Like so many other things in this game, there was no guidance on these things at all. I have had 10 bounties on my characters since HoW released and have passed the 34s 4 times and 35 once. I might have a couple elder cipher bounties by now if it weren't for this bug (instead of 0)! This bug has cost 1000s of players exotic weapons.

If you are dedicated you can more consistently and quickly spawn and kill the blade then you could trying to find them on patrol (makes it real easy to do the eris bounty) but it is really monotonous and will still likely take you a really long time before the weapon drops.

Fun while it lasted. I can't help but cackle in glee every time I think about it. I knew it pissed them off real bad. XD

I really don't think it did. They HAD to have known it was possible before launch. As far as I can tell it was the same mechanism that allowed you to farm planetary chests by reloading the area in a certain way. As soon as I saw how getting the chest worked I was hoping that you would be able to reload it like that.
Clearly Bungie decided that the mechanic wasn't good for Destiny though.

What's the point of doing Prison of Elders, then? You're supposed to kick Wolf ass until you get one, then you fight for glory in the Prison, and THEN you can reap the benefits!

I don't know, PoE is considered end-game content so it makes sense that continuing to play it will give you multiple rewards. And the big chest really isn't all that amazing. You get a good shot at an exotic but the other stuff is just the same as PoE drops AFAIK. The real good rewards are gotten from Exotic bounties during PoE, beating the level 35, and ToO.

I could totally see myself running PoE nonstop trying to use all my keys, only to collect more keys and then unlock the chest full of keys.

I have already scrapped all my guns and gear to make room for keys.

Fun is but a distant memory in the wake of True Enlightenment. True Duty. True Providence.

"Also, MacAddictXIV's favorite guns were unintentionally nerfed to infinity and beyond." - That's what we'll hear in a few days. :p

Oh that was already done :-)

[*]The first Wanted Fallen Bounty completed each week is now guaranteed to drop a Treasure Key

Nice!

[*]Greatly increased the drop rate of Treasure Keys from the small chests at the end of the Prison of Elders

Good, good.

[*]Ether Chests will no longer grant ammo consumables when opened.

I'm ok with this. I can afford those on my own and I was getting so many it was actually bothersome to try to get rid of them all.

[*]Fixed a bug in which the 1.2.0.1 hotfix mistakenly did not contain the 1.1.1 Fusion Rifle balance changes. As a result, players were playing with its pre-1.1.1 weapon balance state. (No more Fusion Rifle Sniping methinks)

Crap. I thought the new fusion rifle I got was just that good!

[*]Tokens of Flight, Identity, and Judgment can now be dismantled to gain +10 House of Judgement reputation each

Good change. After you get enough of them to buy everything there wouldn't be much reason to hang on to them.

[*]Ammo consumables can now stack to 100 (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

This is the best fix ever.

There wasn't anything TOO good in there to begin with, so (other than the fact I saw this coming) I'm not sad about it.

I don't think the "drop a Treasure Key for everything in the world that you do" idea is substantial, though. Getting a Treasure Key in the Treasure Room? What's the point of doing Prison of Elders, then? You're supposed to kick Wolf ass until you get one, then you fight for glory in the Prison, and THEN you can reap the benefits!

If it were me, they most likely made it so using the buff removes the buff--making it so you could only use it once.

Me too, but apparently they did not do this. Hedgemony tweeted this just now:

"Just tested: If you return to an ether chest it will open but you will not get any loot. Yes, you get +15 Queen's Wrath rep from chests."

Guess I'm still racing! :D