided to give Crota's end a run. Lopper proved to be the most capable runner, and made it to the plate past the lamps every time. Finally we all get up there by keeping a trailer in the back (musick), who slowly but surely revived the rest of us and got us to the final plate. We fought our asses off, but everyone went down, but lopper and I were Sunsingers and revived ourselves and others. All of a sudden the bridge was formed!

Lopper and I ran our asses off across the bridge as we faded into the cleansing light. We made it! And as a reward, I got the new Raid gloves, which are pretty sweet. We then died quickly on the next stage and called it a night.

EDIT: OK the changeover just occured, and the new daily event is going to piss people off. It's from the DLC! So today, you can only do the daily, weekly or nightfall if you have the DLC.

Templar on hard is still pretty easy. All you need is one semi-competent relic handler to take out supplicants and take down the Templar's shield. I can do it in my sleep.

Everybody else just snipes oracles and snipes the Templar when his shield is down.

The fuck?

I've got mixed feeling on the game overall now.....it's still fun in-a-way but Chess sort of hit on it last night that it's also feeling like a chore. I mean with the new DLC it's basically....

Go see Eris > Do A > Go to Tower > Go see Eris > Do B > Go to Tower > Go see Eris > Go do C.....in between you need to do a handful of normal bounties and ones for Eris.

...and in case no-one noticed it's getting a bit crowed out there with everyone else trying to do the same few bounties. last night we were in a area and a public event happened and saw the most players at once...seven at a public event. Hasn't mattered where I've gone, just seems more players around trying to do the same few bounties.

For my part, I don't even plan to jump in the new raid until my characters are ready, meaning 31 minimum. I should get my Warlock to 31 this week, so maybe her, but that will probably be it. I should get the other two to 31 next week with a minimum of effort.

I did complete the new content with all three characters, so I still need to run 2 nightfalls and one weekly. I'm not sure whether I'll do VoG this week or not. It's hard to think of a reason to do it, especially if it's still dropping 300 exotics, which is stupid beyond description. Maybe I'll run it with my Warlock just to see if I finally get the gloves that I'll never wear.

It's not even the grind of it, because lord knows I'm tolerant of grind if I'm enjoying the gameplay (which I do).

What makes me most salty is the new Vanguard gear being better than the Vault of Glass gear. It's a slap in the face to the people who have been playing and supporting the game to date, because all of their "work" to date has been quite literally for nothing. I've finished the Vault of Glass on hard upwards of 30 times, and I really don't have anything to show for it other than a couple of exotic weapons that I now have to re-level.

In other words, it's not the new "work" that pisses me off. It's the lack of respect for the work I've already done.

I also think it's a dumb thing to do to the Vault of Glass, because there's really no practical reason for anybody (new players or old) to play it now at all, unless they need a few shards, and it's still the best content (from a gameplay perspective) in the game.

The Templar on hard isn't bad...except for the relic holder. I was getting 2 shot from the harpies. You can't always take them all out at once, especially when there's 3 or 4 of them. On normal, much more room for error. Now once I get to 31, maybe that'd turn the tide.

I agree that the raid dropping the old exotics sucks. That being said, it can be traded in, and if I can get another few shots at a Gjallarhorn, I'll take it.

And by the way, the raid weapons are still just as good as they were last week. The fatebringer will absolutely carry you through the Nightfall. You have to remember that the only time you're going to face enemies over 30 are in the new Raid. There are better weapons, maybe. Still hard to beat primaries with element damage. Still hard to beat exploding bullets and exploding headshots.

I agree on the armor. No point to VoG armor now AT ALL other than collecting. But what about the purple raid and exotic weapons? Especially those of us who don't have anywhere near a full weapon cache like you and Scott? My only elemental primary is still the Epilogue. Isn't the Fatebringer or VoC still very useful? Also, other than the first chest and maybe the Gauntlet run, I'm not ready for Crota yet so my source of weapons is still the NF and raid.

I guess I will be passing on this DLC pack.

I think I may just trade in my copy of Destiny towards another game.

Which bums me out a bit because it seemed like it had so much potential but for the past handful of weeks I can't bring myself to grind out things. Whereas I will grind weapon camos and such in CoD. The only difference I can think of is CoD is simply continuous short bursts of action (via 10 minute rounds) versus the agony of bombing a Destiny run after spending 30 minutes (or more) to accomplish the strike.

Been running ROC strikes all morning, any they have been paying out very well. Got 2 exotic engrams, and the exotic new primary sniper. It's absolute trash but at least I got a grimore card out of it.

You're doing something wrong here.

Suggest you stay on the ground and use the basic R2 attack on the harpies. It homes in on them and is a one shot kill. Clearing 5-6 Harpies that way is incredibly easy. If anything, the more Harpies the better because it charges your super quicker. Since the patch, I've literally never died as the relic holder on the Templar. I even did it once with randoms who preferred to jump down and cleanse rather than shooting oracles, which gave me yet another job to do.

Edit: Use jump R2 to break the containment shield

By the way, not that it matters anymore, but the same method is also more consistent against the 3 hobgoblins on the Mars side of Atheon. The basic R2 dash punch is much quicker than the "jump R2". You'll have two cleared before the third one gets off a shot no matter how far apart they are.

The only time you absolutely have to do the "jump R2" is when you're dealing with Minotaurs and Preatorians, because they are the only thing you can't one-shot and you need that added damage and stun effect.