Frequently asked questions about time travel (and atheon) (Destiny)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Saturday, March 14, 2015, 13:32 (3796 days ago) @ Up North 65
edited by CruelLEGACEY, Saturday, March 14, 2015, 13:36

I would like to preface this with a thank you to everybody who stuck it out with me and braved the various bugs and shortcomings on my part during last nights hard VOG attempt. If at any point I was an ass I am sorry, I try my best to keep it positive and happy. If I gave bad advice on load outs or strategy I am doubly sorry, there are just some jobs that I haven't done or done enough of to fully understand. If there is anything I can fix on my end to make it better please let me know.

So with that out of the way I would like to have an open forum on several points. Extra commentary is always welcome, I would like this to become a learning experience for everyone. The main topics are:

Which load outs to use on each encounter (list your favorites but also one that someone who doesn't have the perfect guns could follow)

Some general loadout tips:

* Fatebringer (with Explosive rounds activated) & Hawkmoon (and possibly Timur's Lash?) can 1-shot Vex troops and Hobgoblins, if you score a crit hit. This gives them a huge advantage over any other primaries during the first half of the raid.

* Shotguns are awesome now! They shred Praetorians and harpies. If you have a 331 Shotgun with Void damage, the Praetorians won't know what hit them. Sword Breaker is particularly good thanks to its void damage and high RoF.

* Icebreaker is clutch in VoG. If you have it, use it for all long range encounters. Black Hammer is great against Templar/Gatekeepers/Atheon, less useful against everything else. Praedyth's Revenge is a good fallback as well.

* Hand cannons SUCK against Oracles. Oracles gain health the longer they're alive. HCs fire too slowly to overcome this. Once you get past the conflux section of the Templar battle, you should put away your hand cannons in favor of Auto Rifles/Scout Rifles for the rest of the raid.

* Not everyone agrees with me on this, but I think that unless you have Gjallarhorn, you're better off using a machine gun in your Heavy slot. You'll be able to use them in a wider range of situations. Plus there are lots of opportunities to blow yourself up with Rockets in VoG thanks to the containment bubbles and harpies that come out of nowhere to hover right in from of you. That being said, Gjallarhorn > anything else.

Waking Ruins
If I'm holding the left or right plate, I stick with Hand Canon/Shotgun/Rocket Launcher. Fatebringer is ideal, but any high-impact pistol is great for taking out the grunt troops quickly. When Praetorians show up I hit them with a rocket then move in and finish with a shotgun. If I'm holding the middle plate, I'll use a Scout Rifle/Sniper combo.

Templar's Well
Fatebringer/Swordbreaker/Gjallarhorn is my ideal loadout while defending the confluxes. ARs, PRs, and SRs are generally less useful here. Enemies are too close for SRs and PRs, and ARs take too long to kill.

For this entire section, it can be very helpful to have 1 player stay up on the ledge that overlooks the main platform and go crazy with Icebreaker and a Scout Rifle.

Once the Oracle section starts, it's time to put away the hand cannons. If your group is planning to wipe and tackle the Oracles from the sniper perch, Icebreaker and Vision of confluence are your best bets (although as I discovered last night, a Hunger of Crota rocket works pretty well against Oracles, too ;p). If you're going to be staying down on the main platform, you'll want 1 close range weapon (mostly for Oracles) and 1 long range weapon for hobgoblins. So if you use an Auto Rifle in your primary slot, equip a sniper in your secondary. Conversely, you could equip a scout rifle to deal with hobgoblins and a fusion rifle or shotgun for Oracles.

Generally speaking, I find Atheon's Epilogue is the best primary weapon for killing Oracles unless you're hitting them from long range. In that case, vision of confluence works well.

I'll typically stick with the same loadout for Oracles and the Templar battle, but there is less need for a sniper rifle against the Templar (unless you're sniping him from the ledge up top. Close-mid range weapons are ideal for taking out the harpies and punching through containment bubbles, heavy weapons (or Icebreaker) for hitting the Templar.

Gatekeeper
Ideal loadout for portal team: Black Hammer+Gjallarhorn or Icebreaker+Rocket Launcher w/homing. Primary weapon doesn't matter... You won't use it. You want a combo of special & heavy weapons that will let you kill the gatekeepers quickly. I usually fire a couple Gjallarhorn rounds as soon as I'm through the portal, then switch to my sniper to finish it off. Then I pick up the relic and go through the 2nd portal with the 2nd relic holder and use my super to help them kill the 2nd gatekeeper. Once both relics are claimed, go to the middle. Put a relic holder on each Praetorian portal.

How to survive during the gatekeeper section outside the portals (Claude you can just punch all the praetorians as that seemed to work for you)

Again, shotguns are your new best friend. If you're on the "home team" defending the plates, shotguns & heavy weapons are your best defense against Praetorians. Use whatever primary you're comfortable with to mop up the rest.

Atheon
During the Atheon battle, I go with Atheon's Epilogue, Black hammer, and Gjallarhorn. Atheon's Epilogue for Oracles, Gjallarhorn for Praetorians and Atheon, Black Hammer for Atheon when I'm out of rockets. Icebreaker is also a great choice here. Some people would argue that hand cannons are your best bet against the supplicants, and they are. But if you get teleported, you're screwed (remember, hand cannons are useless against oracles).

Getting max dps on the oracles (do hand cannons really do 33% less damage? Is having a 4th pop in a legitimate strategy? How bout the relic holder dropping the relic for a few seconds and helping out?)

During the Atheon battle, you're dealing with oracles from close-mid range. ARs are best, but even fusion rifles can work decently well. Avoid HCs like the plague. Having a 4th come through the portal is a legitimate backup plan. You shouldn't need to do it, but it works in a pinch. Dropping the relic can work, but again it should only be attempted as a last-ditch effort. If the team getting teleported is unable to kill oracles fast enough, someone is doing something wrong/using the wrong weapons.

What are the arguments for the middle strategy and the back strat? (Where do you put the bubble of life to prevent splash damage?)

middle platform is way better. At the back wall you're way more likely to get rushed by exploding supplicants.

Hope this helps!