I was under the impression both Raids were going to be raised to 34.

Now that I think about it, a "Very Hard" mode for both current Raids would be pretty cool and within what they announced.

This is something I'd love to see, although I don't think Bungie has said anything about it one way or the other.

Now that I think about it, a "Very Hard" mode for both current Raids would be pretty cool and within what they announced.

...I wonder if that means anything? >:)

I was thinking about this during our raid last night. But as Funkmon pointed out, a new one immediately takes his place.

The thing is, the final Crota battle is so ball-bustingly punishing on hard mode that the last thing anyone wants to do when we get there is experiment.

I experimented the other day using the Song of Ir Yut to take down Crota's shields in HM... it was terrible! I still feel like it was made for that purpose, but OMG it is so much harder to use than tracking rockets. I swapped back to Gjallarhorn the second I was safe after Crota rotated.

I've often wondered if the constant burn of Dragon's Breath was intended to prevent Crota's shields from regenerating. I've never tried it as I prefer a RL that tracks or has proximity detonation so I don't accidentally miss Crota.

If that was it's intended purpose, Dragon's breath could use a few tweaks. Allow the user to swap between tripod or tracking, and make anything that touches it's solar flare get a burning debuff.

I see Dragon's Breath as being useful in other ways throughout the raid. It's great for taking down shriekers... actually safer than Gjallarhorn in some ways, since you don't have to zoom/lock on. Just point, fire, then GTFO. Also for clearing out lanterns in the abyss; Fire a couple rockets ahead as you run towards a lamp to create safe "pockets" along the path or around the lamp.

As far as Crota himself goes, I think Hunger of Crota was the intended go-to for bringing down his shields. The tracking is a must-have, and he's a big enough target that the cluster bombs actually hit him and do a little extra damage.

My hope, as others have suggested, is that PoE will be a game mode that ramps in difficulty the further you progress. Think back to ODST Firefight... you could jump in with just about anyone, make it through the first set, and feel like you'd done decently well. But only the best of the best teams were going to complete the Endure achievement. Getting that far required much higher levels of teamwork and coordination.

Right, but my point was about challenge vs difficulty. ODST firefight ramped up the difficulty over the course of the game. Raids ramp up the challenge.

Seriously though, Forza Horizon 2 is a blast. I'm not much of a "car" guy, but I love games that capture the thrill of driving and racing at high speeds. FH2 does a great job of walking the line between "arcade" and "sim" racer, capturing a lot of the fun of both. You should check it out if you ever get a chance.

Nah, I don't feel like buying a wheel for Xbox 360.

I think, if we can get a group together, we should set up a time to play with crota and see about new strategies. I've never even seen a wizard on hard mode as I was not yet 32 when it came out, so missed the playing around stage.

I wanted to play around a bit during a hard mode run a week or so ago and decided to see if anything happened if you kill the gatekeeper with the sword before hitting Crota. The group agreed to let me try it and, after getting a couple of good hits on him before getting taken out by a single swing of the gatekeeper, someone else picked up the sword and finished him off...at which point I was immediately kicked to the title screen and had to hard boot my Xbox to get Destiny to start again.

I'm not necessarily saying that getting kicked had anything to do with killing the Gatekeeper, but it was an interesting coincidence ;)

-Disciple

I think, if we can get a group together, we should set up a time to play with crota and see about new strategies. I've never even seen a wizard on hard mode as I was not yet 32 when it came out, so missed the playing around stage.

Maybe I'll surf the net for other alternate strategies too in the near future.

For Gheleon's demise I wanted firefly and armor piercing rounds. Took a too many rolls to get there, and I'll be re-rolling it because the scopes I got all seem to suck, so I don't use it much. Red dot forever apparently.

I got lucky with my efrideet's spear and only had to re-roll 5-6 times. I wanted a replacement for my "the supremacy", so I was shooting for solar. I got spray and play, clown cartridge, and armor piercing rounds, which work great for a 3 round clip.

My jolder's hammer I wanted "void with good perks", and ended up with a void hip fire, surplus, flared magwell build after many rolls. In hindsight, if I had been okay with any of the 3 damage types this would have likely gone faster.

tl;dr -- I'm happy you got lucky. I think this will only get harder to get what you want in the future as the number of perks increases, and isn't going to be game breaking. "good enough" will win and you won't see many of those perfect rolls floating around.

The thing is, the final Crota battle is so ball-bustingly punishing on hard mode that the last thing anyone wants to do when we get there is experiment.

I experimented the other day using the Song of Ir Yut to take down Crota's shields in HM... it was terrible! I still feel like it was made for that purpose, but OMG it is so much harder to use than tracking rockets. I swapped back to Gjallarhorn the second I was safe after Crota rotated.

I've often wondered if the constant burn of Dragon's Breath was intended to prevent Crota's shields from regenerating. I've never tried it as I prefer a RL that tracks or has proximity detonation so I don't accidentally miss Crota.

If that was it's intended purpose, Dragon's breath could use a few tweaks. Allow the user to swap between tripod or tracking, and make anything that touches it's solar flare get a burning debuff.

The thing is, the final Crota battle is so ball-bustingly punishing on hard mode that the last thing anyone wants to do when we get there is experiment.

I experimented the other day using the Song of Ir Yut to take down Crota's shields in HM... it was terrible! I still feel like it was made for that purpose, but OMG it is so much harder to use than tracking rockets. I swapped back to Gjallarhorn the second I was safe after Crota rotated.

I've often wondered if the constant burn of Dragon's Breath was intended to prevent Crota's shields from regenerating. I've never tried it as I prefer a RL that tracks or has proximity detonation so I don't accidentally miss Crota.

The thing is, the final Crota battle is so ball-bustingly punishing on hard mode that the last thing anyone wants to do when we get there is experiment.

I experimented the other day using the Song of Ir Yut to take down Crota's shields in HM... it was terrible! I still feel like it was made for that purpose, but OMG it is so much harder to use than tracking rockets. I swapped back to Gjallarhorn the second I was safe after Crota rotated.

The thing is, the final Crota battle is so ball-bustingly punishing on hard mode that the last thing anyone wants to do when we get there is experiment.

Of course, the ironic thing is that the strategy we all use now could in fact be a lot more reliable than whatever Bungie had intended lol