We ran the raid last night, and I used Nameless Midnight, Uriel's Gift, and Merciless for Calus. We only had one or two Coldhearts, going, I think, and we were literally about a second away from two-phasing him with 70 skulls. Two or three people in the group were completely out of ammo on the last platform, so we sort of got screwed.

It's such a difficult fight to get consistent enough to get real numbers from, it seems like.

This video actually makes Coldheart look like straight garbage by comparison.

Just a few numbers copied from the video (all damage numbers are from a single platform)

Merciless, Force of Will x 60
163,800 dmg

Merciless also does do critical damage despite not showing yellow numbers, which is just a side note, but something I didn't know.

Tarantula, Force of Will x 59
186,333 dmg

Show of Force, Force of Will x 59
194,856 dmg

Sins of the Past, Force of Will x 59
198,667 dmg

Coldheart, Force of Will x 62
130,000 dmg

Sweet Business, Force of Will x 59
141,598 dmg (with Rally Barricade for instant reload, half of that damage without Rally Barricade)

And here's Datto's video, which is half an hour long, and much to in-depth to efficiently summarize, but it's worth a watch if you really care. I'm increasingly convinced that Coldheart is a good choice, but far from the best choice, and, again, it mostly will come down to player skill/comfort with a preferred loadout.

I've accepted that microtransactions are an okay thing - they don't affect me directly, and indirectly they fund stuff I would otherwise have to pay for. I do NOT agree that it follows that someone actively trying to subvert my actions without being honest about it is also an okay thing.

I also don’t buy that the microtransactions are indirectly funding things you would otherwise have to pay for. I can’t prove my doubts, and you can’t prove that they are. I’m not saying all microtransactions are bad, either, but I don’t buy the funding argument after years of observing and seeing reporting on EA, Ubisoft, and even Activision. And with year 3 of Destiny 1, not buying it with Bungie either.

Edit: That’s not to say that microtransactions never fund stuff. I just don’t buy it in general.

If you don’t know something is implemented, then just how bad can it be?

I used Uriel’s Gift last time I ran the Raid and was consistently second in terms of damage dealt with everyone else using Coldheart. It’s definitely overrated. The benefit is not in DPS but in that you don’t have to manage recoil and that it’s easier to just point it at the weak spot and hold the trigger.

This, plus ammo. Relying on your Power weapon to damage the boss can be a bit of a risk, because you’ll often find yourself without Power ammo when the damage phase happens. So using an Energy or Kinetic weapon is safer in that regard, assuming you have one that does high DPS (such as Cold Heart)

You can get four free heavy ammo bricks per phase by punching the psions. That spawns two extra orange bars. You really only run out of heavy in that fight if you want to.

With any luck the public outcry will keep this away. Note that even Activision is already distancing themselves from it:

This was an exploratory patent filed in 2015 by an R&D team working independently from our game studios," an Activision spokesperson tells Glixel. "It has not been implemented in-game.

Oh, and I do find the whole concept of “exploratory patents” to be tasteful... Either make something and patent it or don’t. This half way “we patented something that isn’t real and doesn’t actually exist” is crazy!

It's not that it does not exist, but rather that it has not been offered in the marketplace. They made it. (there are cases where it really seems like they have granted patents for things that have never actually been made and that's not how Patents work.)

justly ,Trademark has a requirement that the market be used in trade for it to continue to be protected.

Yeah. It is business so I do hold my own concerns. I was actually more surprised someone hadn't patent sniped the idea to cash in on the eventuality of a publisher having this idea.

They very well may have. There don't seem to be very good mechanisms in place to prevent similar patents from being granted - often companies don't find out until the lawsuit. Which won't happen until there's an implementation.

I used Uriel’s Gift last time I ran the Raid and was consistently second in terms of damage dealt with everyone else using Coldheart. It’s definitely overrated. The benefit is not in DPS but in that you don’t have to manage recoil and that it’s easier to just point it at the weak spot and hold the trigger.

This, plus ammo. Relying on your Power weapon to damage the boss can be a bit of a risk, because you’ll often find yourself without Power ammo when the damage phase happens. So using an Energy or Kinetic weapon is safer in that regard, assuming you have one that does high DPS (such as Cold Heart)

I never, ever touch mine. There are so many other weapons that perform way better.

lol - I agreed with most of the thread up until this line.

There are certainly weapons that perform almost as well against Calus. I would challenge you to provide ONE example of a weapon that performs better (never mind "way better") against him.

(It's the only place I use Coldheart - but it's definitely the highest-DPS choice in this fight.)

Ah, my bad. I meant in general, not specifically against Calus. I see why some folks use it, it's almost like an easy-mode DPS machine. Personally, I tend to use linear fusions on bosses/larger enemies because Fusion + crit damage is a good time and I don't necessarily have to stay out from cover.

~M

I think arguing that a patent shows intent is questionable, with how often patents are aquired for holding purposes. Not that they don't have intent to use it, this is Activision, just that I don't think having a patent is illustrative of that.

And someone can correct me if I'm wrong (I don't have hard data) but i'm pretty sure that in most cases the target of something like this is going to already be predisposed to the purchase of said microtransactions, as generally pushy tactics aren't what sells small, repeated items.

I accept that I may be giving this too much a slippery slope fallacy, yet I find that this idea was even pitched at all is already too much.

But I wouldn't want a metric I don't care about affecting matchmaking, which I do care about?

Somebody might have beat me to this, so I won't go on much more, but yeah that's how you can split your opinion.