You can intentionally run with a man down for the full duration of the Calus "skull" phase to maximize the damage multiplier - just pick them up after you drop Calus's shield.

Huh?

This is (was?) a lesser known strategy to make sure that you get 90 to 100+ skulls for the damage phase to maximize your damage multiplier. The number of skulls that appear is tied to the ratio of players in shadow realm versus players in the throne room. Presumably Bungie built the encounter that way to allow 4 people in Shadow and two in Throne (hence 4 teleport orbs at the end). If the ratio favors shadow team (even if it's just 3 guys alive in shadow and 2 alive in throne), they get more skulls to shoot.

So the strategy calls for the shadow team to call out when the skulls start to appear. One person in the Throne room (not the warlock with healing rift, and ideally not someone with a res token) kills themselves - jumping into a brazier works. For the next ~20 seconds, more skulls appear in shadow. The trick was that the revive had to be picked up within 30 seconds, while the other two folks in throne may be focused on dropping Calus's shield and/or ad control. If you do it right, you end up with max multiplier and an easier single-phase clear.

This new mechanic takes the pressure off the two guys in the throne room - they can leave their dead partner alone and just worry about the shield and ad cleanup. They can get the res (or someone returning from shadow can get the res) before hopping on the plates for DPS.

You can intentionally run with a man down for the full duration of the Calus "skull" phase to maximize the damage multiplier - just pick them up after you drop Calus's shield.

Huh?

Long story short is that the spawn rate of the skulls in the shadow realm can be manipulated. It's based on how many are in the shadow realm vs. how total living fireteam size. So you can run four people in shadow realm and only two in throne room to get more skulls to spawn, so you can get a larger multiplier.

However, for many players, it's easy to get overwhelming in the throne room with only two people. So you can use the typical 3 and 3 method to keep things manageable. When you get to where skulls are going to spawn, one person in the throne room can commit suicide, which will increase the skull spawn rate, even though there are still only three in the shadow realm. Previously, the 30 second timer could potentially make this a tricky operation. The death had to be timed well to really get a good benefit. Now, with a much longer revive timer, it will be much easier.

You can intentionally run with a man down for the full duration of the Calus "skull" phase to maximize the damage multiplier - just pick them up after you drop Calus's shield.

Huh?

The rate at which the damage multiplier increases as you shoot skulls increases as the ratio of shooters to folks in the throne room increases - so if you were set up with 3/3, killing someone in the throne room just before the skull shooting phase starts increases the rate at which that damage multiplier grows.

You can intentionally run with a man down for the full duration of the Calus "skull" phase to maximize the damage multiplier - just pick them up after you drop Calus's shield.

Huh?

No more wipes in the Gauntlet because someone died when the floor drops first drops out - just finish the run, deposit the energy and then pick up the revive.

You can intentionally run with a man down for the full duration of the Calus "skull" phase to maximize the damage multiplier - just pick them up after you drop Calus's shield. Though with a team of Whispers, this is really not necessary any more for a one-phase.

Note that the ammo drop economy is significantly different in the raids now. Heavy ammo is a rare drop and no longer guaranteed from certain enemies - you can't just kill watchers to get your heavy back before an encounter, and even Bathers usually don't drop heavy either.

I had to use the "Giving Hand" Gauntlet perk for the entire raid, and still felt heavy ammo poor. Switching your special weapon removes it's ammo just like heavies, so do it immediately after finishing an encounter so you can pick up green/purple ammo before leaving the area.

On the plus side, I ran two auto rifles at Calus (so both primary). There was never a shortage of primary ammo.

Note that the change to heavy drops kills the Engine room farm for finishing heavy weapon Catalysts.

In what way? You can infuse armor from other classes? You don't go up to the light level of the infused piece, but instead get some weird in-between number?

Instead of rocket launchers only being able to infuse other rocket launchers, you can infuse anything within that slot. Heavy to Heavy, Special to Special, Primary to Primary.

At least, that's what a glance tells me. I haven't actually infused anything for obvious reasons. 1 WEEK!

Yep. Weapon infusion is based purely on slot now. My PC Hunter still has pretty low level weapons, so I had a lot of stuff to infuse yesterday. You still can't cross-infuse armor between classes, though, so not a total return to D1 infusing :(

-Disciple

The one thing that makes it more fun to have multiple characters. Of course they’d leave that out.

In what way? You can infuse armor from other classes? You don't go up to the light level of the infused piece, but instead get some weird in-between number?

Instead of rocket launchers only being able to infuse other rocket launchers, you can infuse anything within that slot. Heavy to Heavy, Special to Special, Primary to Primary.

At least, that's what a glance tells me. I haven't actually infused anything for obvious reasons. 1 WEEK!

Yep. Weapon infusion is based purely on slot now. My PC Hunter still has pretty low level weapons, so I had a lot of stuff to infuse yesterday. You still can't cross-infuse armor between classes, though, so not a total return to D1 infusing :(

-Disciple

In what way? You can infuse armor from other classes? You don't go up to the light level of the infused piece, but instead get some weird in-between number?

Instead of rocket launchers only being able to infuse other rocket launchers, you can infuse anything within that slot. Heavy to Heavy, Special to Special, Primary to Primary.

At least, that's what a glance tells me. I haven't actually infused anything for obvious reasons. 1 WEEK!

I might not have Redrix's Claymore if it weren't for that helmet.

Considering probably 80% of players in comp were running Wormhusk/Arcstrider, I think we can all wave a fond farewell.

Fond? I have no fond memories. I will smile and wave as it burns in the fiery pits of the abyss!