Doh!

I learn something new about Destiny every day. Usually it's some insultingly stupid design choice, but this sounds promising.

Were you the fireteam leader? Maybe you could smuggle a few of us across the finish line? Or yeah, I'd be up for starting it for sure. Tonight even.

Who's in? (and reliable)

Edit: I'm level 26, right on the cusp of 27. Can I hang?

Yes, I was the leader. Finishing it is easier said than done. Between my save and someone else's game I got invited into yesterday, I think I've played the last section/boss for a total of 4 hours and still haven't been able to beat it.

Like I said, it only takes 1 person to mess it up for everyone. Without spoiling it too much, a certain fuck up will result in a fireteam wipe. It is very difficult. Especially if you've never seen it before.

Could "a certain fuck up" just hide somewhere and take cheap shots?

I'm good at that. Mostly.

27 would obviously be better. I think the highest level enemy is 28. It's on Venus, so that should clue you in to the types of enemies that you'll face. One of which is especially a pain in the ass.

Nope. That's what's so good about it. No hiding. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've never seen coordinated teamwork like this. All 6 people have a job to do.

Edit: And when I say "fuck up", I mean mistake, not person.

level 27 here and on almost (week)nightly after 9:00 CT
usually team up the The Bus and his buddy but none of us have got to raiding yet

I'm ready to go whenever needed
might sign on a little later tonight as I am meeting up with a friend for (his) birthday drink after work

Hopefully my job can be shooting dudes in the face.

I know.

Like 19K, I'm EST, and I'm usually on a little bit earlier.

I haven't really invested resources in my legendary armor yet. Assume that might give me enough light to get to 27?

Is there an easy way to tell when looking at a piece of armour, the max light you can get after all upgrades?

I don't think there's a way to know for sure, but guys I've been playing with said the only way to get to Level 30 is with raid gear. They seem to know their stuff. You might max out at 29 with just a typical legendary/exotic mix.

The raid gear looks just like legendary stuff too, btw. You can only tell that it came from the raid by its name. I have raid boots on my warlock.

I have a legendary chest armor piece, but the attributes give extra ammo to 2 guns that I don't like to use really, pulse rifle and fusion rifle. Should I not spend any materials upgrading it for more light, or should I just suck it up?

^ I usually go by the theory if it already has a base light count of 15 I don't care what the added attributes are

That is sort of where I am conflicted. Since it is so difficult obtaining Ascendent materials, I don't want to waste them on anything less than top level gear. It looks like then that I should not use them with the exception of exotic or raid level legendary armour.

You're not guaranteed raid gear when you do the raid. It's still a random reward. Plus, you'd probably have to play through it quite a few times to get it all. That's no small task either. It's not a terrible idea to upgrade a few "ordinary" legendary items. That's my thoughts on it anyway. Waiting around for stuff you may never get might stall your light level progression for a long time.

Chess - I am in for a raid. The old PS3 crew have been playing. Sauce, nic , r2 and I are all over level 20 I believe. Slider has been sighted on the Ps4 playing his first character and Yawmush has also played a couple of times.

Pretty spot-on article on Destiny's "Unintended Critique of Consumerism" in the New Yorker, of all places.

[a snippet]
Although, I am kinda' happy with my level 22-ish gear, for now...

I stopped buying random shit not all that long ago and I feel like this is pretty spot on and why I haven't felt the allure to return to Destiny for a couple of weeks now.

I'm pretty satisfied with the stuffs I have now. I don't care if I ever beat the Raid and I've played every Strike 5 times already.

I'm going to keep playing but it's mostly going to be in the Crucible from now on. I want to see if I can get my numbers up somewhere near where they have been in Duty. Probably won't be able to do it but I'm gonna try for the next month until Advanced Warfare comes out.

I'd love to do the RAID but as mentioned you need six good players all working together and have the right equipment...and I'm not quite there and don't want to burden any group going in. I've got a Level 25 and 26 but feel I'm still off guns and armor. I have a Head & Chest Queens piece for both but only have two Legendary guns between them.

I hit Vanguard 3 last night with the Titan and will work on my warlock tonight getting her up. I've got 13+ of the rare Coins for both but not sure what to do/spend on...same with vanguard points...armor or guns. I'll still plug along and hopefully soon be able to jump in a Raid

I think I've asked this before but will ask again .... 19K maybe you can answer

does it make sense for those at level 26 or 27 to wait before doing the raid in hopes of getting better gear by chance

or does it make more sense to at least start making attempts at the raid knowing chances are fairly certain you aren't going to get through it in your initial attempts going in cold .... aren't there potential drops during the raid that could ultimately benefit your character more than if you waited?

Remember that you can use the vault at the Tower to share items between characters. You can't share armor between classes, but weapons are fair game. Also, you can pool your coins together through sharing, same with Mote of Light. That way you have enough to buy things from Xur. I think Xur's Exotic engram is 23 or 25 Mote Of Light. Xur's exotic weapon is 23 Strange Coins, while his Exotic Armor is 13 Coins each.

The only currency you can't share are the Crucible and Vanguard Marks.

So depending on what Xur offers this weekend, you could by a piece of exotic armor for each character, or the weapon for one of them at a time (just remember to put it in the vault if you want to use it for both characters).

also, when I played yesterday night I wasn't prompted to install any kind of update and I didn't see an update appear in my notifications at all ..... anyone else?

It was an in-client update of less than 900kb. So if you turned away from the screen at just the right time you could easily miss it.

There are potential drops from enemies, but they rarely happen. Every checkpoint you reach is where you get the guaranteed rewards. But it could just be shards or energy. I've read stories of people that have completed the raid from beginning to end and got nothing but shards the entire time.

The first time I attempted it I was level 27. I didn't think the enemies were too bad. We just didn't know what the hell we were supposed to be doing. I'm sure it's certainly doable at level 26 too. Im level 28 now, and I'm at the very last boss, but I really think I want to start over from the beginning to get another chance at all the rewards again.

Like I said, I probably spent 4 hours on the final boss and we couldn't get past it so we got nothing. If we all would've just started over, we probably could've got back to that point in that same amount of time and a got a 2nd chance at all the loot.

You should definitely at least try it. Even if all you get is shards, that'll help you upgrade your light level.

Edit: Getting past the first checkpoint is not hard at all. And there's a treasure chest immediately after it. So even if you just played the first section over and over, you have a good chance of upgrading your gear rather quickly. I'd say a good fireteam could get by that first part in 10 minutes or less.

I might finally be turning a corner with this game. I'm not loving it, and I think a lot of the underlying systems are garbage, but I'm starting to make sense of how you actually get the best stuff and level up.

Got a little bit done last night with the daily and that level 28 thing that gives bonus XP for the week. A couple of friends from GAF drug me through, and although I was disappointed when they both got exotic guns and I got a legendary, I was glad that legendary was a void fusion rifle.

I'm hoping to hook up with them again tonight and do the weekly for strange coins. I have enough to buy armor this weekend, but I'd like to have the option to get a gun if a good one comes up.