I don't really see why everyone is having a fit in the Bungie forums for. Its like people have never played an "MMO" before - what would be the point of them making new gear and weapons if the old ones were still valid? As for the raids, something to do while leveling now as they only take an hour each anyway.

They only take an hour because we know what we are doing. How long did your 1st run take? 5/6 hours? With no experienced players left to sherpa, its going to be a nightmare for all those new players. They will get frustrated, and stop because they don't have to get that one piece of gear. They will move on, level up outside of the raid and then forget about it.

5/6 hours if you're going in blind is kind of the point. If you want to do it faster and ruin everything that makes it special running it the first time watch YouTube.

The strategies are fairly wide known by now, and info is widespread. For those who do choose to go in blind, isn't the whole point going to be how tough it is? All I know is WoW has literally been doing all of this for 10+ years with no problems.

I can't speak for everyone else's financial situation, but $40 for probably 100 plus hours of gaming is a bargain IMO. Hell, people shelled out $60 for The Order and it lasted five hours.

If I take my wife and kids to outback I spend double that and my enjoyment ends in an hour.

Knowing what to do, and being able to do it are very different things.

Some of you need to contact your Dr. ASAP and get put on a diuretic, because you are salty as fuck.

But we did those 5/6 hour runs because we had to for the awesome rewards at the end.

Trust me, we had 3/4 hour raids when we knew what we were doing because of glitches and shit. But again, there was the potential for rewards at the end of it. You take that away, and are you really going to feel good about spending that much time doing it? When you could have done more of the story for higher rank and possibly better weapons and gear?

Even if all they did was add XP to the old raids, that would at least be something.

Shit I forgot about that. You don't even earn XP in the raids.

I've been told by many people who are still LFGing raids that finding people who can run relic or the sword is hard. And there are many people who already didn't run VOG to rank up, so they're 34 and still don't know what they're doing when they get there.

I haven't LFG'd a raid in months, but the last time I did was for Crota, and nobody in the group could run sword...except for me of course. I went in and laid waste to Crota while they all stared back in awe. "I've never seen Crota get wasted so fast!" "Wow man, that was awesome!"

This is how it was when the rewards were still vaild.

Where are all these new people going to find people to do these raids with now? LFG for the old content will dry out.

Like I said last night, what if they added a guaranteed legendary at the end with the chance at a new exotic? Would that be enough to get you to run them? That's something they could easily implement.

sword-bearer and relic-bearer bots are clearly the solution

I smell a new business in your future. Please PayPal $10 to [email protected]

why not just a chance at Legendary Marks and make doing the raids and activities within them a bounty or quest

I'd be fine with this as well. Knowing Bungie I think what they will do is keep that stuff for the time being at year one levels. Then in December they will release a $20 DLC with a remixed VOG and Crota and everyone will lose their shit again.

Don't forget the new and improved Gjallarhorn 2.0 with improved wolfpack rounds. The rounds turn into mini hunters with golden guns.

Fixed. Sorry Chase.

It hurts a little bit more every time

Hop on and we try and resolve your matter.

I have the solution for Bungie. And they don't even have to pay me a consulting fee. Reverse levels and raids! It works for racing games, so it will definitely work for this!

I could've sworn they've already done that (unless that's the joke).

OK, so here I am with this week's Xur Report, brought to you by my good friends at Save A Guardian. Save A Guardian is I believe the only charitable organization that is providing meals and shelter to the less fortunate guardians out there, those who struggle to make it out of their 20s, or find a good exotic. They are just getting started with their good work, but I hope you will donate to the cause.

I've been unable to find the ad that lead me to them, but when I do find it, I'll be sure to post it here.

This week I'm debuting a new feature on the Xur Report, where I will give the odds on whether the items Xur will be selling are going to be getting a 2.0 Version. As we know, not all exotics will be making the leap to Taken King standards (like the FUCKING GJALLARHORN!!!). Not a scientific analysis by any means, but one I hope proves at least useful or can strike up debate.

Anyhoo, enough of that, let's get onto the goods.

Xur is located in Central Tower this week, near the Vanguard mentor table.



For the Titan, it's the Eternal Warrior Helmet. This is the third time he's offered this item, including just two weeks ago. The roll here is 72 Intellect and 57 Discipline, which is about the opposite of the one he had 2 weeks ago. OK roll, OK helmet.

Odds of getting a 2.0 Upgrade: 20%

Not much known about Titan armor yet, other than No Backup Plans are getting a new version. I would hope the Saint-14 and Inmost Light get the call before this one.

For the Hunter, it's The Mask Of The Third Man Helmet. The roll here is a horrible 102. Good helmet, 5th time he has sold it, and the first time in 10 weeks. I guess you should grab it if you don't have it.

Odds of getting a 2.0 Upgrade: 50%

We know nothing about Hunter armor right now. So my guess is purely on my own use of it, and the fact that it's the only bladedancer specific helmet (Gunslingers have 3)

For the Warlock, it's Starfire Protocol. Ugly, near useless perk, doesn't work with shaders, and a horrible roll of 130. There is nothing here worth even offering a purchase. I mean, if you haven't bought it before, and he's offered the damn thing 9 times, then you clearly didn't want it. But if somehow you don't have it and want the blueprint, well, here you go.

Odds of getting a 2.0 Upgrade: 10%

For Warlocks, we know Voidfang Vestments, Light Beyond Nemesis and Obsidian Mind are moving forward. With a current chest piece already advanced, and Purifier Robes and Praxic Fire waiting in the wings, I really hope this one doesn't get the spot. If it does, give it a better perk and make it shader compatible please!

The engram this week is for Chests. Get something better than that crap I just mentioned.

The weapon this week is Thunderlord. This is only the second time Xur has sold this item, and the first time in 15 weeks. So Gjallarhorn comes for the second time, and now Thunderlord as well? What are the odds of that? It's a good Machine gun, and clearly the best item available this week. If you don't have it, buy it (See below). If you do have it, don't bother. (see below)

Odds of getting a 2.0 Upgrade: 100%

Unlike armor, we have a pretty good idea of which weapons got upgrades and which didn't. Thunderlord is on the upgrade list. So you definitely want to buy this week as it means when The Taken King arrives you'll be able to get the new, Level 40 version right away. It also means if you already have 1, you don't need more as you'll be able to get one at any time from the blueprints.

There is a possibility that the upgraded version could be Solar, or could have the ability to change elements. There was a video that showed a solar version of the gun, but we don't know what that means yet. But keep that in mind.

Anyway, that'll do it for the text version of my report, stay tuned for the video report, with a lot more saltiness, coming right up. You may wanna adjust your volume

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You are correct - I had a mission to collect all the exotics, and with the Vex and the Bones of EASports I completed that mission. I wanted to complete the year one events - so I worked to beat Skolas. Next, I know want to gather etheric light to upgrade some raid/IB gear and I want the Lord of Wolves shotty and I want to complete the Warlock and Hunter IB gear. In order to continue with the grind ya gotta have goals. No different than pursuing weapons or Scott and his pursuit of the max grimoire score.
Shoot, now that I think of it I kinda want to go after the VoG normal Raid ship, The IB Auto Rifle and The Crota Fusion Rifle.

And let's face it part of the fun is the group and the enjoyment we get from completeing and helping to complete in game goals.


I'd buy that for a dollar.

I don't believe this for a second.

I just started playing in July and the majority of the people I have run raids with do not know how to use the relic or run the sword. I need to practice both but it's hard getting groups to slow down and let you try it out as they typically just want to get the raid done with.

Never thought I'd see the day Hell Freezes Over.....

But seriously....lets take the G-Horn for an example which happens to be the most coveted weapon in the game. Why couldn't they take some of these new exotic "Blueprints"...find a way to have some of these to upgrade Season 1 versions to Season 2? Or just come out with say a "H-Horn" or something where you get substantial credit for trading the thing in? The "Blueprints" seem to be a good idea to where it could allow more flexibility in upgrading either new or existing weapons...just saying...