Random Thoughts, Part III. (Clangrams, Nightfall, etc). (Destiny)

by cheapLEY , Thursday, September 21, 2017, 08:35 (2859 days ago)
edited by cheapLEY, Thursday, September 21, 2017, 08:55

Just some things I've seen around or been thinking about.

Raid/Trials Clangrams

I listened to a podcast yesterday that posited that Raid and Trials clangrams only drop weapons and no armor. The small amount of anecdotal evidence I have supports this (everyone I've talked to got a weapon from the Raid clangram on PS4).

There's been a lot of debate about whether you should get Raid/Trials gear for just being in a clan. I fall on the side of "Yes, definitely!" I love feeling like I'm contributing something to everyone else in the clan when I accomplish something, and I can't imagine there won't be some Prestige/Flawless only rewards, not too mention the shaders and emblems.

I can see that maybe getting only weapons would be a decent compromise (I feel like the armor sets are more for showing off than the weapons are, especially now that it doesn't really matter which armor set you run). It also means that folks won't be left out of getting possibly top-tier weapons and being left even further behind, which I think is probably a smart play.

It bums me out a little that some folks are rallying so hard against this system, when I think it's probably one of the smartest things Bungie has done in D2. I guess it comes down to whether you want to help other players or put down other players because you did something they can't, and I don't like that attitude.

Nightfall Timers/Modifiers/etc

I see lots of folks really complaining about the new Nightfalls, especially the timers. I just want to say I like them, and it's much more preferable way to add difficulty than bullet sponge enemies that you are just forced to hide from and slowly snipe away, which seemed to be the way a bunch of people did D1 Nightfalls. I like that Nightfalls don't take 40 minutes now (Archon Priest, seriously, fuck that guy). I also like that it encourages the player to be more aggressive to get more time (either by killing or by just being quick and efficient).

I really liked the Prism modifier quite a bit. Makes for a fun experience that requires the player to switch things up constantly, and I like that.

Raid Keys and Shennanigans

Raid keys disappear. I thought it was figured out that it was caused by creating a new character if you had raid keys. That's clearly not the case. We earned an Engine key last night at Pleasure Gardens. Chaos had to leave for the 30 minutes, so the rest of us screwed around for a while. We killed all the Watchers to open the chest door in the Engine room, but the chest didn't spawn at all. We went to orbit and came back, and by this time Chaos had rejoined us. We got the chest to spawn correctly, only to find out that Chaos and I had lost our keys. They just disappeared. So, I guess just use your keys immediately if you don't want to lose them.

We also had the first fight in the standard room glitch out. We killed the major that spawns the standard but the standard never spawned in. We had to leave the room and then go back to restart the fight to get it to work correctly.

Random stuff

-I'm coming back around on set weapon rolls. After playing for another week, there's more variety there than I thought. I still feel like something is missing, but I'm not sure what.

-I wish there were more daily activities. Other than the raid, I usually finish all the weeklies in a day or two, and then go back to feeling like I'm "stuck" for lack of a better word. I liked the daily heroics from D1. Ikora's Meditations are sort of like that, but not quite. The Challenges sort of fill that roll, I guess.

-I wish Flashpoints were a bit more fleshed out, somehow. Going to a Destination and doing 3 Public Events just feels like a bit of a let-down after the way they talked about it. Not complaining, really, just wish there was a bit more too it.

-I've come around on having Xur on the map. I thought it was a bit lame, but I've come to appreciate the way they've done it, and how smart of a decision it was. Finding Xur was fun for a few weeks in D1, and then it was just always something I either googled or just saw posted here. They've done a neat thing by having him on the map and in Destinations. Unlike in D1, where I would often just hop on to go to Xur and then log back off (something which is totally possible), having him out on location encourages more gameplay. It took me thirty minutes to get to him the first time I went to him. I got distracted by a public event and a high value target, and then a chest, and then another public event . . .

-I wish I could just use shaders on exotic weapons.

-I miss matching elemental types actually making a difference.