After hitting 32 on all my characters, I have slowed down on Destiny time. Only thing I run is NFs, Atheon HM and Crota NM/HM checkpoints. I try to finish those in a night or two so I can go on with my week. The only thing I want is the 6 exotics I'm missing, Hunger of Crota and Crux.

cool ... I'm down for it .... should be on around 9:00 CT

oh you mean the weapon Xur will probably be selling Friday

So I wasn't really around when all the news came out yesterday, so it all kind of caught me a bit off guard, hence not posting my viewpoint until after doing the reset routine and getting my Black Hammer and GHorn #2. So here's my thoughts on the whole thing.

First, here's what the new vault looks like with a bunch of exotics:



That is all of my Exotics not in the postmaster. All of them are maxed except for the 2nd Gjallarhorn. As you can see, I still have room for a 3rd GHorn, and a 4th Horseman. As for the armor, well, there's 27 pieces of exotic armor, but only 24 slots. So there you go. Thank you new vault space!

So my first take on the patch is positive. I finally have a pic of all my exotic weapons. Yay!

As for House Of Wolves, I have mixed feelings on the whole thing. I'm disappointed there is no Raid, but after what Crota's End turned out to be, it could be a blessing in disguise. Crota's End was half-assed, and nowhere near as polished or fun as the Vault Of Glass. If we were going to get a raid like Crota again, then it's no big loss.

My issue is that we're losing a new 6-person event. So what does that mean for raid groups that have continued to play week after week together? It means we get splintered off into smaller groups to do the new stuff. I'm not a fan of that. Why couldn't this Prison Of Elders be a 6-person Horde mode?

But maybe, just maybe this will be fresh and exciting content to fool around with. And the other news to come out about finally getting an upgrade path for older nom-exotic weapons is nice. Trials Of Osiris finally coming is nice. New stuff...finally coming in 5 weeks. These are all positives.

But at the end of the day, people are going to fade away here. They already have. And I don't think House Of Wolves is going to be enough to draw them back in. Maybe Comet will, or Destiny 2. Time will tell.

fyi
translation: the daily mission now awards XP to weapons

played last night (not counting first CE chest last weekend with musick) for the first time in several weeks.

ran all three weeklies with random matchmaking.
ran one NF as I joined in with outcast.

GOT TWO EXOTIC ROCKET LAUNCHERS!!!!!!

I had something like 400 hours of playtime back in January.

Bungie taking Raid out of HoW would be equivalent to Epic taking Horde out of a Gears of War expansion. The Raid is an essential part of Destiny. I'm not sure their thinking or logic behind this but it seems with Destiny they're "Taking One Step forward and Two & Three Steps Backwards". I also get the feeling they're spending most their time fine tuning, expanding and dealing with the PVP part more than ever and basically letting the story, single player and other parts almost alone.

Personally I'd like to see them incorporate a "Firefight/Horde" mode in the game. Every (10) round offer a reward...be it credits, materials with a chance at unique type gun if everyone finishes the round...say Round 30 or so. If they can put six in a Raid, then they should be able to do a 3-4 Horde Type mode. They can easily get more to come back but as it stands no they continue to push them away.....

My thinking, Buzz, is that is exactly what this new 3 player end game is. Bungie did, after all, implement the mode into Halo for their final Halo installments, before they left to make Destiny.

For those unfamiliar with MMO gaming, the best part is just stopping when an expansion doesn't have the content you're looking for (like most of us did months ago). Then, when one comes out with the content you find worth it, jump back in.

OK, it's time for our Weekly Xur Report, brought to you by RNG. Most of the time it sucks, but every now and then the light shines down and blesses you with exactly what you want.

I doubt that is what people will think when they see Xur's wares this week, but I'm still giddy from my haul this week. And you will find that this week Xur is offering a lot of great rolls on the gear he has, so that's...something.

Anyway, on with the deals:

Xur is located in the Tower Hangar again, this time in the lower bowels.



For the Titan, it's the Helm Of Inmost Light. Great roll of 125. Fun helmet for Strikers.

For the Hunter, it's Radiant Dance Machines. Awesome roll of 150. Cool looking. But for the most part useless.

For the Warlock, it's the return of Voidfang Vestments. Excellent roll of 155. Spawns you with full grenade energy and makes Axion Bolts even better.

This week's engram is Chest.

Heavy Ammo is available. I think that'll be the last time I report that, as it seems this will be there every week. Buy it if you need it!

This week's Telemetries: Pulse, Hand Cannon, Shotgun

The Weapon this week is The Last Word Hand Cannon. Good in crucible, fun to use. But not the greatest PVP (Thorn) or PVE (Fatebringer) cannon.

Upgrades:

For the Hunter, it's the Knucklehead Radar (101) and Achlyophage Symbiote (125) helmets. The Knucklehead has a terrible roll, while the Symbiote is excellent.

For the Titan, it's the Crest Of Alpha Lupi (139) and Armamentarium (148) chests. Both are decent, but not top of the line rolls.

For the Warlock, it's the Heart Of The Praxic Fire Chest (151) and Sunbreakers (105). Decent rolls for both of them this week.

Weapons (7 for PS people):

Hard Light
SUROS Regime
Red Death
Thorn
Plan C
Patience & Time
Hawkmoon

So there we go. Nothing really groundbreaking here. We still await the debut of the Thunderlord, and the return of the Gjallarhorn. But the rolls are great this week for the most part. And that's about all you can ask.

Yea...that's the thing with Bungie I cannot understand at all. They made HALO and Halo had everything....great SP, great co-op and great MP and great modes such as Firefight. I guess they look at the Raid as version of Firefight but it's not even close. But taking it out instead of expanding and building on it has to leave everyone scratching their head especially when nothing as equal is taking it's place....sad for such a game with so much promise.

We'll know more in a week or two, but maybe the new thing in HoW will be a 3 player Firefight mode.

Yesterday, while online I was talking to a friend about Destiny and Halo comparisons. Apparently the Light Bulb went off in my 7.5 yr old grandson's head about Halo, called his mom to ask if it was alright to play Halo now...wasn't before. So he got the green light and we fired up Halo Reach co-op campaign....

I didn't think he would make past the first part but we're already at the middle and he doesn't want to put it down....he's excited about how it looks, the different enemies, the places, able to "Drive Vehicles", and use about everything that drops....He actually surprised me on how well he adapted to the game...

And then I realized everything he liked about the game made Halo a overall experience and a fun one at that. Where in Destiny...it's about leveling your character(s) and collecting guns to use in gameplay. Halo is about gameplay using everything you can find and get your hands on.

Granted...we're just doing the campaign part, but to see how he reacted to picking up something new and different be it a Spartan Rifle , Alien Sniper, Needle Pistol, Plasma Launcher, etc...it wasn't about collecting, it was about using it because you wanted to or needed to. With Destiny it's now about collecting...I'd like to run VOG, Raid, NF because "I still need _____" or "I'm still looking for ______" or "I just need one more of ______".

Halo Series lasted for several years covering Xbox to 360 due to the story, settings, lore, gameplay and of course Master Chief. Nothing really fancy with lots of variables of leveling up, collecting stuff to level up or collecting "Guns"...just good maps for SP, MP, co-op...good all around gameplay. Sometimes getting away from the "Basics" and getting "Too Fancy" is not a good thing...my grandson sure agrees.

The way you describe it, Halo sounds more "fancy" than Destiny. The one positive that most people agree on when it comes to Destiny is the gameplay, which, IMO is the " basics" as you describe. I think people were/are disappointed with Destiny because the fancy stuff (story, weapons, leveling system, etc) is horribly lacking.

I enjoyed my time with Destiny because the simple act of running around and shooting stuff was fun... that's about as basic as it gets.

We beat Halo Reach yesterday doing the couch co-op and he was thrilled about the game overall. I asked him what was his best part? Of course he said everything but he liked playing and using all the different guns & weapons followed by driving and flying all the vehicles.

Last night some of us were playing Warframe and one joined who has been out-of-town for a long time asked about doing a VoG later this week. And once again it was, "Sure...I'm still looking to land ______" or "Yea....I wouldn't mind another______". It was a far cry from playing Halo Reach with my grandson who couldn't care less about hoping to land one item but instead just loved the fact he could actually use everything out there.

In two months I still have over 110 Coins only buying two items in that period. I've done probably 2-3 NF's that were useless and nothing positive out of it. And even if it were what the heck I'm I going to use it on and when. Almost 3/4 of the stuff you accumulate is useless and broken down for stuff you cannot use, cannot sell, don't want, don't need or no room for. I don't know who is in charge over at Bungie of the story, the mechanics, the design and gameplay.....but some need to be fired and shown the door. Or better yet sit down and play some Halo games and remember how playing games were fun....

Saw you on and posted something in the in-game clan chat, but I had to get to bed early. Hopefully you picked up the Primed Reach this weekend.

Almost 3/4 is being generous IMO. I use two exotics (G-horn and Icebreaker) along with whatever guns drop from the new raid. And absolutely no armor outside of the newest raid armor is worth bothering with.

Damn, Buzz!

Some people say it's coincidence that Bungie made a shit game. I say it's destiny.

Or maybe, people still play the game because it's fun.

We did a VOG run this past Friday and it was fun. Just because you obviously don't get any enjoyment out of the game any more doesn't mean others don't. I don't play nearly as much as I used to, but when I do play it's still enjoyable, at least IMO.

for those of us that do still play and enjoy it
from datamined info before the patch

04-21-15 Winter's run - Nightfall «All Burn» | Weekly «Void burn» **** not confirmed as another person said it may be no burn for the NF

04-28-15 The Will of Crota - Nightfall «All Burn» | Weekly «Solar Burn»

04-21-15 Also be available *Inferno Skirmish

NO info about Iron Banner

EDIT:

I still have fun. Part of it is interacting with people and not being negative. I got into a VOG raid the other night and had a blast joking and talking with a bunch of randoms. (wasn't even LFG - some guy invited people in the tower) Did a couple of LFG NFs with a couple of med students and had fun talking about the medical industry.

Its very likely there is no IB this week, however Djee could just be trolling those who stay on till reset

I doubt it
the % of people that even know about the reset glitch (or are even up for it) is so small that it really shouldn't factor in

it's too bad because I had a lot of fun (and some frustration) last go around

brief glimpse of old armor and weapon upgrade

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JqvwtE7O6kY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


would be nice if there was some bonus incentive for those of us who kept old Queen's Wrath gear

Bungie posted on Twitter that:
It sounds like the first wave respawns under certain circumstances.

yep, just posed this in the DoD thread

That does confirm that it's not just weapons that can be upgraded. Although at this point they're only showing Raid armor and the Fatebringer as possible options.